JOHN JAMES MJDUBON 75 

 volubility he is rather displeasing. . . . 

 Mrs. Jeffrey was nervous and very 

 much dressed. " 



Early in January he painted his 

 " Pheasant attacked by a Fox." This 

 was his method of proceeding : "I take 

 one [a fox] neatly killed, put him up 

 with wires, and when satisfied with the 

 truth of the position, I take my palette 

 and work as rapidly as possible ; the 

 same with my birds. If practicable, I 

 finish the bird at one sitting, often, it 

 is true, of fourteen hours, so that I 

 think they are correct, both in detail 

 and in composition. " 



In pictures by Landseer and other 

 artists which he saw in the galleries of 

 Edinburgh, he saw the skilful painter, 

 "the style of men who know how to 

 handle a brush, and carry a good 

 effect," but he missed that closeness and 

 fidelity to Nature which to him so much 

 outweighed mere technique. Landseer' s 

 " Death of a Stag" affected him like 



