ABSTRACT
Cromek’s last year of life was worse than anything Blake could have wished on him. He had overextended himself both financially and physically in 1810, and by mid-1811 he was suffering from advancing stages of tuberculosis. Disheartened by the poor sales of his last two books, Select Scot[t]ish Songs and Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, chagrined over the demise of the Society for the Advancement of the Art of Engraving, convinced as much as Blake that the climate in England was unfavorable to the arts, Cromek began losing that quality which had carried him to his earlier successes. He began losing his self-confidence.
