 for observing nature soon induced him to rectify the errors and
soar above the instructions of his teacher. He particularly shone in painting
horses, that being a favourite sign in the Scottish villages; and, in tracing
his progress, it is beautiful to observe, how by degrees he learned to shorten
the backs, and prolong the legs, of these noble animals, until they came to look
less like crocodiles, and more like nags. Detraction, which always pursues merit
with strides proportioned to its advancement, has indeed alleged, that Dick once
upon a time painted a horse with five legs, instead of four. I might have rested
his defence upon the license allowed to that branch of his profession, which, as
it permits all sorts of singular and irregular combinations, may be allowed to
extend itself so far as to bestow a limb supernumerary on a favourite subject.
But the cause of a deceased friend is sacred; and I disdain to bottom it so
superficially. I have visited the sign in question, which yet swings exalted in
the village of Langdirdum; and I am ready to depone upon oath, that what has
been idly mistaken or misrepresented as being the fifth leg of the horse, is, in
fact, the tail of that quadruped, and, considered with reference to the posture
in which he is delineated, forms a circumstance, introduced and managed with
great and successful, though daring art. The nag being represented in a rampant
or rearing posture, the tail, which is prolonged till it touches the ground,
appears to form a point d'appui and gives the firmness of a tripod to the
figure, without which it would be difficult to conceive, placed as the feet are,
how the courser could maintain his ground without tumbling backwards. This bold
conception has fortunately fallen into the custody of one by whom it is duly
valued; for, when Dick, in his more advanced state of proficiency, became
dubious of the propriety of so daring a deviation from the established rules of
art, and was desirous to execute a picture of the publican himself in exchange
for this juvenile production, the courteous offer was declined by his judicious
employer, who had observed, it seems, that when his ale failed to do its duty in
conciliating his guests, one glance at his sign was sure to put them in good
humour.
    It would be foreign to my present purpose to trace the steps by which Dick
Tinto improved his touch, and corrected, by the rules of art, the luxuriance of
a fervid imagination. The scales fell from his eyes on viewing the sketches of a
contemporary, the
