He was one
of my father and mother's oldest friends, and had been an equally
close friend of my grandparents, the Duke and Duchess of Bedford.
He had painted three portraits of my father, and five of my
mother. Two of the latter had been engraved, and, under the titles
of "Cottage Industry" and "The Mask," had a very large sale in
mid-Victorian days. His large picture of my two eldest sisters,
which hung over our dining-room chimney-piece, had also been
engraved, and was a great favourite, under the title of "The
Abercorn Children." Landseer was a most delightful person, and the
best company that can be imagined. My father and mother were quite
devoted to him, and both of them always addressed him as "Lanny."
My mother going to call on him at his St. John's Wood house, found
"Lanny" in the garden, working from a ladder on a gigantic mass of
clay. Turning the corner, she was somewhat alarmed at finding a
full-grown lion stretched out on the lawn. Landseer had been
commissioned by the Government to model the four lions for the
base of Nelson's pillar in Trafalgar Square.
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