Here a fine hound waits for the Countess (this dog, by the way, belonged to Lady Blessington, and was given to her by the at that time King of Naples); here, by a plain coffin, a collie waits for the master who will never return; and here two tiny silken spaniels guard a plumed hat and pair of gloves. These spaniels, which belonged to Robert Vernon, had an equally tragic fate—the Blenheim being killed by a fall from a table, and the King Charles by a fall through the staircase rails. Their picture is now in the National Gallery of London, where many a one lingers before it, admiring the great lustrous eyes, silken coats, and delicate, whimsical physiognomies of “The Cavalier’s Pets.”
THE CAVALIER’S PETS.
(From the etching by Leon Richeton, after Sir Edwin Landseer, R. A. )
Very near them hangs a painting called “The Sleeping Bloodhound.” The beautiful animal rests so easily that few would imagine her repose to be the sleep of death—yet so it is. Countess, as they named her, belonged to an old friend of Landseer, and running too eagerly one night to meet him, fell from a height and was killed. The next day he carried her to the studio; and the fine picture, now so familiar to all, commemorates both her own beauty and her master’s love.
THE DUSTMAN’S DOG.
(Drawn by Landseer when a child. )