1.
Robert Browning, 1812-1889.
Lord Byron, 1788-1824.
Charles Dickens, 1812-1870.
George Eliot, 1819-1880.
James Hogg, 1770-1835.
Walter Savage Landor, 1775-1864.
John Ruskin, 1819-1900.
Sir Walter Scott, 1771-1832.
Tennyson, 1809-1892.
Thackeray, 1811-1863.
Wordsworth, 1770-1850.

I

KING CHARLES SPANIELS

Edwin Henry Landseer was the most gifted member of a family of
artists. His father was a well-known engraver, and his brother Thomas
distinguished himself in the same profession. As soon as he could hold
a pencil, the boy Edwin began to draw. The family were then living in
the outskirts of London, and there were open fields near the house.
Here the future animal--painter used to spend long afternoons
sketching cows and sheep, and at the end of the day his father would
criticise his work.

At an early age the young artist began to show a preference for the
dog above other animals. A drawing of a foxhound made when he was five
years old is still exhibited as a remarkable production. At the age of
fourteen he became a pupil at the Royal Academy, "a bright lad with
light curling hair, and a very gentle, graceful manner and much
manliness withal." The following year all the critics were surprised
when he exhibited an admirable portrait of a dog called Brutus. The
painter Fuseli was at this time at the head of the Academy, and was
very fond of his precocious pupil, whom he playfully called his
"little dog boy," in reference to the Brutus.

It was by means of another dog picture that the artist took his next
step towards fame. "The Fighting Dogs" was a remarkable work for a
painter sixteen years old, and upon its exhibition in 1818 it was
purchased by an English nobleman. This was the real beginning of
Landseer's professional career, and from this time forward his success
was assured.

It became a fashion among people of means to bring their dogs to
Landseer for their portraits. He even counted royalty among his
patrons, painting the favorite pets of Queen Victoria and her husband,
Prince Albert.

The spaniels of our picture were the pets of a certain Mr. Vernon, who
not unnaturally deemed the beautiful little creatures a worthy subject
for a master's brush. This kind of dog, as its name implies, is
supposed to have come originally from Spain. Both Stuart kings,
Charles I. and Charles II., were specially fond of the breed, each
having a favorite variety. One of the dukes of Mar