sick at heart.

* * * * *

To Landseer must be given the honor of first opening a friendly
communication between the present royal family and the artistic and
literary world.

Wild-eyed poets and rusty-looking, impecunious painters were firmly
warned away from Balmoral. The thought that all poets and painters were
anarchistic and dangerous--certainly disagreeable--was firmly fixed in
the heart of the young Queen and her attendants.

The barrier had first been raised to Landseer. He was requested to visit
the palace and paint a picture of one of the Queen's deerhounds. It was
found that the man was not hirsute, untamed or eccentric. He was a
gentleman in manner and education--quite self-contained and manly.

He was introduced to the Queen; they shook hands and talked about dogs
and horses and things, just like old acquaintances. They loved the same
things, and so were friends at once. It was not long before Landseer's
near neighbors at Saint John's Wood were stricken speechless at the
spectacle of Queen Victoria on horseback waiting at the door of
Landseer's house, while the artist ran in to change his coat. When he
came out he mounted one of the groom's horses for a gallop across the
park with the Queen of England, on whose possessions the sun never sets.

These rides with royalty were, however, largely a matter of professional
study; for he not only painted a picture of the Queen on horseback, but
of Albert as well. And at Windsor there can now be seen many pictures of