20 SIR EDWIN LANBSEER, R.A. 



the bar of the cage, with his huge mouth wide open ; the lioness is crouched at his 

 feet, her eyes fixed upon the man with the utmost intensity of expression. All the 

 beasts are painted with wonderful truthfulness, but the lioness is the triumph of the 

 whole. Van Amburgh's figure is forced and theatrical. 



In 1840 Landseer sent to the British Institution a small picture, " Young Roebuck 

 and Rough Hounds," now in the Sheepshanks Gallery; the wonted skill and accuracy 

 of the artist are here self-evident ; but the subject is far from agreeable, for the 

 roebuck lies dead among some rocks, and one of the four dogs which surround it is 

 licking up the blood that flows from a wound in the neck. A far more agreeable 

 spectacle, in several pictures, awaited the visitor to the Royal Academy that year. 

 First, there was " Horses taken in to Bait " — the interior of a stable, having some- 

 thing of the aspect of an old baronial hall ; horses and stable-requisites excellently 

 composed and painted. A second was *' Macaw, Love-birds, Terrier, and Spaniel- 

 puppies, belonging to Her Majesty," all grouped into a very pleasing picture, but 

 rather cold and raw in colour. Then followed " Lion Dog (from Malta, the last of the 

 Tribe) the property of H.R.H. the Duchess of Kent;" interesting not less for the 

 peculiarity of the dog than for its admirable execution. A fourth work was " Lion and 

 Dash, the property of the Duke of Beaufort ;" the former animal a dog of the finest 

 and most noble character ; the latter a tiny spaniel, scarcely bigger than the head of 

 its companion : the huge fellow evidently considers itself the natural protector of the 

 other, and that it is his duty to keep watch and ward over him. The last of the year's 

 exhibited pictures was one of Landseer' s most humorous compositions, " Laying down 

 the Law" — in a canine court of justice : the presiding judge is a large white and shaggy 

 poodle, looking as solemn as if the case before him were a question of life and death ; 

 the learned counsel on both sides are represented by dogs of various kinds ; one of 

 them, a sharp, crabbed kind of terrier, that seems equal to any amount of blustering 

 in the cross-examination of a witness, appears to be arguing some disputed point with 

 the judge in a way that will probably bring upon him the rebuke of the bench, if not 

 a committal for " contempt of court." One may almost feel surprised that the painter 

 himself was not brought up for judgment for thus caricaturing the majesty of the law. 

 The picture is in the Duke of Devonshire's collection at Chatsworth. 



I have been unable to ascertain when " The Chieftain's Friends," here engraved, 

 was produced ; but it is certainly one of the artist's early works, and was painted for 

 the late Duke of Devonshire: the picture is at Chatsworth. The "Chieftain" is 

 Lord Richard Cavendish, second brother of the present duke; his "friends" are 

 the dogs arid the falcon, with whom he has evidently just been having some 

 sport, for a dead bird, which has fallen a victim to the falcon, lies on the dwarf stone 

 wall that surrounds the pond, overgrown with water-lilies. The picture is a felicitous 

 attempt to combine, in costume and circumstance, modern portraiture with the customs 



