252 ANIMAL PAINTERS 



Studio was followed by a course of study at the 

 Royal Academy. 



At this period he began the practice of making 

 long journeys on foot, which he never abandoned ; 

 his sketch book was his constant companion on 

 frequent walking tours, and to this he committed any 

 picturesque scraps of scenery, sketches of animals, 

 trees and other objects which struck his fancy. Of 

 active habit from his youth up, he extended his 

 pedestrian travels all over the country, and thus 

 made acquaintance with the greater part of the 

 country, travelling widely both in Scotland and 

 Ireland. His affection for, or perhaps his more 

 intimate knowledge of, the counties of Herts and 

 Essex is betrayed in many of his hunting and 

 coursing scenes which are laid in the districts where 

 he passed his youth. At the age of seventeen he 

 began to study engraving, and having in a few 

 years mastered the mysteries of the art, was able 

 to engrave both his own and his father's pictures. 

 In after life his attention was about equally divided 

 between painting and engraving ; and in regard to 

 this his son states that he was frequently heard, in 

 his later years, to regret that he had not devoted 

 himself exclusively to the brush ; believing that 

 the time and labour he had bestowed on the 

 engraver's art had retarded his progress and quali- 

 fied the success he might otherwise have won as 

 a painter. 



