“Without giving any opinion as to ‘the minor works of the painter,’ when ‘he was little more than an infant,’ of which of course I know nothing, but I unhesitatingly claim a precedence of the dog before the Mule and Pointer of W. H. Simpson, Esq., in 1815, as well from the facts I will state as from the intercourse with Sir Edwin Landseer himself. ‘The dog’ was the property of my mother-in-law, who resided _here_, and who received it in 1814 from a Swiss gentleman who had obtained ‘Lion’ and another direct from the Monastery of St. Bernard. You will perceive that Thomas Landseer records, in his etching ‘from the drawing by his brother Edwin, that he did it, _aged thirteen_;’ as he was born in 1802, consequently, the etching was made in 1815. Now, Sir Edwin himself told me that it was his _first work_, and of course could not forget any of the circumstances; ‘that he met the dog in London streets under the care of a man servant, whom he followed to Mrs. L. W. Borde’s residence, who permitted him to make a sketch of it.’ Your remark that the drawing was done by Sir Edwin when he was nineteen years of age, and in the year 1821, is clearly a mistake, for ‘Lion’ was never in London since 1815, and died in 1821. There were several litters of puppies in that interval, one of which, a brindled dog that was named ‘Cæsar,’ is with ‘Lion’ in the picture of ‘Travellers in the Snow,’ and I myself sold this one at Tattersall’s, where he fetched thirty-five guineas at open sale, but I never heard who bought him. The breed is now quite extinct. “I had the pleasure of often speaking with Sir Edwin on this subject, and he told me he had the original sketch somewhere, and that if he could find it I should have it, but of course this was some years ago. “Yours truly, “EDWD. CUST.” [18] At Landseer’s sale, 1874, lot 316, “Old Brutus” realized 630_l._ It must not be forgotten that there are many pictures and studies which bear the names of this dog, and that of his son, another “Brutus.” See below. [19] In 1874 “A French Hog,” 1814, belonged to the late Mr. J. Hogarth, who then owned another early picture of Sir Edwin’s, called “British Boar,” 1814, which is doubtless the same as the “English Hog” of the text; the animal belonged to Squire Western. As these works were painted in 1814 and etched by E. Landseer in 1818, we have but to remember the national circumstances of that period in order to recognize them as political satires.