RESCUING FROM THE SNOW-DRIFT. 37 



This last line was attached to the title of the picture in the Academy catalogue. 

 On the left of the principal figxires, are some Belgian peasants at their dinner, 

 a Belgian farmer, and girls with guide-books and Waterloo relics, or what are 

 assumed to be the latter, for sale. The picture was a commission from the late 

 Mr. Vernon, and is now in the National Gallery. It has been engraved by T. L. 

 Atkinson. 



At the same time was exhibited a painting which, in lieu of a title, was accom- 

 panied by the following passage from the Gospel by St. Luke : — " What man of you, 

 having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in 

 the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?" The quotation is 

 only applicable to Landseer's picture as suggesting the idea, for the scene is a hill- 

 pasture in the Highlands, and some sheep having been buried in a heavy fall of snow, 

 the shepherd, with three of his dogs, is busy in search of them. A fine ram, appa- 

 rently all but dead, has already been rescued, and the fleeces of others, its companions 

 in misfortune, are visible ; but the dogs constitute the feature of the composition. 



" Good Doggie ! " — the property of Lady Murchison, was the last of the five pictures 

 of 1850 ; it is a little gem of art, after its kind. "Doggie " is a handsome fox-headed 

 animal, in the act of begging, with its two paws up, resting against the arm of a sofa. 

 The head, with its open mouth and intelligent expression, is inimitable. 



In this year Landseer received the honour of knighthood; he had for some 

 time been honoured, beyond any other painter living, by the personal notice of the 

 Queen and the Prince Consort, and was not an unfrequent guest at the banquet-table 

 of royalty. The love of animals which her Majesty and the Prince always evinced, and 

 the interest the latter ever took in Highland field-sports, could scarcely fail to attract 

 towards them an artist so successful in his representation of such subjects — one, more- 

 over, whose general qualifications of mind and person befitted him to move in the 

 upper ranks of society. Landseer no doubt owed his dignity as much to private favour 

 as to his public reputation in art. 



In 1850 the collection of pictures formed by Mr. Charles Meigh of Shelton, 

 Staffordshire, was sold : it included two early examples of Landseer's pencils ; one, 

 a small sketch, entitled "Landscape — Sunset," realising 35 guineas; the other, 

 "A Dog in a Stable," for which the purchaser paid 215 guineas. 



" When first the day-star's clear cool light. 

 Chasing night's shadows grey. 

 With silver touched each rocky height 



That girded wild Glenstrae, 

 Up rose the monarch of the glen, 



Majestic from his lair, 

 Siu^eyed the scene with piercing ken. 

 And suiffed the fragrant air." — Legends of Glenorchy: a Poem. 

 L 



