)
After his apprenticeship, he worked a short time for a person in Hatton
Garden; but he disliked London extremely, still panting for his native
home, to whose braes and bonny banks he joyously returned; where he was
occupied in cutting figures and ornaments for books; and now received
his first prize from the Society of Arts for the "Old Hound," in an
edition of Gay's _Fables_. A glance at this cut will show what a
low state wood-engraving was at, when a public society deemed it worthy
a reward; yet even in this are readily visible some lines and touches of
the future great master of this delicious art. He never omitted visiting
itinerant caravans of animals, from whose living looks and attitudes he
made spirited drawings. This led to his _History of Quadrupeds_,
1790; the first block, however, of which, he cut the very day of his
father's death, Nov. 15, 1785. From this work he obtained very
considerable celebrity; which led him shortly to draw and engrave the
wild bull at Chillingham, Lord Tankerville's, the largest of all his
wood-cuts, impressions of which have actually been sold at twenty
guineas each; and also the zebra, elephant, lion, and tiger, for Pidcock
(Exeter 'Change,) copies whereof are now extremely scarce and valuable.
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