NO MAN'S LAND. 189 



tained within its walls, it would be useless for one to . 

 attempt to describe them. I thought I had seen some 

 of the greatest works of famous men, but here indeed 

 I found — and was allowed to study — some of their 

 masterpieces, both in painting and sculpture, that 

 seemed finer than any I had known of before. The 

 rooms being noble had noble pictures to adorn 

 them, only four usually to each room, but each one 

 nearly the size of the wall it hung on ; and nearly all 

 of them represented the natural life, in some form or 

 other, of fur, feather, and fish. How often I stood 

 before the portrait of a cassowary that hung in one 

 room, having as a companion picture a grand ostrich, 

 life-size, most minutely painted ! In the cassowary 

 painting, a monkey, inimitably represented, was gaz- 

 ing at that bird from a gale pier. 



Another favourite of mine was a huge canvas, on 

 which was a farmyard, the poultry portion of it, at 

 least. Besides peacocks, guinea-fowls, and the usual 

 feathered occupants, there was a barn owl in a corner 

 of a pigeon-cote, being mobbed by a flock of cheeky, 

 chirrupping sparrows. The bothered look of the owl, 

 and the noisy impudence of the sparrows, was a thing 

 to see. The free dashing manner in which the whole 



