258 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 



tions upon the altars and various figures ; he appeared 

 to understand the Latin and Greek, and it might have 

 been expected that he would stay to look at the Ac- 

 croupie. He did not ; he worked all round the statue, 

 reading every word legible on the base of the insigni- 

 ficant figures against the wall, and so onwards down the 

 salon. One of the most complete of the guide-books 

 dismisses the Accroupie in a single line, so it is not sur- 

 prising that people do not seek it. But what is sur- 

 prising is that in a city so artistic as Paris there should 

 be so few photographs of this statue. I could get but 

 two — these were duplicates, and were all the proprietor 

 of the shop possessed ; there was some trouble to find 

 them. I was told that, as they were so seldom asked 

 for, copies were not kept, and that there was only this 

 one particular view — a very bad one. Other shops had 

 none. The Venus of Milo is in every shop — in every 

 size, and from every point of view ; of the Accroupie 

 these two poor representations were hunted out from the 

 bottom of a portfolio. Of course, these remarks apply 

 only to Paris as the public know it ; doubtless the 

 studios have the Accroupie, and could supply represen- 

 tations of every kind : casts, too, can be obtained at the 

 Louvre. But to those who, like myself, wander in the 

 outer darkness of common barbarian life, the Accroupie 

 is unknown till we happily chance upon it. Possibly 

 the reason may be that this statue infinitely surpasses 

 those fixed ideals of art which the studios have for so 

 many centuries resolutely forced upon the world. It 

 seems that after a certain length of art study the 

 natural eyesight is lost. But I hope and believe there 

 are thousands of people in the world in full possession 

 of their natural eyesight, and capable of appreciating 

 the Accroupie when once their attention is called to it. 



