Although wood engraving had fallen into almost utter neglect by the end of the seventeenth century, and continued in a languishing state for many years afterward, yet the art was never lost, as many persons have supposed; for both in England and in France a regular succession of wood engravers can be traced from 1700 to the time of Thomas Bewick. The cuts which appear in books printed in Germany, Holland, and Italy during the same period, though of very inferior execution, sufficiently prove that the art continued to be practised in those countries.

The first English book of this period which requires notice is an edition of Howel's Medulla Historiæ Anglicanæ, octavo, printed at London in 1712. There are upwards of sixty woodcuts in this work, and the manner in which they are executed sufficiently indicates that the engraver must have either been selftaught or had been a pupil of a master who did not understand the art. The blocks have, for the most part, been engraved in the manner of copper-plates; most of the lines, which a regular wood engraver would have left in relief, are cut in intaglio, and hence in the impression they appear white where they ought to be black. The bookseller, in an address to the reader, thus proceeds to show the advantages of those cuts, and to answer any objection that might be urged against them on account of their being engraved on wood.