The Wild Bull

The Wild Bull, of the Ancient Caledonian Breed now in the Park at Chillingham-Castle, Northumberland. 1789

This single sheet print (7 1/4 x 9 3/4 inches) is the best known of all Bewick’s prints. It was commissioned by Marmaduke Tunstall, of Wycliffe in North Yorkshire. The original block still exists in the collection of the Hatton Gallery, though it is split and unusable. A copy block can be found in the Pease Collection at Newcastle upon Tyne Central Library.

'... and on Easter Sunday 1789, I set off on foot to Chillingham [about 45 miles north of Newcastle] accompanied by my acquaintance William Preston, the printer, on this business. [...] We took up our abode with my old kind friend John Bailey and spent a cheerfull evening with him after our fatigues, and next day he accompanied us to the park for the purpose of seeing the wild cattle. This however, did not answer my purpose, for I could make no drawing of the bull, while he, along with the rest of the herd were wheeling about and then fronting us, in the manner as described in the History of Quadrupeds [pp.25-28]. I was therefore obliged to endeavour to see one which had been conquered by his rival and driven to seek shelter alone in the quarry holes and in the woods - and in order to get a good look at one of this description, I was under the necessity of creeping on my hands and knees, to leward and out of his sight - and I thus got my sketch or memorandum, from which I made my drawing on the wood. I was sorry my figure was made from one before he got furnished out with his curled or shaggy neck and mane.'

[From Thomas Bewick My Life, edited by Iain Bain, p. 128 (spelling and punctuation as given in the original manuscript)]