English and Foreign Ideas. 2 1 7 



gun, and wlieels his wife in a barrow, siiould try the experiment with some other variety 

 and see how much " position " can be developed by " traiiiing." 



Before finally dismissing the subject of position, which crops up in various ways while 

 treating of this interesting bird, we must here give an important item of information, which 

 it will be seen could not have been introduced earlier, inasmuch as it has been supplied by 

 our Belgian friend since the preceding pages have been in type. It is, however, so important 

 as bearing on English v. Belgian ideas touching a vital point, that no further explanation 

 is necessary for introducing it in this place. Our correspondent writes : — 



" I must congratulate you on the excellence of the rendering of the bronze model. I 

 cannot, however, say so much respecting the engraving on page 190. I do not think that 

 the cojip d'(Eil of an English and a Belgian judge follows quite the same lines. I will give 

 you what I have gathered from our best judges, and also an amusing incident confirming me 

 in my opinion that my view is correct. First, the time of forming the decision of comparison 

 is not at the moment of the acme of stretch when the bird is standing with its head en bas, 

 but immediately afterwards, when it has elevated its head and assumed an easier attitude. 

 Second, the object of first and special regard is not precisely the same with us as with you. 

 It is neither shoulders nor back, but what is, in Flemish, expressed in a word ' afgewerk,' 

 the ' working off.' You will notice at once what I mean if you compare the two engravings. 

 The ' afgewerk ' of the model is excellent ; that of the other figure, at any rate in the position 

 represented, rather inferior. Taking a line diagonally from the extreme shoulder-points to 

 the extreme point of projection of the breast as the base of a triangle, with the commencement 

 of the tail as the apex, the triangle so formed should be isosceles, and the longer the sides 

 and the truer the triangle, the more nearly will the features of the bird appear in harmonious 

 proportion. Proportion and beauty are very closely connected. Any one feature developed 

 in excess becomes deformity, be it shoulder, legs, or what not. 



" I visited the last show held at Ghent last year, in company with the members of the 

 Antwerp Society, and on going from place to place continually came across the tracks of an 

 Englishman who was over buying birds. At the distribution of prizes he was pointed out to 

 me, and I spoke to him ; and as he had been for a few days entirely dependent on a commissioner 

 for conversation, he appeared relieved to hear himself addressed in English, especially as he 

 much needed an opportunity for discharging a little splenetic humour to rid him of some of 

 the disgust he felt with the breeders of Bruxelles and Ghent. ' Ten years ago, sir, I could 

 come over and buy in a couple of hours such birds as would astonish you now-a-days, sir, at 

 from twenty-five to thirty-five francs each. Now, sir, I've been here and in Brussels four blessed 

 days, and I can't come across a really good bird neither for love nor money.' 'You astonish 

 me,' I said, ' for surely there are enough here to satisfy you at any rate.' ' Sir,' he replied, with 

 such a look and in such a tone, ' there's not one really good bird in the room ; they are all 

 "wastrels'" (that's Lanca.shire for something, I don't exactly know what); 'there's not one 

 with any ti^nber in it ; timber, sir, TIMBER is what we want in Lancashire ; ' and he stretched 

 his arm across my shoulders. Yet that Ghent show was the show of last year, and one of 

 my friends made an offer of one hundred and fifty francs for a buff hen a long way down 

 the prize-list, which was refused." 



We give the above, not with a view to discounting the value of position when the bird is 



standing with its head en bas, but as supporting our contention that tliere must first be 



position and the "acme of stretch" before we can have the "afgewerk," or " working off"; " the 



former, of a necessity, preceding the latter, which, ui its turn, determines the time when we can 



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