LANDSEER AGAINST THE FIELD. 293 



and have attempted many things as subjects, from a 

 windmill to a winner of the Derby. We had a 

 room, and a quaint old room it was, all wainscot, 

 cunningly devised for sliding panels, to let in enter- 

 prising Cavaliers to rescue, carry off, or outrage 

 solitary damsels. In this room we breakfasted, and 

 in this said room in a nook hung a key that our old 

 housekeeper venerated as the open sesame of her stores 

 of Christmas fruits, sugars, and other appurtenances 

 of her vocation. This was, in fact, the key of her 

 wholesale warehouse, from which her retail establish- 

 ment was replenished. In an unlucky moment I 

 possessed myself of this key, and by its means filled a 

 minor storehouse of my own with sundry good things, 

 from potted char to orange chips. This key was 

 seldom called for, most luckily for me, for / lost it : so, 

 to escape detection for the moment, I painted one on 

 the oak panel, and shaded it to the life : so there, to 

 all appearance, it still hung. The Devil never deserts 

 his o^vn. I found the real key, scratched its locum 

 tenens from its place, and, hke many a criminal, gloried 

 I fear more in my stratagem than regretted the delin- 

 quency that brought it forth. 



Mr. E. Landseer is too high in the profession to 

 need comment. I have not the advantage of being 

 acquainted with this Gentleman, and it has been my 

 loss that I have seen but few of his productions. 

 Such as I have seen have delighted me: as we say in 

 sporting phrase, Landseer "for choice" against the 

 field. 



That animal painting has in no shape arrived at 

 any thing bordering on perfection must be quite 

 evident from the little attention that was paid to it 

 until within a very short time. It is, in fact, in its 



u 3 



