There is no question but that Landseer's best pictures are of dogs, and we can but echo the words of Hamerton when he says: "The best commentators on Landseer, the best defenders of his genius, are the dogs themselves; and so long as there exist terriers, deer-hounds, blood-hounds, his fame will need little assistance from writers on art." Landseer had a long and happy intimacy with Queen Victoria and the royal family. He painted portraits of the various members of the queen's household in all possible ways, with dogs and on horseback, in fancy dress and hunting costume--in short, these portraits are far too numerous to be mentioned in detail. Ever after 1835 Landseer was called upon to paint pictures of the pets of the royal family, and these works became very numerous. While he was thus favored as an artist he was also a friend of the queen and her immediate family; he was often summoned to play billiards with Prince Albert. The queen's Journal of Life in the Highlands frequently mentions him, and we are sure that if we could read Landseer's diary it would tell us many interesting things of the queen and her family. Naturally it followed that an artist thus favored by the queen would be patronized by the nobility, and it is true that much of Landseer's time, both as an artist and as a gentleman of society, was passed in the company of people of the highest positions in Great Britain; and with the one exception of Sir Joshua Reynolds, no artist in England was ever visited by so many people of rank. His house was really a social centre, and no one felt above accepting his hasty invitations to his parties, which were almost always gotten up on an impulse and the guests invited at the last possible moment. Among Landseer's friends were Dickens and Thackeray, and Sydney Smith was very fond of the artist; and it is said that when the great wit was asked to sit to Landseer for his portrait, he replied in the words of the haughty Syrian: "Is thy servant a _dog_ that he should do this thing?" When at his best Landseer had a facility in drawing and painting that was marvellous. He could draw two entirely different objects at the same moment, his left hand being equally skilful with the right. He was seen to draw a horse's head with one hand and a stag's head with antlers at exactly the same time--and this at an evening party to prove that it could be done. He once sent to an exhibition a picture of rabbits under which he wrote, "Painted in three-quarters of an hour." He painted a life-size picture of a fallow-deer in three hours, and it required no retouching. One of his comrades said: "Sir Edwin has a fine hand, a correct eye, refined perceptions, and can do almost anything but dance on the slack wire. He is a fine billiard player, plays at chess, sings when with his intimate friends, and has considerable humor."