FIELD SPORTS IN ART. 245 



civilisation ; no other civilisation seems to have cared 

 for it. Towers and castles are indeed seen on the bas- 

 reliefs of Assyria, and waving lines indicate rivers, but 

 these arc merely subsidiary, and to give place and local- 

 ity to the victories the king is achieving. The battle is 

 the interest, the landscape merely the stage. Till the 

 latter days of European life the artist took no notice of 

 landscape. 



The painting of hills and rocks and rivers, woods and 

 fields, is of recent date, and even in these scenes the 

 artist finds it necessary to place some animals or birds. 

 Even now he cannot ignore the strong love of human 

 beings for these creatures ; if they are omitted the pic- 

 ture loses its interest to the majority of eyes. Every 

 one knows how wonderfully popular the works of Land- 

 seer have been, and he was an animal painter, and his 

 subjects chiefly suggested by sport. The same spirit 

 that inspired the Cave-dweller to engrave the mammoth 

 on the slab of ivory still lives in the hearts of men. 



There is a beautiful etching of " The Poacher " (to 

 which I shall have to recur) ; he is in the wood, 

 and his dog is watching his upraised finger. From 

 that finger the dog learns everything. He knows 

 by its motion when to start, which way to go, what 

 to do, whether to be quick or slow, to return or to 

 remain away. He understands his master quite as well 

 as if they conversed in human speech. He enters into 

 the spirit of the enterprise. ' If you want your business 

 done, go ; if not, send,' is true only of men. The poacher 

 wants his business done, and he sends his agent — his dog 

 — certain that it will be done for him better than he 

 could do it himself. The dog is conscientious, he will 

 omit nothing, he will act as if his master's eye was on 

 him the whole time. Novy th^s, attitude of th^ dog'^ 



