294 " THE LASSES, OH." 



infancy. Landscape is almost as old as the hills it 

 represents, and portrait painting, no doubt, older than 

 any of the very venerable Ladies and Gentlemen we 

 see pourtrayed by it. Men were as valuable centuries 

 ago as they are now ; the cynic may think they were 

 more so : Ladies may have been as lovely in the same 

 days, though the beauteous faces we now see may ex- 

 cuse our being sceptical on this point : and if the days 

 of chivalry were not passed, we should be held as 

 recreant Knights if we did not break a lance in 

 support of this opinion, if any of the plumed and grim 

 Cavaliers of former days were resuscitated to offer us 

 a challenge. Whether the first painter was inspired 

 by the deeds of the hero or the charms of the fair, I 

 know not ; he must have had very bad taste if it was not 

 by the latter. If such was not the case, I can offer 

 but one excuse for him, and will in charity suppose 

 that 



"His prentice hand he tried on man, 

 "And then" began "the lasses oh !" 



Horses not being considered as valuable as men, 

 and as living productions and beautiful objects being 

 so wonderfully inferior to women, they were for ages 

 held to be infra dig. of the painter's study ; but the 

 Beacon Course and fox-hunting have rendered an 

 animal ranging in price from two hundred to five 

 thousand guineas an object quite worthy to be handed 

 down to posterity ; and in doing this, if we were to 

 calculate the value of each animal he has painted, 

 Mr. Herring has perpetuated the images of more 

 money than all other living artists put together. He 

 is a most correct and accomplished draftsman, and 

 thoroughly knows every point of a horse ; and, further, 

 he has the facility of catching the character of different 



