Line engraving in France did not appeal to popular taste until a comparatively late period. The block engravings in the “Horae” of the fifteenth century, although they were line engravings, were cut in the manner of wood blocks, and the method of printing from them was different to that used in the case of ordinary metal engravings. In the seventeenth century there were several beautiful books illustrated by line engravings by Sebastian Leclerc, L. Gaultier, J. Sauné, F. Chauveau, Le Mire and H. J. Duclos. In the eighteenth century in France the graceful designs of Ch. Eisen and J. H. Fragonard found many worthy interpreters. La Fontaine’s fables and stories provided a suitable literature for these illustrations, and among them may perhaps be found the high water mark of small line engraving. Indeed, the work is all so good that any choice becomes almost invidious; but quite beautiful work was done by J. B. Patas, Choffard, N. Le Mire, De Longueil, L. Bosse, Delvaux, Johannot, Leroux, Lefebre, Ficquet, Mottet, Prevost, J. B. Tillard, J. L. Delignon, C. L. Lingée, Dupréel; and then come L. Halbon, J. Aliamet, J. Dambrun, J. B. Simonnet, P. Trière, C. S. Gaucher, and many more, some of whom worked also in the next century. In the nineteenth century the French level of small engraved illustrations remained exceptionally high, especially in the earlier half, but many of the plates have much etching mixed up with line work; this may very likely mean that the work was done on steel, which will admit of the production of large editions; but steel is very difficult to engrave, although it is quite easy to etch. Among the line engravers who used accessory etching I have noted Pauquet, Aze, P. Choffard, and De Villiers. The engravers whose work may be safely considered of high quality are R. De Launay, Bertonnier, Villerey, P. Savart, H. Dupont, Girardet, J. P. Marillien, L. Petit, J. F. Ribault, Chifflart, and V. Foulquier. Towards the end of the century photography came and gradually crowded out the small line engravers. An etching is a drawing done with a needle point upon a sheet of metal protected by a thin impervious coat of soft varnish. The lines made by the etching needle pierce the varnish or “ground,” and reach down to the metal, usually copper, exposing it in those places. When the drawing is complete the plate is put into a bath of strong water, usually dilute nitric acid, and wherever the surface is not protected by the ground the acid will eat away the metal. When now the ground is cleaned off with the help of turpentine, the original design will be seen transferred to the surface of the copper in the form of dull lines, shallow if the acid has only been allowed to act for a short time, but broad, deep and irregular if the “biting” has been long. So that an etching always has a little more “effect” than was put into the original work.