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NATURE NOTES 
of empire of much of its picturesqueness. Poachers will be 
visited with the utmost rigour of the law. There is something 
delightful in the spectacle of 1,500 elephants in South Africa 
being under the joint protection of the fauns and a British High 
Commissioner. This masterful restoration of the conditions of 
the Garden of Eden is one of the finest pacific strokes which 
has yet been attempted in the name of empire .” — Eastern Morn- 
ing News. 
The Late Mr. Watts and the Docking of Horses. — 
By the courtesy of the editor, E. O. Greening, Esq., we are 
able to reproduce from The Agricultural Economist a charming 
portrait of the late Mr. G. F. Watts, R.A., O.M., whose death 
in July last was a loss to the humanitarian cause as well as to 
all lovers of art in its highest forms. Describing a visit paid 
by him to Mr. Watts’ beautiful Surrey home, Limnerslease, 
Mr. Greening writes : — 
“ Surrounding the house and its workshops were the trees 
and bushes full of bird-life, carefully cherished. Nesting places 
for the feathered friends of the great artist were added to the 
natural conveniences of the shrubs, and food to suit the tastes of 
the various songsters was ungrudgingly given. So the living 
things of the woods loved the artist, as did the little children, 
who danced and gambolled around him whenever he walked out. 
Honoured, beloved, revered, Mr. G. F. Watts lived, to over 
eighty-seven years, a life full of nobility of thought and deed.” 
The following is the opinion expressed by the late Mr. 
Watts, on the docking of horses, in a letter addressed by 
him to the Humanitarian League, of which he was a member 
for the last eight years of his life : — 
“ The brutal fashion of docking horses is a disgrace to our 
civilisation, and cannot be too strongly protested against. I do 
not see how the Legislature and the Church can be so indifferent 
to it. Cropping dogs’ ears was, I believe, put down : docking is 
far worse ; indeed, it is, I think, more degrading than bull-fight- 
ing. There is, in that, courage and address, though in a bad 
cause ; for the brutal practice of docking, a mere caprice of 
fashion, nothing can possibly be said — indeed the short agony in 
the time of excitement is probably less than that suffered by the 
horse during the protracted time between the brutal (1 wish I 
could find a stronger word) operation and the healing of it. 
With regard to the artistic side, there is degraded want of taste 
in destroying the harmonious balance of Nature’s arrangement, 
the somewhat heavy head of the beautiful animal being balanced 
by the tail, which naturally should have considerable volume. 
Setting aside the disgusting cruelty, this want of taste, which 
can prefer to see the noble creature changed by the destruction 
of the fine appendage into a thing that resembles the stump of a 
worn-out broom — made to resemble a pig or a tapir — is very 
lamentable, when found among the classes that can boast of 
