FIELD SPORTS IN ART, 247 



further, he can only do that if he possesses great natural 

 genius — only a man who could draw the poacher's dog 

 could do it. Those who depend altogether on the pre- 

 pared paper and liquid colours, patent easel and sketch- 

 ing stool, could simply do nothing. 



It is nearly certain that if the primeval man sketched 

 the mammoth he likewise carved his spear-shaft, the 

 haft of his knife, the handle of his ' celt,' that chisel-like 

 weapon whose shape so closely resembles the front teeth. 

 The ' celt ' is a front tooth in flint or bronze, enlarged and 

 fitted to a handle for chipping, splitting, and general 

 work. In museums celts are sometimes fitted to a han- 

 dle to show how they were used, but the modern adapter 

 has always overlooked the carving. Wild races whose 

 time is spent in sport or war — very nearly synonymous 

 terms — always carve or ornament their weapons, their 

 canoes, the lintels of their doors, the posts of their huts. 

 There is in this the most singular difference from the 

 ways of landscape civilisation. Things that we use are 

 seldom ornamented — our tables, our chairs, our houses, 

 our carriages, our everything is as plain as plain can 

 be. Or if ornamented, it is ornamented in a manner 

 that seems to bear no kind of relation to the article 

 or its uses, and to rouse no sympathies whatever. 

 For instance, our plates — some have the willow pat- 

 tern, some designs of blackberry bushes, and I really 

 cannot see what possible connection the bushes or 

 the Chinese summerhouses have with the roast beef of 

 old England or the cotelette of France. The last relic of 

 Art carving is visible round about a bread platter, here 

 and there wreaths of wheatears ; very suitable these 

 to a platter bearing bread formed of corn. Alas ! 

 I touched one of these platters one day to feel the 

 grain of the wood, and it was cold earthenware — cold, 



