IMPROVEMENT ON OLD ERRORS. 289 



In a picture Marshall painted for a Mr. Baker I 

 first saw the representation of a horse bounding as a 

 deer does in his trot with all four legs off the ground. 

 The portrait of the mare in the fore ground was the 

 particular one I touched to convince myself it was not 

 by some artificial means in relievo: the attitude of the 

 bounding horse was perfect : it was hard to believe he 

 stood still ; but in this extraordinary fine picture, this 

 horse, from the size he was painted and the distance 

 he was represented to be from the mare, was about as 

 big as two moderate elephants. Such was Marshall. 

 That his pictures were coarsely done is quite true ; 

 but he painted for effect, and any one looking at them 

 close could but wonder how such dabs of paint could 

 produce the harmony they did at a distance. I, by 

 way of joke, made him a present of a minute silver 

 trowel. Ben took it all in good part, and declared 

 " it was the best tool he ever had ! " 



I am not sure wli ether I should be correct if I said 

 he was the first who represented horses with all legs 

 off the ground in their trot and gallop : at all events, 

 he had the merit of always painting them so, and I 

 believe that few if any other artists did. Strange 

 that so many much more talented men should have 

 persevered for ages in representing horses in an atti- 

 tude in which it is a moral certainty they never could 

 have seen them. To represent a horse trotting at the 

 rate of eighteen miles an hour, as Sartorius did old 

 Phenomenon, with two legs on the ground, was absurd. 

 No man living could ever detect a horse so situated 

 going at that pace. No man's eye is quick enough to 

 detect a race-horse at speed with any leg on the 

 ground. Whenever they are so, it is for the briefest 

 particle of a second. So horses have ever, till within 



VOL. n. u 



