e range of Landseer's art would be quite
inadequate if we failed to notice his studies of the lion. Though his
works on this subject were not numerous, he was all his life greatly
interested in the noble animal called the king of beasts. As a boy, he
used to visit a certain menagerie called Exeter Change, and make
drawings of the beasts there. A drawing of a Senegal lion, made here
at the age of nine, is very creditable. The same menagerie furnished,
many years later, the material for his first serious lion study. One
of the animals having died, Landseer obtained the body for dissection.
His methods of work were always thorough. He believed that it was only
by mastering an animal's anatomy that a painter could faithfully
reproduce its motions and attitudes. The result of his studies on this
occasion was an interesting series of pictures,--A Lion disturbed at
his Repast, A Lion enjoying his Repast, and A Prowling Lion.

Naturally opportunities for dissecting lions were not frequent, and
the painter had to bide his time for further studies. A friend who
could help him in this respect was Mr. Mitchell, secretary of the
Zooelogical Society. Whenever the secretary happened to have a dead
lion on his hands, he offered Landseer the first chance to obtain it.
An amusing story is told of one of Mr. Mitchell's efforts in his
friend's behalf. A company of guests was gathered one evening at
Landseer's house, when suddenly a man servant appeared at the
drawing-room door, and quietly asked, "Did you order a lion, sir?" The
inquiry was made in a matter-of-fact tone, precisely as if ordering
lions were an every-day affair, like ordering a rib of beef, or a leg
of mutton. There was a sensation among the guests, and much merriment
was caused by their pretended alarm. Tradition says that Charles
Dickens was of the party, and it was he who often told the story
afterwards. As it proved, Mr. Mitchell had sent the painter a lion
which had died that day in the Zooelogical Garden of Regent's Park.

In 1859 Landseer received an important commission from the English
government requiring all his knowledge of the lion. His task was to
model some lions to ornament the Nelson monument in Trafalgar Square,
London. This monument had been erected more than fifteen years before
(1843), in memory of the admiral under whose leadership the English
fleet had won their victory off Cape Trafalgar, October 21, 1805. It
consisted of a tall granite column surmou