the country
schoolboy, there is no other way but to make the best of stuffed birds,
photographs, etc. Much may be done with these aids if a little personal
acquaintance with their habits and associations is added like salt, to
keep the second-hand knowledge sweet and wholesome.

In the absence of opportunity for study from the life, no pictures of
animals can compare in their usefulness to the carver with those by
Bewick. They are so completely developed in essential details, so full
of character and expressive of life, that even when personal
acquaintance has been made with their various qualities, a glance at one
of his engravings of birds or beasts conveys new meaning, either of
gesture or attitude, to what we have previously learned. Every student
who wishes to make a lively representation in carving of familiar beast
or bird should study Bewick's engravings of "Quadrupeds" and "Birds."

Drawings made for the purpose of study need not be elaborate: indeed,
such drawings are only embarrassing to work from. The most practical
plan is to make a drawing in which the main masses are given correctly,
and in about the same relative position that they will occupy in the
carving. I give you in Plate VII an example of this in a drawing made by
Philip Webb, who, by the study of a lifetime, has amassed a valuable
store of knowledge concerning animals, and acquired that extraordinary
skill in their delineation and the expression of character which is only
to be attained by close observation and great sympathy with the subject.
The drawing in question was made for myself at the time I was carving a
lion for the cover of a book (given in Plate VIII). It was made, in his
good-natured way, to "help a lame dog over a stile," as I had got into
difficulties with the form. This drawing is all that a carver's first
diagram should be, and gives what is always the first necessity in such
preliminary outlines--that is, the right relationship of the main
masses, and the merest hint of what is to come in the way of detail; all
of which must be studied separately, but which would be entirely
useless if a wrong start had been made. In Fig. 68 I give you tracings
from some notes I made myself while carving the sheep in Plates V and
VI. The object was to gain some definite knowledge of form by noting the
relation of planes, sections of parts, projections, etc., etc. The
section lines and side-notes are the most valuable part of the
memoranda. I