FIELD SPORTS IN ART, 245 
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civilisation ; no other civilisation seems to have cared. 
for it. Towers and castles are indeed seen on the bas- 
reliefs of Assyria, and waving lines indicate rivers, but 
these are merely subsidiary, and to give place and local- 
ity to the victories the king is achieving. The battle is 
the interest, the landscape merely the stage. Till the 
latter days of European life the artist took no notice of 
landscape. 
The painting of hills and rocks and rivers, woods and 
fields, is of recent date, and even in these scenes the 
artist finds it necessary to place some animals or birds. 
Even now he cannot ignore the strong love of human 
beings for these creatures ; if they are omitted the pic- 
ture loses its interest to the majority of eyes. Every 
one knows how wonderfully popular the works of Land- 
seer have been, and he was an animal painter, and his. 
subjects chiefly suggested by sport. The same spirit 
that inspired the Cave-dweller to engrave the mammoth ~ 
on the slab of ivory still lives in the hearts of men. 
There is a beautiful etching of “ The Poacher” (to 
which I shall have to recur); he is in the wood, 
and his dog is watching his upraised finger. From 
that finger the dog learns everything. He knows 
by its motion when to start, which way to go, what 
to do, whether to be quick or slow, to return or ta 
remain away. He understands his master quite as well 
as if they conversed in human speech. He enters into 
the spirit of the enterprise. ‘If you want your business 
done, go ; if not, send,’ istrue only of men. The poacher 
wants his business done, and he sends his agent—his dog 
—certain that it will be done for him better than he 
could do it himself. The dog is conscientious, he will 
omit nothing, he will act as if his master’s eye was on 
him the whole time. Now this attitude of the dog’s 
