Wood-engraving, as an art, scarcely existed in this country before the time of Thomas Bewick. To him we owe its revival, and he was thus indirectly concerned in the creation of the pictorial newspaper. Though we have seen that the _Grub Street Journal_ and the _Observer_ on a few occasions used copperplate illustrations, it is perfectly certain that an illustrated newspaper, properly so-called, never could have existed but for the art of wood-engraving. It was an essential agent in bringing into life this novel offspring of the printing press, just as it assisted in the birth of the old 'block books.' When Caxton brought the art of printing into this country the woodcuts printed at his press were probably executed by the printers whom he brought with him. His successors illustrated their books in the same way, and even after wood-engraving was practised in England as a distinct profession many of the illustrations in books and pamphlets were the work of printers. When something of superior design and finish was wanted, ready-made woodcuts were procured from Nuremberg or Lyons, then the chief marts for such productions. The blocks so obtained were sometimes used without much regard to the book in which they were printed. Cuts originally designed for an edition of _Ovid_ appeared in the Bible, and no notice was taken of this mixture of sacred and profane things. Albert Dürer's influence on the art of wood-engraving was very great, but it never extended to this country. Hans Holbein, who came to England two years before Dürer's death, made a few designs for the wood-engravers during his long residence here. His transient use of the art, however, did not raise it to a better condition, and printers continued to be the chief producers of woodcuts. In the time of Queen Elizabeth there flourished a printer and engraver of the name of John Day, who took for his mark an emblematic device of the day-spring of the reformed religion, with the motto, 'Arise, for it is Day.' The best illustrated books of that period were produced by him. About this time the art was rapidly declining in other countries, but in England it was in a better condition than at any previous period. It soon, however, declined in this country also, but was kept alive by Edward Kirkall, John Baptiste Jackson, and others, until it was revived by Thomas Bewick.