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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 02:19:26 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 02:19:26 -0700 |
| commit | e3db16f8907e8c158d4475959c7faa194a476b4a (patch) | |
| tree | 2c5b5321d1bd069140a655766cd7064436495bc3 | |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/25918-8.txt b/25918-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..be17ca8 --- /dev/null +++ b/25918-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11579 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Heads and Tales, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Heads and Tales + or, Anecdotes and Stories of Quadrupeds and Other Beasts, + Chiefly Connected with Incidents in the Histories of More + or Less Distinguished Men. + +Author: Various + +Editor: Adam White + +Release Date: June 28, 2008 [EBook #25918] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEADS AND TALES *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller, Janet Blenkinship and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + + + HEADS AND TALES. + + + + + PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY + EDINBURGH AND LONDON + + [Illustration: The Tasmanian Wolf. (_Thylacinus Cynocephalus._)] + + + + + HEADS AND TALES; + + OR, + + ANECDOTES AND STORIES OF QUADRUPEDS + AND OTHER BEASTS, + + CHIEFLY CONNECTED WITH INCIDENTS IN THE + HISTORIES OF MORE OR LESS DISTINGUISHED MEN. + + COMPILED AND SELECTED BY + + ADAM WHITE, + LATE ASSISTANT IN THE ZOOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT, BRITISH MUSEUM. + + Second Edition. + + LONDON: + JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET. + MDCCCLXX. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +In this work, a part of which is, so far as it extends, a careful +compilation from an extensive series of books, the great order mammalia, +or, rather, a few of its subjects, is treated anecdotically. The +connexion of certain animals with man, and the readiness with which man +can subdue even the largest of the mammalia, are very curious subjects +of thought. The dog and horse are our special friends and associates; +they seem to understand us, and we get very much attached to them. The +cat or the cow, again, possess a different degree of attachment, and +have "heads and hearts" less susceptible of this education than the +first mentioned. The anecdotes in this book will clearly show facts of +this nature. In the Letter of the Gorilla, under an appearance of +exaggeration, will be found many facts of its history. We have a strong +belief that natural history, written as White of Selborne did his Letter +of Timothy the Tortoise, would be very enticing and interesting to young +people. To make birds and other animals relate their stories has been +done sometimes, and generally with success. There are anecdotes hinging, +however, on animals which have more to do with man than the other +mammals referred to in the little story. These stories we have felt to +be very interesting when they occur in biographies of great men. Cowper +and his Hares, Huygens and his Sparrow, are tales--at least the +former--full of interesting matter on the history of the lower animal, +but are of most value as showing the influence on the man who amused +himself by taming them. We like to know that the great Duke, after +getting down from his horse Copenhagen, which carried him through the +whole battle of Waterloo, clapped him on the neck, when the war-charger +kicked out, as if untired. + +We could have added greatly to this book, especially in the part of +jests, puns, or cases of _double entendre_. The few selected may +suffice. The so-called conversations of "the Ettrick Shepherd" are full +of matter of this kind, treated by "Christopher North" with a happy +combination of rare power of description and apt exaggeration of detail, +often highly amusing. One or two instances are given here, such as the +Fox-hunt and the Whale. The intention of this book is primarily to be +amusing; but it will be strange if it do not instruct as well. There is +much in it that is _true_ of the habits of mammalia. These, with birds, +are likely to interest young people generally, more than anecdotes of +members of orders like fish, insects, or molluscs, lower in the scale, +though often possessing marvellous instincts, the accounts of which form +intensely interesting reading to those who are fond of seeing or hearing +of "the works of the Lord," and who "take pleasure" in them. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + MAMMALIA.[1] + + PAGE + MAN 1 + + Gainsborough's Joke--Skull of Julius Cæsar when a boy 2 + + Sir David Wilkie's simplicity about Babies 3 + + James Montgomery translates into verse a description of + Man, after the manner of Linnæus 4 + + Addison and Sir Richard Steele's Description of Gimcrack + the Collector 5 + + MONKEYS 9 + + The Gorilla and its Story 9 + + The Orang-Utan 11 + + The Chimpanzee 12 + + Letter of Mr Waterton 20 + + Mr Mitchell and the Young Chimpanzee 22 + + Lady Anne Barnard pleads for the Baboons 24 + + S. Bisset and his Trained Monkeys 25 + + Lord Byron's Pets 26 + + The Ettrick Shepherd's Monkey 27 + + The Findhorn Fisherman and the Monkey 29 + + "We ha'e seen the _Enemy_!" 29 + + The French Marquis and his Monkey 30 + + George IV. and Happy Jerry.--Mr Cross's Rib-nosed + Baboon at Exeter Change 31 + + The Young Lady's pet Monkey and the poor Parrot 33 + + Monkeys "poor relations" 34 + + Sydney Smith on Monkeys 34 + + Mrs Colin Mackenzie on the Apes at Simla 35 + + The Aye-Aye, or Cheiromys of Madagascar 36 + + BATS 38 + + One of Captain Cook's Sailors sees a Fox-Bat, and describes + it as a devil 39 + + Fox Bats (_with a Plate_) 41 + + Dr Mayerne and his Balsam of Bats 47 + + HEDGEHOG 48 + + Robert Southey to his Critics 48 + + MOLE 49 + + Mole, cause of Death of William III. 49 + + BROWN BEAR 56 + + The Austrian General and the Bear--"Back, rascal, I + am a general!" 58 + + Lord Byron's Bear at Cambridge 59 + + Charles Dickens on Bear's Grease and Bear-keepers 59 + + A Bearable Pun 60 + + A Shaved Bear 61 + + POLAR BEAR 61 + + General History and Anecdotes of Polar Bear, as observed + on recent Arctic Expeditions (_with a Plate_) 61 + + Nelson and the Polar Bear 67 + + A Clever Polar Bear 67 + + Captain Ommaney and the Polar Bear 70 + + RACCOON 71 + + "A Gone Coon" 71 + + BADGER 71 + + Hugh Miller sees the "Drawing of the Badger" 72 + + The Laird of Balnamoon and the Brock 75 + + FERRET 75 + + Collins and the Rat-catcher, with the Ferret 76 + + POLE-CAT 76 + + Fox and the Poll-Cat 77 + + DOG 77 + + Phrases about Dogs 77 + + Cowper's Dog 79 + + Cowper and his dog Beau 81 + + Burns's "Twa Dogs" 81 + + Dog of Assyrian Monument 86 + + Bishop Blomfield bitten by a Dog 88 + + Sydney Smith's Remark on it 88 + + Bishop of Bristol--"Puppies never see till they are nine + days old" 88 + + Mrs Browning, the Poetess, and her dog Flush 89 + + Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart., and his dog Speaker 93 + + Lord Byron and his dog Boatswain 94 + + Lady's reason for calling her dog Perchance 96 + + Collins the Artist and his dog Prinny--the faithful + Model 96 + + Soldier and Dog 97 + + Bark and Bite!--Curran on Lord Clare and his Dog 98 + + Mrs Drew and the two Dogs 98 + + Gainsborough and his Wife and their Dogs 100 + + Sir William Gell's Dog, which was said to speak 101 + + The Duke of Gordon's Wolf-hounds 102 + + Frederick the Great and his Italian Greyhounds 104 + + The Dog and the French Murderers 104 + + Hannah More on Garrick's Dog 105 + + Rev. Robert Hall and the Dog 106 + + A Queen (Henrietta Maria) and her Lap-Dog 106 + + The Clever Dog that belonged to the Hunters of Polmood 107 + + The Irish Clergyman and the Dogs 108 + + Washington Irving and the Dog 108 + + Douglas Jerrold and his Dog 109 + + Sheridan and the Dog 109 + + Charles Lamb and his dog "Dash" 110 + + French Dogs of Louis XII. 110 + + Martin Luther observes a Dog at Lintz 111 + + Poor Dog at the Grotta del Cane 111 + + Dog a Postman and Carrier 113 + + South and Sherlock--Dog-matic 113 + + General Moreau and his Greyhound 113 + + Duke of Norfolk and his Spaniels 114 + + Lord North and the Dog 115 + + Perthes derives Hints from his Dog 115 + + Peter the Great and his dog Lisette 116 + + The Light Company's Poodle and Sir F. Ponsonby 118 + + Admiral Rodney and his dog Loup 119 + + Ruddiman and his dog Rascal 119 + + Mrs Schimmelpenninck and the Dogs 120 + + Sir Walter Scott and his Dogs 122 + + Sheridan on the Dog-Tax 123 + + Sydney Smith dislikes Dogs.--An ingenious way of getting + rid of them 124 + + Sydney Smith on Dogs 125 + + Sydney Smith.--"Newfoundland Dog that breakfasted + on Parish Boys" 126 + + Robert Southey on his Dogs 126 + + A Dog that was a good judge of Elocution.--Mr True + and his Pupil 127 + + Dog that tried to please a Crying Child 128 + + Horace Walpole's pet dog Rosette 128 + + Horace Walpole.--Arrival of his dog Tonton 129 + + Horace Walpole.--Death of his dog Tonton 130 + + Archbishop Whateley and his Dogs 131 + + Archbishop Whately on Dogs 132 + + Sir David Wilkie.--A Dog Rose 133 + + Ulysses and his Dog 133 + + WOLF 135 + + Polson and the Last Wolf in Sutherlandshire 135 + + "If the tail break, you'll find that" 137 + + FOX 138 + + An Enthusiastic Fox-hunting Surgeon 138 + + Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, on the Pleasures of Fox-hunting, + and the gratification of the Fox 139 + + Arctic Foxes converted into Postmen, with Anecdotes + (_with a plate_) 142 + + JACKAL 148 + + Burke on the Jackal and Tiger 149 + + CAT 149 + + Jeremy Bentham and his pet cat "Sir John Langborn 150 + + S. Bisset and his Musical Cats 152 + + Constant, Chateaubriand, and their Cats 153 + + Liston, the Surgeon, and his Cat 153 + + The Banker Mitchell's Antipathy to Kittens 154 + + James Montgomery and his Cats 155 + + David Ritchie's Cat 157 + + Sir Walter Scott's Visit to the Black Dwarf 157 + + Southey, the Poet, and his Cats 158 + + Archbishop Whateley and the Cat that used to ring the + Bell 160 + + TIGER AND LION 161 + + Bussapa, the Tiger-slayer, and the Tiger 162 + + John Hunter and the Dead Tiger 164 + + Mrs Mackenzie on the Indian's regard and awe for the + Tiger 165 + + Jolly Jack-tar on Lion and Tiger 166 + + Androcles and the Lion 167 + + Sir George Davis and the Lion 170 + + Canova's Lions and the Child 171 + + Admiral Napier and the Lion in the Tower 173 + + Old Lady and the Beasts on the Mound 173 + + SEALS 174 + + Dr Adam Clarke on Shetland Seals 175 + + Dr Edmonstone and the Shetland Seals 176 + + The Walrus or Morse (_with a Plate_) 182 + + KANGAROO 188 + + Charles Lamb on its Peculiarities 188 + + Captain Cooke's Sailor and the first Kangaroo seen 189 + + Charles Lamb on Kangaroos having Purses in front 189 + + Kangaroo Cooke 189 + + TIGER WOLF 190 + + SQUIRREL, &c. 194 + + Jekyll on a Squirrel 195 + + Pets of some of the Parisian Revolutionary Butchers 195 + + Sir George Back and the poor Lemming 196 + + McDougall and Arctic Lemming 197 + + RATS AND MICE 198 + + Duke of Wellington and Musk-Rat 200 + + Lady Eglinton and the Rats 200 + + General Douglas and the Rats 201 + + Hanover Rats 202 + + Irishman Shooting Rats 203 + + James Watt and the Rat's Whiskers 204 + + Gray the Poet compares Poet-Laureate to Rat-catcher 204 + + Jeremy Bentham and the Mice 205 + + Robert Burns and the Field Mouse 206 + + Fuller on Destructive Field Mice 208 + + Baron Von Trenck and the Mouse in Prison 209 + + Alexander Wilson, the American Ornithologist, and the + Mouse 211 + + HARES, RABBITS, GUINEA-PIG 212 + + William Cowper on his Hares 213 + + Lord Norbury on the Exaggeration of a Hare-Shooter 220 + + Duke of L. prefers Friends to Hares 221 + + S. Bisset and his Trained Hare and Turtle 221 + + Lady Anne Barnard on a Family of Rabbits all blind of + one eye 222 + + Thomas Fuller on Norfolk Rabbits 222 + + Dr Chalmers and the Guinea-Pig 223 + + SLOTH 224 + + Sydney Smith on the Sloth--a Comparison 224 + + THE GREAT ANT-EATER (_with a Plate_) 225 + + ELEPHANT 229 + + Lord Clive--Elephant or Equivalent? 230 + + Canning on the Elephant and his Trunk 232 + + Sir R. Phillips and Jelly made of Ivory Dust 233 + + J. T. Smith and the Elephant 234 + + Sydney Smith on the Elephant and Tailor 235 + + Elephant's Skin--a teacher put down 236 + + FOSSIL PACHYDERMATA 236 + + Cuvier's Enthusiasm over Fossils 236 + + SOW 238 + + "There's a hantle o' miscellaneous eatin' aboot a Pig" 238 + + "Pig-Sticking at Chicago" 238 + + Monument to a Pig at Luneberg 239 + + WILD BOAR (_with a Plate_) 239 + + THE RIVER PIG (_with a Plate_) 245 + + S. Bisset and his Learned Pig 250 + + Quixote Bowles fond of Pigs 251 + + On Jekyll's treading on a small Pig 251 + + Good enough for a Pig 251 + + Gainsborough's Pigs 252 + + Theodore Hook and the Litter of Pigs 253 + + Lady Hardwicke's Pig--her Bailiff 253 + + Pigs and Silver Spoon 253 + + Sydney Smith on Beautiful Pigs 254 + + Joseph Sturge, when a boy, and the Pigs 255 + + RHINOCEROS 229 + + The Lord Keeper Guildford and the Rhinoceros in the + City of London 230 + + HORSE 256 + + Horse shot under Albert 256 + + Bell-Rock Lighthouse Horse 257 + + Edmund Burke and the Horse 257 + + David Garrick and his Horse, "A horse! a horse! my + kingdom for a horse!" 258 + + Bernard Gilpin's Horses stolen and recovered 260 + + The Herald and George III.'s Horse 261 + + Rev. Rowland Hill and his Horse 261 + + Holcroft on the Horse 263 + + Lord Mansfield, his Joke about a Horse 267 + + Sir John Moore and his Horse at Corunna 268 + + Neither Horses nor Children can explain their Complaints 269 + + Horses with Names 270 + + Rennie the Engineer and the Horse Old Jack 270 + + Sydney Smith and his Horses 271 + + Sydney Smith.--He drugs his Domestic Animals 273 + + Horseback, an Absent Clergyman 273 + + Judge Story and the Names he gave his Horses 274 + + Short-tailed and Long-tailed Horses at Livery, difference + of Charge 275 + + ASS AND ZEBRA 276 + + Coleridge on the Ass 276 + + Collins and the old Donkey at Odell 276 + + Gainsborough kept one to Study from 277 + + Irishman on the Ramsgate Donkeys 278 + + Douglas Jerrold and the Ass's Foal 278 + + The Judge and the Barrister 279 + + Ass that loved Poetry 279 + + Warren Hastings and the refractory Donkey 279 + + Northcote, an Angel at an Ass 281 + + Sydney Smith's Donkey with Jeffrey on his back 281 + + Sydney Smith on the Sagacity of the Ass 283 + + Sydney Smith's Deers, how he introduced them into + his Grounds to gratify Visitors 284 + + Asses' Duty Free 284 + + Thackeray on Egyptian Donkey 285 + + Zebra, a Frenchman's _double-entendre_ 287 + + CAMELS 287 + + Captain William Peel, R.N., on Camel 287 + + Captain in Royal Navy measures the progress of the + Ship of the Desert 289 + + Lord Metcalfe on a Camel when a Boy 290 + + RED DEER 291 + + Earl of Dalhousie and the ferocious Stag 291 + + The French Count and the Stag 293 + + FALLOW DEER 294 + + Venison Fat, Reynolds and the Gourmand 294 + + Goethe on Stag-trench at Frankfort-on-Maine 294 + + GIRAFFE 295 + + "Fancy Two Yards of Sore Throat!" 295 + + SHEEP AND GOAT 295 + + How many Legs has a Sheep? 296 + + Goethe on Roos's Etchings of Sheep 296 + + Lord Cockburn and the Sheep 298 + + Erskine's Sheep--an Eye to the Woolsack 298 + + Sandy Wood and his Pet Sheep and Raven 298 + + General Carnac and She-goat 299 + + John Hunter and the Shawl-goat 300 + + Commodore Keppel _beards_ the Dey of Algiers 303 + + OX 304 + + Irish Bulls 304 + + A great Calf! "The more he sucked the greater Calf he + grew!" 304 + + Veal _ad nauseam!_ too much of a good thing 304 + + James Boswell should confine himself to the Cow 305 + + Rev. Adam Clarke and his Bullock Pat 305 + + Samuel Foote and the Cows pulling the Bell of Worcester + College 306 + + The General's Cow at Plymouth 308 + + Gilpin's Love of the Picturesque carried out--a reason + for keeping three Cows 308 + + King James on a Cow getting over the Border 309 + + Duke of Montague and his Hospital for Old Cows and + Horses 309 + + Philip IV. of Spain in the Bull-ring 310 + + Sydney Smith and his "Universal Scratcher" 311 + + Rev. Augustus Toplady on the Future State of Animals--the + Rev. William Bull 312 + + Windham on the Feelings of a Baited Bull 313 + + WHALE 315 + + A Porpoise not at Home 315 + + Whalebone 315 + + "What's to become o' the puir Whales?" 316 + + Very like a Whale! 316 + + Christopher North on the Whale 316 + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] There are many anecdotes in this book not included in this list, +which gives however, the principal. + + + + +HEADS AND TALES. + + + + +MAN. + + +In this collection, like Linnæus, we begin with man as undoubtedly an +animal, as opposed to a vegetable or mineral. Like Professor Owen, we +are inclined to fancy he is well entitled to separate rank from even the +Linnæan order, _Primates_, and to have more systematic honour conferred +on him than what Cuvier allowed him. That great French naturalist placed +man in a section separate from his four-handed order, _Quadrumana_, and, +from his two hands and some other qualities, enrolled our race in an +order, _Bimana_. Surely the ancients surpassed many modern naturalists +of the Lamarckian school, who would derive him from an ourang, a +chimpanzee, or a gorilla. One of them has nobly said-- + + "Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque tueri." + +Our own Sir William Hamilton, in a few powerful words has condensed what +will ever be, we are thankful to suppose, the general idea of most men, +be they naturalists or not, that mind and soul have much to distinguish +us from every other animal:-- + +"What man holds of matter does not make up his personality. Man is not +an organism. He is an intelligence served by organs. _They are_ HIS, +_not_ HE." + +As a mere specimen, we subjoin two or three anecdotes, although the +species, _Homo sapiens_, has supplied, and might supply, many volumes of +anecdotes touching on his whims and peculiarities. As a good example of +the Scottish variety, who is there that does not know Dean Ramsay's +"Reminiscences?" Surely each nation requires a similar judicious +selection. Mr Punch, especially when aided by his late admirable artist, +John Leech, shows seemingly that John Bull and his family are as +distinct from the French, as the French are from the Yankees. + + +THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH THE ARTIST, AND THE TAILOR. + +Gainsborough, the painter, was very ready-witted. His biographer[2] +records the following anecdote of him as very likely to be authentic. +The great artist occasionally made sketches from an honest old tailor, +of the name of Fowler, who had a picturesque countenance and silver-gray +locks. On the chimney-piece of his painting-room, among other +curiosities, was a beautiful preparation of an infant _cranium_, +presented to the painter by his old friend, Surgeon Cruickshanks. +Fowler, without moving his position, continually peered at it askance +with inquisitive eye. "Ah! Master Fowler," said the painter, "that is a +mighty curiosity." "What might it be, sir, if I may be so bold?" "A +_whale's eye_," replied Gainsborough. "Oh! not so; never say so, Muster +Gainsborough. Laws! sir, it is a little child's skull!" "You have hit +upon it," said the wag. "Why, Fowler, you are a witch! But what will you +think when I tell you that it is the skull of _Julius Cæsar_ when he was +a little boy?" "Do you say so!" exclaimed Fowler, "what a phenomenon!" + +This reminds us of a similar story told of a countryman, who was shown +the so-called skull of Oliver Cromwell at the museum in Oxford, and +expressed his delight by saying how gratifying it was to see skulls of +great men at different ages, for he had just seen at Bath the skull of +the Protector when a youth! + + +SIR DAVID WILKIE AND THE BABY. + +A very popular novelist and author of the present day tells the +following anecdote of the simplicity of Sir David Wilkie, with regard to +his knowledge of _infant_ human nature:-- + +On the birth of his first son, at the beginning of 1824, William +Collins,[3] the great artist, requested Sir David Wilkie to become one +of the sponsors for his child.[4] The painter's first criticism on his +future godson is worth recording from its simplicity. Sir David, whose +studies of human nature extended to everything but _infant_ human +nature, had evidently been refreshing his faculties for the occasion, by +taxing his boyish recollections of puppies and kittens; for, after +looking intently into the child's eyes as it was held up for his +inspection, he exclaimed to the father, with serious astonishment and +satisfaction, "He _sees_!" + + +MAN DEFINED SOMEWHAT IN THE LINNÆAN MANNER. + +One who is partial to the Linnæan mode of characterising objects of +natural history has amused himself with drawing up the following +definition of man:--"_Simia sine cauda; pedibus posticis ambulans; +gregarius, omnivorus, inquietus, mendax, furax, rapax, salax, pugnax, +artium variarum capax, animalium reliquorum hostis, sui ipsius inimicus +acerrimus._" + +Montgomery translated the description thus:-- + + "Man is an animal unfledged, + A monkey with his tail abridged; + A thing that walks on spindle legs, + With bones as brittle, sir, as eggs; + His body, flexible and limber, + And headed with a knob of timber; + A being frantic and unquiet, + And very fond of beef and riot; + Rapacious, lustful, rough, and martial, + To lies and lying scoundrels partial! + By nature form'd with splendid parts + To rise in science--shine in arts; + Yet so confounded cross and vicious, + A mortal foe to all his species! + His own best _friend_, and you must know, + His own worst _enemy_ by being so!"[5] + + +ADDISON AND STEELE ON SOME OF THE PECULIARITIES OF THE NATURAL HISTORY +COLLECTORS OF THE DAY. + +In one of the early volumes of _Chambers's Edinburgh Journal_, there was +a very curious paper entitled "Nat Phin." Although considerably +exaggerated, no one who had the happiness of knowing the learned, +amiable, and excellent Dr Patrick Neill, could fail to recognise, in the +transposed title, an amusing description of his love of natural history +pets, zoological and botanical. The fun of the paper is that "Nat" gets +married, and, coming home one day from his office, finds that his young +wife has caused the gardener to clear out his ponds of tadpoles and +zoophytes. + +Addison or Sir Richard Steele, or both of them, in the following paper +of the _Tatler_ (No. 221, Sept. 7, 1710), has given one of those quietly +satiric pictures of many a well-known man of the day, some Petiver or +Hans Sloane. The widow Gimcrack's letter is peculiarly racy. Although +old books, the _Tatler_ and _Spectator_ still furnish rare material to +many a popular magazine writer of the day, who sometimes does little +more than dilute a paper in these and other rare repertories of the +style and wit of a golden age. We meditated offering various extracts +from Swift and Daniel Defoe; but our space limits us to one, and the +following may for the present suffice. + + "_From my own Apartment, September 6._ + +"As I was this morning going out of my house, a little boy in a black +coat delivered me the following letter. Upon asking who he was, he told +me that he belonged to my Lady Gimcrack. I did not at first recollect +the name, but, upon inquiry, I found it to be the widow of Sir Nicholas, +whose legacy I lately gave some account of to the world. The letter ran +thus:-- + +"'MR BICKERSTAFF,--I hope you will not be surprised to receive a letter +from the widow Gimcrack. You know, sir, that I have lately lost a very +whimsical husband, who, I find, by one of your last week's papers, was +not altogether a stranger to you. When I married this gentleman, he had +a very handsome estate; but, upon buying a set of microscopes, he was +chosen a _Fellow of the Royal Society; from which time I do not remember +ever to have heard him speak as other people did_, or talk in a manner +that any of his family could understand him. He used, however, to pass +away his time very innocently in conversation with several members of +that learned body: for which reason I never advised him against their +company for several years, until at last I found his brain quite turned +with their discourses. The first symptoms which he discovered of his +being a _virtuoso_, as you call him, poor man! was about fifteen years +ago; when he gave me positive orders to turn off an old weeding woman, +that had been employed in the family for some years. He told me, at the +same time, that there was no such thing in nature as a weed, and that it +was his design to let his garden produce what it pleased; so that, you +may be sure, it makes a very pleasant show as it now lies. About the +same time he took a humour to ramble up and down the country, and would +often bring home with him his pockets full of moss and pebbles. This, +you may be sure, gave me a heavy heart; though, at the same time, I must +needs say, he had the character of a very honest man, notwithstanding +he was reckoned a little weak, until he began to sell his estate, and +buy those strange baubles that you have taken notice of. Upon +midsummerday last, as he was walking with me in the fields, he saw a +very odd-coloured butterfly just before us. I observed that he +immediately changed colour, like a man that is surprised with a piece of +good luck; and telling me that it was what he had looked for above these +twelve years, he threw off his coat, and followed it. I lost sight of +them both in less than a quarter of an hour; but my husband continued +the chase over hedge and ditch until about sunset; at which time, as I +was afterwards told, he caught the butterfly as she rested herself upon +a cabbage, near five miles from the place where he first put her up. He +was here lifted from the ground by some passengers in a very fainting +condition, and brought home to me about midnight. His violent exercise +threw him into a fever, which grew upon him by degrees, and at last +carried him off. In one of the intervals of his distemper he called to +me, and, after having excused himself for running out his estate, he +told me that he had always been more industrious to improve his mind +than his fortune, and that his family must rather value themselves upon +his memory as he was a wise man than a rich one. He then told me that it +was a custom among the Romans for a man to give his slaves their liberty +when he lay upon his death-bed. I could not imagine what this meant, +until, after having a little composed himself, he ordered me to bring +him a flea which he had kept for several months in a chain, with a +design, as he said, to give it its manumission. This was done +accordingly. He then made the will, which I have since seen printed in +your works word for word. Only I must take notice that you have omitted +the codicil, in which he left a large _concha veneris_, as it is there +called, to a _Member of the Royal Society_, who was often with him in +his sickness, and _assisted him in his will_. And now, sir, I come to +the chief business of my letter, which is to desire your friendship and +assistance in the disposal of those many rarities and curiosities which +lie upon my hands. If you know any one that has an occasion for a parcel +of dried spiders, I will sell them a pennyworth. I could likewise let +any one have a bargain of cockle-shells. I would also desire your advice +whether I had best sell my beetles in a lump or by retail. The gentleman +above mentioned, who was my husband's friend, would have me make an +auction of all his goods, and is now drawing up a catalogue of every +particular for that purpose, with the two following words in great +letters over the head of them, Auctio Gimcrackiana. But, upon talking +with him, I begin to suspect he is as mad as poor Sir Nicholas was. Your +advice in all these particulars will be a great piece of charity to, +Sir, your most humble servant, + + "'ELIZABETH GIMCRACK.' + +"I shall answer the foregoing letter, and give the widow my best advice, +as soon as I can find out chapmen for the wares which she has to put +off." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] Life of Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. By the late George Williams +Fulcher. Edited by his Son. P. 157. + +[3] Memoir of the Life of William Collins, R.A. By W. Wilkie Collins. +I., p. 235. + +[4] The future author of "The Woman in White" and "The Dead Secret," and +many other works of celebrity. + +[5] Memoirs of James Montgomery. By Holland and Everett. I., p. 283. + + + + +MONKEYS. + +THE GORILLA AND ITS STORY. + + +In the British Museum, in handsome glass cases, and on the floors of the +three first rooms at the top of the stairs, may be seen the largest +collection of the skins and skeletons of quadrupeds ever brought +together. In the third, or principal room, will be found a nearly +complete series of the QUADRUMANA or four-handed Mammalia. Monkeys are +_quadrumanous mammalia_. The resemblance of these animals to men is most +conspicuous, in the largest of them, such as the gorilla, orang-utan, +chimpanzee, and the long-armed or gibbous apes. Such resemblance is most +distant in the ferocious dog-faced baboons of Africa, the _Cynocephali_ +of the ancients. It is softened off, but not effaced, in the pretty +little countenances of those dwarf pets from South America, the +ouistities or marmosets, and other species of new-world monkeys, some of +which are not larger than a squirrel. + +They are well called MONKEYS, Monnikies, Mannikies--little men, "_Simiæ +quasi bestiæ hominibus similes_," "monkeys, as if beasts resembling +man," or "mon," as the word man is pronounced in pure _Doric_ Saxon, +whether in York or Peebles. + +"Monkey! you very degraded little brute, how much you resemble us!" said +old Ennius, without ever fancying that the day would come when some men +would regard their own race as little better than highly-advanced +monkeys. + +Let us never for a moment rest in such fallacious theories, or accept +the belief of Darwin and Huxley, with a few active agitating disciples, +that animals, and even plants, may pass into each other. + + "I think we are not wholly brain, + Magnetic mockeries; ... + Not only cunning casts in clay; + Let science prove we are, and then + What matters science unto men, + At least to me! I would not stay: + Let him, the wiser man who springs + Hereafter, up from childhood shape + His action, like the greater ape, + But I was born to other things." + + --_In Memoriam_, cxix. + +Darwin and Huxley cannot change nature. They may change their minds and +opinions, as their fathers did before them. It is, we suspect, only the +old heathen materialism cropping out,-- + + "Our little systems have their day-- + They have their day and cease to be. + They are but broken lights of Thee, + And Thou, O Lord! art more than they." + + --_In Memoriam._ + +No artists or authors have ever pictured or described monkeys like Sir +Edwin Landseer and his brother Thomas. Surely a new edition of the +_Monkeyana_ is wanted for the rising generation. Oliver Goldsmith, that +great writer, who was most feeble in knowledge of natural history from +almost total ignorance of the subject, over which he threw the graces of +his charming style, noticed, as remarkable, that in countries "where the +men are barbarous and stupid, the brutes are the most active and +sagacious." He continues, that it is in the torrid tracts, inhabited by +barbarians, that animals are found with instinct so nearly approaching +reason. Both in Africa and America, accordingly, he tells us, "the +savages suppose monkeys to be men; idle, slothful, rational beings, +capable of speech and conversation, but obstinately dumb, for fear of +being compelled to labour." + +For the present, I shall suppose that the gorilla, largest of all the +apes, can not only speak, but write; and is speaking and writing to an +orang-utan of Borneo. Even a Lamarckian will allow this to be within the +range of possibility. Were it possible to get Gay or Cowper to write a +new set of fables, animals, in the days of postoffices and letters, +would become, like the age, epistolary. But a word on the imaginary +correspondent. + +The orang, as the reader knows, is the great red-haired "Man of the +Woods," as the name may be rendered in English. My old friend, Mr Alfred +Wallace, lately in New Guinea, and the adjoining parts, collecting +natural history subjects, and making all kinds of valuable observations +and surveys, sent to Europe most of the magnificent specimens of this +"ugly beast" now in the museum. He has detailed its habits and history +in an able account, published some years ago in "The Annals and Magazine +of Natural History." + +Its home seems to be the fine forests which cover many parts of the +coast of Borneo. The home of the gorilla and chimpanzee are in the +tropical forests of the coasts of Western Africa. + +There would seem to be but three or four well established _species_ of +these apes, though there are, as in man and most created beings, some +marked or decided varieties. These apes are altogether _quadrupeds_, +adapted for a life among trees. The late Charles Waterton, of Walton +Hall, whom I deem it an honour to have known for many years, personally +and in his writings, has well shown this in his "Essays on Natural +History." Professor Owen, with his osteologies, and old Tyson, with his +anatomies, have each demonstrated that--draw what inferences the +followers of Mr Darwin may choose--monkeys are not men, but quadrupeds. + +The structure of chimpanzee, orang, and gorilla considerably resembles +that of man, but so more distantly does a frog's, so does Scheuchzer's +fossil amphibian in the museum, so does a squirrel's, so does a +parrot's. Yet, because parrots, squirrels, frogs, and asses have skulls, +a pelvis, and fore-arms, they are _not_ men any more than fish are. +Linnæus has given the _real_ specific, the _real_ class, order, and +generic character of man, unique as a species, as a genus, as an order, +or as a class, as even the greatest comparative anatomist of England +regards him; "Nosce teipsum:" "[Greek: Gnôthi seauton]"--KNOW THYSELF. +Man alone expects a hereafter. He is immortal, and anticipates, hopes +for, or dreads a resurrection. Melancholy it is that he alone, as an +American writer curiously remarks, collects bodies of men of _one_ blood +to fight with each other. He alone can become a _drunkard_. + +The reader must leave rhapsody, and may now be reminded, in explanation +of allusions in the following letter, that the arm of Dr Livingstone, +the African traveller, was crushed and crunched by the bite and "chaw" +of a lion. He will also please to notice, that the skeleton of the +gorilla in the museum has the left arm broken by some dreadful accident. +This injury may _possibly_ have been caused by a fall when young, or +more probably by the empoisoned bite of a larger gorilla, or of a +tree-climbing Leopard. So much may be premised before giving a letter, +supposed to be intercepted on its way between the Gaboon and London, and +London and Borneo, opened at St Martin's-le-Grand, and detained as +unpaid. + +"I was born in a large baobab tree, on the west coast of Africa, not +very far from Calabar. We gorillas are good time-keepers, rise early and +go to bed early, guided infallibly by the sun. But though our family has +been in existence at least six thousand years, we have no chronology, +and care not a straw about our grandfathers. I suppose I had a +grandmother, but I never took _any_ interest in any but very close +relationships. + +"We never toiled for our daily food, and are not idle like these lazy +black fellows who hold their palavers near us, and whom I, for my part, +heartily despise. They cannot climb a tree, as we do, although they can +talk to each other, and make one another slaves. At least they so treat +their countrymen far off where the fine sweet plantains grow, and some +other juicy tit-bits, the memory of which makes my mouth water. These +fellows have ugly wives, not nearly so big-mouthed as ours, without our +noble bony ridge, small ears, and exalted presence. They are actually +forced to walk erect, and their fore-legs seldom touch the ground, +except in the case of piccanninies. These little creatures crawl on the +ground, are much paler when born, and are then perfectly helpless; and +have no hair except on their heads, whereas our beautiful young are +fine and hairy, and can swing among the branches, shortly after birth, +nearly as well as their parents. When I was very young, I could soon +help myself to fruits which abound on our trees. + +"Have you dates, plantains, and soursops--so sweet--at Sarawak, Master +Redhair? We have, and all kinds of them. I should like, for a variety, +to taste yours. Mind you send me some of the _durian_.[6] Make haste and +send it, for Wallace's description makes my mouth water. + +"I have told you our little ones soon learn to help themselves, whereas +I have seen the piccaninnies of the blacks nursed by their mothers till +many rainy seasons had come and gone. I really think nothing of the +talking blacks who live near us. They put on bits of coloured rags, not +nearly so bright, so regular, nor so _contrasting_ as the feathers of +our birds. + +"Beautifully coloured are the green touraco and the purple +plantain-eater, a rascally bird! who eats some of our finest plantains, +and has bitten holes in many a one I thought to get entirely to myself. +Why, our parrots beat these West-African negroes to sticks! Even our +common gray parrot, so prettily scaled with gray, and with the red +feathers under his tail, is more natural than these blacks, with their +dirty-white, yellow, blue, green, and red rags. + +"Besides, that gray parrot beats them hollow both in its voice and in +the way it imitates. Do you know that when I have been giving my quick +short bark, to tell that I am not well pleased, I have heard one of +these fellows near me actually make me startle--its bark was so like to +that of one of our kind! I cannot bear the blacks! I have had a grudge +against them since some little urchins shot at me when I was young, and +made my hand bleed. How it bled! My mother, with whom I had been, kept +out of the way of these blackguards, but I was playing with another +little gorilla, and forgot to keep a look-out. I have kept a good +look-out ever since I got _that_ wound, I assure you. I licked it often, +and so did my mother with her delicious mouth. It soon left off bleeding +and healed. We gorillas have no brandy, no whisky, no wine, not even +small beer, to inflame our blood. We sleep, too, among the trees, clear +off the ground, where there are dangerous vapours, so that we are free +from all miasmata. West Africa is my lovely home, and I am big and +beautifully pot-bellied. It is the home of the large-eared chimpanzee, a +near relative of ours, though we never marry. He is an active fellow, +with rather large vulgar-looking ears; while mine, though I ought not to +say so, are beautifully small, and denote my more exalted birth. Master +Chimpanzee needs all his ears, for he is not so strong as I, and as you +will hear, we anthropoids have enemies in our trees, just as you perhaps +have, Master Redhair. We are both cautious of getting on the ground, and +when there, I assure you I keep a sharp look-out. + +"I have told you of one adventure I had in my youth, and now listen to +another which I have not forgotten to this day. My left arm aches now as +I think of it. + +"As I was one day gambolling with another playfellow in a large tree, +with great branches standing out from the trunk, and at a good height +from the ground, my companion, another young gorilla, but with smaller +mouth, larger nose, and other features uglier than mine, suddenly +shrieked, and looked frightened and angry. No sooner had I noticed him +than my whole frame was shaken. I was seized by two paws in the small of +my back--a very painful part to be dug into--by ten hooked claws, nearly +as long as tenpenny nails, but horribly sharp and hooked.--Oh my arm! + +"I tried to turn round, and there was a most ferocious leopard growling +at me. I tried to bite, and to scratch his eyes out, but the pain in the +small of my back made me quite giddy. The spotted scoundrel seized my +left arm--how it aches!--and gave me a _crunch_ or two. I hear, I feel +the teeth against my bones as I write. My whole body is full of pain. + +"My mother came and released me. She was large, handsome, and +well-to-do, with _such_ long and strong arms, and with a magnificent +bulging and pouting mouth. In those days of my infancy I used to fancy I +should like to try to take as large a bite of a plantain as she could. I +tried twice or thrice, but could only squash a tenth of the juice of the +fruit into my mouth. She had glorious white teeth. Her grin clearly +frightened the leopard, as well as a pinch she gave him in the 'scruff' +of the neck with one of her hands, while with the other she caught hold +of his tail and made him yell. How he roared! He fell off the branch on +to another; but soon, like all the cats, recovered his hold and jumped +down to the ground, when he skulked away with his tail behind him. + +"I must really leave off, warned both by my paper and your impatience. +Well, I grew stronger and bigger every day, and swung by one arm almost +as well as the rest did with their two. I got, in fact, so strong on my +hind feet, that my toes were actually in time thicker than those of any +of my race. It is well, my dear Orang, to use what you have left you, +and to try as soon as possible to forget what has been taken from you. + +"... Look at my portrait, I am as strong, and as bony, and as bonnie, as +any gorilla. But I begin to boast, so I will leave off." + + * * * * * + +No doubt that gorilla's injured arm affected its habits and its activity +every day of its life. The broken arm, never set by some gorilla surgeon +of celebrity, formed a highly important feature in its biography. +Reader! when next thou visitest the noble Museum in Bloomsbury, look at +the skeleton of that gorilla, whose probable story Arachnophilus hath +tried to give thee, and remember that both skin and skeleton were +exhibited there before Du Chaillu became "a lion." + +The gorilla is a native of West Africa. It is closely allied to the +chimpanzee, but grows to a larger size, and has many striking anatomical +characters and external marks to distinguish it. It is certainly much +dreaded by the natives on the banks of the Gaboon, and, doubtless, +dreads them equally. Dr Gray procured a large specimen in a tub from +that district. It was skinned and set up by Mr Bartlett. I have seen +photographs in the hands of my excellent old friend--that admirable +natural history and anatomical draughtsman--Mr George Ford of Hatton +Garden. These photographs were taken from its truly ugly face as it was +pulled out of the stinking brine. Life in death, or death in life, it +was most repulsive. + +Professor Owen read a most elaborate paper on the gorilla before the +Zoological Society. The great comparative anatomist and zoologist shows +that it _may_ have been the very species whose skins were brought by +Hanno to Carthage, in times before the Christian era, as the skins of +_hairy wild men_. The historian refers to them as "gorullai" ([Greek: +Gôryllai].) + +The natives of West Africa name it "N'Geena." + + * * * * * + +The stuffed specimen at the Museum is a young male. Its preparation does +great credit to Mr Bartlett's care and knowledge, for the hair over +nearly all the body was in patches among the spirit--thoroughly +corrupted in its alcoholic strength by animal matter. The peculiarly +anthropoid and morbidly-disagreeable look that even the face of the +young gorilla had was, of course, perfect in the photograph. In the +_Leisure Hour_, a tolerably good cut of it was given, but the artist did +not copy the label accurately, for on the photograph from which that cut +was derived, _another name_ was rendered by _that_ sun, who pays no +compliments and tells no lies. Professor Owen, the greatest of +comparative anatomists, has made the subject of anthropoid apes his own, +by the perfection of his researches, continued and continuous. He would +have liked, at least I may venture, I believe, to say so (if the matter +gave him more than a moment's thought), that the name of Dr Gray had +been on that label. + + +_Letter from C. Waterton, Esq., mentioning a young gorilla._ + + WALTON HALL, _Feb_. 4, 1856. + +"DEAR SIR,--As your favour of the 28th did not seem to require an +immediate answer I put it aside for a while, having a multiplicity of +business then on hand, and being obliged to be from home for a couple of +days. + +"I beg to enclose you the letter to which you allude. + +"Pray do not suppose that for one single moment I should be illiberal +enough to undervalue a 'closet naturalist.' 'Non cuivis homini contingit +adire corinthum.' It does not fall to every one's lot to range through +the forests of Guiana, still, a gentleman given to natural history may +do wonders for it in his own apartments on his native soil; and had +Audubon, Swainson, Jameson, &c., not attacked me in all the pride of +pompous self-conceit, I should have been the last man in the world to +expose their gross ignorance. + +"You ask me 'If we are to have another volume of essays?' I beg to +answer, no. Last year, Mrs Loudon (to whom I made a present of the +essays) wrote to me, and asked for a few papers to be inserted in a +forthcoming edition. I answered, that as I had had some strange and +awful adventures since the 'Autobiography' made its appearance, I would +tack them on to it. But from that time to this, I have never had a line, +either from Mrs Loudon or from her publishers. But some months ago, +having made a present of a superb case of preserved specimens in natural +history to the Jesuits' College in Lancashire, I gave directions to my +stationer at Wakefield to procure me from London the fourth or last +edition of the essays; and I made references to it accordingly. But, lo +and behold, when I had opened this supposed fourth edition, I saw +printed on the title page 'a new edition.' Better had they printed a +_fifth edition_. This threw all my references wrong. Should you be +passing by Messrs Longman, perhaps you will have the goodness to ask +when this 'new edition' was printed. + +"I am sorry you did not show me your drawing of the chimpanzee before it +was engraved. The artist has not done justice to it. He has made the +ears far too large.[7] The little brown chimpanzee has very small ears; +fully as small in proportion as those of a genuine negro. I am half +inclined to give to the world a little treatise on the monkey tribe. I +am prepared to show that Linnæus, Buffon, and all our hosts of +naturalists who have copied the remarks of these celebrated naturalists, +are perfectly in the dark with regard to the true character of _all_ the +monkey tribe. Yesterday, I sent up to the _Gardener's Chronicle_ a few +notes on the woodpecker.--Believe me, dear sir, very truly yours, + + CHARLES WATERTON. + +"P.S.--Many thanks for your nice little treatise on the chimpanzee." + +Mr Waterton enclosed me a copy of the following letter, which he +published in a Yorkshire newspaper:-- + + _To Mrs Wombwell._ + +"MADAM,--I am truly sorry that the inclemency of the weather has +prevented the inhabitants of this renowned watering-place from visiting +your wonderful gorilla, or brown orang-outang. + +"I have passed two hours in its company, and I have been gratified +beyond expression. + +"Would that all lovers of natural history could get a sight of it, as, +possibly, they may never see another of the same species in this +country. + +"It differs widely in one respect from all other orang-outangs which +have been exhibited in England--namely, that, when on the ground, it +never walks on the soles of its fore-feet, but on the knuckles of the +toes of those feet; and those toes are doubled up like the closed fist +of a man. This must be a painful position; and, to relieve itself, the +animal catches hold of visitors, and clings caressingly to Miss Bright, +who exhibits it. Here then, it is at rest, with the toes of the +fore-feet performing their natural functions, which they never do when +the animal is on the ground. + +"Hence I draw the conclusion that this singular quadruped, like the +sloth, is not a walker on the ground of its own free-will, but by +accident only. + +"No doubt whatever it is born, and lives, and dies aloft, amongst the +trees in the forests of Africa. + +"Put it on a tree, and then it will immediately have the full use of the +toes of its fore-feet. Place it on the ground, and then you will see +that the toes of the fore-feet become useless, as I have already +described. + +"That it may retain its health, and thus remunerate you for the large +sum which you have expended in the purchase of it, is, madam, the +sincere hope of your obedient servant and well-wisher, + + CHARLES WATERTON." + +Scarborough Cliff, No. 1, _Nov. 1, 1855_. + +"_P.S._--You are quite at liberty to make what use you choose of this +letter. I have written it for your own benefit, and for the good of +natural history."[8] + + +MR MITCHELL ON A YOUNG CHIMPANZEE. + +The writer of a most readable article on the acclimatisation of animals +in the _Edinburgh Review_,[9] gives an amusing recital of the arrival of +a chimpanzee at the Zoological Gardens. It was related to him by the +late Mr Mitchell, who was long the active secretary of the society, and +who did much to improve the Gardens. "One damp November evening, just +before dusk, there arrived a French traveller from Senegal, with a +companion closely muffled up in a burnoose at his side. On going, at his +earnest request, to speak to him at the gate, he communicated to me the +interesting fact that the stranger in the burnoose was a young chim, who +had resided in his family in Senegal for some twelve months, and who had +accompanied him to England. The animal was in perfect health; but from +the state of the atmosphere required good lodging, and more tender care +than could be found in a hotel. He proposed to sell his friend. I was +hard; did not like pulmonic property[10] at that period of the year, +having already two of the race in moderate health, but could not refrain +from an offer of hospitality during Chim's residence in London. Chim was +to go to Paris if I did not buy him. So we carried him, burnoose and +all, into the house where the lady chims were, and liberated him in the +doorway. They had taken tea, and were beginning to think of their early +couch. When the Senegal Adonis caught sight of them, he assumed a jaunty +air and advanced with politeness, as if to offer them the last news from +Africa. A yell of surprise burst from each chimpanzella as they +successively recognised the unexpected arrival. One would have supposed +that all the Billingsgate of Chimpanzeedom rolled from the voluble +tongues of these unsophisticated and hitherto unimpressible young +ladies; but probably their gesticulations, their shrill exclamations, +their shrinkings, their threats, were but well-mannered expressions of +welcome to a countryman thus abruptly revealed in the foreign land of +their captivity. Sir Chim advanced undaunted, and with the composure of +a high-caste pongo; if he had had a hat he would have doffed it +incontinently, as it was, he only slid out of his burnoose and ascended +into the apartment which adjoined his countrywomen with agile grace, and +then, through the transparent separation, he took a closer view. Juliana +yelled afresh. Paquita crossed her hands, and sat silently with face +about three quarters averted. Sir Chim uttered what may have been a +tranquillising phrase, expressive of the great happiness he felt on thus +being suddenly restored to the presence of kinswomen in the moment of +his deepest bereavement. Juliana calmed. Paquita diminished her angle of +aversion, and then Sir Chim, advancing quite close to the division, +began what appeared to be a recollection of a minuet. He executed +marvellous gestures with a precision and aplomb which were quite +enchanting, and when at last he broke out into a quick movement with +loud smacking stamps, the ladies were completely carried away, and gave +him all attention. Friendship was established, refreshments were served, +notwithstanding the previous tea, and everybody was apparently +satisfied, especially the stranger. Upon asking the Senegal proprietor +what the dance meant, he told me that the animal had voluntarily taken +to that imitation of his slaves, who used to dance every evening in the +courtyard." + +So far Mr Mitchell's narrative; the reviewer relates how a chimpanzee, +placed for a short time in the society of the children of his owner in +this country, not only throve in an extraordinary manner, was perfectly +docile and good-tempered, but learnt to imitate them. When the eldest +little boy wished to tease his playfellow, he used, childlike, to make +faces at him. Chim soon outdid him, and one of the funniest things +imaginable was to see him blown at and blowing in return; his +protrusible lips converted themselves into a trumpet-shaped instrument, +which reminded one immediately of some of the devils of Albert Dürer, or +those incredible forms which the old painters used to delight in piling +together in their temptations of Saint Anthony. + + +LADY ANNE BARNARD PLEADS FOR THE BABOONS. + +Lady Anne Barnard, whose name as the writer of "Auld Robin Gray" is +familiar to every one who knows that most pathetic ballad, spent five +years with her husband at the Cape (1797-1802). Her journal letters to +her sisters are most amusing, and full of interesting observations.[11] +After describing "Musquito-hunting" with her husband, she writes:--"In +return, I endeavoured to effect a treaty of peace for the baboons, who +are apt to come down from the mountain in little troops to pillage our +garden of the fruit with which the trees are loaded. I told him he would +be worse than Don Carlos if he refused the children of the sun and the +soil the use of what had descended from ouran-outang to ouran-outang; +but, alas! I could not succeed. He had pledged himself to the +gardener,[12] to the slaves, and all the dogs, not to baulk them of +their sport; so he shot a superb man-of-the-mountain one morning, who +was marauding, and electrified himself the same moment, so shocked was +he at the groan given by the poor creature as he limped off the ground. +I do not think I shall hear of another falling a sacrifice to Barnard's +gun; they come too near the human race" (p. 408). + +In another letter she says (p. 391), "The best way to get rid of them is +to catch one, whip him, and turn him loose; he skips off chattering to +his comrades, and is extremely angry, but none of them return the season +this is done. I have given orders, however, that there may be no +whipping." + + +S. BISSET AND HIS TRAINED MONKEYS. + +We have elsewhere referred to S. Bisset as a trainer of animals. Among +the earliest of his trials, this Scotchman took two monkeys as pupils. +One of these he taught to dance and tumble on the rope, whilst the other +held a candle with one paw for his companion, and with the other played +a barrel organ. These animals he also instructed to play several +fanciful tricks, such as drinking to the company, riding and tumbling +upon a horse's back, and going through several regular dances with a +dog. The horse and dog referred to, were the first animals on which this +ingenious person tried his skill. Although Bisset lived in the last +century, few persons seem to have surpassed him in his power of teaching +the lower animals. We have seen a man in Charlotte Square, in 1865, make +a new-world monkey go through a series of tricks, ringing a bell, firing +a pea-gun, and such like. Poor Jacko was to be pitied. His want of heart +in his labours was very evident. Poor fellow, no time for reflection was +allowed him. Like some of the masters in the Old High School,--such +cruelty dates back more than thirty years,--a ferule, or a pair of tawse +kept Jacko to his work. It was play to the onlookers, but no sport to +master Cebus. Had he possessed memory and reflection, how his thoughts +must have wandered from Edinburgh to the forests of the Amazon! + + +LORD BYRON'S PETS. + +Beside horses and dogs, the poet Byron, like his own Don Juan, had a +kind of inclination, or weakness, for what most people deem mere vermin, +_live animals_. + +Captain Medwin records, in one of his conversations, that the poet +remarked that it was troublesome to travel about with so much live and +dead stock as he did, and adds--"I don't like to leave behind me any of +my pets, that have been accumulating since I came on the Continent. One +cannot trust to strangers to take care of them. You will see at the +farmer's some of my pea-fowls _en pension_. Fletcher tells me that they +are almost as bad fellow-travellers as the monkey, which I will show +you." Here he led the way to a room where he played with and caressed +the creature for some time. He afterwards bought another monkey in Pisa, +because he saw it ill-used.[13] + +Lord Byron's travelling equipage to Pisa in the autumn of 1821, +consisted, _inter cætera_, of nine horses, a monkey, a bull-dog, and a +mastiff, two cats, three pea-fowls, and some hens.[14] + + +THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD'S MONKEY. + +(_From the "Noctes Ambrosianæ," Dec. 1825._[15]) + +_Shepherd._ I wish that you but saw my monkey, Mr North. He would make +you hop the twig in a guffaw. I ha'e got a pole erected for him, o' +about some 150 feet high, on a knowe ahint Mount Benger; and the way the +cretur rins up to the knob, looking ower the shouther o' him, and +twisting his tail roun' the pole for fear o' playin' thud on the grun', +is comical past a' endurance. + +_North._ Think you, James, that he is a link? + +_Shepherd._ A link in creation? Not he, indeed. He is merely a monkey. +Only to see him on his observatory, beholding the sunrise! or weeping, +like a Laker, at the beauty o' the moon and stars! + +_North._ Is he a bit of a poet? + +_Shepherd._ Gin he could but speak and write, there can be nae manner o' +doubt that he would be a gran' poet. Safe us! what een in the head o' +him! Wee, clear, red, fiery, watery, malignant-lookin een, fu' o' +inspiration. + +_Tickler._ You should have him stuffed. + +_Shepherd._ Stuffed, man! say, rather, embalmed. But he's no likely to +dee for years to come--indeed, the cretur's engaged to be married; +although he's no in the secret himsel yet. The bawns are published. + +_Tickler._ Why really, James, marriage I think ought to be simply a +civil contract. + +_Shepherd._ A civil contract! I wuss it was. But, oh! Mr Tickler, to see +the cretur sittin wi' a pen in 's hand, and pipe in 's mouth, jotting +down a sonnet, or odd, or lyrical ballad! Sometimes I put that black +velvet cap ye gied me on his head, and ane o' the bairns's auld +big-coats on his back; and then, sure aneugh, when he takes his stroll +in the avenue, he is a heathenish Christian. + +_North._ Why, James, by this time he must be quite like one of the +family? + +_Shepherd._ He's a capital flee-fisher. I never saw a monkey throw a +lighter line in my life.... Then, for rowing a boat! + +_Tickler._ Why don't you bring him to Ambrose's? + +_Shepherd._ He's sae bashfu'. He never shines in company; and the least +thing in the world will make him blush. + + +THE FINDHORN FISHERMAN AND THE MONKEY. + +Sir Thomas Dick Lauder[16] records the adventures of a monkey in +Morayshire, whose wanderings sadly alarmed the inhabitants who saw him, +all unused as they were to the sight of such an exotic stranger. + +"We knew a large monkey, which escaped from his chain, and was abroad in +Morayshire for some eight or ten days. Wherever he appeared he spread +terror among the peasantry. A poor fisherman on the banks of the +Findhorn was sitting with his wife and family at their frugal meal, when +a hairy little man, as they in their ignorance conceived him to be, +appeared on the window sill and grinned, and chattered through the +casement what seemed to them to be the most horrible incantations. +Horror-struck, the poor people crowded together on their knees on the +floor, and began to exorcise him with prayers most vehemently, until +some external cause of alarm made their persecutor vanish. The +neighbours found the family half dead with fear, and could with +difficulty extract from them the cause. 'Oh! worthy neebours!' at last +exclaimed the goodman with a groan, 'we ha'e seen the _Enemy_ glowrin' +at us through that vera wundow there. Lord keep us a'!!' He next alarmed +a little hamlet near the hills; appearing and disappearing to various +individuals in a most mysterious manner; till at last a clown, with a +few grains of more courage than the rest, loaded his gun and put a +sixpence into it, with the intention of stealing upon him as he sat most +mysteriously chattering on the top of a cairn of stones, and then +shooting him with silver, which is known never to fail in finishing the +imps of the Evil One. And lucky indeed was it for pug that he chanced, +through whim, to abscond from that quarter; for if he had not so +disappeared, he might have died by the lead, if not by the silver. As it +was, the bold peasant laid claim to the full glory of compelling this +dreaded goblin to flee." + +Sir Thomas Lauder kept several pets in his beautiful seat at the Grange, +long occupied by the Messrs Dalgleish of Dreghorn Castle as a genteel +boarding-school, and now by the Misses Mouatt as one for young ladies. +We have often seen the tombstones to his dogs, which were buried to the +south of that mansion, in which Principal Robertson the historian died, +and where Lord Brougham, his relation, used to go when a boy at the High +School. + + +THE FRENCH MARQUIS AND HIS MONKEY. + +Dr John Moore, the father of General Moore, who fell at Corunna, in one +of the graphic sketches of a Frenchman which he gives in his work on +Italy, records a visit he paid to the Marquis de F---- at Besançon. +After many questions, he says, "Before I could make any answer, I +chanced to turn my eyes upon a person whom I had not before observed, +who sat very gravely upon a chair in a corner of the room, with a large +periwig in full dress upon his head. The marquis, seeing my surprise at +the sight of this unknown person, after a very hearty fit of laughter, +begged pardon for not having introduced me sooner to that gentleman (who +was no other than a large monkey), and then told me, he had the honour +of being attended by a physician, who had the reputation of possessing +the greatest skill, and who _certainly_ wore the largest periwigs of any +doctor in the province. That one morning, while he was writing a +prescription at his bedside, this same monkey had catched hold of his +periwig by one of the knots, and instantly made the best of his way out +at the window to the roof of a neighbouring house, from which post he +could not be dislodged, till the doctor, having lost patience, had sent +home for another wig, and never after could be prevailed on to accept of +this, which had been so much disgraced. That, _enfin_, his valet, to +whom the monkey belonged, had, ever since that adventure, obliged the +culprit by way of punishment to sit quietly, for an hour every morning, +with the periwig on his head.--Et pendant ces moments de tranquillité je +suis honoré de la société du venerable personage. Then, addressing +himself to the monkey, "Adieu, mon ami, pour aujourdhui--au plaisir de +vous revoir;" and the servant immediately carried Monsieur le Médicin +out of the room.[17] + +This is a most characteristic bit, which could scarcely have occurred +out of France, where monkeys and dogs are petted as we never saw them +petted elsewhere. These things were so when we knew Paris under +Louis-Philippe. Frenchmen, surely, have not much changed under Louis +Napoleon. + + +THE MANDRILL AND GEORGE THE FOURTH. + +One of the attractive sights of Mr Cross's menagerie, some forty years +or so ago, was a full-grown baboon, to which had been given the name of +"Happy Jerry." He was conspicuous from the finely-coloured rib-like +ridges on each side of his cheeks, the clear blue and scarlet hue of +which, on such a hideous long face and muzzle, with its small, +deeply-sunk malicious eyes, and projecting brow and cheeks, seemed +almost as if beauty and bestiality were here combined. But Jerry had a +habit which would have made Father Matthew loathe him and those who +encouraged him. He had been taught to sit in an armchair and to drink +porter out of a pot, like a thirsty brickmaker; and, as an addition to +his accomplishments, he could also smoke a pipe, like a trained pupil of +Sir Walter Raleigh. This rib-nosed baboon, or mandrill, as he is often +called, obtained great renown; and among other distinguished personages +who wished to see him was his late majesty King George the Fourth. As +that king seldom during his reign frequented places of public resort, Mr +Cross was invited to bring Jerry to Windsor or Brighton, to display the +talents of his redoubtable baboon. I have heard Mr Cross say, that the +king placed his hands on the arm of one of the ladies of the Court, at +which Jerry began to show such unmistakable signs of ferocity, that the +mild, kind menagerist was glad to get Jerry removed, or at least the +king and his courtiers to withdraw. He showed his great teeth and +grinned and growled, as a baboon in a rage is apt to do. Jerry was a +powerful beast, especially in his fore-legs or arms. When he died, Mr +Cross presented his skin to the British Museum, where it has been long +preserved. The mandrill is a native of West Africa, where he is much +dreaded by the negroes. + +In Cross's menagerie at Walworth, nearly twenty years ago, there was +generally a fine mandrill. We remember the sulky ferocity of that +restless eye. How angry the mild menagerist used to be at the ladies in +the monkey-room with their parasols! These appendages were the feelers +with which some of the softer sex used to touch Cross's monkeys, and, as +the old gentleman used to insist, helped to kill them. Parasols were +freely used to touch the boas and other snakes feeding in the same warm +room. No doubt a boa-constrictor could not live comfortably if his soft, +muscular sides got fifty pokes a day from as many sticks or parasols. +Edward Cross, mild, gentle, gentlemanly, Prince of show-keepers, used to +be very indignant at the inquisitorial desire possessed, especially by +some of the fairer sex, to try the relative hardness and softness of +serpents and monkeys, and other mammals and creatures. This story of the +mandrill may excuse this pendant of an episode. + + +THE YOUNG LADY'S PET MONKEY AND HER PARROT. + +Horace Walpole tells an anecdote of a fine young French lady, a Madame +de Choiseul. She longed for a parrot that should be a miracle of +eloquence. A parrot was soon found for her in Paris. She also became +enamoured of General Jacko, a celebrated monkey, at Astley's. But the +possessor was so exorbitant in his demand for Jacko, that the General +did not change proprietors. Another monkey was soon heard of, who had +been brought up by a cook in a kitchen, where he had learned to pluck +fowls with inimitable dexterity. This accomplished pet was bought and +presented to Madame, who accepted him. The first time she went out, the +two animals were locked up in her bed-chamber. When the lady returned, +the monkey was alone to be seen. Search, was made for Pretty Poll, and +to her horror she was found at last under bed, shivering and cowering, +and without a feather. It seems that the two pets had been presented by +rival lovers of Madame. Poll's presenter concluded that his rival had +given the monkey with that very view, challenged him; they fought, and +both were wounded: and a heroic adventure it was![18] + + +MONKEYS POOR RELATIONS. + +One of Luttrell's sayings, recorded by Sydney Smith, was,-- + +"I hate the sight of monkeys, they remind me so of poor relations." Here +follows a fine passage of Sydney Smith, which he might have written +after hearing the lectures of Professor Huxley.[19] "I confess I feel +myself so much at my ease about the superiority of mankind,--I have such +a marked and decided contempt for the understanding of every baboon I +have yet seen,--I feel so sure that the blue ape without a tail will +never rival us in poetry, painting, and music,--that I see no reason +whatever why justice may not be done to the few fragments of soul, and +tatters of understanding, which they may really possess. I have +sometimes, perhaps, felt a little uneasy at Exeter 'Change, from +contrasting the monkeys with the 'prentice boys who are teasing them; +but a few pages of Locke, or a few lines of Milton, have always restored +my tranquillity, and convinced me that the superiority of man had +nothing to fear."[20] + + +MRS COLIN MACKENZIE OBSERVES APES AT SIMLA.[21] + +The monkey she alludes to seems to be the _Semnopithecus Entellus_, a +black-faced, light-haired monkey, with long legs and tail, much +venerated by the Hindoos. + +"Mrs L. and I were very much amused, early this morning (July 5), by +watching numbers of huge apes, the size of human beings, with white hair +all round their faces, and down their backs and chests, who were +disporting themselves and feeding on the green leaves, on the sides of +the precipice close to the house. Many of them had one or two little +ones--the most amusing, indefatigable little creatures imaginable--who +were incessantly running up small trees, jumping down again, and +performing all sorts of antics, till one felt quite wearied with their +perpetual activity. When the mother wished to fly, she clutched the +little one under her arm, where, clinging round her body with all its +arms, it remained in safety, while she made leaps of from thirty to +forty feet, and ran at a most astonishing rate down the khad, catching +at any tree or twig that offered itself to any one of her four arms. +There were two old grave apes of enormous size sitting together on the +branch of a tree, and deliberately catching the fleas in each other's +shaggy coats. The patient sat perfectly still, while his brother ape +divided and thoroughly searched his beard and hair, lifted up one arm +and then the other, and turned him round as he thought fit; and then the +patient undertook to perform the same office for his friend." + + +THE AYE-AYE (_Chiromys Madagascariensis_). + +Zoologists used to know a very curious animal from Madagascar, by name, +or by an indifferent specimen preserved in the Paris Museum. Sonnerat, +the naturalist, obtained it from that great island so well known to +geographical boys in former days by its being, so they were told, the +largest island in the world. This strange quadruped was named by a word +which meant "handed-mouse," for such is the signification of _chiromys_, +or _cheiromys_, as it used to be spelled. This creature, when its +history was better known, was believed to be not far removed in the +system from the lemurs and loris. Its soft fur, long tail, large eyes, +and other features and habits connected it with these quadrumana, while +its rodent dentition seemed to refer it to the group containing our +squirrels, hares, and mice. It has been the subject of a profound memoir +by Professor Owen, our greatest comparative anatomist; and I remember, +with pleasure, the last time I saw him at the Museum he was engaged in +its dissection. I may here refer to one of the Professor's lighter +productions--a lecture at Exeter Hall on some instances of the "power of +God as manifested in His animal creation"--for a very nice notice of +this curious quadruped. In one of the French journals, there was an +excellent account given of the peculiar habits of the little nocturnal +creature. In those tropical countries the trees are tenanted by +countless varieties of created things. Their wood affords rich feeding +to the large, fat, pulpy grubs of beetles of the families _Buprestidæ_, +_Dynastidæ_, _Passalidæ_, and, above all, that glorious group the +_Longicornia_. These beetles worm their way into the wood, making often +long tunnels, feeding as they work, and leaving their _ejecta_ in the +shape of agglomerated sawdust. It is into the long holes drilled by +these beetles that the Aye-Aye searches with his long fingers, one of +which, on the fore-hand, is specially thin, slender, and skeleton-like. +It looks like the tool of some lock-picker. Our large-eyed little +friend, like the burglar, comes out at night and finds these holes on +the trees where he slept during the day. His sensitive thin ears, made +to hear every scratch, can detect the rasping of the retired grub, +feasting in apparent security below. Naturalists sometimes hear at +night, so Samouelle once told me, the grubs of moths munching the dewy +leaves. Our aye-aye is no collector, but he has eyes, ears, and fingers +too, that see, hear, and get larvæ that, when grown and changed into +beetles, are the valued prizes of entomologists. Into that tunnelled +hole he inserts his long finger, and squash it goes into a large, pulpy, +fat, sweet grub. It takes but a moment to draw it out; and if it be a +pupa near the bark, so much the better for the aye-aye, so much the +worse for the beetle or cossus. I might dilate on this subject, but +prefer referring the reader to Professor Owen's memoir, and to his +lecture.[22] The aye-aye, in every point of its structure, like every +created thing, is full of design. Its curious fingers, especially the +skeleton-like chopstick of a digit referred to, attract especial notice, +from their evident adaptation to the condition of its situation and +existence, as one of the works of an omnipotent and beneficent Creator. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] The Durian, a peculiarly favourite fruit in several of the Eastern +Islands. + +[7] Mr Wolf's drawing was taken from a chimpanzee. Mr Waterton's young +chimpanzee was in reality a small-eared gorilla. The ears of the +chimpanzee are large. + +[8] Written in 1861. Skins and skeletons of the gorilla are to be found +now in many museums. + +[9] For Jan. 1860, vol. iii., p. 177. + +[10] Monkeys are very liable to lung diseases in this climate, and all +menagerie keepers are aware of the bad effects of the winter on these +denizens of a warm climate. + +[11] See "Lives of the Lindsays," by Lord Lindsay, vol. iii., pp. +371-476. + +[12] At Paradise. She describes some plants, one, evidently a Stapelia, +is a fine large star-plant, yellow and spotted like the skin of a +leopard, over which there grows a crop of glossy brown hair, at once +handsome and horrible; it crawls flat on the ground, and its leaves are +thick and fat (p. 407). + +[13] "Conversations of Lord Byron" (p. 9). + +[14] _Loc. cit._ (p. 1). + +[15] "Works of Professor Wilson," vol. i., p. 73. + +[16] Gilpin's "Forest Scenery," edited by Sir T. D. Lauder, vol. i., p. +354. + +[17] "View of Society and Manners in Italy," vol. ii., p. 475. + +[18] Extracted from the late Mr Cunningham's complete edition; we +neglected to quote the page, and have altered and shortened the words. + +[19] "Memoirs of Rev. Sydney Smith," i., p. 377. + +[20] "Wit and Wisdom of Rev. Sydney Smith" (it is from a lecture at the +Royal Institution), p. 259. + +[21] "Life in the Mission, the Camp, and the Zenánà; or, Six Years in +India," by Mrs Colin Mackenzie, vol. ii., p. 126. + +[22] Published by James Nisbet & Co., in 1863, 1864. + + + + +BATS. + + +A highly curious, if not the strangest, order of the class are these +flying creatures called bats. It is evident from Noel Paton's fairy +pictures that he has closely studied their often fantastic faces. The +writer could commend to his attention an African bat, lately figured by +his friend Mr Murray.[23] Its enormous head, or rather muzzle, compared +with its other parts, gives it an outrageously hideous look. In the late +excellent Dr Horsfield's work on the animals of Java, there are some +engravings of bats by Mr Taylor, who acquired among engravers the title +of "Bat Taylor," so wonderfully has he rendered the exquisite pileage or +fur of these creatures. It is wonderful how numerous the researches of +naturalists, such as Mr Tomes, of Welford, near Stratford, have shown +the order _Cheiroptera_ to be in genera and species. Their profiles and +full faces, even in outline, are often most bizarre and strange. Their +interfemoral membranes, we may add, are actual "unreticulated" nets, +with which they catch and detain flies as they skim through the air. +They pick these out of this bag with their mouths, and "make no bones" +of any prey, so sharp and pointed are their pretty insectivorous teeth. +Their flying membranes, stretched on the elongated finger-bones of their +fore-legs, are wonderful adaptations of Divine wisdom, a capital subject +for the natural theologian to select. + +Our poet-laureate must be a close observer of natural history. In his +"In Memoriam," xciv., he distinctly alludes to some very curious West +African bats first described by the late amiable Edward T. Bennett, long +the much-valued secretary of the Zoological Society. These bats are +closely related to the fox bats, and form a genus which is named, from +their shoulder and breast appendages, _Epomophorus_:-- + + "Bats went round in fragrant skies, + And wheel'd or lit the filmy shapes + That haunt the dusk, with ermine capes, + And woolly breasts and beaded eyes." + +The species Mr Bennett named _E. Whitei_, after the good Rev. Gilbert +White, that well-known worthy who wrote "The Natural History of +Selborne," wherein are many notices of bats. + + +CAPTAIN COOK'S SAILOR AND HIS DESCRIPTION OF A FOX-BAT. + +It is curious, now that Australia is almost as civilised, and in parts +nearly as populous, as much of Europe, to read "Lieutenant Cook's Voyage +Round the World," in vol. iii. of Hawkesworth's quartos, detailing the +discoveries of June, July, and August 1770--that is close upon a +century ago. What progress has the world made since that period! We do +not require long periods of ages to alter, to adapt, to develop the +customs and knowledge of man. At p. 156 we get an account of a large +bat. On the 23d June 1770 Cook says:--"This day almost everybody had +seen the animal which the pigeon-shooters had brought an account of the +day before; and one of the seamen, who had been rambling in the woods, +told us, at his return, that he verily believed he had seen the devil. +We naturally inquired in what form he had appeared, and his answer was +in so singular a style that I shall set down his own words. 'He was,' +says John, 'as large as a one-gallon keg, and very like it; he had horns +and wings, yet he crept so slowly through the grass, that if I had not +been _afeared_ I might have touched him.' This formidable apparition we +afterwards discovered to have been a bat, and the bats here must be +acknowledged to have a frightful appearance, for they are nearly black, +and full as large as a partridge; they have indeed no horns, but the +fancy of a man who thought he saw the devil might easily supply that +defect." + + * * * * * + +Having seen some of the very curious fox-bats alive, and given some +condensed information about them in Dr Hamilton's series of volumes +called "Excelsior," the writer may extract the account, with some slight +additions, especially as the article is illustrated with a truly +admirable figure of a fox-bat, from a living specimen by Mr Wolf. In Sir +Emerson Tennent's "Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon," p. 14, Mr +Wolf has represented a whole colony of the "flying-foxes," as they are +called. + +[Illustration: Flying Fox. (Pteropus ruficollis.)] + + +FOX-BATS (_Pteropus_). + +In this country that bat is deemed a large one whose wings, when +measured from tip to tip, exceed twelve inches, or whose body is above +that of a small mouse in bulk. In some parts of the world, however, +there are members of this well-marked family, the wings of which, when +stretched and measured from one extremity to the other, are five feet +and upwards in extent, and their bodies large in proportion. These are +the fox-bats, a pair of which were lately procured for the Zoological +Gardens. It is from one of this pair that the very characteristic figure +of Mr Wolf has been derived.[24] There is something very odd in the +appearance of such an animal, suspended as it is during the day head +downwards, in a position the very sight of which suggests to the +looker-on ideas of nightmare and apoplexy. As the head peers out from +the membrane, contracted about the body and investing it as in a bag, +and the strange creature chews a piece of apple presented by its keeper, +the least curious observer must be struck with the peculiarity of the +position, and cannot fail to admire the velvety softness and great +elasticity of the membrane which forms its wings. It must have been from +an exaggerated account of the fox-bats of the Eastern Islands that the +ancients derived their ideas of the dreaded Harpies, those fabulous +winged monsters sent out by the relentless Juno, and whose names are +synonymous with rapine and cruelty. + +Some of these bats, before they were thoroughly known, frightened +British sailors not a little when they met with them. We have given an +anecdote, illustrative of this, in a preceding page. + +Dr Forster, who accompanied Captain Cook on the voyage round the world +from 1772 to 1775, observed fox-bats at the Friendly Islands, where they +were seen in large groups of hundreds. Our traveller even notices that +some of them flew about the whole day, doubtless from being disturbed by +the wandering crews of the British discovery ships. He saw a Casuarina +tree of large size, the branches of which were festooned with at least +five hundred of these pendent Cheiroptera in various attitudes of ease, +according to the habits and notions of the bat tribes, who can hang +either by the hind or by the fore-feet. He noticed that they skimmed +over the water with wonderful facility, and he saw one in the act of +swimming, though he cannot say that it did so with either ease or +expertness; they are known, however, to frequent the water in order to +wash themselves from any impurities on their fur and wings, as well as +to get rid of the vermin which may be infesting them. + +Captain Lort Stokes found the red-necked species to be very abundant, +during his survey of the north coast of Australia in H.M.S. _Beagle_. As +the boats were engaged in the survey, flights of these bats kept +hovering over them, uttering a disagreeable screeching noise and filling +the air with a faint mildewy odour, far from agreeable to the smell. The +sailors gave these bats the name of "monkey-birds," without being aware +that naturalists in their system consider them as following closely the +order which contains these four-handed lovers of trees. Captain Stokes +observes that the leathern wings have a singular heavy flap, and that a +flight of bats would suddenly alight on a bamboo and bend it to the +ground with their weight. Each individual struggles on alighting to +settle on the same spot, and like rooks or men in similar circumstances, +they do not succeed in fixing themselves without making a great deal of +noise. When first they clung to the bamboo, they did so by means of the +claw on the outer edge of the flying membrane, and then they gradually +settled. + +Among the wild and varied scenery of those groups of islands called the +Friendly Islands, the Feejees, and the Navigators, species of fox-bat +form one of the characteristics of the place to the observant eye; +while, if the traveller should happen to be blind, their presence among +the otherwise fragrant forests would be readily perceived from the +strong odour which taints the atmosphere, and which, says the Naturalist +of the United States Exploring Expedition, "will always be remembered by +persons who have visited the regions inhabited by these animals." Mr +Titian Peale mentions that a specimen of the fox-bat was kept in +Philadelphia for several years; and like most creatures, winged as well +as wingless, was amiable to those persons who were constantly near it, +while it showed clearly and unmistakably its dislike to strangers. + +On its voyage, this strange passenger was fed on boiled rice, sweetened +with sugar; while at the Museum, it was solaced and fed during its +captivity chiefly on fruit, and now and then appeared to enjoy the +picking from the bones of a boiled fowl. The fox-bat is but seldom +brought alive to this country. The late Mr Cross of the Surrey +Zoological Gardens kept one for a short time, and deemed it one of his +greatest rarities; and, till the arrival lately of the pair alluded to +at the Gardens in the Regent's Park, we have not heard of other +specimens having been exhibited in this country. They are difficult to +keep, and seem to feel very sensibly the changes of our climate, while +it is a hard thing to get for them the food on which they live when in a +state of liberty. + +Mr Macgillivray discovered a new species of fox-bat on Fitzroy Island, +off the coast of Australia, when he was naturalist of H.M.S. +_Rattlesnake_.[25] He fell in with this large fruit-eating bat +(_Pteropus conspicillatus_) on the wooded slope of a hill. They were in +prodigious numbers, and presented the appearance, as they flew along in +the bright sunshine, of a large flock of rooks. As they were approached, +a strong musky odour became apparent, and a loud incessant chattering +was heard. He describes the branches of some of the trees as bending +beneath the loads of bats which clung to them. Some of these were in a +state of inactivity, sleeping or composing themselves to sleep, while +many specimens scrambled along among the boughs and took to flight on +being disturbed. He shot several specimens, three or four at a time, as +they hung in clusters. Unless they were killed outright, they continued +suspended for some time; when wounded they are difficult to handle, as +they bite severely, and at such times their cry resembles somewhat the +squalling of a child. The flesh of these bats is described to be +excellent, and no wonder, when they feed on the sweetest fruits; the +natives regard it as nutritious food, and travellers in Australia, like +the adventurous Leichhardt on his journey to Port Essington, sometimes +are furnished with a welcome meal from the fruit-eating fox-bats which +fall in their way. Even the polished French, in the Isle of Bourbon, as +they used to call the Mauritius, sometimes stewed a Pteropus, in their +_bouillon_ or broth to give it a relish. + +Travellers observe that in a state of nature the fox-bats only eat the +ripest and the best fruit, and in their search for it they climb with +great facility along the under side of the branches. In Java, as Dr +Horsfield observes, these creatures, from their numbers and fruit-eating +propensities, occasion incalculable mischief, as they attack every kind +that grows there, from the cocoa-nut to the rarer and more delicate +productions, which are cultivated with care in the gardens of princes +and persons of rank. The doctor observes, that "delicate fruits, as they +approach to maturity, are ingeniously secured by means of a loose net or +basket, skilfully constructed of split bamboo. Without this precaution +little valuable fruit would escape the ravages of the kalong." + +We have mentioned that the fox-bats are occasionally eaten in Australia. +Colonel Sykes alludes to the native Portuguese in Western India eating +the flesh of another species of Pteropus; and it would seem that but for +prejudice, their flesh, like that of the young of the South American +monkeys, is extremely delicate; the colonel says, writing of the +_Pteropus medius_, a species found in India, "I can personally testify +that their flesh is delicate and without disagreeable flavour." + +The Javanese fox-bat occasionally affords amusement to the colonists as +well as natives, who chase it, according to Dr Horsfield, "during the +moonlight nights, which, in the latitude of Java, are uncommonly serene. +He is watched in his descent to the fruit-trees, and a discharge of +small shot readily brings him to the ground. By this means I frequently +obtained four or five individuals in the course of an hour." The natives +of New Caledonia, according to Dr Forster, use the hair of these great +bats in ropes, and in the tassels to their clubs, while they interweave +the hair among the threads of the _Cyperus squarrosus_, a grassy-looking +plant which they employ for that purpose. + +William Dampier,[26] in 1687, observed the habits of a fox-bat on one of +the Philippine Islands, though he has exaggerated its size when he +judged "that the wings stretched out in length, could not be less +asunder than seven or eight foot from tip to tip." He records that "in +the evening, as soon as the sun was set, these creatures would begin to +take their flight from this island in swarms like bees, directing their +flight over to the main island. Thus we should see them rising up from +the island till night hindered our sight; and in the morning, as soon as +it was light, we should see them returning again like a cloud to the +small island till sunrising. This course they kept constantly while we +lay here, affording us every morning and evening an hour's diversion in +gazing at them and talking about them." Dr Horsfield describes the +species, which is abundant in the lower parts of Java, as having the +same habit. During the day it retreats to the branches of a tree of the +genus _Ficus_, where it passes the greater portion of the day in sleep, +"hanging motionless, ranged in succession, and often in close contact, +they have little resemblance to living beings, and by a person not +accustomed to their economy, are readily mistaken for a part of the +tree, or for a fruit of uncommon size suspended from its branches." The +doctor describes their society as being generally silent during the day, +except when a contention arises among them to get out of the influence +of the sun, when they utter a sharp piercing shriek. Their claws are so +sharp, and their attachment is consequently so strong, that they cannot +readily leave their hold without the assistance of their wings, and if +shot when in this position, they remain suspended. + + +DR MAYERNE AND HIS BALSAM OF BATS. + +Dr Mayerne, a learned English physician, who died, aged eighty-two, in +1655, showed by his prescriptions that his enlightenment was not more +than that of the prevailing ignorance of the period. The chief +ingredient in his gout-powder was "raspings of a human skull unburied;" +"but," writes Mr Jeaffreson,[27] "his sweetest compound was his 'balsam +of bats,' strongly recommended as an unguent for hypochondriacal +persons, into which entered adders, bats, sucking whelps, earth-worms, +hogs' grease, the marrow of a stag, and the thigh-bone of an ox." + +No doubt the doctor imagined that a combination of the virulence, +flightiness, swiftness, strength, and other qualities of all these +animals would in some mysterious way be communicated to his melancholy +patient; and, indeed, by acting on the imagination of such persons a +favourable direction is given to their thoughts, and in this way their +severe malady may at times have been removed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23] Illustrated Proceedings of Zoological Society. + +[24] This was written some years ago; but I was glad to see when last in +the Zoological Gardens, June 1866, another live specimen of a species of +fox bat. + +[25] "Narrative of the Voyage," i., p. 96 (1852). + +[26] "New Voyage round the World" (1698), p. 381. + +[27] "A Book about Doctors," by J. Cordy Jeaffreson, i., p. 23. + + + + +HEDGEHOG. + + +This well-armed genus of insect-eating quadruped has sometimes given to +describing zoologists, at least so it is said, an opportunity of paying +a sly compliment, concealing an allusion to the _touchy_ or supposed +irritable disposition of the party after whom the species has been +named. When Southey wrote the following paragraph, he happily expressed +what is too commonly the meaning and wish of critics and criticised. If +my readers look into any system of mammalia of recent date, under the +article _Erinaceus_, he will see one or more instances of concealed +allusions to touchiness of disposition in the persons of the +naturalists, _honoured_ by the seeming compliment. The hedgehog is +itself a very useful and very harmless quadruped. It is of great use in +a garden, and also in a kitchen frequented by crickets or black-beetles. +Its food is chiefly grubs, insects, worms, and such like. The creature +is easily tamed, and becomes a lovable and not a touchy pet. It is +eminently nocturnal. + + +SOUTHEY AND HIS CRITICS. + +Robert Southey ("Common-Place Book," 4th series, p.44) writes:-- + +"I intend to be a hedgehog, and roll myself up in my own prickles: all I +regret is that I am not a porcupine, and endowed with the property of +shooting them to annoy the beasts who come near enough to annoy me." + + + + +MOLE. + + +This is perhaps the most remarkable of all our quadrupeds. Its +subterranean haunts and curious aptitudes for a life below the surface +of the ground are peculiarly worthy of study. The little hillocks it +turns up in its excavations are noticed by every one. Its pursuit of +worms and grubs, its nest, its soft plush-like fur, the pointed nose, +the strong digging fore-feet, the small all but hidden eyes, and +hundreds of other properties, render it a noticeable creature. The +following passage from Lord Macaulay's latest writings, although rather +long, may interest some in the story of this curious creature:-- + + +THE MOLE AND KING WILLIAM. + +"A fly, if it had God's message, could choke a king."[28] I never knew +till the 9th January 1862, when reading vol. v. of Macaulay's England, +that a horse, stumbling on a mole-hill, was the immediate cause of the +death of the great William III. + +Lady Trevelyan, the sister of Macaulay, published vol. v. of her +brother's work, and added an account of the death of the illustrious +Dutchman, who did so much for our religious and civil liberties. The +historian was very partial to William, and the account of that monarch's +last days is Macaulay's last finished piece: it is here quoted in full +from the history:[29]-- + +"Meanwhile reports about the state of the king's health were constantly +becoming more and more alarming. His medical advisers, both English and +Dutch, were at the end of their resources. He had consulted by letter +all the most eminent physicians of Europe; and, as he was apprehensive +that they might return flattering answers if they knew who he was, he +had written under feigned names. To Fagon he had described himself as a +parish priest. Fagon replied, somewhat bluntly, that such symptoms could +have only one meaning, and that the only advice which he had to give to +the sick man was to prepare himself for death. Having obtained this +plain answer, William consulted Fagon again without disguise, and +obtained some prescriptions which were thought to have a little retarded +the approach of the inevitable hour. But the great king's days were +numbered. Headaches and shivering fits returned on him almost daily. He +still rode, and even hunted; but he had no longer that firm seat, or +that perfect command of the bridle, for which he had once been renowned. +Still all his care was for the future. The filial respect and tenderness +of Albemarle had been almost a necessary of life to him. But it was of +importance that Heinsius should be fully informed both as to the whole +plan of the next campaign, and as to the state of the preparations. +Albemarle was in full possession of the king's views on these subjects. +He was therefore sent to the Hague. Heinsius was at that time suffering +from indisposition, which was indeed a trifle when compared with the +maladies under which William was sinking. But in the nature of William +there was none of that selfishness which is the too common vice of +invalids. On the 20th of February he sent to Heinsius a letter, in which +he did not even allude to his own sufferings and infirmities. 'I am,' +he said, 'infinitely concerned to learn that your health is not yet +quite re-established. May God be pleased to grant you a speedy recovery. +I am unalterably your good friend, WILLIAM.' These were the last lines +of that long correspondence. + +"On the 20th of February, William was ambling on a favourite horse named +Sorrel through the park of Hampton Court. He urged his horse to strike +into a gallop just at the spot where a mole had been at work. Sorrel +stumbled on the mole-hill, and went down on his knees. The king fell +off, and broke his collar-bone. The bone was set, and he returned to +Kensington in his coach. The jolting of the rough roads of that time +made it necessary to reduce the fracture again. To a young and vigorous +man such an accident would have been a trifle; but the frame of William +was not in a condition to bear even the slightest shock. He felt that +his time was short, and grieved, with a grief such as only noble spirits +feel, to think that he must leave his work but half finished. It was +possible that he might still live until one of his plans should be +carried into execution. He had long known that the relation in which +England and Scotland stood to each other was at best precarious, and +often unfriendly, and that it might be doubted whether, in an estimate +of the British power, the resources of the smaller country ought not to +be deducted from those of the larger. Recent events had proved that +without doubt the two kingdoms could not possibly continue for another +year to be on the terms on which they had been during the preceding +century, and that there must be between them either absolute union or +deadly enmity. Their enmity would bring frightful calamities, not on +themselves alone, but on all the civilised world. Their union would be +the best security for the prosperity of both, for the internal +tranquillity of the island, for the just balance of power among European +states, and for the immunities of all Protestant countries. On the 28th +of February, the Commons listened, with uncovered heads, to the last +message that bore William's sign-manual. An unhappy accident, he told +them, had forced him to make to them in writing a communication which he +would gladly have made from the throne. He had, in the first year of his +reign, expressed his desire to see a union accomplished between England +and Scotland. He was convinced that nothing could more conduce to the +safety and happiness of both. He should think it his peculiar felicity +if, before the close of his reign, some happy expedient could be devised +for making the two kingdoms one; and he, in the most earnest manner, +recommended the question to the consideration of the Houses. It was +resolved that the message should be taken into consideration on Saturday +the 7th of March. + +"But, on the 1st of March, humours of menacing appearance showed +themselves in the king's knee. On the 4th of March he was attacked by +fever; on the 5th, his strength failed greatly; and on the 6th he was +scarcely kept alive by cordials. The Abjuration Bill and a money bill +were awaiting his assent. That assent he felt that he should not be able +to give in person. He therefore ordered a commission to be prepared for +his signature. His hand was now too weak to form the letters of his +name, and it was suggested that a stamp should be prepared. On the 7th +of March the stamp was ready. The Lord Keeper and the Clerks of the +Parliament came, according to usage, to witness the signing of the +commission. But they were detained some hours in the ante-chamber while +he was in one of the paroxysms of his malady. Meanwhile the Houses were +sitting. It was Saturday the 7th, the day on which the Commons had +resolved to take into consideration the question of the union with +Scotland. But that subject was not mentioned. It was known that the king +had but a few hours to live; and the members asked each other anxiously +whether it was likely that the Abjuration and money bills would be +passed before he died. After sitting long in the expectation of a +message, the Commons adjourned till six in the afternoon. By that time +William had recovered himself sufficiently to put the stamp on the +parchment which authorised his commissioners to act for him. In the +evening, when the Houses had assembled, Black Rod knocked. The Commons +were summoned to the bar of the Lords; the commission was read, the +Abjuration Bill and the Malt Bill became law, and both Houses adjourned +till nine o'clock in the morning of the following day. The following day +was Sunday. But there was little chance that William would live through +the night. It was of the highest importance that, within the shortest +possible time after his decease, the successor designated by the Bill of +Rights and the Act of Succession should receive the homage of the +Estates of the Realm, and be publicly proclaimed in the Council: and the +most rigid Pharisee in the Society for the Reformation of Manners could +hardly deny that it was lawful to save the state, even on the Sabbath. + +"The king meanwhile was sinking fast. Albemarle had arrived at +Kensington from the Hague, exhausted by rapid travelling. His master +kindly bade him go to rest for some hours, and then summoned him to make +his report. That report was in all respects satisfactory. The States +General were in the best temper; the troops, the provisions, and the +magazines were in the best order. Everything was in readiness for an +early campaign. William received the intelligence with the calmness of a +man whose work was done. He was under no illusion as to his danger. 'I +am fast drawing,' he said, 'to my end.' His end was worthy of his life. +His intellect was not for a moment clouded. His fortitude was the more +admirable because he was not willing to die. He had very lately said to +one of those whom he most loved, 'You know that I never feared death; +there have been times when I should have wished it, but, now that this +great new prospect is opening before me, I do wish to stay here a little +longer.' Yet no weakness, no querulousness disgraced the noble close of +that noble career. To the physicians the king returned his thanks +graciously and gently. 'I know that you have done all that skill and +learning could do for me, but the case is beyond your art; and I +submit.' From the words which escaped him he seemed to be frequently +engaged in mental prayer. Burnet and Tenison remained many hours in the +sick-room. He professed to them his firm belief in the truth of the +Christian religion, and received the sacrament from their hands with +great seriousness. The antechambers were crowded all night with lords +and privy-councillors. He ordered several of them to be called in, and +exerted himself to take leave of them with a few kind and cheerful +words. Among the English who were admitted to his bedside were +Devonshire and Ormond. But there were in the crowd those who felt as no +Englishman could feel, friends of his youth, who had been true to him, +and to whom he had been true, through all vicissitudes of fortune; who +had served him with unalterable fidelity when his Secretaries of State, +his Treasury, and his Admiralty had betrayed him; who had never on any +field of battle, or in an atmosphere tainted with loathsome and deadly +disease, shrunk from placing their own lives in jeopardy to save his, +and whose truth he had at the cost of his own popularity rewarded with +bounteous munificence. He strained his feeble voice to thank +Auverquerque for the affectionate and loyal services of thirty years. To +Albemarle he gave the keys of his closet and of his private drawers. +'You know,' he said, 'what to do with them.' By this time he could +scarcely respire. 'Can this,' he said to the physicians, 'last long?' He +was told that the end was approaching. He swallowed a cordial, and asked +for Bentinck. Those were his last articulate words. Bentinck instantly +came to the bedside, bent down, and placed his ear close to the king's +mouth. The lips of the dying man moved, but nothing could be heard. The +king took the hand of his earliest friend, and pressed it tenderly to +his heart. In that moment, no doubt, all that had cast a slight passing +cloud over their long and pure friendship was forgotten. It was now +between seven and eight in the morning. He closed his eyes, and gasped +for breath. The bishops knelt down and read the commendatory prayer. +When it ended William was no more!" + +It was assuredly the stumbling of his horse against a mole-hill that led +more immediately to the death of this great monarch. It is but one link +in the chain of many providences affecting his life. We all remember the +schoolboy ditty-- + + "For want of a nail the shoe was lost; + For want of a shoe the rider was lost; + For want of the rider the battle was lost; + For want of the battle the kingdom was lost." + +How much the death of King William retarded progress in Great Britain +can never be judged or determined. His appointed hour had come. It was +no bullet with its billet on the banks of the Boyne that laid the +Dutchman low, but the cast-up earth of a specimen of a little +insectivorous quadruped called the mole, which laid him on that bed from +which he never arose. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[28] Jeremy Taylor, if I remember aright. + +[29] Vol. V., pp. 305-310. + + + + +BEARS. + + +A most comfortably clad set of plantigrade creatures, as fond, most of +them, of fruits as they are of flesh. No creatures are more amusing in +zoological gardens to children, who wonder at their climbing powers. Who +is so heartless as not to have pitied the roving polar bear, caged, on a +sultry July day, in a small paddock with a puddle, and wandering about +restlessly in his few feet of ground, as the well-dressed mob lounged to +hear the military band performing in the Regent's Park Zoological +Gardens? Even young bears have an _adult_ kind of look about them. The +writer remembers the manner of one, disappointed at its bread sap, most +of the milk of which had been absorbed. A little girl standing by, not +two years old, perfectly understood what the little creature was +searching for, and, looking up, said "milka," or something closely +resembling it. We recently saw a little brown bear, on board a Russian +ship at Leith. He acted as a capital guard. The little creature had a +grown-up face, more easily observed than described. + +Bear hams, we speak from rare experience, are truly excellent. Bears, in +our early London days, were kept by many hairdressers and perfumers. The +anecdote or passage from Dickens's "Humphrey's Clock" is very +characteristic. + +In one of Wilkie's pictures the brown bear is figured on its way with +its owners to the parish beadle's "house of detention." We remember the +very bear and its owners. A fine chapter might be written on the animals +that used to be led about the country by wandering foreigners. Our first +sight of guinea-pigs, our first view of the black-bellied hamster, our +first sight of the camel and dromedary, with a monkey on his neck, and +our first bear, were seen in this way. Boys and girls in those days +seldom saw menageries. A muzzled bear on its hind legs in Nicolson +Street, or at the Sciennes, was an exotic sight seldom witnessed, and +not easily forgotten. The last we saw was in Bernard Street, Leith, in +1869. That very day, the police were hunting for Bruin and its leaders +all over Edinburgh. Bears are now debarred from parading our streets. + + +AN AUSTRIAN GENERAL AND A BEAR.[30] + +Mr Paget was told an excellent story of a bear hunt, which took place in +the mountains of Transylvania, and in the presence of the gentleman who +told him the story. + +"General V----, the Austrian commander of the forces in this district, +had come to Cronstadt to inspect the troops, and had been invited by our +friend, in compliment to his rank, to join him in a bear hunt. Now, the +general, though more accustomed to drilling than hunting, accepted the +invitation, and appeared in due time in a cocked hat and long gray +greatcoat, the uniform of an Austrian general. When they had taken up +their places, the general, with half a dozen rifles arrayed before him, +paid such devoted attention to a bottle of spirits he had brought with +him, that he quite forgot the object of his coming. At last, however, a +huge bear burst suddenly from the cover of the pine forest, directly in +front of him. At that moment the bottle was raised so high that it quite +obscured the general's vision, and he did not perceive the intruder till +he was close upon him. Down went the bottle, up jumped the astonished +soldier, and, forgetful of his guns, off he started, with the bear +clutching at the tails of his greatcoat as he ran away. What strange +confusion of ideas was muddling the general's intellect at the moment it +is difficult to say, but I suspect he had some notion that the attack +was an act of insubordination on the part of Bruin, for he called out +most lustily, as he ran along, 'Back, rascal! back! I am a general!' +Luckily, a poor Wallack peasant had more respect for the epaulettes +than the bear, and, throwing himself in the way, with nothing but a +spear for his defence, he kept the enemy at bay till our friend and the +jägers came up, and finished the contest with their rifles." + + +BYRON'S BEAR AT CAMBRIDGE. + +When at Trinity College, Cambridge, Lord Byron had a strange pet. He +"brought up a bear for a degree." He said to Captain Medwyn,[31] "I had +a great hatred of college rules, and contempt for academical honours. +How many of their wranglers have ever distinguished themselves in the +world? There was, by the by, rather a witty satire founded on my bear. A +friend of Shelley's made an ourang-outang (Oran Hanton, Esq.) the hero +of a novel ('Melincourt'), had him created a baronet, and returned for +the borough of One Vote." + + +CHARLES DICKENS ON BEARS' GREASE AND ITS PRODUCERS. + +Any one who has been long resident in London, or who has passed through +Fenchurch Street, or Everett Street, Russell Square, must have been +struck with the way in which "bears' grease" is or used to be advertised +in these localities. Dickens makes Mr Samuel Weller tell of an +enthusiastic tradesman of this description.[32] + +"His whole delight was in his trade. He spent all his money in bears, +and run in debt for 'em besides, and there they wos a growling away in +the front cellar all day long and ineffectually gnashing their teeth, +vile the grease o' their relations and friends wos being retailed in +gallipots in the shop above, and the first floor winder wos ornamented +with their heads; not to speak o' the dreadful aggrawation it must have +been to 'em to see a man always a walkin' up and down the pavement +outside, with the portrait of a bear in his last agonies, and +underneath, in large letters, 'Another fine animal was slaughtered +yesterday at Jenkinson's!' Hous'ever, there they wos, and there +Jenkinson wos, till he was took very ill with some inward disorder, lost +the use of his legs, and wos confined to his bed, vere he laid a wery +long time; but sich wos his pride in his profession even then, that +wenever he wos worse than usual the doctor used to go down-stairs, and +say, 'Jenkinson's wery low this mornin', we must give the bears a stir;' +and as sure as ever they stirred 'em up a bit, and made 'em roar, +Jenkinson opens his eyes, if he wos ever so bad, calls out, 'There's the +bears!' and rewives agin." + +The author of a most amusing article in the seventy-seventh volume of +the _Edinburgh Review_, on the modern system of advertising, records +that, in his puff, the first vendor of bears' grease cautioned his +customers to wash their hands in warm water after using it, to prevent +them from assuming the hairy appearance of a paw. + + +A BEARABLE PUN. + +An illiterate vendor of beer wrote over his door at Harrowgate, "_Bear_ +sold here." "He spells the word quite correctly," said Theodore Hook, +"if he means to apprise us that the article is his own _Bruin_."[33] + +[Illustration: Polar Bear. (Thalassarctos maritimus.)] + + +SHAVED BEAR. + +Robert Southey ("Common-Place Book," 4th ser., p. 359) says:--"At +Bristol I saw a shaved monkey shown for a fairy; and a shaved bear, in a +check waistcoat and trousers, sitting in a great chair as an Ethiopian +savage. This was the most cruel fraud I ever saw. The unnatural position +of the beast, and the damnable brutality of the woman-keeper, who sat +upon his knee, put her arm round his neck, called him husband and +sweetheart, and kissed him, made it the most disgusting spectacle I ever +witnessed. Cottle was with me." + +He also tells of a fellow exhibiting a dragon-fly under a magnifier at a +country fair, and calling it the great High German "Heiter-Keiter." + + +THE POLAR BEAR. + +(_Thalassarctos maritimus._[34]) + +Notwithstanding ice and snow, and the darkness of a nine months' winter, +the Arctic regions are tenanted by several mammalia. Some of these are +constant residents, the rest are migratory visitors. Of the former +division, one of the most conspicuous, as it is certainly the most +formidable, is the polar bear,--a creature between eight and nine feet +in length, which, shuffling along the snow at a very quick pace, and +being an excellent swimmer besides, cannot fail to inspire dread. The +large wide head and fearfully armed jaws are united by a strong neck to +powerful shoulders, from which spring the thick and muscular fore-legs. +The paws, both of the fore and of the hind feet, are broad and admirably +adapted, with their long hairy covering, to keep the polar bear from +sinking in the snow. Although the creature has an appearance of +clumsiness, it is the reverse of inactive. Every one who knows the +boundless spaces it has to traverse, when in a state of liberty and the +"monarch of all it surveys," cannot but pity it as a prisoner in the +Regent's Park, where a tolerably capacious den, supplied with a bath of +water of very limited dimension, affords the restless creature less +liberty than a squirrel has in its round-about, or a poor lark in its +cage. + +Voyagers to the Arctic regions describe it as wandering over the fields +of ice, mounting the hummocks,[35] and looking around for prey. With +outstretched head, its little but keen eye directed to the various +points of a wide horizon, the polar bear looks out for seals; or scents +with its quick nostrils the luscious smell of some stinking +whale-blubber or half-putrid whale-flesh. Dr Scoresby relates[36] that a +piece of the _kreng_ of a whale thrown into the fire drew a bear to a +ship from the distance of miles. Captain Beechey mentions, that his +party in 1818, as they were off the coast of Spitzbergen, by setting on +fire some fat of the walrus, soon attracted a bear to their close +vicinity. This polar Bruin was evidently unaccustomed to the sight of +masts, and, when approaching, occasionally hesitated, and seemed half +inclined to turn round and be off. So agreeable a smell as burning +walrus fat dispelled all distrust, and brought him within musket-shot. +On receiving the first ball, he sprang round, growled terrifically, and +half raised himself on his hind-legs, as if expecting to seize the +object which had caused so much pain; woe to any one who had at that +moment been within reach of his merciless paws! Although a second and +third ball laid him writhing on the ice, he was not mastered; and on the +butt end of a musket directed at his head breaking short off, the bear +quickly seized the thigh of his assailant, and, but for the immediate +assistance of two or three of his shipmates, the man would have been +seriously injured. In these very seas--nearly fifty years before--the +hero of Trafalgar encountered this Arctic tyrant, and, when missed from +his ship, was discovered with a comrade attacking a large specimen, +separated from them by a chasm in the ice. On being reprimanded by his +captain for his foolhardiness, "Sir," said the young middy, pouting his +lips, as he used to do when excited, "I wished to kill the bear that I +might carry the skin to my father."[37] + +Barentz, in his celebrated voyage in 1595, had two of his men killed by +"a great leane white beare." In these early days, so unused were polar +bears to man, that though thirty of their comrades attempted a rescue, +the prey was not abandoned. The purser, "stepping somewhat farther +forward, and seeing the beare to be within the length of a shot, +presently levelled his peece, and discharging it at the beare, shot her +into the head, betweene both the eyes, and yet shee held the man still +fast by the necke, and lifted up her head with the man in her mouth, but +shee beganne somewhat to stagger; wherewith the purser and a Scottishman +drew out their courtlaxes (cutlasses), and stroke at her so hard, that +their courtlaxes burst, and yet shee would not leave the man. At last +Wm. Geysen went to them, and with all his might stroke the beare upon +the snowt with his peece, at which time the beare fell to the ground, +making a great noyse, and Wm. Geysen leaping upon her cut her throat. +The 7th of September wee buried the dead bodies of our men in the States +Island, and having fleaed the beare, carryed her skinne to Amsterdam." + +This is about the earliest record of an encounter with this formidable +creature; sailors now find that they can be attacked with most advantage +in the water. When in this element, they try to escape by swimming to +the ice, and when the ice is in the form of loose and detached small +floes, Dr Sutherland has seen them dive underneath, and appear on the +opposite side. Scoresby records, that when shot at a distance, and able +to escape, the bear has been observed to retire to the shelter of a +hummock, and, as if aware of the styptical effect of cold, apply snow to +the wound. + +In common with nearly every animal, this huge despot of the North is +strongly attached to its young. Captain Inglefield, on his return home +from Baffin's Bay in 1852, pursued three bears, as he was anxious to get +a supply of fresh meat for his Esquimaux dogs. The trio were evidently a +mother and twins. The captain was anxious to secure the cubs alive as +trophies, and was cautious in shooting at the mother. All three fell, +and were brought on board the _Isabel_. He records that it was quite +heartrending to see the affection that existed between them. When the +cubs saw their mother was wounded, they commenced licking her wounds, +regardless of their own sufferings. At length the mother began to eat +the snow, a sure sign that she was mortally wounded. "Even then her care +for the cubs did not cease, as she kept continually turning her head +from one to the other, and, though roaring with pain, she seemed to warn +them to escape if possible. Their attachment was as great as hers, and I +was thus obliged to destroy them all. It went much against my feelings, +but the memory of my starving dogs reconciled me to the necessity." + +The female bear when pursued carries or pushes her cubs forwards, and +the little creatures are described as placing themselves across her path +to be shoved forwards. Scoresby mentions an instance where, when +projected some yards in advance, the cubs ran on until she overtook +them, when they alternately adjusted themselves for a second throw. + +It is chiefly on the seal that this bear feeds, and it displays great +cunning in catching them as they sleep on the ice, or come to the holes +in the ice to breathe, when it destroys them with one blow of its +formidable and heavy paw. For its mode of getting the walrus we refer +the reader to "Excelsior," vol. i. p. 37. Notwithstanding his strength +and ferocity, the Esquimaux frequently kill the polar bear, as they +esteem its flesh and fat, and highly prize its skin. The flesh is not so +prized by Saxons, whether they be European or American. Dr Kane's +opinion would differ but little from that of Arctic voyagers on our side +of the Atlantic. The surgeon to the "Grinnell Expedition" in search of +Sir John Franklin thus characterises its flesh: "Bear is strong, very +strong, and withal most capricious meat; you cannot tell where to find +him. One day he is quite beefy and bearable; another, hircine, hippuric, +and detestable." + +It is but fair to say that Captain Parry[38] regards the flesh of the +polar bear to be as wholesome as any other, though not quite so +palatable. His men suffered from indigestion after eating it; but this +he attributes to the quantity, and not to the quality, of the meat they +had eaten. + +There seems to be little doubt that the liver is highly deleterious. +Some of the sailors of Barentz, who made a meal of it, were very sick, +"and we verily thought we should have lost them, for all their skins +came off from the foot to the head." + +The skin of the bear is covered with long yellowish white hair, which, +is very close, and forms a wonderful defence against the cold, and +against the tusk of the animals on which it feeds. We heard of another +use of this hair from an officer on one of the late Arctic searching +expeditions. A bear was seen to come down a tolerably high and steep +declivity by sliding down on its hinder quarters, in an attitude known, +in more than one part of the British Islands, by the expressive name of +"katy-hunkers;" the shaggy hair with which it was covered serving like a +thick mat to protect the creature from injury. The Esquimaux prepare the +skin sometimes without ripping it up, and turning the hairy side inward +a warm sack-like bed is formed, into which they creep, and lie very +comfortably. Otho Fabricius, in his "Fauna Grænlandica" (p. 24), informs +us that the tendons are converted into sewing threads. The female bear +has one or two, and sometimes three, cubs at a time. They are born in +the winter, and the mother generally digs for them and for herself a +snug nestling-place in the snow. The males in the winter time leave the +coast, and go out on the ice-fields, to the edge of the open water after +seals.--_Adam White, in "Excelsior" (with additions)._ + + +NELSON AND THE POLAR BEAR. + +In 1773, Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, sailed on a voyage of +discovery towards the North Pole. In this expedition sailed two Norfolk +young men, one in his twenty-third year, the other a mere lad in his +fifteenth year. The former sailed from a spirit of curiosity, and being +sorely distressed by sea-sickness was landed in Norway. He afterwards +became famous in the British Parliament, and the speeches of the Right +Hon. William Windham, Secretary at War, are often referred to even now. +The younger man was Horatio Nelson, cockswain under Captain Lutwidge, +who was killed at the battle of Trafalgar, thirty-two years after his +Polar expedition, and left a name which is synonymous with the glory of +the British navy. + +Southey, in his admirable life,[39] records an instance of his hardihood +on this expedition:--"One night, during the mid-watch, he stole from the +ship with one of his comrades, taking advantage of a rising fog, and set +off over the ice in pursuit of a bear. It was not long before they were +missed. The fog thickened, and Captain Lutwidge and his officers became +exceedingly alarmed for their safety. Between three and four in the +morning the weather cleared, and the two adventurers were seen at a +considerable distance from the ship attacking a huge bear. The signal +for them to return was immediately made; Nelsons' comrade called upon +him to obey it, but in vain; his musket had flashed in the pan; their +ammunition was expended; and a chasm in the ice, which divided him from +the bear, probably preserved his life. 'Never mind,' he cried; 'do but +let me get a blow at this devil with the butt-end of my musket, and we +shall have him.' Captain Lutwidge, however, seeing his danger, fired a +gun, which had the desired effect of frightening the beast; and the boy +then returned, somewhat afraid of the consequences of his trespass. The +captain reprimanded him sternly for conduct so unworthy of the office +which he filled, and desired to know what motive he could have for +hunting a bear. 'Sir,' said he, pouting his lip, as he was wont to do +when agitated, 'I wished to kill the bear, that I might carry the skin +to my father.'" + + +A CLEVER POLAR BEAR. + +Mr Markham,[40] when the ship _Assistance_ was in the Wellington +Channel, observed several bears prowling about in search of seals. "On +one occasion," he writes, "I saw a bear swimming across a lane of water, +and pushing a large piece of ice before him. Landing on the floe, he +advanced stealthily towards a couple of seals, which were basking in the +sun at some little distance, still holding the ice in front to hide his +black muzzle; but this most sagacious of bears was for once outwitted, +for the seals dived into a pool of water before he could get within +reach. On another occasion, a female Bruin having been shot from the +deck of the _Intrepid_, her affectionate cub, an animal about the size +of a large Newfoundland dog, remained resolutely by the side of its +mother, and on the approach of the commander of the _Intrepid_ with part +of his crew, a sort of tournament ensued, in which the youthful bear, +although belaboured most savagely, showed a gallant resistance, and at +length rushing between the legs of the corporal of marines, laid him +prostrate on the ice, floored another man, who had seized hold of his +tail, and effected his escape." + + +CAPTAIN OMMANEY AND THE POLAR BEAR. + +Captain Ommaney,[41] who led one of the travelling parties in 1851 sent +out from the ships under Austin in search of Franklin on the 12th of +June, the day before he arrived at the ships, met with a laughable +accident, although it might have had a serious termination. They had all +of them but just got into their blanket bags, when a peculiar noise, as +if something was rubbing up the snow, was heard outside. The gallant +captain instantly divined its cause, seized, loaded, and cocked his gun, +and ordered the tent door to be opened, upon which a huge bear was seen +outside. Captain Ommaney fired at the animal, but, whether from the +benumbed state of his limbs, or the dim glimmering light, he +unfortunately missed him, and shot away the rope that supported the tent +instead. The enraged monster then poked his head against the poles, and +the tent fell upon its terrified inmates, and embraced them in its +folds. Their confusion and dismay can more easily be imagined than +described, but at length one man, with more self-possession than the +rest, slipped out of his bag, scrambled from under the prostrate tent, +and ran to the sledge for another gun; and it was well that he did so, +for no sooner had he vacated his sleeping sack than Bruin seized it +between his teeth, and shook it violently, with the evident intention of +wreaking his vengeance on its inmate. He was, however, speedily +despatched by a well-aimed shot from the man, the tent was repitched, +and tranquillity restored. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[30] "Hungary and Transylvania," &c., by John Paget, Esq., vol. ii. p. +445. + +[31] "Conversations of Lord Byron," p. 72. + +[32] "Master Humphrey's Clock." + +[33] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 331 + +[34] [Greek: Thalassa], sea; [Greek: arktos], bear. + +[35] Those "Arctic hedge-rows," as Mr David Walker calls them, when, on +the 30th November 1857, he was on board the Arctic yacht _Fox_, +wintering in the floe-ice of Baffin's Bay. "The scene apparent on going +on deck after breakfast was splendid, and unlike anything I ever saw +before. The subdued light of the moon thrown over such a vast expanse of +ice, in the distance the loom of a berg, or the shadow of the hummocks +(the Arctic hedge-rows), the only thing to break the even surface, a few +stars peeping out, as if gazing in wonder at the spectacle,--all united +to render the prospect striking, and lead one to contemplate the +goodness and power of the Creator." On the 2d November, they had killed +a bear, which had been bayed and surrounded by their Esquimaux dogs. +Captain M'Clintock shot him. He was 7 feet 3 inches long. Only one of +the dogs was injured by his paws. Much did the hungry beasts enjoy their +feast, for they "were regaled with the entrails, which they polished off +in a very short time."--_Mr Walker, in_ _"Belfast News Letter," quoted +in "Dublin Natural History Review," 1858_, p. 180. + +[36] "Account of Arctic Regions," i. 517. + +[37] The anecdote is given with more detail at p. 67. + +[38] "Attempt to Reach the North Pole," p. 115. + +[39] "Life of Nelson," by Robert Southey, Esq., LL.D., Poet Laureate, p. +11. + +[40] "Franklin's Footsteps," by Clement R. Markham, p. 65. + +[41] "Franklin's Footsteps," by Clement Robert Markham, late of H.M.S. +_Assistance_, p. 93. + + + + +RACCOON. + + +A strikingly pretty, well-clad, and pleasingly coloured North American +quadruped, of which many zoological anecdotes might be given. Linnæus +named it _Ursu lotor_, or the Washer, from its curious habit of putting +any food offered to it, at least when in confinement, into water, before +attempting to eat it. + + +"A GONE COON." + +An American phrase for "the last extremity," or, "it's all up." They say +that a Major, or Colonel, or General Scott "down South" was notorious as +a dead shot. Once on a time, when out with his gun, he espied a raccoon +on a lofty tree. The poor raccoon, noticing the gun pointed at him, +cried to the dead shot, "Air _you_ General Scott?"--"I air."--"Then +wait, I air a comin' down, for I air _a gone coon_." + + + + +BADGER. + + +The badger, or brock, as it is called in Scotland, is yearly becoming +more and more rare. In a few years, this curious and powerful member of +the _feræ_, will figure, like the bear and beaver, as among the extinct +quadrupeds of these islands. Naturalists will be recording that in the +days of Robert Burns it must have been not at all uncommon, and not rare +in those of Hugh Miller, since low dram-shops kept them for the +entertainment of their guests. The Ayrshire bard makes the Newfoundland +dog, Cæsar, say to his comrade Luath, the collie, when, speaking of most +of the gentry of his day-- + + "They gang as saucy by poor folk + As I wad by a stinking brock."[42] + +The author of "Old Red Sandstone" and "My Schools and Schoolmasters," +has recorded in the latter work the history of his employment as a hewer +of great stones under the branching foliage of the elm and chestnut +trees of Niddry Park, near Edinburgh, and how, in the course of a strike +among the masons, he marched into town with several of them to a meeting +on the Links, where, conspicuous from the deep red hue of their clothes +and aprons, they were cheered as a reinforcement from a distance. On +adjourning, Hugh Miller, in his racy style, gives the following account +of a badger-baiting more than forty years ago:-- + + +HUGH MILLER AND THE BADGER-BAITING IN THE CANONGATE. + +"My comrades proposed that we should pass the time until the hour of +meeting in a public-house, and, desirous of securing a glimpse of the +sort of enjoyment for which they sacrificed so much, I accompanied them. +Passing not a few more inviting-looking places, we entered a low tavern +in the upper part of the Canongate, kept in an old half-ruinous +building, which has since disappeared. We passed on through a narrow +passage to a low-roofed room in the centre of the erection, into which +the light of day never penetrated, and in which the gas was burning +dimly in a close, sluggish atmosphere, rendered still more stifling by +tobacco-smoke, and a strong smell of ardent spirits. In the middle of +the crazy floor there was a trap-door, which lay open at the time; and a +wild combination of sounds, in which the yelping of a dog, and a few +gruff voices that seemed cheering him on, were most noticeable, rose +from the apartment below. It was customary at this time for dram-shops +to keep badgers housed in long narrow boxes, and for working men to keep +dogs; and it was part of the ordinary sport of such places to set the +dogs to unhouse the badgers. The wild sport which Scott describes in his +'Guy Mannering,' as pursued by Dandy Dinmont and his associates among +the Cheviots, was extensively practised twenty-nine years ago amid the +dingier haunts of the High Street and Canongate. Our party, like most +others, had its dog,--a repulsive-looking brute, with an earth-directed +eye; as if he carried about with him an evil conscience; and my +companions were desirous of getting his earthing ability tested upon the +badger of the establishment; but on summoning the tavern-keeper, we were +told that the party below had got the start of us. Their dog was, as we +might hear, 'just drawing the badger; and before our dog could be +permitted to draw him, the poor brute would require to get an hour's +rest.' I need scarce say, that the hour was spent in hard drinking in +that stagnant atmosphere; and we then all descended through the +trap-door, by means of a ladder, into a bare-walled dungeon, dark and +damp, and where the pestiferous air smelt like that of a burial vault. +The scene which followed was exceedingly repulsive and brutal,--nearly +as much so as some of the scenes furnished by those otter-hunts in which +the aristocracy of the country delight occasionally to indulge. Amid +shouts and yells the badger, with the blood of his recent conflict still +fresh upon him, was again drawn to the box-mouth; and the party +returning satisfied to the apartment above, again betook themselves to +hard drinking. In a short time the liquor began to tell, not first, as +might be supposed, on our younger men, who were mostly tall, vigorous +fellows, in the first flush of their full strength, but on a few of the +middle-aged workmen, whose constitutions seemed undermined by a previous +course of dissipation and debauchery. The conversation became very loud, +very involved, and though highly seasoned with emphatic oaths, very +insipid; and leaving with Cha--who seemed somewhat uneasy that my eye +should be upon their meeting in its hour of weakness--money enough to +clear off my share of the reckoning, I stole out to the King's Park, and +passed an hour to better purpose among the trap rocks than I could +possibly have spent it beside the trap-door of that tavern party. I am +not aware that a single individual, save the writer, is now living; its +very dog did not live out half his days. His owner was alarmed one +morning, shortly after this time, by the intelligence that a dozen of +sheep had been worried during the night on a neighbouring farm, and that +a dog very like his had been seen prowling about the fold; but in order +to determine the point, he would be visited, it was added, in the course +of the day, by the shepherd and a law-officer. The dog meanwhile, +however, conscious of guilt,--for dogs do seem to have consciences in +such matters,--was nowhere to be found, though, after the lapse of +nearly a week, he again appeared at the work; and his master, slipping a +rope round his neck, brought him to a deserted coal-pit half-filled with +water, that opened in an adjacent field, and flinging him in, left the +authorities no clue by which to establish his identity with the robber +and assassin of the fold."[43] + + +THE LAIRD OF BALNAMOON AND THE BROCK. + +The laird, so Dean Ramsay had the story sent him, once riding past a +high steep bank, stopped opposite a hole in it, and said, "John, I saw a +brock gang in there."--"Did ye?" said John; "wull ye haud my horse, +sir?"--"Certainly," said the laird, and away rushed John for a spade. +After digging for half an hour, he came back, nigh speechless to the +laird, who had regarded him musingly. "I canna find him, sir," said +John.--"'Deed," said the laird, very coolly, "I wad ha' wondered if ye +had, for it's ten years sin' I saw him gang in there."[44] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[42] Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 1787, p. 14, "The Twa +Dogs." + + + + +FERRET. + + +A truly blood-thirsty member of that slim-bodied but active race, the +weasel tribe. He is certainly an inhabitant of a warmer climate than +this, being very sensitive to cold. He is used in killing rats and +_ferreting out_ rabbits, a verb indeed derived from his name. He has +been known to attack sleeping infants. + + +COLLINS AND THE RAT-CATCHERS _grip_ OF HIS FERRETS. + +That delightful painter of cottage life, says his son,[45] often found +cottagers who gloried in being painted, and who sat like professional +models, under an erroneous impression that it was for their personal +beauties and perfections that their likenesses were portrayed. The +remarks of these and other good people, who sat to the painter in +perfect ignorance of the use or object of his labours, were often +exquisitely original. He used to quote the criticism of a celebrated +country rat-catcher, on the study he had made from him, with hearty +triumph and delight. When asked whether he thought his portrait like, +the rat-catcher, who--perhaps in virtue of his calling--was a gruff and +unhesitating man, immediately declared that the face was "not a morsel +like," but vowed with a great oath, that nothing could ever be equal to +the correctness of the _dirt shine on his old leather breeches_, and the +_grip_ that he had of _the necks of his ferrets_! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[43] "My Schools and Schoolmasters; or, The Story of my Education," by +Hugh Miller, fifth edition, 1856, pp. 321-323. + +[44] "Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character," tenth edition, +1864, p. 183. + + + + +POLE-CAT. + + +An equally blood-thirsty member of the weasel family, with the subject +of the preceding paragraph. + + +FOX AND THE POLE-CAT.--(POLL-CAT.[46]) + +Francis Grose relates the following as having happened during one of the +famous Westminster elections:--"During the poll, a dead cat being thrown +on the hustings, one of Sir Cecil Wray's party observed it stunk worse +than a fox, to which Mr Fox replied, there was nothing extraordinary in +that, considering it was a poll-cat." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[45] "Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, R.A," by his son, W. +Wilkie Collins, i. p. 222. + + + + +DOGS. + + +One who seems to love the race of dogs, and who has written a most +readable book on them,[47] remarks, that the dog "even now is rarely the +companion of a Jew, or the inmate of his house." He quotes various terms +of reproach still common among us, and which seem to have originated +from a similar feeling to that of the Jew. For instance, we say of a +very cheap article, that it is "dog cheap." To call a person "a dog," or +"a cur," or "a hound," means something the very opposite of +complimentary. A surly person is said to have "a dogged disposition." +Any one very much fatigued is said to be "dog weary." A wretched room or +house is often called "a dog hole," or said to be only fit for "a dog." +Very poor verse is "doggerel." It is told of Lady Mary Wortley +Montague, that when a young nobleman refused to translate some +inscription over an alcove, because it was in "dog-latin," she observed, +"How strange a puppy shouldn't understand his mother tongue." + +What, too, can be more expressive of a man being on the verge of ruin, +than the common phrase, that "such a one is going to the dogs." Of +modern describers of the very life and feelings of dogs, who can surpass +Dr John Brown of Edinburgh? His "Rab," and his "Our Dogs," are worthy of +the brush of Sir Edwin Landseer. Who has not heard the answer _said_ to +have been given by Sydney Smith to the great painter, when he wanted to +make a portrait of the witty canon, "_Is thy servant a dog, that he +should do this thing?_" + +There is great diversity of standard in matters of taste. In China, a +well-roasted pup, of any variety of the very variable _Canis +familiaris_, is a dainty dish. In London the greatest exquisite delights +in the taste of a half-cooked woodcock, but would scruple to eat a +lady's lap-dog, even though descended, by indubitable pedigree, from a +genuine "liver-and-tan" spaniel, that followed King Charles II. in his +strolls through St James's Park; and which was given to her ladyship's +ancestress on a day recorded, perhaps, in the diary of Mr Samuel Pepys. +Again, in the country of the Esquimaux, who has not read in the +intensely interesting narratives of the Moravian missionaries, how the +dogs of the "Innuit"--of "the men," as they call themselves--are, in +winter, indispensable to their very existence? Parry, Lyon, Franklin, +Richardson, Ross, Rae, Penny, Sutherland, Inglefield, and Kane, have +told us what excellent "carriage"-pullers these hardy children of the +snow become from early infancy; and how the more they work, like the +wives of savages in Australia, the more they are kicked. Passing over +the dogs of the Indian tribes of North America and the gaunt race in +Patagonia, the reader may remember that the Roman youth, like the young +Briton, had, in the days of Horace, his outer marks--one was, that he +loved to have a dog, or a whole pack beside him--"_gaudet canibus_." +This attachment to the dog is given us "from above," and is one of the +many "good gifts" which proceed from Him, who made man and dog +"familiar," as the apt specific name of Linnæus denominates the latter. +One of our greatly-gifted poets, in a cynical mood, could write an +epitaph on a favourite Newfoundlander, and end it with the dismal lines +on his views of "earthly friends"-- + + "He never knew but one,--and here he lies." + +Our genial and home-loving Cowper has made his dog Beau classical. We +must beg our readers to refresh their memories, by looking into the +Olney bard's exquisite story, + + "My spaniel, prettiest of his race, + And high in pedigree," + +and they will find that _that_ story of "The Dog and the Water-lily" was +"no fable," and that Beau really understood his master's wish when he +fetched him a water-lily out of "Ouse's silent tide." How graceful are +the last two stanzas of that sweet little poem-- + + "Charm'd with the sight, 'The world,' I cried, + 'Shall hear of this thy deed; + My dog shall mortify the pride + Of man's superior breed. + + 'But chief myself I will enjoin, + Awake at duty's call, + To show a love as prompt as thine + To Him who gives me all.'"[48] + +[Illustration: BEAU.] + +That the world might know the very "mark and figure" of this spaniel, +the late able illustrator of so many topographical works (Mr James +Storer) published in his "Rural Walks of Cowper"[49] a figure of Beau, +from the stuffed skin in the possession of Cowper's kinsman, the Rev. +Dr Johnson. + +Mr Montague, in a letter to the son and biographer of Sir James +Mackintosh,[50] gives many reminiscences of that eminent man, who was +much attached to the memory of Cowper. He says, "We reached Dereham +about mid-day (it was in 1801), and wrote to Mr Johnson, the clergyman, +who had protected Cowper in the last years of his life, and in whose +house he died. He instantly called upon us, and we accompanied him to +his house. In the hall, we were introduced to a little red and white +spaniel, in a glass case--the little dog Beau, who, seeing the +water-lily which Cowper could not reach, 'plunging, left the shore.'" + + "I saw him with that lily cropp'd, + Impatient swim to meet + My quick approach, and soon he dropp'd + The treasure at my feet." + +We saw the room where Cowper died, and the bell which he last touched. +We went to his grave, and to Mrs Unwin's, who is buried at some +distance. I lamented this, "Do not live in the visible, but the +invisible," said your father,--"his attainments, his tenderness, his +affections, his sufferings, and his hardships, will live long after both +their graves are no more." + +We could linger over a prized octavo volume, published in Edinburgh in +1787; the first poem of this, "The Twa Dogs, a Tale," occupies some +thirteen pages, written with that "rare felicity" so common to _the_ +Bard of Scotland. We mention it, because of the peculiar happiness with +which the collie, or Scottish shepherd-dog, is described in lines that +Sir Edwin Landseer alone has equalled on canvas, or his brother Thomas +with the graver-- + + "He was a gash an' faithfu' tyke + As ever lap a sheugh or dyke. + His honest, sonsie, bawsn't[51] face, + Aye gat him friends in ilka place. + His breast was white, his touzie back + Weel clad wi' coat of glossy black; + His gaucie tail, wi' upward curl, + Hung owre his hurdies wi' a swirl." + +_That's_ the shepherd-dog, as we have heard him described from a +specimen, which was the friend and follower of a valued one, who, when a +boy ('tis many years ago), frisked with the dog, over _one_ of the many +ferny haughs that margin the lovely Tweed above and below Peebles. It is +_the_ collie we have seen, on one of the sheep-farms of Lanarkshire, +obey its young master by a word or two, as unintelligible to us as +Japanese. But to the Culter "Luath," to hear was to obey; and in a +quarter of an hour a flock of sheep, which had been feeding on a +hillSide half a mile off, were brought back, driven by this faithful +"bit doggie." We wonder not that shepherds love their dogs. Why, even +the New Smithfield cattle-drovers, who drive sheep along the streets of +London on a Monday or Friday, never even require to urge their faithful +partners. Well may the gifted authoress of "The Dream" address "the +faithful guardian"-- + + "Oh, tried and trusted! thou whose love + Ne'er changes nor forsakes, + Thou proof, how perfect God hath stamp'd + The meanest thing He makes; + Thou, whom no snare entraps to serve, + No art is used to tame + (Train'd, like ourselves, thy path to know, + By words of love and blame); + Friend! who beside the cottage door, + Or in the rich man's hall, + With steadfast faith still answerest + The one familiar call; + Well by poor hearth and lordly home + Thy couchant form may rest, + And Prince and Peasant trust thee still, + To guard what they love best." + + _Hon. Mrs Norton, "The Dream," &c._, p. 192. + +No ordinary-sized volume, much less a short article, could give a tithe +of the true anecdotes of members of the dog race. Mere references to +their biography would take up a volume of Bibliography itself, just as +their forms, and character, and "pose," give endless subject to the +painter. Of modern authors, no one loved dogs more truly than Sir Walter +Scott, as the reader of his writings and of his biography is well +aware;[52] but it may not be generally known that, on the only occasion +when the great novelist met the Ayrshire peasant,-- + + "Virgilium tantum vidi,"-- + +the poem, which had made Burns a wonder to the boy then "unknown," was +that of "The Twa Dogs;" so that, even then, Scott had commenced to show +his attachment to these faithful followers. It was in the house of Sir +Adam Ferguson, when Scott was a mere lad; and the scene was described +most vividly to the writer by the late Scottish knight, after whose +battle in South Italy the author of "Marmion" named his pet staghound +Maida, or, as Scott pronounced it, "Myda." It was as the author of "The +Twa Dogs" that young Ferguson and Scott regarded Burns on his entrance +into the room with such wistful attention. The story is told in +Lockhart, and we will not quote it further; but, leaving dogs of our own +days and lands to Mr Jesse, who has given an interesting volume on them, +we will close with a few paragraphs on the dog of the East--a very +differently treated animal to that generally prized and esteemed +"friend" of man in these lands of the West. + +The Holy Scriptures show us that dogs were generally despised. We select +three, out of many instances. "Is thy servant a _dog_ that he should do +this thing?" was the question with which Hazael, ignorant of the +deceitfulness of his own heart, indignantly replied to Elisha, when the +prophet told him of the evil that he would yet do unto the children of +Israel (2 Kings viii. 13). He, "who spake as never man spake," knowing +the faith of the Syrophoenician woman, and giving her an opportunity +of manifesting it "for our example," said, in the Syriac fashion of +thought, "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to +_the dogs_" (Mark vii. 27). And the apostle John, in that wondrous close +of the prophetical writings, says, "For without," _i.e._, outside of the +New Jerusalem, "are _dogs_" (Rev. xxii. 5). In the East up to the +present day, with but few exceptions, dogs are treated with great +dislike. We might quote passages in proof from almost every Eastern +traveller, and may venture to extract one from the graphic page of the +Rev. W. Graham, who lived five years in Syria, and who has given some +noble word-pictures of men, and streets, and scenes in Damascus and +other Turkish towns. Writing of Damascus,[53] he remarks, "The dogs are +considered unclean, and are never domesticated in the East. They are +thin, lean, fox-like animals, and always at the starving point. They +live, breed, and die in the streets. They are useful as scavengers. They +are neither fondled nor persecuted, but simply tolerated; and no dog has +an owner, or ever follows and accompanies a man as the sheep do. I once +went out in the evening at Beyrout, with my teacher to enjoy the fresh +air and talk Arabic. My little English dog, the gift of a friend, +followed us. We passed through a garden, where a venerable Moslem was +sitting on a stone, silently and solemnly engaged in smoking his pipe. +He observed the dog _following_ us, and was astonished at it, as +something new and extraordinary; and rising, and making out of the way, +he cried out, 'May his father be accursed! Is that a dog or a fox?'" +Again, in Damascus, should a worn-out horse, donkey, or camel die in the +streets, in a few hours the dogs have devoured it; and the powerful rays +of the sun dry up all corrupt matter. Mr Graham tells us that the dogs +of Damascus are brown, blackish, or of an ash colour, and that he saw no +white or spotted specimens. He never saw a case of hydrophobia, nor did +he hear a _bark_. The dogs "howl, and make noise enough," he continues, +"but the fine, well-defined _bow-wow_ is entirely wanting." With a quiet +humour, he hints at the bark being a mark of the civilised, domesticated +dog, and as denoting, apparently, "the refinement of canine education." +We have been struck with the attempts of Penny's Esquimaux dogs, +deposited by the gallant Arctic mariner in the Zoological Gardens, to +_get up_ a bark somewhat like the "well-bred" dogs in the cages near +them. Mr Graham tells us of the Damascus dogs having established a kind +of police among themselves, and, like the rooks, driving all intruders +far from their district. + +Dogs were not always disregarded in the East. Herodotus informs us,[54] +during the Persian occupation the number of Indian dogs kept in the +province of Babylon for the use of the governor was so great, that four +cities were exempted from taxes for maintaining them. In the mountain +parts of India, travellers describe the great dogs of Thibet and +Cashmere as being much prized. + +"The domestic dog of Ladak," says Major Cunningham,[55] "is the +well-known shepherd's dog, or Thibetan mastiff. They have shaggy coats, +generally quite black, or black and tan; but I have seen some of a light +brown colour. They are usually ill-tempered to strangers; but I have +never found one that would face a stick, although they can fight well +when attacked. The only peculiarity that I have noticed about them is, +that the tail is nearly always curled upward on to the back, where the +hair is displaced by the constant rubbing of the tail." And that the +same massive variety was also prized in ancient times we know, by a +singularly fine, small bas-relief in baked clay, found in 1849 in the +Birs-i-Nimrud, Babylon, by Sir Henry Rawlinson, which is preserved in +the British Museum, to which it was presented by the late Prince Albert, +and an outline of which, reduced one-half, will convey a good idea to +the reader of its form. We may add that this bas-relief was first +noticed and figured, in 1851, in the third edition of a truly learned +and excellent work on "Nineveh and Persepolis," by Mr Vaux of the +British Museum (p. 183). These dogs, then, were nothing else than big, +"low jowled" Thibetan mastiffs, such as we occasionally see brought over +by some Indian officer; and the use for which they were employed by the +ancient kings and their attendants is strikingly exhibited on some slabs +from a chamber in the north palace of Koujunjik, a part of the great +Nineveh. On some of these slabs, dogs are seen engaged in pulling down +wild asses, deer, and other animals; and they were evidently kept also +to assist in securing nobler game--"the king of beasts;"--the sport of +which animals shows how truly the Assyrian king was named "Nimrod, the +mighty hunter before the Lord."--_Adam White, in "Excelsior" (with +additions)._ + +[Illustration] + + +BISHOP BLOMFIELD BITTEN BY A DOG. + +His natural temperament was quick, and he was fond of authority. "A +saying of Sydney Smith's has been preserved, humorously illustrative of +the view which he took of Bishop Blomfield's character. The bishop had +been bitten by a dog in the calf of the leg, and fearing possible +hydrophobia in consequence, he went, with characteristic promptitude, to +have the injured piece of flesh cut out by a surgeon before he returned +home. Two or three on whom he called were not at home; but, at last, the +operation was effected by the eminent surgeon, Mr Keate. The same +evening the bishop was to have dined with a party where Sydney Smith was +a guest. Just before dinner, a note arrived, saying that he was unable +to keep his engagement, a dog having rushed out from the crowd and +bitten him in the leg. When this note was read aloud to the company, +Sydney Smith's comment was, '_I should like to hear the dog's account of +the story_.' + +"When this accident occurred to him, Bishop Blomfield happened to be +walking with Dr D'Oyly, the rector of Lambeth. A lady of strong +Protestant principles, mistaking Dr D'Oyly for Dr Doyle, said that she +considered it was a judgment upon the bishop for keeping such +company."[56] + + +"PUPPIES NEVER SEE TILL THEY ARE NINE DAYS OLD." + +It is related, that when a former Bishop of Bristol held the office of +Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, he one day met a couple +of under-graduates, who neglected to pay the accustomed compliment of +_capping_. The bishop inquired the reason of the neglect. The two men +begged his lordship's pardon, observing they were _freshmen_, and did +not know him. "How long have you been in Cambridge?" asked his lordship. +"Only _eight_ days," was the reply. "Very good," said the bishop; +"_puppies_ never see till they are _nine_ days old."[57] + + +MRS ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING'S DOG FLUSH. + +Few have written so lovingly on the dog as this gifted poetess. Her dog +Flush is described so well that Landseer could paint the creature almost +to a hair. She has entered into the very feeling created in us by this +favoured pet of our race. The beautiful stanzas[58] I have copied give +also many little touches of her autobiography. This gifted lady was long +an invalid. She could enter with rare sympathy into Cowper's attachments +to animals. Her experience of the friendship of Flush is well told in +the following lines, so different from Lord Byron's misanthropic verses +on his dog:-- + + + TO FLUSH, MY DOG. + + Loving friend, the gift of one + Who her own true faith has run + Through her lower nature, + Be my benediction said + With my hand upon thy head, + Gentle fellow-creature! + + Like a lady's ringlets brown + Flow thy silken ears adown + Either side demurely + Of thy silver-suited breast, + Shining out from all the rest + Of thy body purely. + + Darkly brown thy body is, + Till the sunshine, striking this, + Alchemise its dulness, + When the sleek curls manifold + Flash all over into gold + With a burnish'd fulness. + + Underneath my stroking hand, + Startled eyes of hazel bland + Kindling, growing larger, + Up thou leapest with a spring, + Full of prank and curveting + Leaping like a charger. + + Leap! thy broad tail waves a light; + Leap! thy slender feet are bright, + Canopied in fringes; + Leap! those tassell'd ears of thine + Flicker strangely, fair and fine, + Down their golden inches. + + Yet, my pretty, sporting friend, + Little is 't to such an end + That I praise thy rareness; + Other dogs may be thy peers + Haply in these drooping ears + And this glossy fairness. + + But of _thee_ it shall be said, + This dog watch'd beside a bed + Day and night unweary-- + Watch'd within a curtain'd room, + Where no sunbeam brake the gloom, + Round the sick and dreary. + + Roses gather'd for a vase + In that chamber died apace, + Beam and breeze resigning; + This dog only waited on, + Knowing that, when light is gone, + Love remains for shining. + + Other dogs in thymy dew + Track'd the hares, and follow'd through + Sunny moor or meadow; + This dog only crept and crept + Next a languid cheek that slept, + Sharing in the shadow. + + Other dogs of loyal cheer + Bounded at the whistle clear, + Up the woodside hieing; + This dog only watch'd in reach + Of a faintly-utter'd speech, + Or a louder sighing. + + And if one or two quick tears + Dropp'd upon his glossy ears, + Or a sigh came double, + Up he sprang in eager haste, + Fawning, fondling, breathing fast + In a tender trouble + + And this dog was satisfied + If a pale, thin hand would glide + Down his dewlaps sloping, + Which he push'd his nose within, + After--platforming his chin + On the palm left open. + + This dog, if a friendly voice + Call him now to blither choice + Than such chamber-keeping, + "Come out!" praying from the door, + Presseth backward as before, + Up against me leaping. + + Therefore to this dog will I, + Tenderly, not scornfully, + Render praise and favour: + With my hand upon his head + Is my benediction said, + Therefore, and for ever. + + And because he loved me so, + Better than his kind will do, + Often man or woman, + Give I back more love again + Than dogs often take of men, + Leaning from my Human. + + Blessings on thee, dog of mine, + Pretty collars make thee fine, + Sugar'd milk make fat thee! + Pleasures wag on in thy tail, + Hands of gentle motion fail + Nevermore to pat thee! + + Downy pillow take thy head, + Silken coverlet bestead, + Sunshine help thy sleeping! + No fly's buzzing wake thee up, + No man break thy purple cup + Set for drinking deep in. + + Whisker'd cats arointed flee, + Sturdy stoppers keep from thee + Cologne distillations; + Nuts lie in thy path for stones, + And thy feast-day macaroons + Turn to daily rations! + + Mock I thee in wishing weal? + Tears are in my eyes to feel + Thou art made so straightly; + Blessing needs must straighten too; + Little canst thou joy or do, + Thou who lovest _greatly_. + + Yet be blessèd to the height + Of all good and all delight + Pervious to thy nature; + Only _loved_ beyond that line, + With a love that answers thine, + Loving fellow-creature! + + +SIR THOMAS FOWELL BUXTON, BART., AND HIS DOG "SPEAKER." + +Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton was very fond of dogs; his son[59] tells an +anecdote of the singular manner in which one of his pets came into his +possession. "He was standing at the door of the House of Commons talking +to a friend, when a beautiful black and tan terrier rushed between them, +and immediately began barking furiously at Mr Joseph Pease, who was +speaking. All the members jumped up, shouting and laughing, while the +officers of the house chased the dog round and round, till at last he +took refuge with Mr Buxton, who, as he could find no traces of an owner, +carried him home. He proved to be quite an original. One of his whims +was, that he would never go into the kitchen nor yet into a poor man's +cottage; but he formed a habit of visiting by himself at the country +houses in the neighbourhood of Cromer, and his refined manners and +intelligence made 'Speaker' a welcome guest wherever he pleased to go." + + +LORD BYRON AND HIS DOG BOATSWAIN. + +In November 1808 Lord Byron lost his favourite dog Boatswain; the poor +animal having been seized with a fit of madness, at the commencement of +which so little aware was Byron of the nature of the malady, that he +more than once, with his bare hand, wiped away the slaver from the dog's +lips during the paroxysms. In a letter to his friend Mr Hodson, he thus +announces this event:--"Boatswain is dead! he expired in a state of +madness on the 18th, after suffering much, yet retaining all the +gentleness of his nature to the last, never attempting to do the least +injury to any one near him. I have now lost everything except old +Murray." + +The monument raised by him to this dog--the most memorable tribute of +the kind since the dog's grave, of old, at Salamis--is still a +conspicuous ornament of the gardens of Newstead. The misanthropic verses +engraved upon it may be found among his poems, and the following is the +inscription by which they are introduced:-- + + + + "Near this spot Are deposited the remains of one Who + possessed beauty without vanity, Strength without insolence, Courage + without ferocity, And all the virtues of man without his vices. This + praise, which would be unmeaning flattery If inscribed over human ashes, + Is but a just tribute to the memory of BOATSWAIN, a dog, Who was born at + Newfoundland, May 1803, And died at Newstead Abbey, November 18, 1805." + +The poet Pope, when about the same age as the writer of this +inscription, passed a similar eulogy on his dog, at the expense of human +nature; adding that "histories are more full of examples of the fidelity +of dogs than of friends." In a still sadder and bitterer spirit, Lord +Byron writes of his favourite:-- + + "To mark a friend's remains these stones arise; + I never knew but _one_, and _here_ he lies."[60] + +Moore relates a story of this dog, indicative, not only of intelligence, +but of a generosity of spirit, which might well win for him the +affections of such a master as Byron. A fox-terrier of his mother's, +called Gilpin, was an object of dislike to Boatswain, who worried him +nearly to the death. Gilpin was sent off and Boatswain was missed for a +day. To the surprise of the servants, towards evening Gilpin and +Boatswain were in company, the former led by the latter, who led him to +the kitchen fire, licked him and lavished on him every possible +demonstration of joy. He had been away to fetch him, and ever after +caressed him, and defended him from the attacks of other dogs. (P. 44.) + + +"PERCHANCE"--A LADY'S _reason_ FOR SO NAMING HER DOG. + +A lady had a favourite lap-dog, which she called Perchance. "A singular +name," said somebody, "for a beautiful pet, madam; where did you find +it?"--"Oh," drawled she, "it was named from Byron's dog. You remember +where he says, '_Perchance_ my dog will howl.'"[61] + + +COLLINS THE ARTIST AND HIS DOG "PRINNY"--A MODEL OF "_a model_." + +William Wilkie Collins, after a most graphic account of the companions +of his artist-father's home,[62] notices "one who was ever as ready to +offer his small aid and humble obedience as were any of his superiors, +to confer the benefit of their penetrating advice." I refer to Mr +Collins's dog "Prinny" (Prince). This docile and affectionate animal had +been trained by his master to sit in any attitude, which the +introduction of a dog in his picture (a frequent occurrence) might +happen to demand. So strict was "Prinny's" sense of duty, that he never +ventured to move from his set position until his master's signal gave +him permission to approach his chair, when he was generally rewarded +with a lump of sugar, placed, not between his teeth, but on his nose, +where he continued to balance it, until he was desired to throw it into +the air and catch it in his mouth, a feat which he very seldom failed to +perform. On one occasion his extraordinary integrity in the performance +of his duties was thus pleasantly exemplified:--"My father had placed +him on the backs of two chairs, his fore-legs on the rails of one, and +his hind-legs on the rails of the other; and in this rather arduous +position had painted from him for a considerable time, when a friend was +announced as waiting for him in another apartment. Particularly desirous +of seeing this visitor immediately, the painter hurried from the room, +entirely forgetting to tell 'Prinny' to get down, and remained in +conversation with his friend for full half an hour. On returning to his +study the first object that greeted him was poor 'Prinny,' standing on +his 'bad eminence' exactly in the position in which he had been left, +trembling with fatigue, and occasionally vending his anguish and +distress in a low piteous moan, but not moving a limb, or venturing even +to turn his head. Not having received the usual signal he had never once +attempted to get down, but had remained disconsolate in his position +'sitting' hard, with nobody to paint him, during the long half hour that +had delayed his master's return." + + +THE SOLDIER AND THE MASTIFF. + +A soldier passing through a meadow, a large mastiff ran at him, and he +stabbed the dog with a bayonet. The master of the dog asked him why he +had not rather struck the dog with the butt-end of his weapon? "So I +should," said the soldier, "if he had run at me with his tail!"[63] + + +BARK AND BITE. + +Lord Clare, who was much opposed to Curran, one day brought a +Newfoundland dog upon the bench, and during Curran's speech turned +himself aside and caressed the animal. Curran stopped. "Go on, go on, Mr +Curran," said Lord Clare.--"Oh, I beg a thousand pardons," was the +rejoinder. "I really thought your lordship was employed in +_consultation_."[64] + + +MRS DREW AND THE TWO DOGS. + +(A CURIOUSLY NEAR APPROACH TO MORAL PERCEPTION.) + +In the biography of Samuel Drew, A.M., a great name among the +metaphysical writers of this country, we read a very interesting +anecdote of two dogs. + +His father, a farmer and mail-carrier in Cornwall, had procured a +Newfoundland dog for protection on his journeys, having been attacked by +highwaymen. There was a smaller dog which had been bred in the house. +The son was living at Poplea, in Cornwall, when the following +circumstance occurred, and he witnessed it:[65]-- + +"Our dairy was under a room which was used occasionally as a barn and +apple-chamber, into which the fowls sometimes found their way; and, in +scratching among the chaff, scattered the dust on the pans of milk +below, to the great annoyance of my mother-in-law. In this a favourite +cock of hers was the chief transgressor. One day in harvest she went +into the dairy, followed by the little dog, and finding dust again on +her milk-pans, she exclaimed, 'I wish that cock were dead!' Not long +after, she being with us in the harvest field, we observed the little +dog dragging along the cock, just killed, which, with an air of triumph, +he laid at my mother-in-law's feet. Highly exasperated at the literal +fulfilment of her hastily-uttered wish, she snatched a stick from the +hedge, and attempted to give the dog a beating. The luckless animal, +seeing the reception he was likely to meet with, where he expected marks +of approbation, left the bird and ran off, she brandishing her stick, +and saying, in a loud angry tone, 'I'll pay thee for this by and by.' In +the evening, when about to put her threat into execution, she found the +little dog established in a corner of the room, and the large one +standing before it. Endeavouring to fulfil her intention by first +driving off the large dog, he gave her plainly to understand that he was +not at all disposed to relinquish his post. She then sought to get at +the small dog behind the other, but the threatening gesture, and fiercer +growl of the large one, sufficiently indicated that the attempt would be +not a little perilous. The result was that she was obliged to abandon +her design. In killing the cock I can scarcely think that the dog +understood the precise import of my stepmother's wish, as his immediate +execution of it would seem to imply. The cock was a more recent +favourite, and had received some attentions which had previously been +bestowed upon himself. This, I think, had led him to entertain a feeling +of hostility to the bird, which he did not presume to indulge, until my +mother's tone and manner indicated that the cock was no longer under her +protection. In the power of communicating with each other, which these +dogs evidently possess, and which, in some instances, has been displayed +by other species of animals, a faculty seems to be developed of which we +know very little. On the whole, I never remember to have met with a case +in which to human appearance there was a nearer approach to moral +perception than in that of my father's two dogs." + + +THE DIFFERENCE OF EXCHANGE.--"DOG-CHEAP." + +Dining at a nobleman's table, where the company were praising the +claret, his lordship told them that he had received that hogshead of +wine in return for a couple of hounds, which he sometime before +presented to Count Lauragais. "Why, then, my lord," cried Foote, "I not +only think your wine excellent, but _dog-cheap_."[66] + + +GAINSBOROUGH AND HIS WIFE AND THEIR DOGS. + +Thomas Gainsborough, the rival of Sir Joshua in portraiture, wanted that +evenness of temper which the President of the Royal Academy so +abundantly possessed. He was easily angered, but as soon appeased, and +says his biographer,[67] "If he was the first to offend, he was the +first to atone. Whenever he spoke crossly to his wife, a remarkably +sweet-tempered woman, he would write a note of repentance, sign it with +the name of his favourite dog 'Fox,' and address it to his Margaret's +pet spaniel, 'Tristram.' Fox would take the note in his mouth, and duly +deliver it to Tristram. Margaret would then answer--'My own dear Fox, +you are always loving and good, and I am a naughty little female ever to +worry you, as I too often do, so we will kiss and say no more about it; +your own affectionate Tris.'" The writers of such a correspondence could +not have led what is called "a cat and dog life." Husbands and wives +might derive a hint from this anecdote; for we know, from the old +ballad, that they will be sulky and quarrel at times even about getting + + "Up to bar the door, O!" + + +SIR WILLIAM GELL'S DOG. + +The reviewer[68] of Sir Thomas Browne's works says--"We ourselves have +witnessed an example of the curious and credulous exaggeration which has +construed certain articulations in animals into rational speech. Some +time since, in travelling through Italy, we heard, in grave earnest, +from several Italians, of the prodigy of a Pomeranian dog that had been +taught to speak most intelligibly by Sir William Gell. Afterwards, in +visiting that accomplished and lamented gentleman at Naples, we +requested to hear an animal possessed of so unusual a gift. And, as the +friends of the urban scholar can bear witness, the dog undoubtedly could +utter a howl, which, assisted by the hand of the master in closing the +jaw at certain inflections, might be intelligibly construed into two +words not to be repeated. Such a dog, with such an anathema in his +vocabulary, would have hanged any witch in England three centuries ago." + + +ELIZABETH, THE LAST DUCHESS OF GORDON, AND THE WOLF-DOG KAISER. + +The Rev. A. Moody Stuart, in his "Life of the last Duchess of +Gordon,"[69] that truly Christian lady, refers to some old pets of the +duke's and her own, which, on her becoming a widow, she took with her +from Gordon Castle to Huntly Lodge, a bullfinch, an immense Talbot +mastiff named Sall, and others. He adds--"To a stranger, the most +remarkable of the duke's old favourites was Kaiser, an Hungarian +wolf-dog, with a snow-white fleece, and most sheep-like aspect in the +distance, but at whose appearance out of doors, man, woman, and child +fled as from a wolf. The duchess called him 'The wolf in sheep's +clothing.' Her husband's tastes having brought her much into contact +with all sorts of dogs, she had learned to pat them confidently at their +first introduction, when a large space between their eyes betokened a +kindly temper. This open breadth of forehead was strongly marked in +Sall, a fine old mastiff that used at this time to walk round the +dining-room after breakfast, with her noble head reaching the level of +the table. But the duke had chosen Kaiser for other qualities. Two of +those wolf-dogs had been brought to him for sale when travelling on the +Continent; the other was the larger and handsomer animal; but Kaiser's +eyes, sunk deep in the head, and all but meeting under his shaggy hair, +at once fixed his choice on him as 'likest his work.' That work was to +defend the sheep from the wolves, and one mode of defence was by laying +a strange trap for the enemy. The dog was remarkably like a sheep, his +hair white without a dark speck, and he carried a great load of it, long +and fleecy like wool. In the Hungarian steppes four or five of those +dogs would lay themselves down on the grass in the evening, sleeping +there like so many harmless lambs, with their faces inward for the heat +of each other's breath. The keen eye of the wolf was soon attracted by +the white fleeces, with no shepherd near to guard them. Eager for blood, +he careered swiftly over the plain, and sprang unsuspecting into the +midst of the flock, only to find himself clenched in the relentless jaws +of Kaiser and his comrades, wolves more terrible than himself under the +clothing of timid sheep. A conversation once took place at the Lodge on +the character ascribed to dogs in Scripture. It slightly vexed the good +duchess that they were so often mentioned in the Bible, but only as +emblems of what is foul and fierce, except in a single instance, and +that not of commendation, but neutrality. This exception, she said, +occurred in the Book of Proverbs, where the greyhound is named, along +with the lion and the goat, as 'comely in going,' yet merely in praise +of his external beauty. But her difficulty was relieved by the reply, +that in Isaiah lvi. 10, the "dog" is really used in a good sense as +applied to the spiritual watchmen of the Lord's flock. For the +unfaithful shepherds, being there likened to dumb dogs that cannot bark, +were not censured under the simple image of watch-dogs, but because, as +such, they were faithless and useless; implying that the good watch-dog +is an honourable emblem of the true pastor, watching for the souls +committed to his care, and solemnly warning them of approaching danger." + + +FREDERICK THE GREAT AND HIS ITALIAN GREYHOUNDS. + +Dr John Moore, when travelling with the Duke of Hamilton, saw and heard +a good deal of Frederick the Great, and has given in his second volume +of "A View of Society and Manners in France," &c., many interesting +particulars of his private and public life. Among these, he alludes to +his using "a very large gold snuff-box, the lid ornamented with +diamonds," and his taking "an immoderate quantity of Spanish snuff, the +marks of which very often appear on his waistcoat and breeches. These +are also liable to be soiled by the paws of two or three Italian +greyhounds, which he often caresses" (vol. ii. p. 236). + + +THE DOG AND THE FRENCH MURDERERS. (AN OCCURRENCE IN THE SPRING OF 1837.) + +Thomas Raikes,[70] in his Journal 8th March 1837, records:--"Eight years +ago, a labouring man in the department of the Loire was found murdered +in a wood near his house, and his dog sitting near the body. No clue +could be gained to the perpetrators of the crime, and his widow +continued to live in the same cottage, accompanied always by the +faithful animal. Last week two men, apparently travellers, stopped at +the house, requesting shelter from the storm, which was granted; but no +sooner had the dog perceived them, than he flew at them with fury, and +could not be pacified. As they were quitting the house, one of them said +to the other, 'That rascally dog has not forgotten us.' This raised the +suspicion of the widow, who overheard it, and applying to the gendarmes +in the neighbourhood, they followed and arrested them. The result has +been that, after a long examination, one of them has confessed the +crime, and impeached his associate." + + * * * * * + +Hannah More wrote an ode addressed to Garrick's famous house-dog Dragon. +A copy of this she gave to Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1777, while still +unprinted, under an oath neither to take nor give a copy of it, which +oath Sir Joshua had observed (she says) like a true knight, only reading +it to his visitors till some of them learned it by heart. The "charming +bagatelle" was afterwards printed, that posterity might be enabled to +wonder what a small expenditure of wit in metre sufficed to purchase a +large modicum of fame among the blues of that day.[71] + + +ROBERT HALL AND THE DOG. + +The eloquent Robert Hall and Dr Leifchild were often in each other's +company when at Bristol, travelling and preaching together at +anniversaries and ordinations. The son and biographer of the latter +says:[72]--"I rode with them from Bristol to Wells, and can now, in +imagination, see Mr Hall smoking and reclining on one seat of the +carriage, while my father sat on the other. I can see Mr Hall descending +at a blacksmith's shop to re-light his pipe, making his way directly to +the forge, and jumping aside with unwonted agility, when a huge dog +growled at him. I can recall his look, when rallied on his agility, +after his return to the carriage. 'You seemed afraid of the dog, sir,' +said my father. 'Apostolic advice, sir--Beware of dogs,' rejoined Mr +Hall." Dr Leifchild, in another part of the memoir (p. 360), relates +that some housekeeper would exclaim to him, as he was about to enter the +house of friend or stranger, "Don't be afraid of the dog, sir, he never +bites."--"Are you quite sure he never bites?" was his prompt +question.--"Quite sure, sir," rejoined the servant.--"Then," rejoined +the good-humoured doctor, "if he never _bites_, how does he live?" + + +A QUEEN AND HER LAP-DOG. + +Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I., on her return to Burlington Bay +with assistance for her husband, was attacked in the house where she +slept by the cannonade of five ships of war belonging to the +Parliament. She left the house amid the whistling of balls, one of which +killed one of her servants. When on her way to the shelter of a ditch, +she remembered that an aged lap-dog, called "Mitte," was left behind. +She was much attached to this old favourite, and returned to the house +she had left. Rushing up-stairs into her chamber, she caught up her old +pet, which was reposing on her bed, and carried her off in safety. +Having done this, the queen and her ladies gained the ditch, and +crouched down in it, while the cannon played furiously over their +heads.[73] + + +THE CLEVER DOG THAT BELONGED TO THE HUNTERS OF POLMOOD. + +The estate of Polmood, in Peeblesshire, was the subject of extraordinary +litigation, and a volume of considerable bulk is devoted to its history. +This work contains much curious evidence from aged country folks in the +western parts of the country. Mr Chambers[74] tells us that in the +history "reminiscences concerning a wonderfully clever dog are put +forward as links in the line of propinquity." The deponent has heard his +father say that Robert Hunter had a remarkable dog called "Algiers;" and +that, when Robert lived at Woodend, he used to tie a napkin round the +dog's neck with money in it, and send him for snuff to Lammington, which +is about three miles from Woodend, and that the dog executed his +message faithfully, and prevented everybody from laying hold of or +stopping him. Another venerable deponent, aged eighty-nine, had heard +his mother tell many stories about a dog belonging to Uncle Robert, +which went by the name of "Algiers;" that they used to cut a fleece off +him every year sufficient to make a pair of stockings; and that Uncle +Robert used to tie a purse round his neck, with money in it, and the dog +then swam the Tweed, and brought back tobacco from the Crook! And a +third declares that "Algiers" could be sent to Edinburgh with a letter, +and bring back a letter to his master. + + +THE IRISH CLERGYMAN AND THE DOGS. + +Mr Fitzpatrick, in his anecdotal memoirs of Archbishop Whately, tells a +story of an eccentric Irish parson. This person, when preaching, was +interrupted in his homily by two dogs, which began to fight in church. +He descended the pulpit, and endeavoured to separate them. On returning +to his place, the clergyman, who was rather an absent man, asked the +clerk, "Where was I a while ago?"--"Wasn't yer Riverence appaising the +dogs?" responded the other.[75] + + +WASHINGTON IRVING AND THE DOG. + +Patrick Fraser Tytler, author of "The History of Scotland," in a letter +to his wife in 1830, says--"At Lady Morton's, one evening, I met with +Washington Irving. I had heard him described as a very silent man, who +was always observing others, but seldom opened his lips. Instead of +which, his tongue never lay still; and he gets out more wee wordies in a +minute than any ordinary converser does in five. But I found him a very +intelligent and agreeable man. I put him in mind of his travelling with +our dear Tommy. He had at first no recollection; but I brought it back +to his memory by the incident of the little black dog, who always went +before the horses in pulling up hill, and pretended to assist them. I +put him in mind of his own wit, 'that he wondered if the doggie mistook +himself for a horse;' at which he laughed, and added, 'Yes, and thought +it very hard that he was not rubbed down at the end of the +journey.'"[76] + + +DOUGLAS JERROLD AND HIS DOG. + +Jerrold had a favourite dog that followed him everywhere. One day in the +country, a lady, who was passing, turned round and said audibly, "What +an ugly little brute!" Whereupon Jerrold, addressing the lady, replied, +"Oh, madam! I wonder what he thinks _about us_ at this moment."[77] + + +SHERIDAN AND THE DOG. + +After witnessing the first representation of a dog-piece by Reynolds, +called the "Caravan," Sheridan suddenly came into the green-room, on +purpose, it was imagined, to wish the author joy. "Where is he?" was +the first question; "where is my guardian angel?"--"Here I am," answered +Reynolds.--"Pooh!" replied Sheridan, "I don't mean _you_, I mean _the +dog_."[78] + + +CHARLES LAMB AND HIS DOG. + +Thomas Hood had a dog called "Dash." This dog he gave to Charles Lamb. +The ready-witted Elia often took the creature out with him when walking +at Enfield. On one occasion, the dog dashed off to chase some young +sheep. The owner of the muttons came out quite indignant at the owner, +to expostulate with him on the assault of Lamb's dog on his sheep. Elia, +with his quiet ready wit, replied, "Hunt _Lambs_, sir?--why, he never +hunted _me_."[79] + + +FRENCH DOGS, TIME OF LOUIS XI.--HISTORY OF HIS DOG "RELAIS" BY LOUIS +XII. + +Horace Walpole, in one of his gossiping letters to the Countess of +Ossory in 1781, writes, "You must not be surprised if I should send you +a collection of Tonton's _bons-mots_. I have found a precedent for such +a work. A grave author wrote a book on the 'Hunt of the Grand Senechal +of Normandy,' and of _les DITS du bon chien Souillard, qui fut au Roi +Loy de France onzieme du nom_. Louis XII., the reverse of the +predecessor of the same name, did not leave to his historian to +celebrate his dog "Relais," but did him the honour of being his +biographer himself; and for a reason that was becoming so excellent a +king. It was _pour animer les descendans d'un si brave chien à se rendre +aussi bons que lui, et encore meilleurs_. It was great pity the Cardinal +d'Amboise had no bastard puppies, or, to be sure, his Majesty would have +written his Prime Minister's life too, for a model to his +successors."[80] + + +MARTIN LUTHER OBSERVES A DOG AT LINTZ. + +In the "Table Talk" of Martin Luther, it is recorded:--"I saw a dog at +Lintz, in Austria, that was taught to go with a hand-basket to the +butchers' shambles for meat. When other dogs came about him, and sought +to take the meat out of the basket, he set it down and fought lustily +with them; but when he saw they were too strong for him, he himself +would snatch out the first piece of meat, lest he should lose all. Even +so does now our Emperor Charles; who, after having long protected +spiritual benefices, seeing that every prince takes possession of +monasteries, himself takes possession of bishoprics, as just now he has +seized upon those of Utrecht and Liège."[81] + + +THE POOR DOG AT THE GROTTA DEL CANE. + +Henry Matthews,[82] like other visitors of Naples, went to the +celebrated _Grotta del Cane_, or Dog Grotto, on the borders of Lake +Agnano, so called from the vapour in the cave, destructive to animal +life, being shown by means of a dog. In his diary, of March 3, 1818, he +records:--"Travellers have made a great display of sensibility in their +strictures upon the spectacle exhibited here; but to all appearance the +dog did not care much about it. It may be said, with truth of him, that +he is _used_ to it; for he dies many times a day, and he went to the +place of execution wagging his tail. He became insensible in two +minutes; but upon being laid on the grass, he revived from his trance in +a few seconds, without the process of immersion in the lake, which is +generally mentioned as necessary to his recovery. From the voracity with +which he bolted down a loaf of bread which I bought for him, the vapour +does not seem to injure the animal functions. Addison seems to have been +very particular in his experiments upon the vapour of this cavern. He +found that a pistol would not take fire in it; but upon laying a train +of gunpowder, and igniting it beyond the sphere of the vapour, he found +that it could not intercept the train of fire when it had once begun +flashing, nor hinder it from running to the very end. He subjected a dog +to a second trial in order to ascertain whether he was longer in +expiring the first than the second time; and he found there was no +sensible difference. A viper bore it _nine minutes_ the first time he +put it in, and _ten minutes_ the second; and he attributes the prolonged +duration of the second trial to the large provision of air that the +viper laid in after his first death, upon which stock he supposes it to +have existed a minute longer the second time." + + +DOG, A POSTMAN AND CARRIER. + +Robert Southey says, that "near Moffat a dog used for many years to meet +the mail and receive the letters for a little post-town near."[83] + +How often may you see a dog carrying a basket or a parcel. No +enticement, even of a dog-friend or of a great bone, will induce this +faithful servant to abandon his charge. Every one must have observed +this. + + +DOG-MATIC. + +In the great dispute between South and Sherlock, the latter, who was a +great courtier, said--"His adversary reasoned well, but he barked like a +cur." To which the other replied, "That _fawning_ was the property of a +cur as well as barking."[84] + + +GENERAL MOREAU AND HIS GREYHOUND. + +"The day after the battle of Dresden (27th Aug. 1812), a greyhound was +brought to the King of Saxony, the ally of Napoleon. The dog was moaning +piteously. On the collar were engraved the words, 'I belong to the +General Moreau.' Where was the dog's master? By the side of the Emperor +Alexander. Moreau had been mortally wounded. The dog had remained with +his master until his death. While Moreau was conversing with the Emperor +Alexander a cannon-shot nearly carried off both his legs. It is said +that throughout the five days during which he lingered he uttered not a +murmur of pain."[85] + + * * * * * + +At the battle of Solferino, where rifled cannon were first brought to +bear in warfare, a dog excited great attention by its attachment to the +body of its slain master. It became the chief object in a painting of +the circumstance, from which an engraving was executed. + + +A DUKE OF NORFOLK AND HIS SPANIELS. + +In Southey's "Common-place Book," 4th ser. p. 479, he writes--"Our +Marlborough and King James's spaniels are unrivalled in beauty. The +latter breed (black and tan, with hair almost approaching to silk in +fineness, such as Vandyke loved to introduce into his portraits) were +solely in the possession of the late Duke of Norfolk. He never travelled +without two of his favourites in the carriage. When at Worksop he used +to feed his eagles with the pups; and a stranger to his exclusive pride +in the race, seeing him one day employed in thus destroying a whole +litter, told his grace how much he should be delighted to possess one of +them. The duke's reply was a characteristic one. 'Pray, sir, which of my +estates should you like to have?'" + +There are shepherds who possess collies, such _proud_, useful servants +and friends, that no bribe would induce them to part with them. But what +old favourite dog or even bird is there that any one would part with? +Man, be he scavenger or duke, is very similar in this species of +attachment. + + +LORD NORTH AND THE DOG. + +In several of the caricatures published about the year 1783, when Fox +and Burke had joined Lord North, and helped to form what is called the +Coalition Ministry, a dog is represented. This, says Mr Wright,[86] is +said to be an allusion to an occurrence in the House of Commons. During +the last defensive declamation of Lord North, on the eve of his +resignation, a dog, which had concealed itself under the benches, came +out and set up a hideous howling in the midst of his harangue. The house +was thrown into a roar of laughter, which continued until the intruder +was turned out; and then Lord North coolly observed, "As the new member +has ended his argument, I beg to be allowed to continue mine." + + +PERTHES DERIVES HINTS FROM HIS DOG. + +In a letter, written when he first came to Gotha, Perthes, the +publisher, says--"Do not laugh if I tell you that my dog has given me +many a hint upon human nature. I never before had a dog constantly with +me, and I now ask myself whether the poodle be not a man, and men +poodles. I am not led to this thought by the animal propensities which +we have in common, such as eating, drinking, &c., but by those of a more +refined character. He too is cheerful and dejected, excited and supine, +playful and morose, gentle and bold, caressing and snappish, patient +and refractory; just like us men in all things, even in his dreams! This +likeness is not to me at all discouraging; on the contrary, it suggests +a pleasing hope that this flesh and blood which plagues and fetters us, +is not the real man, but merely the earthly clothing which will be cast +off when he no longer belongs to earth, provided he has not sinfully +chosen to identify himself with the merely material. The devil's chief +seat is not in matter but in the mind, where he fosters pride, +selfishness, and hatred, and by their means destroys not what is +transitory but what is eternal in man."[87] + + +PETER THE GREAT AND HIS FAVOURITE DOG LISETTE. + +Mr Stoehlin[88] relates the following anecdote of the Czar Peter, on +the authority of Miss Anne Cramer, the chambermaid to the empress. In +the cabinet of natural history of the academy at St Petersburg, is +preserved, among a number of uncommon animals, Lisette, the favourite +dog of the Russian monarch. She was a small, dun-coloured Italian +greyhound, and very fond of her master, whom she never quitted but when +he went out, and then she laid herself down on his couch. At his return +she showed her fondness by a thousand caresses, followed him wherever he +went, and during his afternoon nap lay always at his feet. + +A person belonging to the court, having excited the anger of the czar--I +do not know by what means--was confined in the fort, and there was +reason to suppose that he would receive the punishment of the knout on +the first market-day. The whole court, and the empress herself, thought +him innocent, and considered the anger of the czar as excessive and +unjust. Every means was tried to save him, and the first opportunity +taken to intercede in his favour. But, so far from succeeding, it served +only to irritate the emperor the more, who forbade all persons, even the +empress, to speak for the prisoner, and, above all, to present any +petition on the subject, under the pain of incurring his highest +displeasure. + +It was supposed that no resource remained to save the culprit. However, +those who in concert with the czarina interested themselves in his +favour, devised the means of urging their suit without incurring the +penalty of the prohibition. + +They composed a short but pathetic petition, in the name of Lisette. +After having set forth her uncommon fidelity to her master, she adduced +the strongest proofs of innocence of the prisoner, entreated the czar to +take the matter into consideration, and to be propitious to her prayer, +by granting him his liberty. + +This petition was tied to her collar, in such a manner as to be easily +visible. + +On the czar's return from the Admiralty and Senate, Lisette, as usual, +came leaping about him; and he perceived the paper, folded in the form +of a petition. He took, and read it--"What!" said he; "Lisette, do you +also present me petitions? Well, as it is the first time, I grant your +prayer." He immediately sent a denthtchick[89] to the fort, with orders +to set the prisoner at liberty. + + +THE LIGHT COMPANY'S POODLE AND SIR F. PONSONBY. + +Captain Gronow, in his gossiping book,[90] says--"Every regiment has a +pet of some sort or another. One distinguished Highland regiment +possesses a deer; the Welsh Fusiliers a goat, which is the object of +their peculiar affection, and which generally marches with the band. The +light company of my battalion of the 1st Guards in 1813 rejoiced in a +very handsome poodle, which, if I mistake not, had been made prisoner at +Vittoria. At the commencement of the battle of the 9th of December 1813, +near the mayor's house, not far from Bidart, we observed the gallant +Frederick Ponsonby well in front with the skirmishers, and by the side +of his horse the soldiers' poodle. The colonel was encouraging our men +to advance, and the poodle, in great glee, was jumping and barking at +the bullets, as they flew round him like hail. On a sudden we observed +Ponsonby struggling with a French mounted officer, whom he had already +disarmed, and was endeavouring to lead off to our lines; when the French +skirmishers, whose numbers had increased, fired several shots, and +wounded Ponsonby, forcing him to relinquish his prisoner, and to retire. +At the same time, a bullet broke one of the poor dog's legs. For his +gallant conduct in this affair, the poodle became, if possible, a still +greater favourite than he was before; and his friends, the men of the +light company, took him to England, where I saw my three-legged friend +for several years afterwards, the most prosperous of poodles, and the +happiest of the canine race." + + +ADMIRAL RODNEY AND HIS DOG LOUP. + +Earl Stanhope, in his History,[91] remarks--"To those who love to trace +the lesser lights and shades of human character, I shall owe no apology +if I venture to record of the conqueror of De Grasse, that even in his +busiest hours he could turn some kindly thoughts not only to his family +and friends, but to his dog in England. That dog, named Loup, was of the +French fox-breed, and so attached to his master, that when the admiral +left home to take the command of his fleet, the faithful animal remained +for three days in his chamber, watching his coat, and refusing food. The +affection was warmly returned. On many more than one occasion we find +Rodney wrote much as follows to his wife--'Remember me to my dear girls +and my faithful friend Loup; I know you will kiss him for me.'"[92] + + +RUDDIMAN AND HIS DOG RASCAL. + +George Chalmers, in his Life of the learned Thomas Ruddiman,[93] tells +us that "young Ruddiman was initiated in grammar at the parish-school of +Boyndie, in Banffshire, which was distant a mile from his father's +dwelling; and which was then taught by George Morison, whom his pupil +always praised for his attention and his skill. To this school the boy +walked every morning, carrying his daily provisions with him. He is said +to have been daily accompanied by a dog, which, when he had proceeded to +the top of Tooting-hillock, the halfway resting-place, always returned +home after partaking of his victuals. This story is still (1794) +remembered, as if there were in it something supernatural. We may +suppose, however, that the excursion was equally agreeable to both +parties; and when it was once known that the dog was to eat at a +particular place at a stated hour, an appropriate allowance was +constantly made for him. Whether Ruddiman had a natural fondness for +dogs, or whether a particular attachment began, when impressions are +easily made, which are long remembered, cannot now be ascertained. He +certainly, throughout a long life, had a succession of dogs, which were +invariably called _Rascal_; and which, being springing spaniels, ever +accompanied him in all his walks. He used, with affectionate +recollection, to entertain his friends with stories of dogs, which all +tended to show the fidelity of that useful animal to man." + + * * * * * + +Mrs Schimmelpenninck, authoress of "Select Memoirs of Port Royal," died +in 1856. Her interesting Autobiography and Life were published in 1858 +by her relation, Christiana C. Hankin. In p. 467 it is remarked that +"her love of animals formed quite a feature in her daily habits. Like St +Francis, she delighted to attract the little birds, by tempting them +with dainty food upon her verandah; and it was a positive pleasure to +her to watch their feast. She had a bag made, which was always filled +with oats, to regale any stray horse or ass; and she has been seen +surrounded by four goats, each standing on its hind legs, with its +uplifted front feet resting on her, and all eagerly claiming the salt +she had prepared for them. But her great delight was in dogs. She never +forgot those sad hours in childhood, when, unable to mix in the sports +of children from illness (perhaps, too, from her want of sympathy in the +usual pleasures of that age), the beautiful dogs at Barr were her +companions and friends. + +"It is no figure of speech to say that she had a large acquaintance +amongst the dogs at Clifton. She always carried a pocketful of biscuit +to feed them; and she had a canine friend who for years was in the daily +habit of waiting at her door to accompany her morning walk, after which +he received his little portion of biscuit, and returned to his home. +Timid as Mrs Schimmelpenninck was by nature and by habit, she had no +idea of personal fear of animals, and especially of dogs. I have seen +her go up without hesitation to some splendid specimen of the race, of +which everybody else was afraid, to stroke him, or offer food; when the +noble creature, with that fine perception often so remarkably manifested +by dogs and children, would look up in her face, and then return her +caress, and crouch down at her feet in love and confidence. Her own two +beautiful little spaniels were her constant companions in her walks; +their happy gambols were always a source of pleasure."[94] + + * * * * * + +Sir Walter Scott loved dogs dearly. In his novels and poetical works his +knowledge of them and his regard often appear. He loved them, from the +stately deerhound to the wiry terrier. He was quite up to the ways of +their education. Dandie Dinmont, in "Guy Mannering," speaking of his +terriers, says, "I had them a' regularly entered, first wi' rottens, +then wi' stots and weasels, and then wi' the tods and brocks, and now +they fear naething that ever comes wi' a hairy skin on't." Then, again, +read Washington Irving's description of his visit to Abbotsford, and +how, on Scott taking him out for a walk, a host of his dogs attended, +evidently as a matter of course. He often spoke to them during the walk. +The American author was struck with the stately gravity of the noble +staghound Maida, while the younger dogs gambolled about him, and tried +to get him to gambol. Maida would occasionally turn round suddenly, and +give one of the playful creatures a tumble, and look at Scott and +Irving, as much as to say, "You see, gentlemen, I cannot help giving way +to this nonsense;" when on he would go as grave as ever. "I make no +doubt," said Scott to his companion, "when Maida is alone with these +young dogs, he throws gravity aside, and plays the boy as much as any of +them; but he is ashamed to do so in our company, and seems to say, "Ha' +done with your nonsense, youngsters; what will the laird and that other +gentleman think of me if I give way to such foolery?" A little volume +might almost be made on Sir Walter Scott and his dogs. Wilkie, Allan, +and especially Sir Edwin Landseer, have handed down to us the portraits +of many of them. His works, and biography by Lockhart, and the writings +of his many visitors, would afford many an interesting extract. + + +SHERIDAN ON THE DOG-TAX. + +In 1796, a tax, which caused great discontent and ridicule, was laid for +the first time upon dogs. Mr Wright, in his "England under the House of +Hanover," says--"The debates on this tax in the House of Commons appear +to have been extremely amusing. In opposing the motion to go into +committee, Sheridan objected that the bill was most curiously worded, as +it was, in the first instance, entitled, 'A bill for the protection of +his Majesty's subjects against dogs.' 'From these words,' he said, 'one +would imagine that dogs had been guilty of burglary, though he believed +they were a better protection to their masters' property than watchmen.' +After having entertained the House with some stories about mad dogs, and +giving a discourse upon dogs in general, he asked, 'Since there was an +exception in favour of puppies, at what age they were to be taxed, and +how the exact age was to be ascertained?' The Secretary at War, who +spoke against the bill, said, 'It would be wrong to destroy in the poor +that _virtuous feeling_ which they had for their dog.' In committee, Mr +Lechmere called the attention of the House to ladies' 'lap-dogs.' He +knew a lady who had _sixteen_ lap-dogs, and who allowed them a roast +shoulder of veal every day for dinner, while many poor persons were +starving; was it not, therefore, right to tax lap-dogs very high? He +knew another lady who kept one favourite dog, when well, on Savoy +biscuits soaked in Burgundy, and when ailing (by the advice of a doctor) +on minced chicken and sweetbread! Among the caricatures on this subject, +one by Gillray (of which there were imitations) represented Fox and his +friends, hanged upon a gallows, as 'dogs not worth a tax;' while the +supporters of Government, among whom is Burke, with 'G. R.' on his +collar, are ranged as well-fed dogs 'paid for.'"[95] + + +SYDNEY SMITH DISLIKES DOGS. + +AN INGENIOUS WAY OF GETTING RID OF THEM. + +Lady Holland tells us[96] that her father, the witty canon of St Paul's, +disliked dogs. "During one of his visits to London, at a dinner at +Spencer House, the conversation turned upon dogs. 'Oh,' said my father, +'one of the greatest difficulties I have had with my parishioners has +been on the subject of dogs.'--'How so?' said Lord Spencer.--'Why, when +I first went down into Yorkshire, there had not been a resident +clergyman in my parish for a hundred and fifty years. Each farmer kept a +huge mastiff dog ranging at large, and ready to make his morning meal on +clergy or laity, as best suited his particular taste. I never could +approach a cottage in pursuit of my calling but I rushed into the jaws +of one of these shaggy monsters. I scolded, preached, and prayed without +avail; so I determined to try what fear for their pockets might do. +Forthwith appeared in the county papers a minute account of the trial of +a farmer, at the Northampton Sessions, for keeping dogs unconfined; +where said farmer was not only fined five pounds and reprimanded by the +magistrates, but sentenced to three months' imprisonment. The effect was +wonderful, and the reign of Cerberus ceased in the land.'--'That +accounts,' said Lord Spencer, 'for what has puzzled me and Althorp for +many years. We never failed to attend the sessions at Northampton, and +we never could find out how we had missed this remarkable dog case.'" + + +SYDNEY SMITH ON DOGS.[97] + +"No, I don't like dogs; I always expect them to go mad. A lady asked me +once for a motto for her dog Spot. I proposed, 'Out, damned Spot!' But +she did not think it sentimental enough. You remember the story of the +French marquise, who, when her pet lap-dog bit a piece out of her +footman's leg, exclaimed, 'Ah, poor little beast! I hope it won't make +him sick.' I called one day on Mrs ----, and her lap-dog flew at my leg +and bit it. After pitying her dog, like the French marquise, she did all +she could to comfort me by assuring me the dog was a Dissenter, and +hated the Church, and was brought up in a Tory family. But whether the +bite came from madness or Dissent, I knew myself too well to neglect it, +and went on the instant to a surgeon, and had it cut out, making a mem. +on the way to enter that house no more." + + +SYDNEY SMITH'S "NEWFOUNDLAND DOG THAT BREAKFASTED ON PARISH BOYS." + +The Rev. Sydney Smith used to be much amused when he observed the utter +want of perception of a joke in some minds. One instance we may cite +from his "Memoirs:"[98] "Miss ----, the other day, walking round the +grounds at Combe Florey, exclaimed, 'Oh, why do you chain up that fine +Newfoundland dog, Mr Smith?'--'Because it has a passion for breakfasting +on parish boys.'--'Parish boys!' she exclaimed; 'does he really eat +boys, Mr Smith?'--'Yes, he devours them, buttons and all.' Her face of +horror made me die of laughing." + + +SOUTHEY ON DOGS. + +Southey was likewise not a little attached to the memory at least of +dogs, as may be inferred by the following passage in a letter to Mr +Bedford, Jan. 27, 1823. Snivel was a dog belonging to Mr B. in early +days. "We had an adventure this morning, which, if poor Snivel had been +living, would have set up her bristles in great style. A foumart was +caught in the back kitchen; you may perhaps know it better by the name +of polecat. It is the first I ever saw or smelt; and certainly it was in +high odour. Poor Snivel! I still have the hairs which we cut from her +tail thirty years ago; and if it were the fashion for men to wear +lockets, in a locket they should be worn, for I never had a greater +respect for any creature upon four legs than for poor Sni. See how +naturally men fall into relic worship; when I have preserved the +memorials of that momentary whim so many years, and through so many +removals."[99] + + +DOG, A GOOD JUDGE OF ELOCUTION. + +When Dr Leifchild, of Craven Chapel, London, was a student at Hoxton +Academy, there was a good lecturer on elocution there of the name of +True. In the Memoir, published in 1863, are some pleasing reminiscences +by Dr Leifchild of this excellent teacher, who seems to have taken great +pains with the students, and to have awakened in their breasts a desire +to become proficients in the art of speaking. The doctor himself was an +admirable example of the proficiency thus attained under good Mr True. +He records[100] a ludicrous circumstance which occurred one day. "In +reciting Satan's address to the evil spirits from 'Paradise Lost,' a +stout student was enjoined to pronounce the three words, 'Princes, +potentates, warriors,' in successively louder tones, and to speak out +boldly. He hardly needed this advice, for the first word came out like +distant thunder, the second like approaching thunder, and the third like +a terribly near and loud clap. At this last the large housedog, +Pompey, who had been asleep under the teacher's chair, started up and +jumped out of the window into the garden. 'The dog is a good judge, +sir,' mildly remarked Mr True." + + +COWPER'S DOG BEAU AND THE WATER-LILY. + +ILLUSTRATED BY THE STORY OF AS INTELLIGENT A DOG. + +In _Blackwood's Magazine_ for 1818 there is an address, in blank verse, +by Mr Patrick Fraser Tytler, "To my Dog." Mr Tytler's brother-in-law, Mr +Hog,[101] recorded the fact on which this address was founded in his +diary at the time. "Peter tells a delightful anecdote of Cossack, an +Isle of Skye terrier, which belonged originally to his brother at +Aldourie. It was amazingly fond of his children, one of which, having +fallen on the gravel and hurt itself, began to cry out. Cossack tried in +vain to comfort it by leaping upon it and licking its face. Finding all +his efforts to pacify the child fruitless, he ran off to a mountain-ash +tree, and leaping up, pulled a branch of red _rowan_ berries and carried +it in his mouth to the child." + + +HORACE WALPOLE'S PET DOG ROSETTE. + +Horace Walpole, writing to Lord Nuneham in November 1773,[102] +says:--"The rest of my time has been employed in nursing Rosette--alas! +to no purpose. After suffering dreadfully for a fortnight from the time +she was seized at Nuneham, she has only languished till about ten days +ago. As I have nothing to fill my letter, I will send you her epitaph; +it has no merit, for it is an imitation, but in coming from the heart if +ever epitaph did, and therefore your dogmanity will not dislike it-- + + 'Sweetest roses of the year, + Strew around my Rose's bier, + Calmly may the dust repose + Of my pretty, faithful Rose! + And if yon cloud-topp'd hill[103] behind + This frame dissolved, this breath resign'd, + Some happier isle, some humbler heaven, + Be to my trembling wishes given; + Admitted to that equal sky, + May sweet Rose bear me company!'" + + +ARRIVAL OF TONTON, A PET DOG, TO WALPOLE.--TONTON DOES NOT UNDERSTAND +ENGLISH. + +Horace Walpole, in May 1781,[104] had announced Tonton's arrival to his +correspondent, the Hon. H. S. Conway. He says:--"I brought him this +morning to take possession of his new villa, but his inauguration has +not been at all pacific. As he has already found out that he may be as +despotic as at St Joseph's, he began with exiling my beautiful little +cat, upon which, however, we shall not quite agree. He then flew at one +of my dogs, who returned it by biting his foot till it bled, but was +severely beaten for it. I immediately rung for Margaret (his +housekeeper) to dress his foot; but in the midst of my tribulation could +not keep my countenance, for she cried, 'Poor little thing; he does not +understand my language!' I hope she will not recollect, too, that he is +a Papist!" In a postscript he tells the general that Tonton "is a +cavalier, and a little of the _mousquetaire_ still; but if I do not +correct his vivacities, at least I shall not encourage them, like my +dear old friend." + +In a letter of about the same date to Mason the poet, he again alludes +to his fondness of Tonton, but adds--"I have no occasion to brag of my +dogmanity."[105] + +Horace Walpole, in 1774, thus refers to Margaret, in a letter to Lady +Ossory:--"Who is to have the care of the dear mouse in your absence? I +wish I could spare Margaret, who loves all creatures so well that she +would have been happy in the ark, and sorry when the deluge ceased; +unless people had come to see Noah's old house, which she would have +liked still better than cramming his menagerie."[106] A sly allusion to +the numerous fees Margaret got from visitors. Horace, in another of his +letters, alludes to this, and, in a joke, proposes to marry Margaret to +enrich himself. + + +HORACE WALPOLE.--DEATH OF HIS DOG TONTON. + +Horace Walpole, writing to the Countess of Ossory, Feb. 24, 1789,[107] +says:--"I delayed telling you that Tonton is dead, and that I comfort +myself. He was grown stone deaf, and very nearly equally blind, and so +weak that the two last days he could not walk up-stairs. Happily he had +not suffered, and died close by my side without a pang or a groan. I +have had the satisfaction, for my dear old friend's sake and his own, of +having nursed him up, by constant attention, to the age of sixteen, yet +always afraid of his surviving me, as it was scarcely possible he could +meet a third person who would study his happiness equally. I sent him to +Strawberry, and went thither on Sunday to see him buried behind the +chapel near Rosette. I shall miss him greatly, and must not have another +dog; I am too old, and should only breed it up to be unhappy when I am +gone. My resource is in two marble kittens that Mrs Damer has given me, +of her own work, and which are so much alive that I talk to them, as I +did to poor Tonton! If this is being superannuated, no matter; when +dotage can amuse itself it ceases to be an evil. I fear my marble +playfellows are better adapted to me, than I am to being your ladyship's +correspondent." Poor Tonton was left to Walpole by "poor dear Madame de +Deffand." In a letter to the Rev. Mr Cole, in 1781, he announces its +arrival, and how "she made me promise to take care of it the last time I +saw her. That I will most religiously, and make it as happy as is +possible."[108] + + +ARCHBISHOP WHATELY AND HIS DOGS. + +"In these rambles he was generally attended by three +uncompromising-looking dogs, the heads of which, if it were possible to +draw them together in shamrock form, would forcibly suggest Cerberus. +Richard Whately found, or thought he found, in the society of these dogs +far brighter intelligence, and infinitely more fidelity, than in many of +the Oxford men, who had been fulsomely praised for both. + +"In devotion to his dogs, Dr Whately continued true to the end of his +life, and during the winter season might be daily seen in St Stephen's +Green, Dublin, playing at 'tig' or 'hide and seek' with his canine +attendants. Sometimes the old archbishop might be seen clambering up a +tree, secreting his handkerchief or pocket-knife in some cunning nook, +then resuming his walk, and, after a while, suddenly affecting to have +lost these articles, which the dogs never failed immediately to regain. + +"That he was a close observer of the habits of dogs and other quadrupeds +we have evidence in his able lecture on 'Animal Instinct.' Dr Whately, +when referring to another subject, once said not irrelevantly, 'The +power of duly appreciating _little_ things belongs to a great mind: a +narrow-minded man has it not, for to him they are _great_ things.' Dr +Whately was of opinion that some brutes were as capable of exercising +reason as instinct. In his 'Lectures and Reviews' (p. 64) he tells of a +dog which, being left on the bank of a river by his master, who had gone +up the river in a boat, attempted to join him. He plunged into the +water, but not making allowance for the strength of the stream, which +carried him considerably below the boat, he could not beat up against +it. He landed, and made allowance for the current of the river by +leaping in at a place higher up. The combined action of the stream and +his swimming carried him in an oblique direction, and he thus reached +the boat. Dr Whately adopts the following conclusion--'It appears, then, +that we can neither deny reason universally and altogether to brutes, +nor instinct to man; but that each possesses a share of both, though in +very different proportions.'"[109] + + +SIR DAVID WILKIE COULD NOT SEE A PUN.--"A DOG-ROSE." + +The son and biographer of William Collins, the Royal Academician,[110] +quotes from a manuscript collection of anecdotes, written by that +charming painter of country life and landscape, the following on Sir +David Wilkie:--"Wilkie was not quick in perceiving a joke, although he +was always anxious to do so, and to recollect humorous stories, of which +he was exceedingly fond. As instances, I recollect once when we were +staying at Mr Wells's, at Redleaf, one morning at breakfast a very small +puppy was running about under the table. 'Dear me,' said a lady, 'how +this creature teases me!' I took it up and put it into my breast-pocket. +Mr Wells said, 'That is a pretty nosegay.'--'Yes,' said I, 'it is a +dog-rose.' Wilkie's attention, sitting opposite, was called to his +friend's pun, but all in vain. He could not be persuaded to see anything +in it. I recollect trying once to explain to him, with the same want of +success, Hogarth's joke in putting the sign of the woman without a head +('The Good Woman') under the window from which the quarrelsome wife is +throwing the dinner into the street." + + +ULYSSES AND HIS DOG. + +Richard Payne Knight, in his "Inquiry into the Principles of +Taste,"[111] when treating of the "sublime and pathetic," quotes the +story of Ulysses and his dog, as follows:--"No Dutch painter ever +exhibited an image less imposing, or less calculated to inspire awe and +terror, or any other of Burke's symptoms or sources of the sublime +(unless, indeed, it be a stink), than the celebrated dog of Ulysses +lying upon a dunghill, covered with vermin and in the agonies of death; +yet, when in such circumstances, on hearing the voice of his old master, +who had been absent twenty years, he pricks his ears, wags his tail, and +expires, what heart is not at once melted, elevated, and expanded with +all those glowing feelings which Longinus has so well described as the +genuine effects of the true sublime? That master, too--the patient, +crafty, and obdurate Ulysses, who encounters every danger and bears +every calamity with a constancy unshaken, a spirit undepressed, and a +temper unruffled--when he sees this faithful old servant perishing in +want, misery, and neglect, yet still remembering his long-lost +benefactor, and collecting the last effort of expiring nature to give a +sign of joy and gratulation at his return, hides his face and wipes away +the tear! This is true sublimity of character, which is always mixed +with tenderness--mere sanguinary ferocity being terrible and odious, but +never sublime. [Greek: Agathoi polydakrytoi andres]--_Men prone to tears +are brave_, says the proverbial Greek hemistich; for courage, which does +not arise from mere coarseness of organisation, but from that sense of +dignity and honour which constitutes the generous pride of a high mind, +is founded in sensibility." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[46] "The Olio," by the late Francis Grose, Esq., F.A.S., p. 203. + +[47] "Dogs and their Ways;" illustrated by numerous anecdotes, compiled +from authentic sources, by the Rev. Charles Williams. 1863. + +[48] It may interest the reader, who does not dive deep into literary +curiosities, to refer to the original edition of Hayley's "Cowper" (4to, +1803, vol. i. p. 314), where the poet, in a letter to Samuel Rose, Esq., +written at Weston, August 18, 1788, alludes to his having "composed a +_spick_ and _span_ new piece called 'The Dog and the Water-lily;'" and +in his next letter, September 11, he sent this piece to his excellent +friend, the London barrister. Visitors to Olney and Weston, who have +gone over the poet's walks, cannot but have their love for the gentle +and afflicted Cowper most deeply _intensified_.--_See_ Miller's "First +Impressions." + +[49] This book, like Storer's other illustrations of the scenes of the +poems of Burns and Bloomfield, drawn immediately after the death of +these poets, will become year by year more valuable. + +[50] "Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Sir James Mackintosh," +edited by his son, Robert James Mackintosh, Esq., vol. i. p. 164. + +[51] "Bawsn't," having a white stripe down the face.--_Glossary to +Burns's Poems._ + +[52] See an extract farther on, in proof of this. + +[53] "The Jordan and the Rhine" (1854), p. 46, and pp. 91-93. + +[54] _See_ Layard's "Nineveh and its Remains," vol. ii. (1849), p. 425. + +[55] "Ladak, Physical, Statistical, and Historical," p. 218. + +[56] "Memoir of Bishop Blomfield," by his son, i. 220. + +[57] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 177. + +[58] A selection from the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. London, +1866, pp. 134-138. + +[59] "Memoirs of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart.," edited by his son, +Charles Buxton, Esq., B.A., third edition, p. 139. + +[60] Moore's "Life of Byron," chap. vii. p. 74. + +[61] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 279. + +[62] "Memoirs of the Life of Wm. Collins, R.A.," by his Son, i. 105. + +[63] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 203. + +[64] _Loc. cit._ p. 213. + +[65] "The Life, Character, and Literary Labours of Samuel Drew, A.M.," +by his eldest son, p. 66. + +[66] "Memoirs of Samuel Foote, Esq.," &c., by W. Cooke, Esq., vol. ii. +p. 36. + +[67] "Life of Thomas Gainsborough, R.A.," by the late George William +Fulcher, p. 155. + +[68] _Edinburgh Review_, 1836, vol. lxiv. p. 17. + +[69] "Life and Letters of Elizabeth, last Duchess of Gordon," by the +Rev. A. Moody Stuart, 1865, pp. 198-200. + +[70] Portion of the Journal kept by Thomas Raikes, Esq., from 1831 to +1837, vol. iii. p. 134. + +[71] "Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds," by C. R. Leslie, R.A. and +Tom Taylor, M.A., vol. ii. p. 191. + +[72] "John Leifchild, D.D. His Public Ministry, &c.," by J. R. +Leifchild, A.M., p. 143. + +[73] Agnes Strickland, "Lives of the Queens of England," vol. v. p. 293 +(ed. 1851). + +[74] "A History of Peeblesshire," by William Chambers of Glenormiston, +p. 428. + +[75] Vol. i. p. 156. + +[76] Memoir by his friend, the Rev. John W. Burgon, p. 204. + +[77] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 44. + +[78] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 43. + +[79] "Charles Lamb: his Friends, his Haunts, and his Books," by Percy +Fitzgerald, M.A., 1866, p. 161. + +[80] Cunningham's Edition of Correspondence, viii. p. 331. + +[81] "The Table Talk; or, Familiar Discourse of Martin Luther," p. 66. + +[82] "The Diary of an Invalid; being the Journal of a Tour in Pursuit of +Health in Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, and France in 1817-1819," p. +144. + +[83] "Common-Place Book," 4th ser. p. 423. + +[84] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 24. + +[85] "Memoir of Baron Larrey, Surgeon-in-chief of the Grande Armée." +London. 1861. P. 191. + +[86] "England under the House of Hanover," by Thomas Wright, Esq., M.A., +vol. ii. p. 57. + +[87] "Memoir of Perthes," vol. ii. pp. 153-4. + +[88] "Original Anecdotes of Peter the Great, collected from the +conversation of several persons of distinction at St Petersburg and +Moscow," by Mr Stoehlin, Member of the Imp. Acad., St Peters., p. 306. + +[89] A denthtchick is a soldier appointed to wait on an officer. + +[90] "Recollections and Anecdotes," 2d ser., by Capt. R. H. Gronow, p. +194 (1863). + +[91] "History of England, from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of +Versailles," by Lord Mahon, vii. p. 261. + +[92] See Mundy's "Life of Lord Rodney," vol. i. 258. "Remember me to my +dear girls and poor Loup. Kiss them for me. I hope they were pleased +with my letter." Vol. ii. p. 28. + +[93] "Life of Thomas Ruddiman, A.M., the Keeper for almost fifty years +of the Library belonging to the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh," p. 4. + +[94] See her "Autobiography," p. 85, for an anecdote of her saving a +little dog, tied in a basket of stones, from the water. She called it +"Moses." + +[95] Vol. ii. pp. 264, 265. + +[96] "Memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith," by his daughter, Lady Holland, +&c., vol. i. p. 200. + +[97] "Life of the Rev. Sydney Smith," by his daughter, Lady Holland, +&c., vol. i. p. 379. + +[98] Vol. i. p. 267. + +[99] "Life and Correspondence," vol. v. p. 133. + +[100] "John Leifchild, D.D., his Public Ministry, Private Usefulness, +and Personal Characteristics," founded upon an autobiography, by J. R. +Leifchild, A.M., p. 34. + +[101] See Burgon's "Memoir of Patrick F. Tytler," p. 140. + +[102] Letter first published in Cunningham's Chronological Edition, vol. +vi. p. 4. + +[103] Richmond Hill. The dog died at Strawberry Hill. + +[104] Correspondence, chronologically arranged by Peter Cunningham, +viii. p. 39. + +[105] _Loc. cit._, p. 44. + +[106] Vol. vi. p. 117. + +[107] "The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford," edited by Peter +Cunningham, now first chronologically arranged, ix. p. 173. + +[108] _Loc. cit._, viii. p. 35. + +[109] Fitzpatrick, "Memoirs of Richard Whately, Archbishop of Dublin," +vol. i. pp. 21, 22 (1864). + +[110] "Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, R.A.," by his son, W. +Wilkie Collins, i. 193. + +[111] Third edition, 1806, p. 385. + + + + +WOLF. + + +Surely the man should get a monument who is proved to have killed the +last she-wolf in these islands. How closely allied the wolf is to the +dog may be clearly read in the accounts of Polar winterings. Some of the +larger butchers' dogs are singularly wolf-like, and it seems to be +_that_ variety which occasionally, as it were, resumes its wolfish +habits of prowling at night and killing numbers of sheep in certain +districts, as we sometimes read in the country papers of the day. In +Strathearn, we lately heard of a very recent instance of this wolf-like +ferocity breaking out. The dog was traced with great difficulty, and at +last shot. He proved to be of the kind alluded to. + + +POLSON AND THE LAST SCOTTISH WOLF. + +Mr Scrope[112] describes, from traditions still existing on the east +coast of Sutherland, the destruction of what is supposed to have been +the last Scottish wolf and her cubs. This was between 1690 and 1700. +This wolf had committed many depredations on their flocks, and the +inhabitants had been unsuccessful in their attempts to hunt it down. + +A man named Polson, attended by two herd boys, went in search of it. + +Polson was an old hunter, and had much experience in tracing and +destroying wolves and other predatory animals. Forming his own +conjectures, he proceeded at once to the wild and rugged ground that +surrounds the rocky mountain-gulley which forms the channel of the burn +of Sledale. Here, after a minute investigation, he discovered a narrow +fissure in the midst of a confused mass of large fragments of rock, +which, upon examination, he had reason to think might lead to a larger +opening or cavern below, which the wolf might use as his den. Stones +were now thrown down, and other means resorted to, to rouse any animal +that might be lurking within. Nothing formidable appearing, the two lads +contrived to squeeze themselves through the fissure, that they might +examine the interior, while Polson kept guard on the outside. The boys +descended through the narrow passage into a small cavern, which was +evidently a wolf's den, for the ground was covered with bones and horns +of animals, feathers, and egg-shells; and the dark space was somewhat +enlivened by five or six active wolf cubs. Not a little dubious of the +event, the voices of the poor boys came up hollow and anxious from +below, communicating this intelligence. Polson at once desired them to +do their best, and to destroy the cubs. Soon after, he heard the feeble +howling of the whelps as they were attacked below, and saw almost at the +same time, to his great horror, a full-grown wolf, evidently the dam, +raging furiously at the cries of her young, and now close upon the mouth +of the cavern, which she had approached unobserved, among the rocky +irregularities of the place. She attempted to leap down at one bound +from the spot where she was first seen. In this emergency, Polson +instinctively threw himself forward on the wolf, and succeeded in +catching a firm hold of the animal's long and bushy tail, just as the +forepart of the body was within the narrow entrance of the cavern. He +had unluckily placed his gun against a rock, when aiding the boys in +their descent, and could not now reach it. Without apprising the lads +below of their imminent peril, the stout hunter kept firm grip of the +wolf's tail, which he wound round his left arm; and although the +maddened brute scrambled, and twisted, and strove with all her might to +force herself down to the rescue of her cubs, Polson was just able, with +the exertion of all his strength, to keep her from going forward. In the +midst of this singular struggle, which passed in silence--for the wolf +was mute, and the hunter, either from the engrossing nature of his +exertions, or from his unwillingness to alarm the boys, spoke not a word +at the commencement of the conflict--his son within the cave, finding +the light excluded from above, asked in Gaelic, and in an abrupt tone, +"Father, what is keeping the light from us?"--"If the root of the tail +break," replied he, "you will soon know that." Before long, however, the +man contrived to get hold of his hunting-knife, and stabbed the wolf in +the most vital parts he could reach. The enraged animal now attempted to +turn and face her foe, but the hole was too narrow to allow of this; and +when Polson saw his danger, he squeezed her forward, keeping her jammed +in, whilst he repeated his stabs as rapidly as he could, until the +animal, being mortally wounded, was easily dragged back and finished. + + * * * * * + +A similar story has been given, with the wilds of Canada for the scene. +The young Highlander was said to be dirking pigs, while the father was +keeping guard. "Phat's keeping out the licht, fayther?" shouts the +son.--"If ta tail preaks, tou 'lt fine tat," were the question and +answer. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[112] "The Art of Deer-Stalking," &c., by William Scrope, Esq., F.L.S., +p. 371. + + + + +FOX. + + +The sharp-faced fox is a very epitome of cunning, and his name is a +by-word for slyness. Farmers know well that no fox, nestling close to +their houses, ever meddles with their poultry. Reynard rambles a good +way from home before he begins to plunder. How admirable is Professor +Wilson's description of fox-hunting, quoted here from the "Noctes." Sir +Walter Scott, in one of his topographical essays, has given a curious +account of the way in which a fox, acquainted with the "ins and outs" of +a certain old castle, outwitted a whole pack of dogs, who had to jump up +singly to get through a small window to which Reynard led them. His +large tail, so bushy and so free, is of great use to Reynard. He often +brushes the eyes of his pursuers with it when sprinkled with water +anything but sweet, and which, by its pungency, for a time blinds them. +The pursuit of the fox is most exciting, and turns out the lord "of high +degree," and the country squire and farmer. It is the most +characteristic sport of the "better classes" in this country. + + +AN ENTHUSIASTIC FOX-HUNTING SURGEON.[113] + +A medical gentleman, named Hansted, residing near Newbury, who was very +fond of fox-hunting, ordered his gardener to set a trap for some vermin +that infested his garden. As ill luck would have it, a fox was found in +the morning with his leg broken, instead of a plant-eating rabbit. The +gardener took Reynard to the doctor, when he exclaimed, "Why did you not +call me up in the night, that I might have set the leg?" Better late +than never: the surgeon set the leg; the fox recovered, and was killed +in due form, after a capital run. + + +FOX-HUNTING. + +(_From the "Noctes Ambrosianæ," April 1826._[114]) + +_North._ It seems fox-hunting, too, is cruel. + +_Shepherd._ To wham? Is't cruel to dowgs, to feed fifty or sixty o' them +on crackers and ither sorts o' food, in a kennel like a Christian house, +wi' a clear burn flowin' through 't, and to gie them, twice a-week or +aftener, during the season, a brattlin rin o' thretty miles after a fox? +Is that cruelty to dowgs? + +_North._ But the fox, James? + +_Shepherd._ We'll come to the fox by and by. Is't cruel to horses, to +buy a hundred o' them for ae hunt, rarely for less than a hundred pounds +each, and aften for five hundred--to feed them on five or sax feeds o' +corn _per diem_--and to gie them skins as sleek as satin--and to gar +them nicher (_neigh_) wi' fu'ness o' bluid, sae that every vein in their +bodies starts like sinnies (_sinews_)--and to gallop them like deevils +in a hurricane, up hill and doun brae, and loup or soom canals and +rivers, and flee ower hedges, and dikes, and palings, like birds, and +drive crashin' through woods, like elephants or rhinoceroses--a' the +while every coorser flingin' fire-flaughts (_flakes_) frae his een, and +whitening the sweat o' speed wi' the foam o' fury--I say, ca' you that +cruelty to horses, when the hunt charge with all their chivalry, and +plain, mountain, or forest are shook by the quadrupedal thunder? + +_North._ But the fox, James? + +_Shepherd._ We'll come to the fox by and by. Is 't cruel to +men to inspirit wi' a rampagin happiness fivescore o' the flower o' +England or Scotland's youth, a' wi' caps and red coats, and whups in +their hauns--a troop o' lauchin, tearin', tallyhoin' "wild and wayward +humorists," as the doctor ca'd them the tither Sunday? + +_North._ I like the expression, James. + +_Shepherd._ So do I, or I would not have quoted it. But it's just as +applicable to a set o' outrageous ministers, eatin' and drinkin', and +guffawin' at a Presbytery denner. + +_North._ But the fox, James? + +_Shepherd._ We'll come to the fox by and by. Is't cruel to the lambs, +and leverets, and geese, and turkeys, and dyucks, and patricks, and wee +birds, and ither animal eatables, to kill the fox that devoors them, and +keeps them in perpetual het water? + +_North._ But the fox, James? + +_Shepherd._ Deevil take baith you and the fox; I said that we would come +to the fox by and by. Weel, then, wha kens that the fox isna away +snorin' happy afore the houn's? I hae nae doubt he is, for a fox is no +sae complete a coward as to think huntin' cruel; and his haill nature +is then on the alert, which in itsel' is happiness. Huntin' him fa'in +into languor and ennui, and growin' ower fat on how-towdies (_barn-door +fowls_). He's no killed every time he's hunted. + +_North._ Why, James, you might write for the "Annals of Sporting." + +_Shepherd._ So I do sometimes--and mair o' ye than me, I jalouse; but I +was gaun to ask ye if ye could imagine the delicht o' a fox gettin' into +an undiggable earth, just when the leadin' houn' was at his +hainches?--ae sic moment is aneuch to repay half an hour's draggle +through the dirt; and he can lick himsel' clean at his leisure, far ben +in the cranny o' the rock, and come out a' tosh and tidy by the first +dawn o' licht, to snuff the mornin' air, and visit the distant +farm-house before Partlet has left her perch, or Count Crow lifted his +head from beneath his oxter on his shed-seraglio. + +_North._ Was ye ever in at a death? Is not that cruel? + +_Shepherd._ Do you mean in at the death o' ae fox, or the death o' a +hundred thousand men and sixty thousand horses?--the takin' o' a Brush, +or a Borodino? + +_North._ My dear James, thank ye for your argument. As one Chalmers is +worth a thousand Martins, so is one Hogg worth a thousand Chalmerses. + +_Shepherd._ Ane may weel lose patience, to think o' fules being sorry +for the death o' a fox. When the jowlers tear him to pieces, he shows +fecht, and gangs aff in a snarl. Hoo could he dee mair easier?--and for +a' the gude he has ever dune, or was likely to do, he surely had leeved +lang eneuch. + + +ARCTIC FOX (_Vulpes lagopus_). + +This inoffensive and pretty little creature is found in all parts of the +Arctic lands. Its fur is peculiarly fine and thick; and as in winter +this is closer and more mixed with wool than it is in summer, the +intense cold of these regions is easily resisted. When sleeping rolled +up into a ball, with the black muzzle buried in the long hairs of the +tail, there is not a portion of the body but what is protected from the +cold, the shaggy hairs of the brush acting as a respirator or boa for +the mouth and a muff for the paws. Our Arctic travellers have remarked, +that it is a peculiarly cleanly animal, and its vigilance is extreme. It +is almost impossible to come on it unawares, for even when appearing to +be soundly asleep, it opens its eyes on the slightest noise being made. +During the day it appears to be listless, but no sooner has the night +set in than it is in motion, and it continues very active until morning. +The young migrate to the southward in the autumn, and sometimes collect +in great numbers on the shores of Hudson's Bay. Mr Graham noticed that +they came there in November and left in April. + +[Illustration: Arctic Fox. (Canis Lagopus.)] + +Sir James Ross found a fox's burrow on the sandy margin of a lake in the +month of July. It had several passages, each opening into a common cell, +beyond which was an inner nest, in which the young, six in number, were +found. These had the dusky, lead-coloured livery worn by the parents in +summer; and though four of them were kept alive till the following +winter, they never acquired the pure white coats of the old fox, but +retained the dusky colour on the face and sides of the body. The parents +had kept a good larder for their progeny, as the outer cell and the +several passages leading to it contained many lemmings and ermines, and +the bones of fish, ducks, and hares, in great quantities. Sir John +Richardson[115] observed them to live in villages, twenty or thirty +burrows being constructed close to each other. A pair were kept by Sir +James Ross for the express purpose of watching the changes which take +place in the colour of their fur. He noticed that they threw off their +winter dress during the first week in June, and that this change took +place a few days earlier in the female than in the male. About the end +of September the brown fur of the summer gradually became of an ash +colour, and by the middle of October it was perfectly white. It +continued to increase in thickness until the end of November.[116] A +variety of a blackish-brown colour is occasionally met with, but this is +rare: such specimens, Ross remarks, must have extreme difficulty in +surprising their prey in a country whose surface is of an unvaried +white, and must also be much more exposed to the persecutions of their +enemies. The food of this fox is various, but seems to consist +principally of lemmings and of birds and their eggs. He eats, too, the +berries of the _Empetrum nigrum_, a plant common on our own hills, and +goes to the shore for mussels and other shell-fish. Otho Fabricius[117] +says he catches the Arctic salmon as that fish approaches the shore to +spawn, and that he seizes too the haddock, having enticed it near by +beating the water. Crantz, in his "History of Greenland," evidently +alludes to this cunning habit when he observes, "They plash with their +feet in the water, to excite the curiosity of some kinds of fishes to +come and see what is going forward, and then they snap them up; and _the +Greenland women have learnt this piece of art from them_." Captain Lyon +noticed a fox prowling on a hill-side, and heard him for some hours +afterwards in the neighbourhood imitating the cry of the brent-goose. In +another part of his Journal he mentions that the bark is so modulated as +to give an idea that it proceeds from a distance, though at the time the +fox lies at your feet. It struck him that the creature was gifted "with +this kind of ventriloquism in order to deceive its prey as to the +distance it is from them." It sometimes catches the ptarmigan; and +though it cannot swim, it manages occasionally to get hold of oceanic +birds; in fact, nothing alive which it can master seems to come amiss, +and failing to make a meal from something it has caught and killed, the +Arctic fox is glad, like foxes in more favoured lands, to feed on +carrion. + +Captain M'Clintock, who commanded the yacht _Fox_ on the Franklin Arctic +search in 1857 and 1858, wintered in the ice pack of Baffin's Bay. One +of the party shot an Arctic fox when they were 140 miles from the land. +He records in a letter to his brother,[118] that this wanderer from the +shore "was very fat, living upon such few dovekies as were silly enough +to spend their winter in the pack." + +Martens, in his "Spitzbergen," says, that some of the ship's crew +informed him, that the fox when he is hungry "lies down as if he was +dead, until the birds fly to him to eat him, which by that trick he +catches and eats." Our author believed it a fable, but it may +nevertheless be one of the many expedients used by a species of a group +whose name is proverbial for craftiness and cunning. + +The flesh of the fox is occasionally eaten by the Esquimaux: Captain +Lyon, in his "Private Journal," says that at first all of his party were +horrified at the idea of eating foxes--"But very many soon got the +better of their fastidiousness and found them good eating; not being +myself very nice, I soon made the experiment, and found the flesh much +resembling that of kid, and afterwards frequently had a supper of it." + +Sir James Clarke Ross, during his five years' imprisonment in Boothia +Felix and the adjoining seas, had ample means of judging of its flavour; +he tells us that some of his party, who were the first to taste them, +named them "lambs," from their resemblance in flavour to very young +lamb. He adds, that the flesh of the old fox is by no means so +palatable. During that disastrous expedition the flesh of this fox +formed one of the principal luxuries of their table, and it was always +"reserved for holidays and great occasions. We ate them boiled, or, more +frequently after being parboiled, _roasted_, in a pitch kettle." + +When the Arctic Expedition in search of Franklin wintered in Leopold +Harbour in 1848-49, the commander, Sir J. C. Ross, made use of the +Arctic fox as a messenger. Having caught some of these animals in traps, +a collar with information for the missing parties was put round the neck +of each before liberation, as the fox is known to travel great distances +in search of food. On Captain Austin's subsequent expedition in 1850-51 +the same plan was carried out, but it was found to be equally without +result. Commander Osborn thus facetiously describes the +circumstance.[119] "Several animals thus intrusted with despatches or +records were liberated by different ships; but, as the truth must be +told, I fear in many cases the next night saw the poor 'postman,' as +Jack termed him, in another trap, out of which he would be taken, +killed, the skin taken off, and packed away to ornament at some future +day the neck of some fair Dulcinea. As a 'sub,' I was admitted into this +secret mystery, or, otherwise, I with others might have accounted for +the disappearance of the collared foxes by believing them busy on their +honourable mission. In order that the crime of killing 'the postmen' may +be recognised in its true light, it is but fair that I should say, that +the brutes, having partaken once of the good cheer on board or around +the ships, seldom seemed satisfied with the mere empty honours of a +copper collar, and returned to be caught over and over again. Strict +laws were laid down for their safety, such as that no fox taken alive in +a trap was to be killed: of course no fox was after this taken alive; +they were all unaccountably dead, unless it was some fortunate wight +whose brush and coat were worthless; in such case he lived either to +drag about a quantity of information in a copper collar for the rest of +his days, or else to die a slow death, as being intended for Lord +Derby's menagerie. The departure of 'a postman' was a scene of no small +merriment; all hands, from the captain to the cook, were out to chase +the fox, who, half frightened out of its wits, seemed to doubt which way +to run, whilst loud shouts and roars of laughter, breaking the cold, +frosty air, were heard from ship to ship, as the foxhunters, swelled in +numbers from all sides, and those that could not run mounted some +neighbouring hummock of ice and gave a loud halloo, which said far more +for robust health than for tuneful melody." + +The Arctic fox as a captive has often amused our Arctic voyagers, and +accounts of it are to be met with in most of their narratives. Captain +Lyon made a pet of one he captured, and confined it on deck in a small +kennel with a piece of chain. The little creature astonished the party +very much by his extraordinary sagacity, for, on the very first day, +having been repeatedly drawn out by his chain, he at length drew his +chain in after him whenever he retreated to his hut, and took it in with +his mouth so completely, that no one who valued his fingers would +venture afterwards to take hold of the end attached to the staple. + +Sir J. C. Ross observed in Boothia Felix a good deal of difference in +the disposition of specimens, some being easily tamed, whilst others +would remain savage and untractable even with the kindest treatment. He +found the females much more vicious than the males. A dog-fox which his +party captured lived several months with them, and became so tame in a +short time that he regularly attended the dinner-table like a dog, and +was always allowed to go at large about the cabin. When newly caught +their rage is quite ungovernable, and yet when two are put together they +very seldom quarrel. They soon get reconciled to confinement. Captain +Lyon[120] notices that their first impulse on getting food is to hide it +as soon as possible, and this, he observed, they did, even when hungry +and by themselves; when there was snow on the ground they piled it over +their stores, and pressed it down forcibly with their nose. When no +snow was to be obtained, he noticed his pet fox gather the chain into +his mouth, and then carefully coil it so as to cover the meat. Having +gone through this process, and drawn away his chain after him on moving +away, he has sometimes repeated his useless labours five or six times, +until disgusted, apparently, at the inability of making the morsel a +greater luxury by previous concealment, he has been forced to eat it. +These creatures use snow as a substitute for water, and it is pleasing +to see them break a large lump with their feet, and roll on the pieces +with evident delight. When the snow lay lightly scattered on the decks, +they did not lick it up as dogs do, but by pressing it repeatedly with +their nose, collected a small lump which they drew into their mouth. + +It may be added that the specific name _lagopus_, or "hare-foot," was +given to this fox from the soles of its feet being densely covered with +woolly hair, which gives them some resemblance to the feet of a hare. +Cuvier remarks that other foxes acquire this hair on the soles when +taken to northern lands. + +The specimens, figured so admirably by Mr Wolf, were drawn from some +brought alive to the Zoological Gardens by one of the late Arctic +expeditions.--_A. White, in "Excelsior" (with additions)._ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[113] _Edinburgh Review_, 1841, vol. lxxiv. p. 77. + +[114] "Noctes Ambrosianæ." Works of Professor Wilson, vol. i. pp. +136-138. + +[115] "Fauna Boreali-Americana." Mammalia, p. 87. + +[116] Appendix to "Second Voyage," p. xii. + +[117] "Fauna Groenlandica," p. 20. + +[118] _Dublin Nat. Hist. Review, 1858_, p. 166. + +[119] "Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal," p. 176. + +[120] "Private Journal," p. 105. + + + + +JACKAL. + + +The boy who used to read, long ago, "The Three Hundred Animals," was +ever familiar with "_the Lion's Provider_," as the menagerie showmen, +even now, somewhat pompously style this hungry howler of the desert. + +The jackal is a social kind of dog, and a pack of hungry or excited +jackals can howl in notes fit to pierce the ears of the deafest. He is a +mean, starved-looking creature in ordinary circumstances, seeming as if +his social life prevented his getting what is called _a lion's_ share on +any occasion. + + +JACKAL AND TIGER. + +As Burke was declaiming with great animation against Hastings, he was +interrupted by little Major Scott. "Am I," said he, indignantly, "to be +teased by the barking of this _jackal_, while I am attacking the royal +_tiger_ of Bengal?"[121] + + + + +CATS. + + +Another fertile subject for anecdote. Who has not some faithful black +Topsy, Tortoise-shell, or Tabby, or rather succession of them, whose +biographies would afford many a curious story? Professor Bell[122] has +well defended the general character of poor pussy from the oft-repeated +calumnies spread about it. Cats certainly get much attached to +individuals, as well as to houses and articles in them. They want the +lovableness and demonstrativeness of dogs; but their habits are very +different, and they are strictly organised to adapt them to watch and to +pounce on their prey. + +As we have elsewhere remarked, and the remark was founded on observation +of our eldest daughter when a very young child, "Your little baby loves +the pussy, and pussy sheathes her claws most carefully, but should baby +draw back her arm suddenly, and pussy accidentally scratch that tender +skin, how the little girl cries! It is, perhaps, her first lesson that +sweets and bitters, pleasures and pains, meekness and ferocity, are +mingled in this world."[123] + + +JEREMY BENTHAM AND HIS PET CAT "SIR JOHN LANGBORN." + +Dr, afterwards Sir John, Bowring, in the life of that diligent eccentric +"codificator," Jeremy Bentham,[124] thus alludes to some of his +pets:--"Bentham was very fond of animals, particularly '_pussies_,' as +he called them, 'when they had domestic virtues;' but he had no +particular affection for the common race of _cats_. He had one, however, +of which he used to boast that he had 'made a man of him,' and whom he +was wont to invite to eat maccaroni at his own table. This puss got +knighted, and rejoiced in the name of Sir John Langborn. In his early +days, he was a frisky, inconsiderate, and, to say the truth, somewhat +profligate gentleman; and had, according to the report of his patron, +the habit of seducing light and giddy young ladies of his own race into +the garden of Queen's Square Place; but tired at last, like Solomon, of +pleasures and vanities, he became sedate and thoughtful--took to the +church, laid down his knightly title, and was installed as the Reverend +John Langborn. He gradually obtained a great reputation for sanctity and +learning, and a doctor's degree was conferred upon him. When I knew him, +in his declining days, he bore no other name than the Reverend Doctor +John Langborn; and he was alike conspicuous for his gravity and +philosophy. Great respect was invariably shown his reverence; and it was +supposed he was not far off from a mitre, when old age interfered with +his hopes and honours. He departed amidst the regrets of his many +friends, and was gathered to his fathers, and to eternal rest, in a +cemetery in Milton's Garden.[125] + +"'I had a cat,' he said, 'at Hendon, which used to follow me about even +in the street. George Wilson was very fond of animals too. I remember a +cat following him as far as Staines. There was a beautiful pig at +Hendon, which I used to rub with my stick. He loved to come and lie down +to be rubbed, and took to following me like a dog. I had a remarkably +intellectual cat, who never failed to attend one of us when we went +round the garden. He grew quite a tyrant, insisting on being fed and on +being noticed. He interrupted my labours. Once he came with a most +hideous yell, insisting on the door being opened. He tormented Jack +(Colls) so much, that Jack threw him out of the window. He was so +clamorous that it could not be borne, and means were found to send him +to another world. His moral qualities were most despotic--his +intellectual extraordinary; but he was a universal nuisance." + +"'From my youth I was fond of cats, as I am still. I was once playing +with one in my grandmother's room. I had heard the story of cats having +nine lives, and being sure of falling on their legs; and I threw the cat +out of the window on the grass-plot. When it fell it turned towards me, +looked in my face and mewed. "Poor thing!" I said, "thou art reproaching +me with my unkindness." I have a distinct recollection of all these +things. Cowper's story of his hares had the highest interest for me when +young; for I always enjoyed the society of tame animals. Wilson had the +same taste--so had Romilly, who kept a noble puss, before he came into +great business. I never failed to pay it my respects. I remember +accusing Romilly of violating the commandment in the matter of cats. My +fondness for animals exposed me to many jokes.'" + + +BISSET AND HIS MUSICAL CATS. + +S. Bisset, to whom we referred before, was a Scotchman, born at Perth. +He went to London as a shoemaker; but afterwards turned a broker. About +1739 he turned his attention to the teaching of animals. He was very +successful, and among the subjects of his experiments were three young +cats. Wilson, in his "Eccentric Mirror,"[126] has recorded that "he +taught these domestic tigers to strike their paws in such directions on +the dulcimer, as to produce several tunes, having music-books before +them, and squalling at the same time in different keys or tones, first, +second, and third, by way of concert. In such a city as London these +feats could not fail of making some noise. His house was every day +crowded, and great interruption given to his business. Among the rest, +he was visited by an exhibitor of wonders. Pinchbeck advised him to a +public exhibition of his animals at the Haymarket, and even promised, on +receiving a moiety, to be concerned in the exhibition. Bisset agreed, +but the day before the performance, Pinchbeck declined, and the other +was left to act for himself. The well-known _Cats' Opera_ was advertised +in the Haymarket; the horse, the dog, the monkeys, and the cats went +through their several parts with uncommon applause, to crowded houses, +and in a few days Bisset found himself possessed of nearly a thousand +pounds to reward his ingenuity." + + +CONSTANT, CHATEAUBRIAND, AND THE CAT. + +"Benjamin Constant was accustomed to write in a closet on the third +story. Beside him sat his estimable wife, and on his knee his favourite +cat; this feline affection he entertained in common with Count de +Chateaubriand."[127] + + +LISTON THE SURGEON AND HIS CAT. + +Robert Liston, the great surgeon, was, it seems, very fond of a cat. Dr +Forbes Winslow asks, "Who has not seen Liston's favourite cat Tom? This +animal is considered to be a unique specimen of the feline tribe; and so +one would think, to see the passionate fondness which he manifests for +it. This cat is always perched on Liston's shoulder, at breakfast, +dinner, and tea, in his carriage, and out of his carriage. It is quite +ludicrous to witness the devotion which the great operator exhibits +towards his favourite."[128] + +Liston was a curious man. He often called on his friends as early as six +o'clock in the morning. In most cases, such calls must have been visits +of formality or quiet jokes at the lazy manners of most men of the +present age. We know one person whom he called on usually at this early +hour. It would be more healthy for the young, if they would imitate this +talented surgeon. We may here say that he used to allow one particular +nail to grow long. It was a nail he used to guide his knife when +operating. When at college in 1833 or 1834, we heard a student, who knew +this clever operator well, happily apply the _double-entendre_, "_homo +ad unguem factus_," a phrase, Dr Carson, our noble rector at the High +School, taught us to translate "_an accomplished man_." + + +THE BANKER MITCHELL'S ANTIPATHY TO KITTENS. + +Mr J. T. Smith, once Keeper of the Prints in the British Museum, author +of the "Life and Times of Nollekens, the Royal Academician,"[129] tells +a story of Mr Matthew Mitchell, a banker, who collected prints. + +"Mr Mitchell had a most serious antipathy to a kitten. He could sit in a +room without experiencing the least emotion from a cat; but directly he +perceived a kitten, his flesh shook on his bones, like a snail in +vinegar. I once relieved him from one of these paroxysms by taking a +kitten out of the room; on my return he thanked me, and declared his +feelings to be insupportable upon such an occasion. Long subsequently, I +asked him whether he could in any way account for this agitation. He +said he could not, adding that he experienced no such sensations upon +seeing a full-grown cat; but that a kitten, after he had looked at it +for a minute or two, in his imagination grew to the size of an +overpowering elephant." + + +JAMES MONTGOMERY AND HIS CATS.[130] + +The poet Montgomery was very fond of cats. His biographers say--"We +never recollect the time when some familiar 'Tabby' or audacious 'Tom' +did not claim to share the poet's attention during our familiar +interviews with him in his own parlour. We well recollect one fine +brindled fellow, called 'Nero,' who, during his kittenhood, 'purred' the +following epistle to a little girl who had been his playmate:-- + + + "HARTSHEAD, NEAR THE HOLE-IN-THE-WALL, + "_July 23, 1825_. + "_Harrrrrrr_, + + "_Mew, wew, auw, mauw, hee, wee, miaw, waw, wurr, whirr, ghurr, wew, + mew, whew, isssss, tz, tz, tz, purrurrurrur._" + + +DONE INTO ENGLISH. + +"HARRIET, + +"This comes to tell you that I am very well, and I hope you are so too. +I am growing a great cat; pray how do you come on? I wish you were here +to carry me about as you used to do, and I would scratch you to some +purpose, for I can do this much better than I could while you were here. +I have not run away yet, but I believe I shall soon, for I find my feet +are too many for my head, and often carry me into mischief. Love to +Sheffelina, though I was always fit to pull her cap when I saw you +petting her. My cross old mother sends her love to you--she shows me +very little now-a-days, I assure you, so I do not care what she does +with the rest. She has brought me a mouse or two, and I caught one +myself last night; but it was in my dream, and I awoke as hungry as a +hunter, and fell to biting at my tail, which I believe I should have +eaten up; but it would not let me catch it. So no more at present from + + TINY. + +"_P.S._--They call me Tiny yet, you see; but I intend to take the name +of Nero, after the lion fight at Warwick next week, if the lion +conquers, not else. + +"_2d P.S._--I forgot to tell you that I can beg, but I like better to +steal,--it's more natural, you know. + +"HARRIET, at Ockbrook." + + +SIR WALTER SCOTT'S VISIT TO THE BLACK DWARF.--DAVID RITCHIE'S CAT. + +David Ritchie, the prototype of the "Black Dwarf," inhabited a small +cottage on the farm of Woodhouse, parish of Manor, Peeblesshire. In the +year 1797, Walter Scott, then a young advocate, was taken by the +Fergusons to see "Bowed Davie," as the poor misanthropic man was +generally called. + +Mr William Chambers,[131] the historian of his native county, describes +the visit at greater length than Scott has done in the introduction to +his novel. He says--"At the first sight of Scott, the misanthrope seemed +oppressed with a sentiment of extraordinary interest, which was either +owing to the lameness of the stranger--a circumstance throwing a +narrower gulf between this person and himself than what existed between +him and most other men--or to some perception of an extraordinary mental +character in this limping youth, which was then hid from other eyes. +After grinning upon him for a moment with a smile less bitter than his +wont, the dwarf passed to the door, double-locked it, and then coming up +to the stranger, seized him by the wrist with one of his iron hands, and +said, 'Man, hae ye ony poo'er?' By this he meant magical power, to which +he had himself some vague pretensions, or which, at least, he had +studied and reflected upon till it had become with him a kind of +monomania. Scott disavowed the possession of any gifts of that kind, +evidently to the great disappointment of the inquirer, who then turned +round and gave a signal to a huge black cat, hitherto unobserved, which +immediately jumped up to a shelf, where it perched itself, and seemed to +the excited senses of the visitors as if it had really been the familiar +spirit of the mansion. 'He has poo'er,' said the dwarf in a voice which +made the flesh of the hearers thrill, and Scott, in particular, looked +as if he conceived himself to have actually got into the den of one of +those magicians with whom his studies had rendered him familiar. 'Ay, +_he_ has poo'er,' repeated the recluse; and then, going to his usual +seat, he sat for some minutes grinning horribly, as if enjoying the +impression he had made, while not a word escaped from any of the party. +Mr Ferguson at length plucked up his spirits, and called to David to +open the door, as they must now be going. The dwarf slowly obeyed, and +when they had got out, Mr Ferguson observed that his friend was as pale +as ashes, while his person was agitated in every limb. Under such +striking circumstances was this extraordinary being first presented to +the _real_ magician, who was afterwards to give him such a deathless +celebrity." + +Mr Chambers doubtless received the particulars of this visit from Sir +Adam Ferguson, Scott's friend and companion. + + * * * * * + +Robert Southey, like Jeremy Bentham, with whom the Quarterly Reviewer +would have grudged to have been classified, loved cats. His son, in his +"Life and Correspondence," vol. vi. p. 210, says--"My father's fondness +for cats has been occasionally shown by allusion in his letters,[132] +and in 'The Doctor' is inserted an amusing memorial of the various cats +which at different times were inmates of Greta Hall. He rejoiced in +bestowing upon them the strangest appellations, and it was not a little +amusing to see a kitten answer to the name of some Italian singer or +Indian chief, or hero of a German fairy tale, and often names and titles +were heaped one upon another, till the possessor, unconscious of the +honour conveyed, used to 'set up his eyes and look' in wonderment. Mr +Bedford had an equal liking for the feline race, and occasional notices +of their favourites therefore passed between them, of which the +following records the death of one of the greatest:-- + + "'_To Grosvenor C. Bedford, Esq._ + "'KESWICK, _May 18, 1833_. + +"'My Dear G---- ... --Alas! Grosvenor, this day poor old Rumpel was found +dead, after as long and happy a life as cat could wish for, if cats form +wishes on that subject. His full titles were:--"The Most Noble the +Archduke Rumpelstiltzchen, Marquis M'Bum, Earl Tomlemagne, Baron +Raticide, Waowhler, and Skaratch." There should be a court mourning in +Catland, and if the Dragon[133] wear a black ribbon round his neck, or a +band of crape _à la militaire_ round one of the fore paws, it will be +but a becoming mark of respect. + +"'As we have no catacombs here, he is to be decently interred in the +orchard, and cat-mint planted on his grave. Poor creature, it is well +that he has thus come to his end after he had become an object of pity, +I believe we are, each and all, servants included, more sorry for his +loss, or rather more affected by it, than any one of us would like to +confess. + +"'I should not have written to you at present, had it not been to notify +this event. + + R. S.'" + +In a letter from Leyden to his son Cuthbert, then in his seventh year, +he says--"I hope Rumpelstiltzchen has recovered his health, and that +Miss Cat is well; and I should like to know whether Miss Fitzrumpel has +been given away, and if there is another kitten. The Dutch cats do not +speak exactly the same language as the English ones. I will tell you how +they talk when I come home."[134] + + +ARCHBISHOP WHATELY'S ANECDOTE OF THE CAT THAT USED TO RING THE BELL. + +Archbishop Whately[135] records a case of an act done by a cat, which, +if done by a man, would be called reason. He says--"This cat lived many +years in my mother's family, and its feats of sagacity were witnessed by +her, my sisters, and myself. It was known, not merely once or twice, but +habitually, to ring the parlour bell whenever it wished the door to be +opened. Some alarm was excited on the first occasion that it turned +bell-ringer. The family had retired to rest, and in the middle of the +night the parlour-bell was rung violently; the sleepers were startled +from their repose, and proceeded down-stairs, with pokers and tongs, to +interrupt, as they thought, the predatory movement of some burglar; but +they were agreeably surprised to discover that the bell had been rung by +pussy; who frequently repeated the act whenever she wanted to get out of +the parlour." + + * * * * * + +A friend (D. D., Esq., Edinburgh) tells me of a cat his family had in +the country, that used regularly to "_tirl at the pin_" of the back door +when it wished to get in to the house. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[121] Mark Lemon, "Jest-Book," p. 280. + +[122] "British Quadrupeds." The professor has long retired to his +favourite Selborne. He occupies the house of Gilbert White; and a new +illustrated edition of the "Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne" +has been long looked for from him. + +[123] "The Instructive Picture Book; or, A Few Attractive Lessons from +the Natural History of Animals," by Adam White, p. 15 (fifth edition, +1862). + +[124] "The Works of Jeremy Bentham," now first collected under the +superintendence of his executor, John Bowring, vol. xi. pp. 80, 81. + +[125] Jeremy Bentham's house in Queen's Square was that which had been +occupied by the great poet. + +[126] Vol. i. No. 3. p. 27. + +[127] _Times_, 18 Dec. 1830, quoted by Southey, "Common-Place Book," iv. +p. 489. + +[128] "Physic and Physicians," a medical sketch-book, vol. ii. p. 363 +(1839). + +[129] "A Book for a Rainy Day," p. 103. Old Smith was a regular hunter +after legacies, and like all such was often disappointed. His +"Nollekens" is a fine example. + +[130] "Memoirs of James Montgomery," by Holland and Everett, iv. pp. +114, 115. + +[131] "A History of Peeblesshire," by William Chambers of Glenormiston, +p. 403 (1864). + +[132] See vol. v. p. 145. + +[133] A cat of Mr Bedford's. + +[134] "Life and Correspondence," v. p. 223. + +[135] On Instinct, a Lecture delivered before the Dublin Natural History +Society, 11th November 1842. Dublin, 1847. P. 10. + + + + +TIGER AND LION. + + +These most ferocious of the Carnivora have afforded interesting subjects +to many a traveller. An extensive volume of truly sensational adventure +might be compiled about them, adding a chapter for the jaguar and the +leopard, two extremely dangerous spotted cats, that can do what neither +tigers nor lions are able to do--namely, climb trees. Having once asked +a friend, who was at the death of many a wild beast, which was the most +savage animal he had ever seen, he replied, "A wounded leopard." It was +to such an animal that Jacob referred when he saw Joseph's clothes, and +said--"Some evil beast hath devoured him." Colonel Campbell's work, from +which the first paragraph is derived, contains much about the pursuit of +the tiger. Dr Livingstone's travels and Gordon Cumming's books on South +Africa, neither of which we have quoted, have thrilling pages about the +lordly presence of "the king of beasts." Mr Joseph Wolf and Mr Lewis are +perhaps the best draughtsmen of the lion among recent artists. The +public admire much Sir Edwin Landseer's striking bronze lions on the +pedestal of the Nelson Monument. That artist excels in his pictures of +the lion. On the Assyrian monuments in the British Museum are many +wonderfully executed lion hunts, as perfectly preserved as if they had +been chiselled in our day. Parts of these bas-reliefs were certainly +designed from actual sketches made from the lions and dogs, which took +the chief part in the amusements of some "Nimrod, a mighty hunter before +the Lord." Even our Scottish kings kept a lion or lions as ornaments of +their court. At Stirling Castle and Palace, a room which we saw in 1865, +still bears the name of the "Lion's Den." The British lion is an old +emblem of both Scotland and England, and it is not twenty-five years ago +since we, in common with every visitor to the Tower, were glad to see +"the Royal Lion." Dr Livingstone's experience, we have not the slightest +wish to prove its accuracy, shows that the lion has a soothing, or +rather paralysing power over his prey, when he has knocked it down or +bitten it. + + +BUSSAPA, THE TIGER-SLAYER, AND THE TIGER. + +The following striking anecdote recounts the extraordinary presence of +mind and determined courage of a celebrated Mahratta hunter named +Bussapa. This man acquired the name of the "Tiger-slayer," and wore on +his breast several silver medals granted by the Indian Government for +feats of courage in destroying tigers. Colonel Campbell met him, and in +"My Indian Journal" (pp. 142, 143), published in 1864, has recorded from +his brother's diary the following anecdote:--"Bussapa, a hunter of +'Lingyat' caste, with whom I am well acquainted, was sent for by the +headman of a village, to destroy a tiger which had carried off a number +of cattle. He came, and having ascertained the brute's usual haunts, +fastened a bullock near the edge of a ravine which he frequented, and +quietly seated himself beside it, protected only by a small bush. Soon +after sunset the tiger appeared, killed the bullock, and was glutting +himself with blood, when Bussapa, thrusting his long matchlock through +the bush, fired, and wounded him severely. The tiger half rose, but +being unable to see his assailant on account of the intervening bush, +dropped again on his prey with a sudden growl. Bussapa was kneeling +within three paces of him, completely defenceless; he did not even dare +to reload, for he well knew that the slightest movement on his part +would be the signal for his immediate destruction; his bare knees were +pressed upon gravel, but he dared not venture to shift his uneasy +position. Ever and anon, the tiger, as he lay with his glaring eyes +fixed upon the bush, uttered his hoarse growl of anger; his hot breath +absolutely blew upon the cheek of the wretched man, yet still he moved +not. The pain of his cramped position increased every moment--suspense +became almost intolerable; but the motion of a limb, the rustling of a +leaf, would have been death. Thus they remained, the man and the tiger, +watching each other's motions; but even in this fearful situation, his +presence of mind never for a moment forsook the noble fellow. He heard +the gong of the village strike each hour of that fearful night, that +seemed to him 'eternity,' and yet he lived; the tormenting mosquitoes +swarmed round his face, but he dared not brush them off. That fiend-like +eye met his whenever he ventured a glance towards the horrid spell that +bound him; and a hoarse growl grated on the stillness of the night, as a +passing breeze stirred the leaves that sheltered him. Hours rolled on, +and his powers of endurance were well-nigh exhausted, when, at length, +the welcome streaks of light shot up from the eastern horizon. On the +approach of day, the tiger rose, and stalked away with a sulky pace, to +a thicket at some distance, and then the stiff and wearied Bussapa felt +that he was safe. + +"One would have thought that, after such a night of suffering, he would +have been too thankful for his escape, to venture on any further risk. +But the valiant Bussapa was not so easily diverted from his purpose; as +soon as he had stretched his cramped limbs, and restored the checked +circulation, he reloaded his matchlock, and coolly proceeded to finish +his work. With his match lighted, he advanced close to the tiger, lying +ready to receive him, and shot him dead by a ball in the forehead, while +in the act of charging." + +Colonel Campbell relates, that most of Bussapa's family have fallen +victims to tigers. But the firm belief of the "tiger-slayer" in +predestination, makes him blind to all danger. + + +JOHN HUNTER AND THE DEAD TIGER. + +The greatest comparative anatomist our country has produced, John +Hunter, obtained the refusal of all animals which happened to die in the +Tower or in the travelling menageries. In this way he often obtained +rare subjects for his researches. Dr Forbes Winslow[136] alludes to a +well-known fact, that all the money Hunter could spare, was devoted to +procuring curiosities of this sort, and Sir Everard Home used to state, +that as soon as he had accumulated fees to the amount of ten guineas, he +always purchased some addition to his collection. Indeed, he was not +unfrequently obliged to borrow of his friends, when his own funds were +at a low ebb, and the temptation was strong. "Pray, George," said he one +day to Mr G. Nicol, the bookseller to the king, with whom he was very +intimate, "have you got any money in your pocket?" Mr N. replied in the +affirmative. "Have you got five guineas? Because, if you have, and will +lend it me, you shall go halves."--"Halves in what?" inquired his +friend.--"Why, halves in a magnificent tiger, which is now dying in +Castle Street." Mr Nicol lent the money, and Hunter purchased the tiger. + + +TIGERS. + +Mrs Colin Mackenzie[137] records the death of a man from the wounds of a +tiger. "The tiger," she says, "was brought in on the second day. He died +from the wound he had received. I gave the body to the Dhers in our +service, who ate it. The claws and whiskers are greatly prized by the +natives as charms. The latter are supposed to give the possessor a +certain malignant power over his enemies, for which reason I always +take possession of them to prevent our people getting them. The tiger is +very commonly worshipped all over India. The women often prostrate +themselves before a dead tiger, when sportsmen are bringing it home in +triumph; and in a village, near Nagpur, Mr Hislop found a number of rude +images, almost like four-legged stools, which, on inquiry, proved to be +meant for tigers, who were worshipped as the tutelary deities of the +place. I believe a fresh image is added for every tiger that is slain." + + +LION AND TIGER. + + +A jolly jack-tar, having strayed into Atkin's show at Bartholomew Fair, +to have a look at the wild beasts, was much struck with the sight of a +lion and a tiger in the same den. "Why, Jack," said he to a messmate, +who was chewing a quid in silent amazement, "I shouldn't wonder if next +year they were to carry about _a sailor and a marine living peaceably +together_!"--"Ay," said his married companion, "_or a man and +wife_."[138] + +We may add that we have long regarded it as a vile calumny to two +animals to say of a man and wife who quarrel, that they live "a cat and +dog life." No two animals are better agreed when kept together. Each +knows his own place and keeps it. Hence they live at peace--speaking +"generally," as "Mr Artemus Ward" would say of "such an observation." + + +ANDROCLES AND THE LION. + +Addison,[139] in the 139th _Guardian_, has given us the story of +Androcles and the Lion. He prefaces it by saying that he has no regard +"to what Æsop has said upon the subject, whom," says he, "I look upon to +have been a republican, by the unworthy treatment which he often gives +to the king of beasts, and whom, if I had time, I could convict of +falsehood and forgery in almost every matter of fact which he has +related of this generous animal." + +Better observation of it, however, from the time of Burchell to that of +Livingstone, shows that Æsop's account is on the whole to be relied on, +and that the lion is a thorough cat, treacherous, cruel, and, for the +most part, with a good deal of the coward in him. + +The story of Androcles was related by Aulus Gellius, who extracted it +from Dion Cassius. Although likely to be embellished, there is every +likelihood of the foundation of the story being true. Addison relates +this, "for the sake of my learned reader, who needs go no further in it, +if he has read it already:--Androcles was the slave of a noble Roman who +was proconsul of Afric. He had been guilty of a fault, for which his +master would have put him to death, had not he found an opportunity to +escape out of his hands, and fled into the deserts of Numidia. As he was +wandering among the barren sands, and almost dead with heat and hunger, +he saw a cave in the side of a rock. He went into it, and finding at the +farther end of it a place to sit down upon, rested there for some time. +At length, to his great surprise, a huge overgrown lion entered at the +mouth of the cave, and seeing a man at the upper end of it, immediately +made towards him. Androcles gave himself up for gone;[140] but the lion, +instead of treating him as he expected, laid his paw upon his lap, and +with a complaining kind of voice, fell a licking his hand. Androcles, +after having recovered himself a little from the fright he was in, +observed the lion's paw to be exceedingly swelled by a large thorn that +stuck in it. He immediately pulled it out, and by squeezing the paw very +gently made a great deal of corrupt matter run out of it, which, +probably freed the lion from the great anguish he had felt some time +before. The lion left him upon receiving this good office from him, and +soon after returned with a fawn which he had just killed. This he laid +down at the feet of his benefactor, and went off again in pursuit of his +prey. Androcles, after having sodden the flesh of it by the sun, +subsisted upon it until the lion had supplied him with another. He lived +many days in this frightful solitude, the lion catering for him with +great assiduity. Being tired at length with this savage society, he was +resolved to deliver himself up into his master's hands, and suffer the +worst effects of his displeasure, rather than be thus driven out from +mankind. His master, as was customary for the proconsuls of Africa, was +at that time getting together a present of all the largest lions that +could be found in the country, in order to send them to Rome, that they +might furnish out a show to the Roman people. Upon his poor slave +surrendering himself into his hands, he ordered him to be carried away +to Rome as soon as the lions were in readiness to be sent, and that for +his crime he should be exposed to fight with one of the lions in the +amphitheatre, as usual, for the diversion of the people. This was all +performed accordingly. Androcles, after such a strange run of fortune, +was now in the area of the theatre, amidst thousands of spectators, +expecting every moment when his antagonist would come out upon him. At +length a huge monstrous lion leaped out from the place where he had been +kept hungry for the show. He advanced with great rage towards the man, +but on a sudden, after having regarded him a little wistfully, fell to +the ground, and crept towards his feet with all the signs of +blandishment and caress. Androcles, after a short pause, discovered that +it was his old Numidian friend, and immediately renewed his acquaintance +with him. Their mutual congratulations were very surprising to the +beholders, who, upon hearing an account of the whole matter from +Androcles, ordered him to be pardoned, and the lion to be given up into +his possession. Androcles returned at Rome the civilities which he had +received from him in the deserts of Afric. Dion Cassius says, that he +himself saw the man leading the lion about the streets of Rome, the +people everywhere gathering about them, and repeating to one another, +'_Hic est leo hospes hominis; hic est homo medicus leonis_.' 'This is +the lion who was the man's host; this is the man who was the lion's +physician.'" + +We are glad to repeat this anecdote, although some may call it "stale +and old." The last time we were at the Zoological Gardens, in the +Regents Park, London, we saw a lion very kindly come and rub itself +against the rails of its den, on seeing a turbaned visitor come up, who +addressed it. The man had been kind to it on its passage home. It was +by no means a tame lion, nor one that its keeper would have ventured to +touch. + + +SIR GEORGE DAVIS AND THE LION + +Steele, in the 146th _Guardian_,[141] has followed up a paper by +Addison, on the subject of lions, and gives an anecdote sent him, he +says, by "a worthy merchant and a friend of mine," who had it in the +year 1700 from the gentleman to whom it happened. + +"About sixty years ago, when the plague raged at Naples, Sir George +Davis, consul there for the English nation, retired to Florence. It +happened one day he went out of curiosity to see the great duke's lions. +At the farther end, in one of the dens, lay a lion, which the keepers in +three years' time could not tame, with all the art and gentle usage +imaginable. Sir George no sooner appeared at the grates of the den, but +the lion ran to him with all the marks of joy and transport he was +capable of expressing. He reared himself up, and licked his hand, which +this gentleman put in through the grates. The keeper affrighted, took +him by the arm and pulled him away, begging him not to hazard his life +by going so near the fiercest creature of that kind that ever entered +those dens. However, nothing would satisfy Sir George, notwithstanding +all that could be said to dissuade him, but he must go into the den to +him. The very instant he entered, the lion threw his paws upon his +shoulders, and licked his face, and ran to and fro in the den, fawning +and full of joy, like a dog at the sight of his master. After several +embraces and salutations exchanged on both sides, they parted very good +friends. The rumour of this interview between the lion and the stranger +rung immediately through the whole city, and Sir George was very near +passing for a saint among the people. The great duke, when he heard of +it, sent for Sir George, who waited upon his highness, to the den, and +to satisfy his curiosity, gave him the following account of what seemed +so strange to the duke and his followers:-- + +"'A captain of a ship from Barbary gave me this lion when he was a young +whelp. I brought him up tame, but when I thought him too large to be +suffered to run about the house, I built a den for him in my courtyard; +from that time he was never permitted to go loose, except when I brought +him within doors to show him to my friends. When he was five years old, +in his gamesome tricks, he did some mischief by pawing and playing with +people. Having griped a man one day a little too hard, I ordered him to +be shot, for fear of incurring the guilt of what might happen; upon this +a friend who was then at dinner with me begged him: how he came here I +know not.' + +Here Sir George Davis ended, and thereupon the Duke of Tuscany assured +him that he had the lion from that very friend of his." + + +CANOVA'S LIONS AND THE CHILD. + +The mausoleum of Pope Clement XII., whose name was Rezzonico, is one of +the greatest works of Antonio Canova, the celebrated Italian sculptor. +It is in St Peter's, at Rome, and was erected in 1792. It is only +mentioned here on account of two lions, which were faithfully studied +from nature. + +His biographer, Mr Memes,[142] tells us that these lions were formed +"after long and repeated observation on the habits and forms of the +living animals. Wherever they were to be seen Canova constantly visited +them, at all hours, and under every variety of circumstances, that he +might mark their natural expression in different states of action and of +repose, of ferocity or gentleness. One of the keepers was even paid to +bring information, lest any favourable opportunity should pass +unimproved." + +One of these lions is sleeping, while the other, which is under the +figure of the personification of religion, couches--but is awake, in +attitude of guarding inviolate the approach to the sepulchre, and ready +with a tremendous roar to spring upon the intruder. + +Canova himself was much pleased with these lions. Mr Memes illustrates +their wonderful force and truth by a little anecdote. + +"One day, while the author (a frequent employment) stood at some +distance admiring from different points of view the tomb of Rezzonico, a +woman with a child in her arms advanced to the lion, which appears to be +watching. The terrified infant began to scream violently, clinging to +the nurse's bosom, and exclaiming, '_Mordera, mamma, mordera!_' (It will +bite, mamma; it will bite.) The mother turned to the opposite one, which +seems asleep; her charge was instantly pacified; and smiling through +tears, extended its little arm to stroke the shaggy head, whispering in +subdued accents, as if afraid to awake the monster, '_O come placido! +non mordero quello, mamma._' (How gentle! this one will not bite, +mother.") + + +ADMIRAL NAPIER AND THE LION IN THE TOWER. + +Admiral Sir Charles Napier, K.C.B., when a boy in his fourteenth year, +visited London on his way to join his first ship at Spithead, the +_Renown_. His biographer tells us he was staying at the house of a +relative, who, "after showing the youngster all the London sights, took +him to see the lions at the Tower. Amongst them was one which the keeper +represented as being so very tame that, said he, 'you might put your +hand into his mouth.' Taking him at his word, the young middy, to the +horror of the spectators, thrust his hand into the jaws of the animal, +who, no doubt, was taken as much by surprise as the lookers-on. It was a +daring feat; but providentially he did not suffer for his +temerity."[143] This reminds the biographer of Nelson's feat with the +polar bear, and of Charles Napier's (the soldier) bold adventure with an +eagle in his boyhood, as related by Sir William Napier in the history of +his gallant brother's life. + + +OLD LADY AND THE BEASTS ON THE MOUND. + +When the houses were cleared from the head of the Mound in Edinburgh, a +travelling menagerie had set up its caravans on that great earthen +bridge, just at the time when George Ferguson, the celebrated Scotch +advocate, better known by his justiciary title of Lord Hermand, came up, +full of Pittite triumph that the ministry of "all the talents" had +fallen. "They are out! they are all out! every mother's son of them!" he +shouted. A lady, who heard the words, and perceived his excited +condition, imagined that he referred to the wild beasts; and seizing the +judge by his arm, exclaimed, "Gude heaven! we shall a' be +devoored!"[144] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[136] "Physics and Physicians: a Medical Sketch-Book," vol. i. p. 174. +It was published anonymously in 1839. + +[137] "Life in the Mission, the Camp, and the Zenánà; or, Six Years in +India," vol. ii. p. 382. + +[138] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 237. + +[139] August 20, 1713. Chalmers's edition of "British Essayists," vol. +xviii. p. 85. + +[140] Up for lost. + +[141] August 28, 1713. Chalmers's edition of "British Essayists," vol. +xviii p. 116. + +[142] "Memoirs of Antonio Canova," by J. S. Memes, A.M. 1825. Pp. 332, +334, 346. + +[143] "The Life of Admiral Sir Charles Napier, K.C.B," by Major-General +Elers Napier, vol. i. p. 8. + + + + +SEALS. + + +A most intelligent group of creatures, some of which the compiler has +watched in Yell Sound, close to Mossbank. He has even seen them once or +twice in the Forth, close to the end of the pier. In the Zoological +Gardens a specimen of the common seal proved for months a great source +of attraction by its mild nature, and its singular form and activity. It +soon died, and, had a coroner's jury returned a verdict, it would have +been "Death from the hooks swallowed with the fish" daily provided. We +have heard seal-fishers describe the great rapidity of the growth of +seals in the Arctic seas. They seem in about a fortnight after their +birth to attain nearly the size of their mothers. The same has been +recorded of the whale order. Both seals and whales have powers of +assimilating food and making fat that are unparalleled even by pigs. The +intelligence of seals is marvellous. Many who visited the Zoological +Gardens in the Regent's Park in May and June 1866 witnessed instances of +this in a seal from the South Seas, recently exhibited in London. +Persons on the sea-side might readily domesticate these interesting and +truly affectionate creatures. Hooker's sea-bear, the species exhibited +in London, was at first, so the kind Frenchman told us, very fierce, but +soon got reconciled to him, and, when I saw it, great was the mutual +attachment. It was a strangely interesting sight to see the great +creature walk on its fin-like legs, and clamber up and kiss the +genial-bearded French sailor. + + +DR ADAM CLARKE ON SHETLAND SEALS. + +In Shetland, Dr Adam Clarke tells us the popular belief is that the +seals, or, as they call them, _selkies_, are fallen spirits, and that it +is dangerous to kill any of them, as evil will assuredly happen to him +who does. They think that when the blood of a seal touches the water, +the sea begins to rise and swell. Those who shoot them notice that gulls +appear to watch carefully over them; and Mr Edmonston assured him that +he has known a gull scratch, a seal to warn it of his approach. Dr +Clarke, in the second of his voyages to Shetland, had a seal on board, +which was caught on the Island of Papa. He says:--"It refuses all +nourishment; it is very young, and about three feet long; it roars +nearly like a calf, but not so loud, and continually crawls about the +deck, seeking to get again to sea. As I cannot bear its cries, I intend +to return it to the giver. Several of them have been tamed by the +Shetlanders, and these will attend their owners to the place where the +cows are milked, in order to get a drink. This was the case with one Mr +Henry of Burrastow brought up. When it thought proper it would go to sea +and forage there, but was sure to return to land, and to its owner. They +tell me that it is a creature of considerable sagacity. The young seal +mentioned above made his escape over the gangway, and got to sea. I am +glad of it; for its plaintive lowing was painful to me. We saw it +afterwards making its way to the ocean."[145] + + +DR EDMONSTON ON SHETLAND SEALS. + +Every one familiar with seals is struck with their plaintive, +intelligent faces, and any one who has seen the seals from time to time +living in the Zoological Gardens must have been pleased with the marks +of attention paid by them to their keepers. Dr Edmonston of Balta Sound +has published in the "Memoirs of the Wernerian Society"[146] a graphic +and valuable paper on the distinctions, history, and hunting of seals in +the Shetland Isles. As that gentleman is a native of Unst, and had, when +he wrote the Memoir, been for more than twenty years actively engaged in +their pursuit, both as an amusement and as a study, we may extract two +or three interesting passages. + +He remarks (p. 29) on the singular circumstance that so few additions +have been made to the list of domestic animals bequeathed to us from +remote antiquity, and mentions the practicability of an attempt being +made to tame seals; and also says that it is yet to be learned whether +they would breed in captivity and remain reclaimed from the wild state. +The few instances recorded in books of natural history of tame seals +refer to the species called _Phoca vitulina_, but of the processes of +rearing and education we have no details. "The trials," continues Dr +Edmonston, "I have made on these points have been equally numerous on +the great as on the common seal. By far the most interesting one I ever +had was a young male of the _barbata_ species: he was taken by myself +from a cave when only a few hours old, and in a day or two became as +attached as a dog to me. The varied movements and sounds by which he +expressed delight at my presence and regret at my absence were most +affecting; these sounds were as like as possible to the inarticulate +tones of the human voice. I know no animal capable of displaying more +affection than he did, and his temper was the gentlest imaginable. I +kept him for four or five weeks, feeding him entirely on warm milk from +the cow; in my temporary absence butter-milk was given to him, and he +died soon after. + +"Another was a female, also of the great seal species, which we captured +in a cave when about six weeks old, in October 1830. This individual +would never allow herself to be handled but by the person who chiefly +had the charge of her, yet even she soon became comparatively familiar. + +"It was amusing to see how readily she ascended the stairs, which she +often did, intent, as it seemed, on examining every room in the house; +on showing towards her signs of displeasure and correction, she +descended more rapidly and safely than her awkwardness seemed to +promise. + +"She was fed from the first on fresh fish alone, and grew and fattened +considerably. We had her carried down daily in a hand-barrow to the +sea-side, where an old excavation admitting the salt water was +abundantly roomy and deep for her recreation and our observation. After +sporting and diving for some time she would come ashore, and seemed +perfectly to understand the use of the barrow. Often she tried to waddle +from the house to the water, or from the latter to her apartment, but +finding this fatiguing, and seeing preparations by her chairman, she +would of her own accord mount her palanquin, and thus be carried as +composedly as any Hindoo princess. By degrees we ventured to let her go +fairly into the sea, and she regularly returned after a short interval; +but one day during a thick fall of snow she was imprudently let off as +usual, and, being decoyed some distance out of sight of the shore by +some wild ones which happened to be in the bay at the time, she either +could not find her way back or voluntarily decamped. + +"She was, we understood, killed very shortly after in a neighbouring +inlet. We had kept her about six months, and every moment she was +becoming more familiar; we had dubbed her Finna, and she seemed to know +her name. Every one that saw her was struck with her appearance. + +"The smooth face without external ears--the nose slightly aquiline--the +large, dark, and beautiful eye which stood the sternest human gaze, gave +to the expression of her countenance such dignity and variety that we +all agreed that it really was _super_-animal. The Scandinavian Scald, +with such a mermaid before him, would find in her eye a metaphor so +emphatic that he would have no reason to borrow the favourite oriental +image of the gazelles from his Caucasian ancestors. + +"This remarkable expressiveness and dignity of aspect of the +_Haff-fish_, so superior to all other animals with which the fishermen +of Shetland were acquainted, and the human character of his voice, may +have procured for him that peculiar respect with which he was regarded +by those who lived nearest his domains, and were admitted to most +frequent intercourse with him. He was the favourite animal of +superstition, and a few tales of him are still current. These, however, +are not of much interest or variety, the leading ideas in them being +these: That the great seal is a human soul, or a fallen angel in +metempsychosis, and that to him who is remarkable for hostility to the +phocal race some fatal retribution will ensue. I can easily conceive the +feeling of awe with which a fisherman would be impressed when, in the +sombre magnificence of some rocky solitude, a great seal suddenly +presented himself, for an interview of this kind once occurred to +myself. + +"I was lying one calm summer day on a rock a little elevated above the +water, watching the approach of seals, in a small creek formed by +frowning precipices several hundred feet high, near the north point of +the Shetland Islands. + +"I had patiently waited for two hours, and the scene and the sunshine +had thrown me into a kind of reverie, when my companion, who was more +awake, arrested my attention. A full-sized female haff-fish was swimming +slowly past, within eight yards of my feet, her head askance, and her +eyes fixed upon me; the gun, charged with two balls, was immediately +pointed. I followed her with the aim for some distance, when she dived +without my firing. + +"I resolved that this omission should not recur, if she afforded me +another opportunity of a shot, which I hardly hoped for, but which +actually in a few moments took place. Still I did not fire, until, when +at a considerable distance, she was on the eve of diving, and she eluded +the shot by springing to a side. Here was really a species of +fascination. The wild scene, the near presence and commanding aspect of +the splendid animal before me, produced a spellbound impression which, +in my sporting experience, I never felt before. + +"On reflection, I was delighted that she escaped. + +"The younger seals are the more easy to tame, but the more difficult to +rear; under a month old they must be fed, and, especially the _barbata_, +almost entirely on milk, and that of the cow seems hardly to agree with +them. + +"Perhaps their being suckled by a cow fed chiefly on fish, the giving +them occasionally a little salt water, and then by degrees inducing them +to eat fish, might be the best mode until they attained the age of being +sustained on fish alone. In the _barbata_, to insure rapid taming, it +appears to be necessary to capture them before the period of casting the +foetal hair, analogous to what I have observed in the case of the +young of water-birds before getting up their first feathers, and when +they are entirely covered with the egg down. + +"These changes seem connected with a great development of the wild +habits, and attachment to, and knowledge of, the localities where they +have first seen the light. As the _barbata_ is until this period in +reality a land animal, the chief difficulty we have to surmount with it +is in the quality of the milk to be given it. The _vitulina_ is +essentially an inhabitant of the water from its birth, yet the care of +the mother is perhaps for weeks necessary to judge how long and how +often it should be on land, and this we can hardly expect to imitate. In +the young of this species a few days old, which we have tried to rear, a +want of knowledge of this kind of management may have led to failure. I +have not attempted to rear them at a greater age. + +"The Greenland seal is, I have been informed, occasionally kept for a +month or two on board the whalers, and thrives sufficiently well on the +flesh of sea-birds. This species appears to bring forth in January, and +therefore it is subjected to captivity. + +"I know but comparatively little of its capability of being easily +tamed; but this quality, of itself, is no evidence of superior +intelligence. + +"Might it not be easy to induce Greenland shipmasters to bring some of +these animals to England, where they would be accessible to the +observation of zoologists. + +"One mode of attempting to tame them might be to take half-grown animals +in a net, or surprise them on land, and then keep them in salt-water +ponds in a semi-domestic state: if any of them were pregnant when +caught, or could be got to breed, the main difficulty would be +overcome." + +Long as these extracts are, they possess great interest as being derived +from observations on living animals made by one who was a friend of the +Duke of Wellington, and was always welcomed by him. His northern Island +of Unst is a fine field for studying marine animals. The sweeping +currents of the Arctic oceans bring creatures to the quiet voes and +sounds. Shetland in spring, summer, and autumn is a favoured locality +for the naturalist and painter. + + +THE WALRUS. + +There was some likelihood, a few years ago, that a most attractive +animal would be added to the collection of the Zoological Society. But, +unfortunately for the public gratification, as well as the remuneration +of the spirited captain who brought the creature, it reached the gardens +in a dying state, and only survived a few days. But it is not the first +of its family which has travelled so far to the southward. Nearly 250 +years ago a specimen was brought alive by some of the Arctic +adventurers, and excited no little surprise, as old Purchas tells us. It +was in the year 1608, when "the king and many honourable personages +beheld it with admiration, for the strangeness of the same, the like +whereof had never before beene seene alive in England. Not long after it +fell sicke and died. As the beast in shape is very strange, so is it of +strange docilitie, and apt to be taught, as by good experience we often +proved." + +The figure which accompanies this paper was drawn from our late lamented +visitor by Mr Wolf, who sketched it before its removal to the Zoological +Gardens. Captain Henry caught it during a whaling expedition, and sent +it to London. Though quite young, it was nearly four feet in length; and +when the person who used to feed it came into the room, it would give +him an affectionate greeting, in a voice somewhat resembling the cry of +a calf, but considerably louder. It walked about, but, owing to its +weakness, soon grew tired, and lay down. Unlike the seals, to which it +is closely allied, the walrus has considerable power with its limbs when +out of the water, and can support its bulky body quite clear of the +ground. Its mode of progression, however, is awkward when compared with +ordinary quadrupeds; its hind-limbs shuffling along, as if inclosed in a +sack. In some future season, when a lively specimen reaches the Gardens, +and is accommodated with an extensive tank of water, there is no reason +why the walrus should not thrive as well as the seal, or his close, +though not kind, neighbour of the North, the Polar bear. + +[Illustration: The Walrus.] + +The walrus, _morse_, or _sea-horse_ (_Trichechus rosmarus_, Linn.[147]), +is one of the most characteristic inhabitants of the Arctic regions. +There it is widely distributed, and thence it seldom wanders. One or two +specimens were killed on the shores of the northern Scottish islands in +1817 and 1825; but these instances seem hardly to admit of its +introduction into our _fauna_, any more than West Indian beans, brought +by the currents, are admissible into our _flora_. It is mentioned by +some old Scottish writers[148] among our native animals, and at one time +may have been carried to our coasts on some of the bergs, which are +occasionally seen in the German Ocean after the periodical disruptions +of the Arctic ice. Like the Polar bear, however, the walrus has +evidently been formed by its Creator for a life among icy seas, and +there it is now found often in large herds. Captain Beechey and other +voyagers to the seas around Spitzbergen, describe them as being +particularly abundant on the western coast of that inclement island. The +captain says that in fine weather they resort to large pieces of ice at +the edge of the main body, where herds of them may be seen of sometimes +more than a hundred individuals each. "In these situations they appear +greatly to enjoy themselves, rolling and sporting about, and frequently +making the air resound with their bellowing, which bears some +resemblance to that of a bull. These diversions generally end in sleep, +during which these wary animals appear always to take the precaution of +having a sentinel to warn them of any danger." The only warning, +however, which the sentinel gives, is by seeking his own safety; in +effecting which, as the herd lie huddled on one another like swine, the +motion of one is speedily communicated to the whole, and they instantly +tumble, one over the other, into the sea, head-foremost, if possible; +but failing that, anyhow. + +Scoresby remarks that the front part of the head of the young walrus, +without tusks, when seen at a distance, is not unlike the human face. It +has the habit of raising its head above the water to look at ships and +other passing objects; and when seen in such a position, it may have +given rise to some of the stories of mermaids. + +There is still a considerable uncertainty as to the food of the walrus. +Cook found no traces of aliment in the stomachs of those shot by his +party. Crantz says that in Greenland shell-fish and sea-weeds seem to be +its only subsistence. Scoresby found shrimps, a kind of craw-fish, and +the remains of young seals, in the stomachs of those which he examined. +Becchey mentions, that in the inside of several specimens he found +numerous granite pebbles larger than walnuts. These may be taken for the +same purpose that some birds, especially of the gallinaceous order, +swallow bits of gravel. Dr Von Baer concludes, from an analysis of all +the published accounts, that the walrus is omnivorous.[149] A specimen +that died at St Petersburg was fed on oatmeal mixed with turnips or +other vegetables; and the little fellow, who lately died in the Regent's +Park, seems to have been fed by the sailors on oatmeal porridge. + +One of the chief characteristics of the walrus is the presence of two +elongated tusks (the canine teeth) in the upper jaw. According to +Crantz, it uses these to scrape mussels and other shell-fish from the +rocks and out of the sand, and also to grapple and get along with, for +they enable it to raise itself on the ice. They are also powerful +weapons of defence against the Polar bear and its other enemies. + +The walrus attains a great size. Twelve feet is the length of a fine +specimen in the British Museum. Beechey's party found some of them +fourteen feet in length and nine feet in girth, and of such prodigious +weight that they could scarcely turn them over. + +Gratifying accounts are given of the attachment of the female to its +young, and the male occasionally assists in their defence when exposed +to danger, or at least in revenging the attack. Lord Nelson, when a lad, +was coxwain to one of the ships of Phipps's expedition to the Arctic +seas, and commanded a boat, which was the means of saving a party +belonging to the other ship from imminent danger. "Some of the officers +had fired at and wounded a walrus. As no other animal," says Southey, +"has so human-like an expression in its countenance, so also is there +none that seems to possess more of the passions of humanity. The wounded +animal dived immediately, and brought up a number of its companions; and +they all joined in an attack upon the boat. They wrested an oar from one +of the men; and it was with the utmost difficulty that the crew could +prevent them from staving or upsetting her, till the _Carcass's_ boat +(commanded by young Horatio Nelson) came up: and the walruses, finding +their enemies thus reinforced, dispersed." And Captain Beechey gives the +following pleasing picture of maternal affection which he witnessed in +the seas around Spitzbergen: "We were greatly amused by the singular and +affectionate conduct of a walrus towards its young. In the vast sheet of +ice which surrounded the ships, there were occasionally many pools; and +when the weather was clear and warm, animals of various kinds would +frequently rise and sport about in them, or crawl from thence upon the +ice to bask in the warmth of the sun. A walrus rose in one of these +pools close to the ship, and, finding everything quiet, dived down and +brought up its young, which it held to its breast by pressing it with +its flipper. In this manner it moved about the pool, keeping in an erect +posture, and always directing the face of the young towards the vessel. +On the slightest movement on board, the mother released her flipper, and +pushed the young one under water; but, when everything was again quiet, +brought it up as before, and for a length of time continued to play +about in the pool, to the great amusement of the seamen, who gave her +credit for abilities in tuition, which, though possessed of considerable +sagacity, she hardly merited." + +The walrus has two great enemies in its icy home--the Polar bear and the +Esquimaux. Captain Beechey thus graphically describes the manoeuvres +of that king of the Bruin race, which must often be attended with +success. The bears, when hungry, are always on the watch for animals +sleeping upon the ice, and try to come on them unawares, as their prey +darts through holes in the ice. "One sunshiny day a walrus, of nine or +ten feet length, rose in a pool of water not very far from us; and after +looking around, drew his greasy carcase upon the ice, where he rolled +about for a time, and at length laid himself down to sleep. A bear, +which had probably been observing his movements, crawled carefully upon +the ice on the opposite side of the pool, and began to roll about also, +but apparently more with design than amusement, as he progressively +lessened the distance that intervened between him and his prey. The +walrus, suspicious of his advances, drew himself up preparatory to a +precipitate retreat into the water in case of a nearer acquaintance with +his playful but treacherous visitor; on which the bear was instantly +motionless, as if in the act of sleep; but after a time began to lick +his paws, and clean himself, occasionally encroaching a little more upon +his intended prey. But even this artifice did not succeed; the wary +walrus was far too cunning to allow himself to be entrapped, and +suddenly plunged into the pool; which the bear no sooner observed than +he threw off all disguise, rushed towards the spot, and followed him in +an instant into the water, where, I fear, he was as much disappointed in +his meal, as we were of the pleasure of witnessing a very interesting +encounter." + +The meat of the walrus is not despised by Europeans, and its heart is +reckoned a delicacy. To the Esquimaux there is no greater treat than a +kettle well filled with walrus-blubber; and to the natives along +Behring's Straits this quadruped is as valuable as is the palm to the +sons of the desert. Their canoes are covered with its skin; their +weapons and sledge-runners, and many useful articles, are formed from +its tusks; their lamps are filled with its oil; and they themselves are +fed with its fat and its fibre. So thick is the skin, that a bayonet is +almost the only weapon which can pierce it. Cut into shreds, it makes +excellent cordage, being especially adapted for wheel-ropes. The tusks +bear a high commercial value, and are extensively employed by dentists +in the manufacture of artificial teeth. The fat of a good-sized specimen +yields thirty gallons of oil.--_A. White, from "Excelsior."_ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[144] "A Tour in Tartan-Land," by Cuthbert Bede. + +[145] "Life," vol. iii. p. 188. + +[146] Vol. viii. pp. 1-16. + +[147] _Trichechus_, from the Greek [Greek: trichas echôn], "having +hairs:" _walrus_, the German _wallross_, "whale-horse." + +[148] See Fleming's "British Animals," p. 19. + +[149] Mém. Acad. Imp. Sc. St. Pétersb., 1838, p. 232. Professor Owen has +communicated to the Zoological Society the anatomy of the young walrus; +and much valuable information will be found in Dr Gray's "Catalogue of +Mammalia in the British Museum." + + + + +KANGAROOS. + + +What dissertation on the strange outward form, or stranger mode of +reproduction to which this famed member of the _Marsupialia_ belongs, +could contain as much in little space as Charles Lamb's happy +description in his letter to Baron Field, his "distant correspondent" in +New South Wales? When that was written, and for long after, it may be +necessary to tell some, Australia was chiefly known as the land of the +convict. + +"Tell me," writes Elia, "what your Sidneyites do? Are they th-v-ng all +day long? Merciful heaven! what property can stand against such a +depredation? The kangaroos--your aborigines--do they keep their +primitive simplicity un-Europe-tainted, with those little short +forepuds, looking like a lesson framed by nature to the pickpocket! +Marry, for diving into fobs they are rather lamely provided _a priori_; +but if the hue and cry were once up, they would show as fair a pair of +hind-shifters as the expertest locomotor in the colony."[150] + +In one of his letters to another of his favoured correspondents he +alludes to his friend Field having gone to a country where there are so +many thieves that even the kangaroos have to wear their pockets in +front, lest they be picked! + + +KANGAROO COOKE. + +Major-General Henry Frederick Cooke, C.B. and K.C.H., commonly called +Kang-Cooke, was a captain in the Coldstream Guards, and aide-de-camp to +the Duke of York. He was called the kangaroo by his intimate associates. +It is said that this arose from his once having let loose a cageful of +these animals at Pidcock's Menagerie, or from his answer to the Duke of +York, who, inquiring how he fared in the Peninsula, replied that he +"could get nothing to eat but kangaroo."[151] Moore, in his Diary,[152] +December 13, 1820, records that he dined with him and others at Lord +Granard's. Cooke told of Admiral Cotton once (at Lisbon, I think) saying +during dinner, "Make signals for the _Kangaroo_ to get under way;" and +Cooke, who had just been expressing his anxiety to leave Lisbon, thought +the speech alluded to his nickname, and considered it an extraordinary +liberty for one who knew so little of him as Admiral Cotton to take. He +found out afterwards, however, that his namesake was a sloop-of-war. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[150] "Distant Correspondents," in the Essays of Elia, first series ed. +1841, p. 67. + +[151] Jesse's "Life of Beau Brummell," vol. i. p. 288. + +[152] "Memoirs, Correspondence," &c., edited by Lord John Russell, vol. +iii. p. 179. + + + + +THE TIGER-WOLF. + +(_Thylacinus cynocephalus._) + + +The great order, or rather division, of mammalia, the +_Marsupialia_,[153] is furnished with a pouch, into which the young are +received and nourished at a very early period of their existence. The +first species of the group, known to voyagers and naturalists, was the +celebrated opossum of North America, whose instinctive care to defend +itself from danger causes it to feign the appearance of death. As the +great continent of Australia became known, it was found that the great +mass of its mammalia, from the gigantic kangaroo to the pigmy, +mouse-like potoroo, belonged to this singular order. The order contains +a most anomalous set of animals, some being exclusively carnivorous, +some chiefly subsisting on insects, while others browse on grass; and +many live on fruits and leaves, which they climb trees to procure; a +smaller portion subsisting on roots, for which they burrow in the +ground. The gentle and deer-faced kangaroo belongs to this order; the +curious bandicoots, the tree-frequenting phalangers and petauri, the +savage "native devil,"[154] and the voracious subject of this notice. + +The "tiger-wolf" is a native of Van Diemen's Land, and is strictly +confined to that island. It was first described in the ninth volume of +the "Linnean Transactions," under the name of _Didelphis cynocephalus_, +or "dog-headed opossum," the English name being an exact translation of +its Latin one. Its non-prehensile tail, peculiar feet, and different +arrangement of teeth, pointed out to naturalists that it entered into a +genus distinct from the American opossums; and to this genus the name of +_Thylacinus_[155] has been applied; its specific name _cynocephalus_ +being still retained in conformity with zoological nomenclature, +although M. Temminck, the founder of the genus, honoured the species +with the name of its first describer, and called it _Thylacinus +Harrisii_. + +Mr Gould has given a short account of this quadruped in his great work, +"The Mammals of Australia," accompanied with two plates, one showing the +head of the male, of the natural size, in such a point of view as to +exhibit the applicability of one of the names applied to it by the +colonists, that of "zebra-wolf." He justly remarks that it must be +regarded as by far the most formidable of all the marsupial animals, as +it certainly is the most savage indigenous quadruped belonging to the +Australian continent. Although it is too feeble to make a successful +attack on man, it commits great havoc among the smaller quadrupeds of +the country; and to the settler it is a great object of dread, as his +poultry and other domestic animals are never safe from its attacks. His +sheep are, especially, an object of the colonist's anxious care, as he +can house his poultry, and thus secure them from the prowler; but his +flocks, wandering about over the country, are liable to be attacked at +night by the tiger-wolf, whose habits are strictly nocturnal. Mr Gunn +has seen some so large and powerful that a number of dogs would not face +one of them. It has become an object with the settler to destroy every +specimen he can fall in with, so that it is much rarer than it was at +the time Mr Harris, its first describer, wrote its history, at least in +the cultivated districts. Much, however, of Van Diemen's Land is still +in a state of nature, and as large tracts of forest-land remain yet +uncleared, there is abundance of covert for it still in the more remote +parts of the colony, and it is even now often seen at Woolnoth and among +the Hampshire hills. In such places it feeds on the smaller species of +kangaroos and other marsupials,--bandicoots, and kangaroo-rats, while +even the prickle-covered echidna--a much more formidable mouthful than +any hedgehog--supplies the tiger-wolf with a portion of its sustenance. +The specimen described by Mr Harris was caught in a trap baited with the +flesh of the kangaroo. When opened, the remains of a half-digested +echidna[156] were found in its stomach. + +The tiger-wolf has a certain amount of daintiness in its appetite when +in a state of nature. From the observations of Mr Gunn it would seem +that nothing will induce it to prey on the wombat,[157] a fat, sluggish, +marsupial quadruped, abundant in the districts which it frequents, and +whose flesh would seem to be very edible, seeing that it lives on fruits +and roots. No sooner, however, was the sheep introduced than the +tiger-wolf began to attack the flocks, and has ever since shown a most +unmistakable appetite for mutton, preferring the flesh of that most +useful and easily-mastered quadruped to that of any kangaroo however +venison-like, or bandicoot however savoury. The colonists of Van +Diemen's land have applied various names to this animal, according as +its resemblance to other ferocious quadrupeds of different climates +struck their fancy. The names of "tiger," "hyena," and "zebra-wolf," are +partly acquired from its ferocity, somewhat corresponding with that of +these well-known carnivorous denizens of other lands, and partly from +the black bands which commence behind the shoulders, and which extend in +length on the haunches, and resemble in some faint measure those on the +barred tyrant of the Indian jungles, and the other somewhat similarly +ornamented mammalia implied in the names. These bars are well relieved +by the general grayish-brown colour of the fur, which is somewhat woolly +in its texture, from each of the hairs of which it is composed being +waved. + +The specimens in the Zoological Gardens are very shy and restless; when +alarmed they dash and leap about their dens and utter a short guttural +cry somewhat resembling a bark. This shyness is partly to be attributed +to their imperfect vision by day, and partly to their resemblance in +character to the wolf, whose treachery and suspicious manners in +confinement must have struck every one who has gazed on this "gaunt +savage" in his den in the Regent's Park. The specimens exhibited are the +first living members of the species first brought to Europe. The male +was taken in November 1849, and the female at an earlier period in the +same year, on the upper part of St Patrick's River, about thirty miles +north-east of Launceston. After being gradually accustomed to +confinement by Mr Gunn, they were shipped for this country, and reached +the Gardens in the spring of 1850. It is very seldom, indeed, that they +are caught alive; and when so caught they are generally at once killed, +so that it was with some difficulty and by offering a considerable +pecuniary inducement to the shepherds, that they were at last secured +for the Zoological Society.[158] In their den they show great activity, +and can bound upwards nearly to the roof of the place where they are +confined.--_A. White, from "Excelsior."_ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[153] So called from the Latin word _marsupium_, a pouch. + +[154] _Diabolus ursinus_, the ursine opossum of Van Diemen's Land, a +great destroyer of young lambs. + +[155] From the Greek words for a pouch and a dog, [Greek: thylakos] and +[Greek: kuôn]. Dr Gray had previously named it _Peracyon_, from [Greek: +pêra], a bag, and [Greek: kuôn], a dog. + +[156] _Echidna aculeata_, or _E. hystrix_, the porcupine ant-eater, a +curious edentate, spine-covered quadruped, closely allied to the still +stranger _Ornithorhynchus_, the duck-bill. + +[157] _Phascolomys Vombatus,_ a curious, broad-backed, and large-headed +marsupial, two specimens of which are in the Zoological Gardens. It is a +burrower, and in the teeth it resembles the rodent animals; hence its +name, from [Greek: phaskôlon], a pouch, and [Greek: mus], a mouse. + + + + +SQUIRREL: ARCTIC LEMMING. + + +The one with its long plume-like tail, organised for a life among trees, +the other with its home in the arctic regions, belong to an order not +generally distinguished for intelligence, although, the beaver, once +reputed a miracle of mind, belongs to it. The glirine or rodent animals +are generally of small or moderate size, though some, like the +water-loving capybara, are of considerable dimensions. + +The squirrel is a fine subject for a painter. There is a picture by Sir +Edwin Landseer, of a squirrel and bullfinch. On an engraving of it, +published in 1865, is inscribed "a pair of nut-crackers,"--a happy +title, and very apposite. + +Jekyll saw in Colman's chambers a squirrel in the usual round cage. "Ah! +poor devil," said Jekyll, "he's going the _home circuit_."[159] + +If you come upon a squirrel on the ground, he is not long in getting to +the topmost branch of the highest tree, so perfectly is he adapted for +"rising" at a "bar"! + + +PETS OF SOME OF THE REVOLUTIONARY BUTCHERS. A SQUIRREL. + +Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart., in his novel, "Zanoni,"[160] pictures +Citizen Couthon fondling a little spaniel "that he invariably carried in +his bosom, even to the Convention, as a vent for the exuberant +sensibilities which overflowed his affectionate heart." + +In a note the novelist remarks-- + +"This tenderness for some pet animal was by no means peculiar to +Couthon; it seems rather a common fashion with the gentle butchers of +the Revolution. M. George Duval informs us ('Souvenirs de la Terreur,' +iii. p. 183), that Chaumette had an aviary, to which he devoted his +harmless leisure; the murderous Fournier carried, on his shoulders, a +pretty little squirrel attached by a silver chain; Panis bestowed the +superfluity of his affections upon two gold pheasants; and Marat, who +would not abate one of the three hundred thousand heads he demanded, +_reared doves_! Apropos of the spaniel of Couthon, Duval gives us a +characteristic anecdote of Sergent, not one of the least relentless +agents of the massacre of September. A lady came to implore his +protection for one of her relations confined in the Abbaye. He scarcely +deigned to speak to her. As she retired in despair, she trod by accident +on the paw of his favourite spaniel. Sergent, turning round, enraged and +furious, exclaimed, '_Madam, have you no humanity?_'" + + +ARCTIC VOYAGER AND THE LEMMING. + +Captain Back, on his arctic land expedition, when returning in September +1835, encountered a severe gale, which forced them to land their boat, +and as the water rose they had three times to haul it higher on the +bank. He introduces an affecting little incident: "So completely cold +and drenched was everything outside, that a poor little lemming, unable +to contend with the floods, which had driven it successively from all +its retreats, crept silently under the tent, and snuggled away in +precarious security within a few paces of a sleeping terrier. +Unconscious of its danger, it licked its fur coat, and darted its bright +eyes from object to object, as if pleased and surprised with its new +quarters; but soon the pricked ears of the awakened dog announced its +fate, and in another instant the poor little stranger was quivering in +his jaws!"[161] + + * * * * * + +Mr McDougall?][162] records several amusing anecdotes of the little +arctic lemming, named _Arctomys Spermophilus Parryi_, after the great +arctic voyager. He says,--"My own experience of those industrious little +warriors tended to prove that they possessed a strange combination of +sociality and combativeness. Industrious they most certainly are, as is +shown by the complicated excavation of their subterranean cities; +besides which, every feather and hair of bird and animal found in the +vicinity of their dwellings, is made to contribute its iota of warmth +and comfort to the interior of their winter quarters. + +"I had," continues the master of the _Resolute_, "many opportunities of +watching their movements during my detention at Winter Harbour. My tent +happened to be pitched immediately over one of their large towns, +causing its inhabitants to issue forth from its thousand gates to catch +a view of the strangers. Frequently on waking we have found the little +animals, rolled up in a ball, snugly ensconced within the folds of our +blanket-bags; nor would they be expelled from such a warm and desirable +position without showing fight. On several occasions I observed Naps, +the dog, fast asleep with one or two lemmings huddled away between its +legs, like so many pups." + +He says that Lieutenant Mecham noticed an Esquimaux dog, named Buffer, +trudging along, nose to the ground, quite unconscious of danger, when a +lemming, suddenly starting from its cavern, seized poor Buffer by the +nose, inflicting a severe wound. The dog, astounded at such an +unsuspected assault, gave a dismal howl, and at length shook the enemy +off, after which he became the attacking party, and in less than a +minute the presumptuous assailant disappeared between the jaws of the +Tartar he had attempted to catch. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[158] Mitchell's "Popular Guide to the Zoological Gardens," p. 9. +(1852.) + +[159] Mark Lemon's "Jest Book," p. 180. + +[160] Ed. 1845, p. 339. + +[161] P. 441. Sir John Richardson told me that the species was +_Spermophilus Parryi_. + +[162] The Eventful Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ship _Resolute_ to the +Arctic Regions, in Search of Sir John Franklin, in 1852-3-4, pp. 314, +315. + + + + +RATS AND MICE. + + +Why should we not, like Grainger, begin this section as the writer of +"The Sugar-Cane" does one of his paragraphs-- + + "Come muse! let's sing of rats." + +The "restless rottens" and mice need little introduction. They are a +most fertile race, and some species of them seem only to be in human +habitations. They are terrible nuisances, and yet rat-skins are said to +be manufactured in Paris into gloves. + +Sydney Smith's comparison of some one dying like a poisoned rat in a +ditch is a powerful one. The same writer, in hunting down an unworthy +man, with his cutting criticism, says, that he did it not on account of +his power, but to put down what might prove noisome if not settled, much +as a Dutch burgomaster might hunt a rat, not for its value, but because +by its boring it might cause the water to break through his dikes, and +thus flood his native land. + +Robert Browning, in one of his poems, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin," has +powerfully described an incursion of rats. A few lines may be quoted:-- + + "Almost five hundred years ago, + To see the townsfolk suffer so + From vermin, was a pity. + "Rats! + They fought the dogs and killed the cats, + And bit the babies in their cradles, + And ate the cheeses out of the vats, + And licked the soup from the cook's own ladles, + Split open the kegs of salted sprats, + Made nests inside men's Sunday hats, + And even spoiled the women's chats, + By drowning their speaking + With shrieking and squeaking + In fifty different sharps and flats. + + * * * * * + + "And ere three shrill notes the pipes had uttered, + You heard as if an army muttered; + And the muttering grew to a grumbling; + And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling; + And out of the houses the rats came tumbling-- + Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats, + Brown rats, black rats, grey rats, tawny rats; + Grave old plodders, gay young friskers, + Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins, + Cocking tails, and pricking whiskers, + Families by tens and dozens, + Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives-- + Followed the Piper for their lives. + From street to street he piped, advancing, + And step for step they followed dancing, + Until they came to the river Weser + Wherein all plunged and perished, + Save one." + + +THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON AND THE MUSK-RAT. + +Mr Taylor, in his notes to the artist Haydon's Autobiography, tells us +that a favourite expression of the Duke of Wellington, when people tried +to coax him to do what he had resolved not to do, was, "The rat has got +into the bottle." This not very intelligible expression may refer to an +anecdote I have heard of the Duke's once telling, in his later days, how +the musk-rats in India got into bottles, which ever after retained the +odour of musk. "Either the rats must be very small," said a lady who +heard him, "or the bottles very large." "On the contrary, madam," was +the Duke's reply, "very small bottles and very large rats." "That is the +style of logic we have to deal with at the Horse Guards," whispered Lord +----. + + +LADY EGLINTOUN AND THE RATS. + +Mr Robert Chambers, in his "Traditions of Edinburgh" (p. 191), gives an +interesting account of the elegant Susanna, Countess of Eglintoun, who +was in her eighty-fifth year when Johnson and Boswell visited her. She +died in 1780, at the age of ninety-one, having preserved to the last her +stately mien and fine complexion. She is said to have washed her face +periodically with sow's milk. + +"This venerable woman amused herself latterly in taming and patronising +rats. She kept a vast number of these animals in her pay at Auchans, and +they succeeded in her affections the poets and artists she had loved in +early life. It does not reflect much credit upon the latter, that her +ladyship used to complain of never having met with true gratitude +except from four-footed animals. She had a panel in the oak wainscot of +her dining-room, which she tapped upon and opened at meal times, when +ten or twelve jolly rats came tripping forth, and joined her at table. +At the word of command or a signal from her ladyship, they retired again +to their native obscurity--a trait of good sense in the character and +habits of the animals which, it is hardly necessary to remark, patrons +do not always find in two-legged _protégés_." + + +GENERAL DOUGLAS AND THE RATS. + +The biographer of this highly-distinguished military engineer-officer +relates an anecdote of him when a lieutenant at Tynemouth. The future +author of well-known works on Gunnery and Military Bridges, early began +to show ability in mechanics. "Lieutenant Douglas occupied a room barely +habitable, and had to contest the tenancy with rats, which asserted +their claim with such tenacity, that he went to sleep at the risk of +being devoured. Their incursions compelled him to furnish himself with +loaded pistols and a tinder-box, and he kept watch one night, remaining +quiet till there was an irruption, when he started up and struck a +light. But his vigilance proved of no avail, for the clink of the flint +and steel caused a stampede, and not a rat remained by the time he had +kindled the tinder. Their flight suggested to him another device. He +looked out all the holes, and covered them with slides, connected with +each other by wires, and these he fastened to a string, which enabled +him to draw them all with one pull, and thus close the outlets. The +contrivance claims to be mentioned as his first success in mechanics, +foreshadowing his future expertness. It came into use the same night: he +pulled the string without rising from bed, then struck a light, while +the rats flew off to the holes to find them blocked, and he shot them at +leisure. Two or three such massacres cleared off the intruders, and left +him undisturbed in his quarters."[163] + + +HANOVER RATS. + +How amusingly does Mr Waterton show his attachment to the extinct +Stuarts in his essays. Go where he may, "a Hanover rat" pops up before +him. In his charming autobiography appended to the three series of his +graphic essays, whether he be in Rome or Cologne, in York or London, at +a farm-house, or on board a steamer on the Rhine, "a Hanover rat" is +sure to be encountered. We could cite many amusing illustrations. + +Earl Stanhope[164] speaks of the Jacobites after the death of Anne +reviling all adherents of the court as "a parcel of Roundheads and +Hanover rats." This is the phrase used by Squire Western in Fielding's +novel of "Tom Jones." He tells us that the former of these titles was +the by-word first applied to the Calvinistic preachers in the civil +wars, from the close cropped hair which they affected as distinguished +from the flowing curls of the cavaliers. The second phrase was of far +more recent origin. It so chanced that not long after the accession of +the House of Hanover, some of the brown, that is, the German or Norway +rats, were first brought over to this country in some timber, as is +said; and being much stronger than the black, or till then, the common +rats, they in many places quite extirpated the latter. The word, both +the noun and the verb "to rat," was first levelled at the converts to +the government of George the First, but has by degrees obtained a wider +meaning, and come to be applied to any sudden and mercenary change in +politics. The ravages of rats might form the subject of a curious +volume. They are not at all literary in their tastes, though they are +known to eat through bales of books, should they be placed in the way of +their runs. The booksellers in the Row always leave room between the +wall and the books in their cellars, to allow room for this predacious +vermin. + +Mr Cole, when examined before the Committee of the House on the +condition of the depositories of the Records some time ago, stated that +"six or seven perfect skeletons of rats were found imbedded (in the +Rolls); bones of these vermin were generally distributed throughout the +mass, and a dog was employed in hunting the live ones." + + +IRISHMAN EMPLOYED SHOOTING RATS. + +Luttrell visited Sydney Smith at his parsonage in Somersetshire. The +London wit told some amusing Irish stories, and his manner of telling +them was so good. "One: 'Is your master at home, Paddy?' '_No_, your +honour.' 'Why, I saw him go in five minutes ago.' 'Faith, your honour, +he's not exactly at home; he's only there in the back yard a-shooting +rats with cannon, your honour, for his _devarsion_.'"[165] + + +JAMES WATT AND THE RAT'S WHISKERS. + +Mrs Schimmelpenninck in her youth lived at Birmingham, where she often +met James Watt. In her autobiography (p. 34), she says, "Everybody +practically knew the infinite variety of his talents and stores of +knowledge. When Mr Watt entered a room, men of letters, men of science, +nay, military men, artists, ladies, even little children thronged round +him. I remember a celebrated Swedish artist having been instructed by +him that rats' whiskers made the most pliant and elastic painting-brush; +ladies would appeal to him on the best means of devising grates, curing +smoky chimneys, warming their houses, and obtaining fast colours. I can +speak from experience of his teaching me how to make a dulcimer, and +improve a Jew's harp." + + +THE POET GRAY COMPARES THE POET-LAUREATE TO A RAT-CATCHER. + +The poet Gray very much despised such offices as that of the +poet-laureate, or that held by Elkanah Settle, the last of the city +poets whose name is held up to ridicule by Pope in the "Dunciad." In a +letter to the Rev. Wm. Mason,[166] he puts this very strikingly:-- + +"Though I very well know the bland emolient saponaceous qualities both +of sack and silver, yet if any great man would say to me, 'I make you +rat-catcher to his Majesty, with a salary of £300 a year, and two butts +of the best Malaga; and though it has been usual to catch a mouse or +two, for form's sake, in public once a year, yet to you, sir, we shall +not stand upon these things,' I cannot say I should jump at it; nay, if +they would drop the very name of the office, and call me Sinecure to the +King's Majesty, I should still feel a little awkward, and think +everybody I saw smelt a rat about me: but I do not pretend to blame any +one else that has not the same sensations. For my part, I would rather +be serjeant-trumpeter or pinmaker to the palace." + + +JEREMY BENTHAM AND THE MICE. + +The biographer of Jeremy Bentham[167] tells us that among the animals he +was fond of were mice. They were encouraged "to play" about in his +workshop. I remember, when one got among his papers, that he exclaimed, +"Ho! ho! here's a mouse at work; why won't he come into my lap?--but +then I ought to be writing legislation, and that would not do." + +One day, while we were at dinner, mice had got, as they frequently did, +into the drawers of the dinner-table, and were making no small noise. "O +you rascals," exclaimed Bentham, "there's an uproar among you. I'll tell +puss of you;" and then added, "I became once very intimate with a +colony of mice. They used to run up my legs, and eat crumbs from my lap. +I love everything that has four legs; so did George Wilson. We were fond +of mice, and fond of cats; but it was difficult to reconcile the two +affections." + +Jeremy Bentham records: "George Wilson had a disorder which kept him two +months to his couch. The _mouses_ used to run up his back and eat the +powder and pomatum from his hair. They used also to run up my knees when +I went to see him. I remember they did so to Lord Glenbervie, who +thought it odd."[168] + + +BURNS AND THE FIELD MOUSE. + +The history of the origin of this well-known piece of the Scottish poet +is thus given by Mr Chambers in that edition of the Life and Works of +Robert Burns,[169] which will ever be regarded, by Scotchmen at least, +as the most complete and carefully-edited of the numerous editions of +that most popular poet. + +"We have the testimony of Gilbert Burns that this beautiful poem was +composed while the author was following the plough. Burns ploughed with +four horses, being twice the amount of power now required on most of the +soils of Scotland. He required an assistant, called a _gaudsman_, to +drive the horses, his own duty being to hold and guide the plough. John +Blane, who had acted as gaudsman to Burns, and who lived sixty years +afterwards, had a distinct recollection of the turning-up of the mouse. +Like a thoughtless youth as he was, he ran after the creature to kill +it, but was checked and recalled by his master, who, he observed, became +thereafter thoughtful and abstracted. Burns, who treated his servants +with the familiarity of fellow-labourers, soon after read the poem to +Blane. + + +TO A MOUSE, ON TURNING UP HER NEST WITH THE PLOUGH, NOVEMBER 1785. + + "Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie, + Oh, what a panic's in thy breastie! + Thou needna start awa sae hasty + Wi' bickering brattle! + I wad be laith to rin and chase thee + Wi' murd'ring pattle.[170] + + "I'm truly sorry man's dominion + Has broken nature's social union, + And justifies that ill opinion, + Which makes thee startle + At me, thy poor earth-born companion, + And fellow-mortal! + + "I doubt na whyles, but thou may thieve; + What then? poor beastie, thou maun live! + A daimen icker in a thrave[171] + 'S a sma' request: + I'll get a blessin' wi' the laive, + And never miss't. + + "Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin! + Its silly wa's the win's are strewin"! + And naething now to big a new ane + O, foggage green, + And bleak December's winds ensuin' + Baith snell and keen! + + "Thou saw the fields laid bare and waste, + And weary winter coming fast, + And cozie here, beneath the blast, + Thou thought to dwell, + Till crash! the cruel coulter passed + Out through thy cell. + + "That wee bit heap o' leaves and stibble, + Has cost thee mony a weary nibble! + Now thou's turned out for a' thy trouble, + But house or hald, + To thole the winter's sleety dribble, + And cranreuch cauld! + + "But, mousie, thou art no thy lane; + Improving foresight may be vain; + The best-laid schemes o' mice and men + Gang aft a-gley, + And lea'e us nought but grief and pain + For promised joy. + + "Still thou art blest, compared wi' me! + The present only toucheth thee; + But, och! I backward cast my e'e, + On prospects drear! + And forward, though I canna see, + I guess and fear." + +It was on the farm of Mossgiel, in the parish of Mauchline, where he +resided nearly nine years, that the occurrence took place so +pathetically recorded and gloriously commented on in this piece. + + +DESTRUCTIVE FIELD MICE. + +Thomas Fuller, in "The Farewell" to his description of the "Worthies of +Essex," says, "I wish the sad casualties may never return which lately +have happened in this county; the one, 1581, in the Hundred of Dengy, +the other, 1648, in the Hundred of Rochford and Isle of Foulness (rented +in part by two of my credible parishioners, who attested it, having paid +dear for the truth thereof); when an army of mice, nesting in ant-hills, +as conies in burrows, shaved off the grass at the bare roots, which, +withering to dung, was infectious to cattle. The March following, +numberless flocks of owls from all parts flew thither, and destroyed +them, which otherwise had ruined the country, if continuing another +year. Thus, though great the distance betwixt a man and a mouse, the +meanest may become formidable to the mightiest creature by their +multitudes; and this may render the punishment of the Philistines more +clearly to our apprehensions, at the same time pestered with mice in +their barns and pained with emerods in their bodies."[172] + + +THE BARON VON TRENCK AND THE TAME MOUSE IN PRISON. + +The unfortunate Baron Von Trenck was a Prussian officer, whose +adventures, imprisonments, and escape form the subject of memoirs which +he wrote in Hungary. He at last settled in France, and there, in 1794, +perished by the guillotine. + +Before he obtained his liberty, he lost a companion which had for two +years helped to beguile the solitude of his captivity. This was a mouse, +which he had tamed so perfectly, that the little creature was +continually playing with him, and would eat out of his mouth. "One night +it skipped about so much that the sentinels heard a noise and reported +it to the officer of the guard. As the garrison had been changed at the +peace (between Austria and Prussia), and as Trenck had not been able to +form at once so close a connexion with the officers of the regular +troops as he had done with those of the militia, one of the former, +after ascertaining the truth of the report with his own ears, sent to +inform the commandant that something extraordinary was going on in the +prison. The town-major arrived in consequence early in the morning, +accompanied by locksmiths and masons. The floor, the walls, the baron's +chains, his body, everything in short, were strictly examined. Finding +all in order, they asked the cause of the last evening's bustle. Trenck +had heard the mouse, and told them frankly by what it had been +occasioned. They desired him to call his little favourite; he whistled, +and the mouse immediately leaped upon his shoulder. He solicited that +its life might be spared; but the officer of the guard took it into his +possession, promising, however, on his word of honour, to give it to a +lady who would take great care of it. Turning it afterwards loose in his +chamber, the mouse, who knew nobody but Trenck, soon disappeared, and +hid himself in a hole. At the usual hour of visiting his prison, when +the officers were just going away, the poor little animal darted in, +climbed up his legs, seated itself on his shoulder, and played a +thousand tricks to express the joy it felt on seeing him again. Every +one was astonished, and wished to have it. The major, to terminate the +dispute, carried it away, gave it to his wife, who had a light cage made +for it; but the mouse refused to eat, and a few days after was found +dead."[173] + + +ALEXANDER WILSON AND THE MOUSE. + +About the time when Alexander Wilson formed the design of drawing the +American birds, and writing those descriptions which, when published, +gave him that name which has clung to him, "_the American +Ornithologist_" he had a school within a few miles of Philadelphia. He +was then a keen student of the animal life around him. In 1802 he wrote +to his friend Bertram, and tells him of his having had "live crows, +hawks, and owls; opossums, squirrels, snakes, lizards," &c. He tells him +that his room sometimes reminded him of Noah's ark, and comically adds, +"but Noah had a wife in one corner of it, and in this particular our +parallel does not altogether tally. I receive every subject of natural +history that is brought to me; and, though they do not march into my ark +from all quarters, as they did into that of our great ancestor, yet I +find means, by the distribution of a few fivepenny _bits_, to make them +find the way fast enough. A boy, not long ago, brought me a large +basketful of crows. I expect his next load will be bull-frogs, if I +don't soon issue orders to the contrary. One of my boys caught a mouse +in school a few days ago, and directly marched up to me with his +prisoner. I set about drawing it the same evening, and all the while the +pantings of its little heart showed it to be in the most extreme agonies +of fear. I had intended to kill it, in order to fix it in the claws of a +stuffed owl; but, happening to spill a few drops of water near where it +was tied, it lapped it up with such eagerness, and looked in my face +with such an eye of supplicating terror, as perfectly overcame me. I +immediately restored it to life and liberty. The agonies of a prisoner +at the stake, while the fire and instruments of torture are preparing, +could not be more severe than the sufferings of that poor mouse; and, +insignificant as the object was, I felt at that moment the sweet +sensation that mercy leaves in the mind when she triumphs over +cruelty."[174] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[163] "The Life of General Sir Howard Douglas, Bart., G.C.B., F.R.S., +D.C.L., from his Notes, Conversations, and Correspondence," by S. W. +Fullom. 1863. P. 28. + +[164] "History of England, from the Peace of Utrecht," by Lord Mahon, +vol. vii. p. 465. + +[165] Life of Sydney Smith, by his daughter, Lady Holland, vol. i. 374. + +[166] "Correspondence of Thomas Gray and Mason, edited from the +originals," by the Rev. John Mitford, p. 112. + +[167] Dr Bowring's "Life of Jeremy Bentham," Works, vol. xi. p. 80, 81. + +[168] "Bowring's Life," vol. x., Works, p. 186. + +[169] By Robert Chambers, Edinburgh, 1851, 4 vols., vol. i., p. 146. + +[170] The stick used for clearing away the clods from the plough. + +[171] An occasional ear of corn in a thrave,--that is, twenty-four +sheaves. + +[172] "Worthies of England," vol. i. p. 545. + +[173] "Wilson's Life," p. 28. + + + + +HARES, RABBITS, GUINEA-PIG. + + +All gnawing creatures, belonging to the Glirine or Rodentia order. +Charles Lamb has written on the hare, in one view of that +finely-flavoured beast, as only Elia could write. But the poet Cowper +has made the hare's history peculiarly pleasing and familiar. How often +in his letters he alludes to his hares! Mrs E. B. Browning, in her +exquisitely delicate and pathetic poem, "Cowper's Grave," thus alludes +to Cowper's pets-- + + "Wild, timid hares were drawn from woods to share his home caresses, + Uplooking to his human eyes with sylvan tendernesses; + The very world, by God's constraint, from falsehood's ways removing, + Its women and its men became, beside him, true and loving." + +Not many years ago the compiler saw traces of the holes the poet had cut +in the skirting-boards of the room for their ingress and egress, that +they might have ampler room for wandering. His epitaphs on two of them +are often quoted. Rabbits are peculiarly the pets of boys, and though, +when wild, often great vermin, from their destructive habits and their +mining operations, are yet said to contribute much to the revenue of one +European monarch. + +How Mr Malthus ought to have hated guinea-pigs, those fertile little +lumps of blotched fur! Few creatures can be more productive. + + +WILLIAM COWPER ON HIS HARES. + +What a model description of the habits of an animal we have in the +gentle Cowper's account of his hares! Would that he had made pets of +other animals, and written descriptions of them, like that which +follows, and which is here copied from the original place to which he +contributed it.[175] + + "_May_ 28. + +"MR URBAN,--Convinced that you despise no communications that may +gratify curiosity, amuse rationally, or add, though but a little, to the +stock of public knowledge, I send you a circumstantial account of an +animal, which, though its general properties are pretty well known, is +for the most part such a stranger to man, that we are but little aware +of its peculiarities. We know indeed that the hare is good to hunt and +good to eat; but in all other respects poor Puss is a neglected subject. +In the year 1774, being much indisposed, both in mind and body, +incapable of diverting myself either with company or books, and yet in +a condition that made some diversion necessary, I was glad of anything +that would engage my attention without fatiguing it. The children of a +neighbour of mine had a leveret given them for a plaything; it was at +that time about three months old. Understanding better how to tease the +poor creature than to feed it, and soon becoming weary of their charge, +they readily consented that their father, who saw it pining and growing +leaner every day, should offer it to my acceptance. I was willing enough +to take the prisoner under my protection, perceiving that in the +management of such an animal, and in the attempt to tame it, I should +find just that sort of employment which my case required. It was soon +known among the neighbours that I was pleased with the present; and the +consequence was, that in a short time, I had as many leverets offered to +me as would have stocked a paddock. I undertook the care of three, which +it is necessary that I should here distinguish by the names I gave +them--Puss, Tiney, and Bess. Notwithstanding the two feminine +appellatives, I must inform you that they were all males. Immediately +commencing carpenter, I built them houses to sleep in. Each had a +separate apartment, so contrived that their ordure would pass through +the bottom of it; an earthen pan placed under each received whatsoever +fell, which being duly emptied and washed, they were thus kept perfectly +sweet and clean. In the daytime they had the range of a hall, and at +night retired each to his own bed, never intruding into that of another. + +"Puss grew presently familiar, would leap into my lap, raise himself +upon his hinder feet, and bite the hair from my temples. He would suffer +me to take him up, and to carry him about in my arms, and has more than +once fallen fast asleep upon my knee. He was ill three days, during +which time I nursed him, kept him apart from his fellows that they might +not molest him (for, like many other wild animals, they persecute one of +their own species that is sick), and by constant care, and trying him +with a variety of herbs, restored him to perfect health. No creature +could be more grateful than my patient after his recovery,--a sentiment +which he most significantly expressed by licking my hand, first the back +of it, then the palm, then every finger separately; then between all the +fingers, as if anxious to leave no part of it unsaluted,--a ceremony +which he never performed but once again upon a similar occasion. Finding +him extremely tractable, I made it my custom to carry him always after +breakfast into the garden, where he hid himself generally under the +leaves of a cucumber vine, sleeping or chewing the cud till evening; in +the leaves also of that vine he found a favourite repast. I had not long +habituated him to this taste of liberty, before he began to be impatient +for the return of the time when he might enjoy it. He would invite me to +the garden by drumming upon my knee, and by a look of such expression as +it was not possible to misinterpret. If this rhetoric did not +immediately succeed, he would take the skirt of my coat between his +teeth, and pull at it with all his force. Thus Puss might be said to be +perfectly tamed; the shyness of his nature was done away, and on the +whole it was visible, by many symptoms which I have not room to +enumerate, that he was happier in human society than when shut up with +his natural companions. + +"Not so Tiney. Upon him the kindest treatment had not the least effect. +He, too, was sick, and in his sickness, had an equal share of my +attention; but if, after his recovery, I took the liberty to stroke him, +he would grunt, strike with his fore-feet, spring forward, and bite. He +was, however, very entertaining in his way, even his surliness was +matter of mirth, and in his play he preserved such an air of gravity, +and performed his feats with such a solemnity of manner, that in him, +too, I had an agreeable companion. + +"Bess, who died soon after he was full grown, and whose death was +occasioned by his being turned into his box, which had been washed, +while it was yet damp, was a hare of great humour and drollery. Puss was +tamed by gentle usage; Tiney was not to be tamed at all; and Bess had a +courage and confidence that made him tame from the beginning. I always +admitted them into the parlour after supper, where the carpet affording +their feet a firm hold, they would frisk, and bound, and play a thousand +gambols, in which Bess, being remarkably strong and fearless, was always +superior to the rest, and proved himself the Vestris of the party. One +evening, the cat, being in the room, had the hardiness to pat Bess upon +the cheek, an indignity which he resented by drumming upon her back with +such violence, that the cat was happy to escape from under his paws and +hide herself. + +"You observe, sir, that I describe these animals as having each a +character of his own. Such they were in fact, and their countenances +were so expressive of that character, that, when I looked only on the +face of either, I immediately knew which it was. It is said that a +shepherd, however numerous his flock, soon becomes so familiar with +their features, that he can by that indication only distinguish each +from all the rest, and yet to a common observer the difference is hardly +perceptible. I doubt not that the same discrimination in the cast of +countenances would be discoverable in hares, and am persuaded that among +a thousand of them no two could be found exactly similar; a circumstance +little suspected by those who have not had opportunity to observe it. +These creatures have a singular sagacity in discovering the minutest +alteration that is made in the place to which they are accustomed, and +instantly apply their nose to the examination of a new object. A small +hole being burnt in the carpet, it was mended with a patch, and that +patch in a moment underwent the strictest scrutiny. They seem, too, to +be very much directed by the smell in the choice of their favourites; to +some persons, though they saw them daily, they could never be +reconciled, and would even scream when they attempted to touch them; but +a miller coming in, engaged their affections at once--his powdered coat +had charms that were irresistible. You will not wonder, sir, that my +intimate acquaintance with these specimens of the kind has taught me to +hold the sportsman's amusement in abhorrence. He little knows what +amiable creatures he persecutes, of what gratitude they are capable, how +cheerful they are in their spirits, what enjoyment they have of life, +and that, impressed as they seem with a peculiar dread of man, it is +only because man gives them peculiar cause for it. + +"That I may not be tedious, I will just give you a short summary of +those articles of diet that suit them best, and then retire to make +room for some more important correspondent. + +"I take it to be a general opinion that they graze, but it is an +erroneous one, at least grass is not their staple; they seem rather to +use it medicinally, soon quitting it for leaves of almost any kind. +Sowthistle, dent-de-lion, and lettuce are their favourite vegetables, +especially the last. I discovered, by accident, that fine white sand is +in great estimation with them, I suppose as a digestive. It happened +that I was cleaning a bird cage while the hares were with me; I placed a +pot filled with such sand upon the floor, to which being at once +directed by a strong instinct, they devoured it voraciously; since that +time I have generally taken care to see them well supplied with it. They +account green corn a delicacy, both blade and stalk, but the ear they +seldom eat; straw of any kind, especially wheat-straw, is another of +their dainties; they will feed greedily upon oats, but if furnished with +clean straw, never want them; it serves them also for a bed, and, if +shaken up daily, will be kept sweet and dry for a considerable time. +They do not indeed require aromatic herbs, but will eat a small quantity +of them with great relish, and are particularly fond of the plant called +musk; they seem to resemble sheep in this, that if their pastures be too +succulent, they are very subject to the rot; to prevent which, I always +made bread their principal nourishment; and, filling a pan with it cut +into small squares, placed it every evening in their chambers, for they +feed only at evening and in the night; during the winter, when +vegetables are not to be got, I mingled this mess of bread with shreds +of carrot, adding to it the rind of apples cut extremely thin; for, +though they are fond of the paring, the apple itself disgusts them. +These, however, not being a sufficient substitute for the juice of +summer herbs, they must at this time be supplied with water; but so +placed that they cannot overset it into their beds. I must not omit, +that occasionally they are much pleased with twigs of hawthorn and of +the common briar, eating even the very wood when it is of considerable +thickness. + +"Bess, I have said, died young; Tiney lived to be nine years old, and +died at last, I have reason to think, of some hurt in his loins by a +fall. Puss is still living, and has just completed his tenth year, +discovering no signs of decay nor even of age, except that he is grown +more discreet and less frolicsome than he was. I cannot conclude, sir, +without informing you that I have lately introduced a dog to his +acquaintance, a spaniel that had never seen a hare, to a hare that had +never seen a spaniel. I did it with great caution, but there was no real +need of it. Puss discovered no token of fear, nor Marquis the least +symptom of hostility. There is, therefore, it should seem, no natural +antipathy between dog and hare, but the pursuit of the one occasions the +flight of the other, and the dog pursues because he is trained to it; +they eat bread at the same time out of the same hand, and are in all +respects sociable and friendly.--Yours &c., + + W. C. + +"_P.S._--I should not do complete justice to my subject, did I not add, +that they have no ill scent belonging to them, that they are +indefatigably nice in keeping themselves clean, for which purpose nature +has furnished them with a brush under each foot; and that they are never +infested by any vermin." + +Our readers know his fine verses or epitaphs on his hares. We may quote +from the biographer to whom Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington +left all their papers and memoirs, a sentence or two on Cowper's hares, +and on the other pets of that lovable man. Earl Stanhope[176] says of +this poet and "best letter-writer in the English language--"Such, +indeed, were his powers of description and felicity of language, that +even the most trivial objects drew life and colour from his touch. In +his pages, the training of three tame hares, or the building of a frame +for cucumbers, excite a warmer interest than many accounts compiled by +other writers, of great battles deciding the fate of empires. In his +pages, the sluggish waters of the Ouse,--the floating lilies which he +stooped to gather from them,--the poplars, in whose shade he sat, and +over whose fall he mourned, rise before us as though we had known and +loved them too. As Cowper himself declares, 'My descriptions are all +from nature, not one of them second-handed; my delineations of the heart +are from my own experience, not one of them borrowed from books.'" + + +HAIRS OR HARES! + +A gentleman on circuit, narrating to Lord Norbury some extravagant feat +in sporting, mentioned that he had lately shot thirty-three hares before +breakfast. "Thirty-three _hairs_!" exclaimed Lord Norbury; "zounds, sir! +then you must have been firing at a _wig_."[177] + +Sportsmen are very apt to exaggerate. They did so at least in Horace's +days. We have heard of a man of rank, who actually made a gamekeeper, +who was a first-rate marksman, fire whenever he discharged his piece. +The story goes, that _that_ man was regarded as having shot everything +that fell. + +The Duke of L.'s reply, when it was observed to him that the gentlemen +bordering on his estates were continually hunting upon them, and that he +ought not to suffer it, is worthy of imitation. "I had much rather," +said he, "have _friends_ than hares."[178] + +The time must be coming, when every farmer or peasant will be allowed to +shoot hares. It is surely cruel to imprison or fine a man for shooting +and shouldering a hare. Having lately traversed a goodly part of the +Perthshire Highlands, we were struck with the numbers of Arctic hares +that scudded away out of our path. What a fine help one of them would be +to a poor family. + + +S. BISSET AND HIS TRAINED HARE AND TURTLE. + +S. Bisset, whose training of other animals is elsewhere recorded, like +the poet Cowper, procured a leveret, and reared it to beat several +marches on the drum with its hind legs, until it became a good stout +hare. This creature, which is always set down as the most timid, he +declared to be as mischievous and bold an animal, to the extent of its +power, as any with which he was acquainted. He taught canary-birds, +linnets, and sparrows, to spell the name of any person in company, to +distinguish the hour and minute of time, and play many other surprising +tricks. He trained six turkey-cocks to go through a regular country +dance; but in doing this he confessed he adopted the eastern method, by +which camels are made to dance, by heating the floor. In the course of +six months' teaching, he made a turtle fetch and carry like a dog; and +having chalked the floor, and blackened its claws, could direct it to +trace out any given name of the company.[179] + + +A FAMILY OF RABBITS ALL BLIND OF ONE EYE. + +Lady Anne Barnard, in her Cape Journal,[180] referring to Dessin or +Rabbit Island at the Cape of Good Hope, says that it is "dreadfully +exposed to the south-east winds. A gentleman told me of a natural +phenomenon he had met with when shooting there; his dog pointed at a +rabbit's hole, where the company within were placed so near the opening +that he could see Mynheer, Madame, and the whole rabbit family. Pompey, +encouraged, brought out the old coney, his wife, and seven young +ones,--all, like the callenders in the 'Arabian Nights' Entertainments,' +blind of one eye, and that the same eye. The question was, on which side +of the island was the rabbit's hole? With a very little reasoning and +comparing, it was found that from its position, the keen blast must have +produced this effect. The oddest part of this story is, that it is true, +but I do not expect you to believe it." + + +THOMAS FULLER ON NORFOLK RABBITS. + +"These are an army of natural pioneers whence men have learned +_cuniculos agere_, the art of undermining. They thrive best on barren +ground, and grow fattest in the hardest frosts. Their flesh is fine and +wholesome. If Scottish men tax our language as improper, and smile at +our wing of a rabbit, let us laugh at their shoulder of a capon. + +Their skins were formerly much used, when furs were in fashion; till of +late our citizens, of Romans are turned Grecians, have laid down their +grave gowns and taken up their light cloaks; men generally disliking all +habits, though emblems of honour, if also badges of age. + +Their rich or silver-hair skins, formerly so dear, are now levelled in +prices with other colours; yea, are lower than black in estimation, +because their wool is most used in making of hats, commonly (for the +more credit) called half-beavers, though many of them hardly amount to +the proportion of semi-demi castors."[181] + + +DR CHALMERS AND THE GUINEA-PIG. + +Mr Aitken alludes in a pleasing manner to an instance of Dr Chalmers's +fondness for animals. He had just been appointed the head-master of one +of the Glasgow parish schools (St John's). "Early in the week following +my appointment, I received my first private call. One circumstance +occurred during the visit which I still remember most vividly. One of my +children had been presented with a pair of guinea-pigs. These had found +their way into the apartment where we were sitting, and ran about in all +directions. I could have wished to turn them out, but had not the power +to rise from my chair. He soon observed them, followed them with his eye +as they now retreated under his chair and again ventured out into his +presence--he even changed the position of his feet to give them scope. +That same kindly eye, one glance of which we all loved so much to catch +in after-life, beamed only the more warmly as the creatures frisked in +greater confidence around him. It was to me an omen for good. He who +could enjoy thus the innocent gamble of these guinea-pigs could not fail +to be accessible for good when occasion required. It was the first flush +of that largeness of heart which afterwards appeared in all I ever heard +him say or saw him do."[182] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[174] "Memoir of Wilson," p. 27, prefixed to his poetical works. +Belfast, 1844. + +[175] _Gentleman's Magazine_, for June 1784, being the sixth number of +vol. liv., pp. 412-414, "Unnoticed Properties of that little animal the +Hare." + +[176] "History of England," vol. vi. p. 486. + +[177] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 59. + +[178] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 182. + +[179] Biography of S. Bisset in G. H. Wilson's "Eccentric Mirror," vol. +i., No. 3, p. 29. + +[180] Published by Lord Lindsay in vol. iii. of his "Lives of the +Lindsays," p. 387. + +[181] "Worthies of England," vol. ii. p. 445 (ed. 1840). + + + + +SLOTH. + + +REVEREND SYDNEY SMITH ON THE SLOTH. + +Few anecdotes can be published of this curious creature, though Waterton +and Burchell, or Dr Buckland, for him and his friend Bates, have +recorded much that is interesting of its habits. The following bit is +peculiarly happy: "The sloth, in its wild state, spends its life in +trees, and never leaves them but from force or accident. The eagle to +the sky, the mole to the ground, the sloth to the tree; but what is most +extraordinary, he lives not _upon_ the branches, but _under_ them. He +moves suspended, rests suspended, sleeps suspended, and passes his +life in suspense--like a young clergyman distantly related to a +bishop."[183] + +[Illustration: The Great Ant-Eater. (Myrmecophaga jabata).] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[182] Dr Hannah's "Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Thomas Chalmers, +D.D., L.L.D.," vol. ii. p. 237. + + + + +THE GREAT ANT-EATER. + +(_Myrmecophaga jubata_, L.[184]) + + +A few months ago a handbill was distributed in the neighbourhood of +Seven Dials, inviting the public to visit a "wonderful animal fed with +ants, and possessing strength to kill the lion, tiger, or any other +animal under its claws." We entered the miserable apartment where it was +exhibited, and any spectator must at once have been struck with the +creature's want of resemblance to any other he had ever seen. Its head +so small, so long and slender; the straight, wiry, dry hair with which +it was covered, and its singularly large and bushy tail, first attracted +notice. A second glance showed its enormously thick fore-legs, and the +claws of its feet turned in, so that it walked on the sides of its +soles. Oken and St Hilaire would have said that it was "all extremity." +A cup, with the contents of one or two eggs, was brought, and it sucked +them with great avidity, every now and then darting from its small mouth +a very long tongue, which looked like a great, black worm, whisking +about in the custard. One of its showmen told us that it had attacked +the woman of the house the preceding day, and had scratched her arm. +Whether this was true or grossly exaggerated, we know not; but if so, we +suspect that the woman herself must have been in fault, and not the +inoffensive stranger. + +On the payment of a handsome consideration to her owners, the poor +captive was transferred from her unwholesome lodging in St Giles's, to +the Gardens of the Zoological Society in the Regent's Park. And within +the last few weeks her solitude has been cheered by the arrival of a +companion from her native forests. The new-comer is in beautiful +condition, though not nearly so large. He has a head decidedly shorter +and stronger, and is probably not yet fully grown. + +The great ant-eater seems to be scattered over a wide extent of South +America--Guiana, Brazil, and Paraguay, being its places of abode. It is +a stout animal, measuring from the end of the snout to the tip of the +long tail six or seven feet, of which the tail takes nearly the half; so +that the actual size of its body is much reduced. In Paraguay it is +named _Nurumi_ or _Yogui_. The former name is altered from the native +word for _small mouth_, and indicates a striking peculiarity in its +structure. The Portuguese call it _Tamandua_; the Spaniards, _Osa +hormiguero_ (_i.e._, ant-hill bear). In Paraguay it prefers sides of +lakes where ants, at least termites or white ants, are abundant; but it +also frequents woods. In Guiana, Mr Waterton found it chiefly "in the +inmost recesses of the forest," where it "seems partial to the low and +swampy parts near creeks, where the troely tree grows."[185] It sleeps a +great deal, reclining on its side, as the visitor to the Gardens may +frequently see it do, with its head between its fore-legs, joining its +fore and hindfeet, and spreading the tail so as to cover the whole +body. Huddled up under this thatch, it might almost be taken for a +bundle of coarse and badly dried hay. The tail is thickly covered with +long hairs, placed vertically, the hairs draggling on the ground. When +the creature is irritated, the tail is shaken straight and elevated. The +natives of Paraguay, like other persecutors of harmlessness, kill every +specimen they meet, so that the ant-eater gets rare, and so rare is it +on the Amazon that Mr Wallace, who travelled there from 1848 to 1852, +honestly tells us he never saw one. He heard, however, that during rain +it turns its bushy tail over its head and stands still. The Indians, +knowing this habit, when they meet an ant-eater, make a rustling noise +among the leaves. The creature instantly turns up its tail, and is +easily killed by the stroke of a stick on its little head.[186] + +The ant-eater is slow in its movements--never attempting to escape. When +hard pressed it stops, and, seated on its hind-legs, waits for the +aggressor. Its object is to receive him between its fore-legs; and one +has only to look at its arms and claws in order to fancy what a +frightful squeeze it would give. Nothing but death, they say, will make +the creature relax its grasp. It is asserted that the jaguar--the tiger +of South America, and the most formidable beast of the New World--dares +not attack it. This Azara, with good reason, doubts. A single bite from +a jaguar, or the stroke of his paw, would fracture an ant-eater's skull +before it had time to turn round; for the movements of this edentate +quadruped are as sluggish as those of the toothed carnivorous tyrant are +rapid. + +As seen in its handsome and roomy cage, the ant-eater gives us an +impression of dulness and stupidity; and always smelling and listening +and looking at the door where its keeper introduces its food, its mind, +when awake, appears to be constantly occupied about "creature comforts." +In the course of the day it laps up with its darting tongue, and sucks +in through its long taper snout a dozen eggs, and almost the whole of a +rabbit, chopped into a fine mince-meat. With such dainty fare, and with +the anxious attention which it receives from its sagacious curators, it +is scarcely surprising that it thrives; and when the warm weather comes, +it will be a fine sight to see these animals enjoying the range of a +paddock, which will doubtless be provided for their use, and exercising +their brawny forelimbs and powerful claws in pulling down conical +mounds, which may remind them of departed joys and balmier climes. Nor +will it be the least charm of the spectacle that it will enable us to +compare this living species with other _Edentata_ of South America--such +as the Megatherium, now only found in the fossil state, but so admirably +restored by Mr Hawkins for the Crystal Palace. + +We need not dwell on the admirable adaptation of the ant-eater to its +position and to its few and simple wants. To those who have not studied +"the works of the Lord," it may appear uncouth and unattractive. +Compared with a dog, it is stupid; and alongside of a lion, it is slow. +It has not the symmetry of the horse, nor the beautiful markings of the +zebra and leopard. But its Creator has given it the instincts, the form, +the muscular powers, and the colours which best answer its purpose. And +no one can say that it is plain and ugly, who looks at its legs so +prettily variegated with white and black, and its noble black collar. + +Those of our readers who wish further information will find it in the +_Literary Gazette_ for October 8, 1853. In that article it is easy to +recognise the Roman hand of the _facile princeps_ among living +comparative anatomists. Long may it be before either of our new +acquaintances in the Garden afford him a subject for dissection; but +when that day arrives, we hope that he will not delay to publish the +memoir.[187]--_A. White, in "Excelsior" (with additions)._ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[183] Sydney Smith, "Review of Waterton's Wanderings." _Edinburgh +Review_, 1826. Works, vol. ii. p. 145. + +[184] From [Greek: myrmêx], ant; [Greek: phagô], I eat; _jubata_, maned. + +[185] "Wanderings in South America" (Third Journey), p. 159, (ed. 1839). + +[186] "A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro," by Alfred R. +Wallace, 1853, p. 452. + + + + +RHINOCEROS AND ELEPHANT. + + +Two genera of the bulkiest among terrestrial beasts. Just imagine the +great rhinoceros at the Zoological Gardens taking it into its head, with +that little eye, target hide, and bulky bones, and other items about it, +to fondle its keeper!--he was nearly crushed to death. How the great +thick-skinned creature enjoys a bath! + +As for the elephant, he is a mountain of matter as well as of animal +intelligence. Sir Emerson Tennant in his "Ceylon," but especially in his +"Natural History," volumes, has given some truly readable chapters on +the Asiatic elephant. We could have extracted many an anecdote, even +from recent works, of the intelligent sagacity of the Indian as well as +the African elephants. The account of the shooting of Mr Cross's +well-known elephant _Chunie_, at Exeter Change, has been very curiously +and fully detailed by Hone in his "Every-Day Book." A skull of an +elephant in the British Museum, shows how wonderfully an elephant is at +times able to defend itself from attack. Many a shot that "rogue +elephant" had received, years before the three or four Indian sportsmen, +who presented its skull as a trophy, succeeded in planting a shot in its +brain, or in its heart. Think of the feelings of Lord Clive's relations, +at the prospect of his sending home an elephant for a pet. The good +folks, not without some motive, as the great Indian ruler conceived, +other than mere love for him, had been sending him presents. Samuel +Rogers, who wrote the neatest of hands, records that Clive wrote the +worst and certainly the most illegible of scrawls. Instead of +"elephant," as they read it, their liberal relative had written +"equivalent!" + + +THE LORD KEEPER GUILFORD AND HIS VISIT TO THE RHINOCEROS IN THE CITY OF +LONDON.[188] + +It is strange to read in the life of the Lord Keeper Guilford, that his +lordship's court enemies, "hard put to it to find, or invent, something +tending to the diminution of his character," took advantage of his going +to see a rhinoceros, to circulate a foolish story of him, which much +annoyed him. It was in the reign of James II. his biographer thus +records it. The rhinoceros, referred to, was the first ever brought to +England. Evelyn, in his "Memoirs," says, that it was sold for £2000, a +most enormous sum in those days (1685). + +Roger North relates the story:--"It fell out thus--a merchant of Sir +Dudley North's acquaintance had brought over an enormous rhinoceros, to +be sold to showmen for profit. It is a noble beast, wonderfully armed by +nature for offence, but more for defence, being covered with +impenetrable shields, which no weapon would make any impression upon, +and a rarity so great that few men, in our country, have in their whole +lives the opportunity of seeing so singular an animal. This merchant +told Sir Dudley North that if he, with a friend or two, had a mind to +see it, they might take the opportunity at his house before it was sold. +Hereupon Sir Dudley North proposed to his brother, the Lord Keeper, to +go with him upon this exhibition, which he did, and came away +exceedingly satisfied with the curiosity he had seen. But whether he was +dogged to find out where he and his brother housed in the city, or +flying fame carried an account of the voyage to court, I know not; but +it is certain that the very next morning a bruit went from thence all +over the town, and (as factious reports used to run) in a very short +time, viz., that his lordship rode upon the rhinoceros, than which a +more infantine exploit could not have been fastened upon him. And most +people were struck with amazement at it, and divers ran here and there +to find out whether it was true or no. And soon after dinner some lords +and others came to his lordship to know the truth from himself, for the +setters of the lie affirmed it positively as of their own knowledge. +That did not give his lordship much disturbance, for he expected no +better from his adversaries. But that his friends, intelligent persons, +who must know him to be far from guilty of any childish levity, should +believe it, was what roiled him extremely, and much more when they had +the face to come to him to know if it were true. I never saw him in such +a rage, and to lay about him with affronts (which he keenly bestowed +upon the minor courtiers that came on that errand) as then; for he sent +them away with fleas in their ear. And he was seriously angry with his +own brother, Sir Dudley North, because he did not contradict the lie in +sudden and direct terms, but laughed as taking the question put to him +for a banter, till, by iteration, he was brought to it. For some lords +came, and because they seemed to attribute somewhat to the avowed +positiveness of the reporters, he rather chose to send for his brother +to attest than to impose his bare denial, and so it passed; and the +noble earl (of Sunderland), with Jeffries, and others of that crew, made +merry, and never blushed at the lie of their own making, but valued +themselves upon it as a very good jest." + +And so it passed. What a sensation would have been caused by the sudden +apparition in that age of a few numbers of _Punch_. What a subject for a +cartoon, some John Leech of 1685 would have made of the stately Lord +Keeper on the back of a rhinoceros, and the infamous Judge Jeffries +leering at him from a window. + + +THE ELEPHANT AND HIS TRUNK. + +Canning and another gentleman were looking at a picture of the deluge; +the ark was seen in the middle distance, while in the fore-sea an +elephant was struggling with his fate. "I wonder," said the gentleman, +"that the elephant did not secure _an inside_ place!"--"He was too late, +my friend," replied Canning; "he was detained _packing up his +trunk_."[189] + + +SIR RICHARD PHILLIPS AND JELLY MADE OF IVORY DUST.--A VEGETARIAN TAKEN +IN. + +The biographers of James Montgomery[190] relate an amusing anecdote of +Sir Richard Phillips, the eccentric London bookseller and author. He +visited Sheffield in October 1828. "He had lived too long amidst the +bustle and business of the great world, and was too little conscious of +any feeling at all like diffidence, to allow him to hesitate about +calling upon any person, whether of rank, genius, or eccentricity, when +the success of his project was likely to be thereby promoted. The time +selected by the free and easy knight for his unannounced visitation of +Montgomery was _Sunday at dinner time_. He was at once asked to sit down +and partake of the chickens and bacon which had just been placed on the +table, but here was a dilemma; Sir Richard, although neither a Brahmin +nor a Jew, avowed himself a staunch Pythagorean--he could eat no flesh! +Luckily there was a plentiful supply of carrots and turnips, and--jelly. +But was the latter made from calves' feet? Montgomery assured his guest +that it was _not_; but, added he, with a conscientious regard for his +visitor's scruples, from _ivory dust_. We believe the poet fancied the +hypothesis of an animal origin of this viand could not be very obscure; +it was, however, swallowed; the clever bibliopole perhaps believing, +with some of the Sheffield ivory-cutters, that elephants, instead of +being hunted and killed for their tusks, _shed them_ when fully grown, +as bucks do their antlers!" + + +J. T. SMITH AND THE ELEPHANT. + +That gossiping man, J. T. Smith, once Keeper of the Prints in the +British Museum, and author of "Nollekens and his Times," relates, that +when he and a friend were returning late from a club, and were +approaching Temple Bar, "about one o'clock, a most unaccountable +appearance claimed our attention,--it was no less than an elephant, +whose keepers were coaxing it to pass through the gateway. He had been +accompanied with several persons from the Tower wharf with tall poles, +but was principally guided by two men with ropes, each walking on either +side of the street, to keep him as much as possible in the middle, on +his way to the menagerie, Exeter Change, to which destination, after +passing St Clement's Church, he steadily trudged on, with strict +obedience to the command of his keepers.[191] + +"I had the honour afterwards of partaking of a pot of Barclay's entire +with this same elephant, which high mark of his condescension was +bestowed when I accompanied my friend, the late Sir James Wintel Lake, +Bart., to view the rare animals in Exeter Change,--that gentleman being +assured by the elephant's keeper that, if he would offer the beast a +shilling, he would see the noble animal nod his head and drink a pot of +porter. The elephant had no sooner taken the shilling, which he did in +the mildest manner from the palm of Sir James's hand, than he gave it to +the keeper, and eagerly watched his return with the beer. The elephant +then, after placing his proboscis to the top of the tankard, drew up +nearly the whole of the beverage. The keeper observed, 'You will hardly +believe, gentlemen, but the little he has left is quite warm;' upon this +we were tempted to taste it, and it really was so. This animal was +afterwards disposed of for the sum of one thousand guineas." + + +THE ELEPHANT AND THE TAILOR. + +This old story has been often told, but never so well as by Sydney Smith +in one of his lectures at the Royal Institution. "Every one knows the +old story of the tailor and the elephant, which, if it be not true, at +least shows the opinion the Orientals, who know the animal well, +entertain of his sagacity. An eastern tailor to the Court was making a +magnificent doublet for a bashaw of nine tails, and covering it, after +the manner of eastern doublets, with gold, silver, and every species of +metallic magnificence. As he was busying himself on this momentous +occasion, there passed by, to the pools of water, one of the royal +elephants, about the size of a broad-wheeled waggon, rich in ivory +teeth, and shaking, with its ponderous tread, the tailor's shop to its +remotest thimble. As he passed near the window, the elephant happened to +look in; the tailor lifted up his eyes, perceived the proboscis of the +elephant near him, and, being seized with a fit of facetiousness, +pricked the animal with his needle; the mass of matter immediately +retired, stalked away to the pool, filled his trunk full of muddy water, +and, returning to the shop, overwhelmed the artisan and his doublet with +the dirty effects of his vengeance." + + +DR JOHNSON ALLUDED TO AS "AN ELEPHANT." + +"If an elephant could write a book, perhaps one that had read a great +deal would say, that an Arabian horse is a very clumsy, ungraceful +animal." This was written by Horace Walpole to Miss Berry, in 1791, in +allusion to Dr Johnson's depreciation of Thomas Gray the poet.[192] It +is an acute observation, well worth being wrought out. There is a +grandeur and even a grace about this bulky beast and its motions well +deserving the study of any one who has the opportunity. Elephants in our +streets are not now so rare as they used to be. We saw three in one +procession in the streets of Edinburgh in 1865. + + +ELEPHANT'S SKIN. + +"Did any of you ever see an elephant's skin?" asked the master of an +infant school in a fast neighbourhood. "I have!" shouted a six-year-old +at the foot of the class. "Where?" inquired the master, amused by his +earnestness. "_On the elephant!_" was the reply. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[187] This memoir has been published, and the subject of it was this +very ant-eater. Professor Owen has introduced many striking facts from +the history of its structure, in his lecture delivered at Exeter Hall, +1863, and published by the Messrs Nisbet. + +[188] "The Life of the Right Hon. Francis North, Baron Guilford, Lord +Keeper of the Great Seal, under King Charles II. and King James II., +&c." By the Hon. Roger North. A New Edition, in three vols., 1826, vol. +ii. p. 167. + +[189] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 329. + +[190] "John Holland and James Everett," vol. iv. p. 283. + +[191] "A Book for a Rainy Day," p. 92. + + + + +FOSSIL PACHYDERMATA. + + +CUVIER AND THE FOSSIL. + +George Cuvier was perhaps the first man who, by his admirable works and +researches, gave zoology its true place among the sciences. + +His discoveries of the structure of molluscous and other animals of the +obscurer orders are perhaps eclipsed by his researches in osteology. He +has enabled the comparative anatomist to tell from a small portion of +bone not only the class, but the order, genus, and even the species to +which animal that bone belonged. + +Mrs Lee,[193] in her Life of the Baron, gives an example of his +enthusiasm in his researches. + +M. Laurillard was afterwards his secretary and the draftsman who +executed nearly all the drawings in his "Ossemens fossiles." At the time +of this story he had not particularly attracted Cuvier's notice. + +"One day Cuvier came to his brother Frederic to ask him to disengage a +fossil from its surrounding mass, an office he had frequently performed. +M. Laurillard was applied to in the absence of F. Cuvier. Little aware +of the value of the specimen confided to his care, he cheerfully set to +work, and succeeded in getting the bone entire from its position. M. +Cuvier, after a short time, returned for his treasure, and when he saw +how perfect it was, his ecstasies became incontrollable; he danced, he +shook his hands, he uttered expressions of delight, till M. Laurillard, +in his ignorance both of the importance of what he had done, and of the +ardent character of M. Cuvier, thought he was mad. Taking, however, his +fossil foot in one hand, and dragging Laurillard's arm with the other, +he led him up-stairs to present him to his wife and sister-in-law, +saying, 'I have got my foot, and M. Laurillard found it for me.' It +seems that this skilful operation confirmed all M. Cuvier's previous +conjecture concerning a foot, the existence and form of which he had +already guessed, but for which he had long and vainly sought. So +occupied had he been by it, that, when he appeared to be particularly +absent, his family were wont to accuse him of seeking his fore-foot. The +next morning the able operator and draftsman was engaged as secretary." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[192] "Letters of Horace Walpole," edited by Peter Cunningham, ix., 319. + +[193] "Memoirs of Baron Cuvier," by Mrs R. Lee (formerly Mrs T Ed. +Bowdich), 1833, p. 93. + + + + +SOW. + + +A very gross but useful animal, which can, by feeding, be stuffed into +such a state of fatness as only one who has seen a Christmas cattle show +in England could believe it possible for beast to acquire. Dean Ramsay, +in a happy anecdote, refers to a good quality of the sow as food. He +tells, that a Scottish minister had been persuaded to keep a pig, and +that the good wife had been duly instructed in the mysteries of +black-puddings, pork-chops, pig's-head, and other modes of turning poor +piggy to account. The minister remarked to a friend, "Nae doubt there's +a hantle o' miscellaneous eating aboot a pig." The author of "A Ramble," +published by Edmonstone and Douglas in 1865, has devoted some most +amusing pages of his work to an account of "Pig-sticking in Chicago," as +witnessed by him during the late American war. The wholesale and +scientific off-hand way in which living pigs enter into one part of a +machine, and come out prepared pork, could only have been devised by a +Yankee. + +[Illustration: The Wild Boar of Syria and Egypt. (Sus Scrofa.)] + +The essay of Charles Lamb on Roast Pig, and his history of how the +Chinaman discovered it, is a most characteristic bit of the productions +of Elia. We have cut from a recent paper, what seems an authentic story, +of one of this race having obtained a kind of mausoleum. We hope it is +not a hoax, but that it is as genuine as all that is in one of "Murray's +Handbooks:"-- + +MONUMENT TO A PIG.--"Up to the present time," says the _Europe_ of +Frankfort, "no monument that we are aware of had ever been erected to +the memory of a _pig_. The town of Luneburg, in Hanover, has wished to +fill up that blank; and at the Hotel de Ville, in that town, there is to +be seen a kind of mausoleum to the memory of a member of the swinish +race. In the interior of that commemorative structure is to be seen a +glass case, inclosing a ham still in good preservation. A slab of black +marble attracts the eye of visitors, who find thereon the following +inscription in Latin, engraved in letters of gold--'Passer-by, +contemplate here the mortal remains of the pig which acquired for itself +imperishable glory by the discovery of the salt springs of Luneburg.'" + + +THE WILD BOAR (_Sus scrofa_). + +We have a specimen of the family of swine in that well-known and useful +animal, with whose portrait Sir Charles Bell furnishes the reader, as an +example of a head as remote as possible from the head of him who +designed and executed the Elgin marbles. Although the learned anatomist +brought forward the profile of this animal as the type of a +"non-intellectual" being, yet there are instances enough on record to +show that pigs are not devoid of intelligence, and are even, when +trained, capable of considerable docility. "Learned pigs," however, such +as are exhibited at country fairs, are a rare occurrence, and the family +to which they belong is essentially one "gross" in character, and far +from gainly in appearance. The most handsome of the race is one from +West Africa, recently added to the Zoological Gardens, and described by +Dr Gray under the name of _Potamochærus penicillatus_. The wild swine of +Africa are, with this bright exception, anything but handsome, either in +shape or colour; and the large excrescences on their cheeks and face +give the "warthogs" a ferocious look, which corresponds with their +habits. In the East there are several species of wild swine. One of the +most celebrated is the _Babyrusa_ of the Malay peninsula, distinguished +by its long recurved teeth, with which it was once fancied that they +suspended themselves from trees, or rather supported themselves when +asleep. Mrs M'Dougall[194] refers to the wild hogs of Borneo, which seem +to be dainty in their diet, as they think nothing of a swim of four +miles from their jungle home to places on the river where they know +there are trees laden with ripe fruit. These Borneo swine are active +creatures too, as they can leap fences nearly six feet high. In South +America the sow family is represented by the Peccaries (_Dicotyles_), of +which there are two species, one of which is very abundant in the woods, +and forms a most important article in the diet of the poor Indians. +They, too, can swim across rivers, and although their legs are short, +they can run very fast. + +It is chiefly in the warmer parts of the world that the species of this +family are found. They are all distinguished by the middle toes of each +foot being larger than the others, and armed with hoofs,[195] the side +toe or toes being shorter, and scarcely reaching the ground. The nose +terminates in a truncated, tough, grissly disk, which is singularly well +adapted for the purpose of the animals, which all grub in the ground for +their food. In some parts of France it is said that they are trained to +search for truffles. + +Having briefly alluded to different species "_de grege porci_," we now +limit ourselves to our immediate subject. + +The wild boar, at no very remote period, was found in the extensive +woods which covered great portions of this island. The family of Baird +derives its heraldic crest of a wild boar's head from a grant of David +I., King of Scotland. This monarch was hunting in Aberdeenshire, and +when separated from his attendants, the infuriated pig turned upon him; +one of his people came up and killed it, and in memory of his feat +received from the grateful king the device still borne by the family. +The name of a Scottish parish, and of one of the oldest baronial +families in Scotland--Swinton of Swinton, in Berwickshire--is derived +also from this animal, the first of the Swintons having cleared that +part of the country from the wild swine which then infested it. It is +curious to know that some large fields in the neighbourhood of Swinton +still carry in their names traces of these early occupants. Dr Baird +informed the writer that there are four of these fields so +distinguished:--"Sow-causeway," and "Pikerigg," where the wild swine +used to feed ("pick their food"); "Stab's Cross," where Sir Alan Swinton +with his spear pierced some monarch of the race; and "Alan's Cairn," +where a heap of stones was raised as a monument of his hardihood. In the +southern part of our island only the nobility and gentry were allowed to +hunt this animal; and in the reign of William the Conqueror any one +convicted of killing a wild boar in any of the royal demesnes was +punished with the loss of his eyes. + +In many parts of the Continent the wild boar is still far from rare, and +affords, to those who are fond of excitement, that peculiar kind of +"pleasure" which involves a certain amount of danger. Scenes somewhat +similar to those depicted by Snyders may still be witnessed in some +parts of Germany; and in the sketches of Mr Wolf, the able artist whose +designs illustrate these papers, we have seen animated studies of this +truly hazardous sport. + +The nose of the wild boar is very acute in the sense of smell. A zealous +sportsman tells us, "I have often been surprised, when stealing upon one +in the woods, to observe how soon he has become aware of my +neighbourhood. Lifting his head, he would sniff the air inquiringly, +then, uttering a short grunt, make off as fast as he could."[196] The +same writer has also sometimes noticed in a family of wild boars one, +generally a weakling, who was buffeted and ill-treated by the rest. "Do +what he would, nothing was right; sometimes the mother, uttering a +disapproving grunt, would give him a nudge to make him move more +quickly, and that would be a sign for all the rest of his relations to +begin showing their contempt for him too. One would push him, and then +another; for, go where he might, he was sure to be in the way." In the +extensive woods frequented by this animal in Europe, abundant supplies +of food are met with in the roots of various plants which it grubs up, +in the beech-mast, acorns, and other tree productions, which, during two +or three months of the year, it finds on the ground. Although well able +to defend itself, it is a harmless animal, and being shy, retires to +those parts of the forests most remote from the presence of man. A site +in the neighbourhood of water is preferred to any other. + +Travellers in the East frequently refer to this animal and to its +ravages when it gets into a rice-field or a vineyard; for although its +natural food be wild roots and wild fruits, if cultivated grounds be in +the neighbourhood, its ravages are very annoying to the husbandmen, who +can fully and feelingly understand the words of the Psalmist, "The boar +out of the wood doth waste it" (Ps. lxxx. 13). + +Messrs Irby and Mangles,[197] as they approached the Jordan, saw a herd +of nine wild pigs, and they found the trees on the banks of a stream +near that river all marked with mud, left by the wild swine in rubbing +themselves. A valley which they passed was grubbed up in all directions +with furrows made by these animals, so that the soil had all the +appearance of having been ploughed up. + +Burckhardt mentions the occurrence of the wild boar and panther +together, or the _ounce_, as he calls it, on the mountain of Rieha, and +also in the wooded part of Tabor. He mentions "a common saying and +belief among the Turks, that all the animal kingdom was converted by +their prophet to the true faith, except the wild boar and buffalo, which +remained unbelievers; it is on this account that both these animals are +often called Christians. We are not surprised that the boar should be so +denominated; but as the flesh of the buffalo, as well as its Leben or +sour milk, is much esteemed by the Turks, it is difficult to account for +the disgrace into which that animal has fallen among them; the only +reason I could learn for it is, that the buffalo, like the hog, has a +habit of rolling in the mud, and of plunging into the muddy ponds in the +summer time up to the very nose, which alone remains visible above the +surface."[198] Wild boars were frequently fallen in with by this +traveller during his Syrian travels in the neighbourhood of rush-covered +springs, where they could easily return to their "wallowing in the +mire;" he also met with them on all the mountains he visited in his +tour. In the Ghor they are very abundant, and so injurious to the Arabs +of that valley that they are unable to cultivate the common barley on +account of the eagerness with which the wild swine feed on it, and are +obliged to grow a less esteemed kind, with six rows of grains which the +swine will not touch. + +Messrs Hemprich and Ehrenberg tell us that the wild boar is far +from scarce in the marshy districts around Rosetta and Damietta, and +that it does not seem to differ from the European species. The head of a +wild boar which these travellers saw at Bischerre, a village of Lebanon, +closely resembled the European variety, except in being a little longer. +The Maronites there, who ate its flesh in their company, called it +_chansir_,[199] a name evidently identical with the Hebrew word +_chasir_, which occurs in the Bible. The Turks, according to Ehrenberg, +keep swine in their stables, from a persuasion that all devils who may +enter will be more likely to go into the pigs than the horses, from +their alliance to the former unclean animals.--_A. White, in +"Excelsior."_ + +[Illustration: The River Pig.] + + +THE RIVER PIG, OR PAINTED PIG OF THE CAMAROON.[200] + +The other day we revisited the Zoological Gardens, and found that two +old friends had got--the one, a companion, the other, a neighbour. The +latter was the bulky hippopotamus, now most bearish, and more and more +unmistakably showing the minute accuracy of those master lines in the +Book of Job, in which Behemoth's portrait, pose, and character are +depicted. The former was the subject of this article--evidently, as far +as colour goes, "the chieftain of the _porcine_ race." + +The poet tells us, however, "Nimium ne crede colori;" and observation, +as well as the Scripture, shows us daily that "fair havens" in summer +are but foul places to "winter in;" that fair speeches, and a flattering +tongue, and the kisses of an enemy, "are deceitful;" and that beneath a +fine spotted or barred coat, the jaguar and the tiger, the cobra and the +hornet, conceal both the power and the propensity for mischief. So with +our old friend Potamochoerus. The pretty creature,--beauty is +relative--the Cameroon pig is the prettiest, the gaudiest of the +race,--the pretty creature, we repeat, is of a fine bay red, made to +look more bright from the circumstance of the face, ears, and front of +the legs being black, while the red is relieved, and the black is +defined, by the pencilled lines of white which edge the ears, streak +over and under the eye, and ornament the long whiskers, another long +white line traversing the middle of the back; a very attractive +combination of colour--the painting of "Him who made the world"--and one +which must make the _Potamochoerus penicellatus_ most conspicuous +among the bright green shrubs and dark marshes of the rivers of +equinoctial Africa, on whose banks the race has been planted. The +present largest specimen was taken, when a "piggie," by a trading +captain, as it was swimming across the Cameroon River. He brought it to +Liverpool; Dr Gray, of the British Museum, gave an account of it in the +"Illustrated Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London for +1852"--an excellent work--where its figure, drawn and coloured by the +hand of Wolf, shows the condition of the African sow four years ago. It +was then a round, comfortable, kind-looking creature, which one might +almost have fondled as a pet. The pig now looks rather a dangerous +beast, and its beauty is not increased by its face having grown longer, +and by the bump and hollow on each cheek being larger and deeper; nor is +its mouth so attractive or innocent, now that its tusks--those ivory +daggers and knives of the family of Swine--have grown longer. The +creature, partly it may be from familiarity, jumps up against the iron +palisade which separates the visitor from its walk, but a poor pannage +as a substitute for its African home. We would advise him to read the +notice: "Visitors are requested not to tease the animals;" "not to +touch" would be a good reprint--for few, we fancy, would try to tease. + +One, however, especially a lady, likes to know and to feel _texture_; +and sadly used the fine, mild Edward Cross, of Exeter Change and the +Surrey Zoological Gardens, once the Nestor as well as the King among +keepers of wild beasts--a gentle, gentlemanly, white-haired, venerable +man,--sadly, we say, used Mr Cross to lament that there _were_ parasols, +and that he could not keep them _out_ of his garden. Mr C. told the +writer that he lost many a beast and bird from the pokes of that +insinuating weapon. We dissuade any lady from touching or going near a +zebra's mouth, or the horns of an ibex or an algazel, or the pointed +bill of a heron or stork, or from putting her hand near this fine +painted pig. + +Up jumps Potamochoerus--eye rather vindictive, however--and mark, as +that big specimen is foreshortened before you, the profile of the little +companion pig of the same species, standing within a few feet, but safe +from the poke of any umbrella or parasol; look how innocent and +inviting--how quiet, and sleek, and polished, and painted, and mild it +looks, all but that little suspicious eye, with its wink oblique, and +its malicious twinkle. + +Of the habits of this pig we can find no written record, though in the +journals of the Scottish or Wesleyan Missionaries there may be some +notices of it. We do not know whence the Society procured the second +specimen, but it shows that Africa's wild animals, like its chain of +internal Caspian seas, and its mountain-ranges and rivers, are becoming +gradually known. Old Bosman, who was chief factor for the Dutch on the +Gold Coast 150 years ago, refers to the swine near Fort St George +d'Elmina being not nearly so wild as those of Europe, and adds, "I have +several times eaten of them here, and found them very delicious and very +tender meat, the fat being extraordinarily fine."[201] He evidently +refers to some other species. + +Travellers in South Africa have made us familiar with the habits, and +specimens in the Zoological Gardens, in a pannage close to that of the +"painted pig," show us the form and ugliness, of the bush pig and flat +pig (_Choiropotamus Africanus_) of that southern land, with their long +heads, long legs, upturned tails, and horrid tusks. They have a strange +habit of kneeling on their fore-legs. In South Africa they abound; and +the natives--our excellent friend, the Rev. Henry Methuen, tells +us--often bring their jaws for barter. They are of a dingy, dirty gray; +the boar is two feet and a half high, and his tusks sometimes measure +"eleven inches and a half each from the jawbone," are five inches and a +half in circumference at the base, and are thirteen inches apart at +their extremities. + +No animal is more formidably armed; and his rapidity and lightness of +movement make him a very marked object to the African Nimrod, who, midst +"clumps of bush"--be they Proteacæ, heaths, or Diosmeæ--not unfrequently +comes on a herd of wild pigs "headed by a noble boar," with tail erect. +We could enter largely on the history of this active species, and quote +many a stirring anecdote of travellers' rencontres with this fearless +animal. The lion skulks away from him, but the rhinoceros--at least one +species--the buffalo, with his formidable front of horn and bone, and +the bush pig, with his dreaded tusks, show but little fear; and it is +well for the huntsman that he has a sure eye, a steady hand, and a +double-barrelled gun, and not a few Caffir followers to help him, should +his eye be dim, his hand waver, or his gun "flash in the pan." Dogs +avail but little; a deadly gash lays open their ribs, and a side-thrust +of a wild boar will cut into the most muscular leg, and for ever destroy +its tendons. We have done with pigs, and would only recommend a visit--a +frequent visit--to that paradise of animals, the Zoological Gardens, +where, a fortnight ago, we saw wild boars from Hesse Darmstadt; wild +boars from Egypt; bush pigs from Africa; peccaries from South America; +and two painted pigs from West Africa; all "_de grege porci_," and in +excellent health: to say nothing of two hippopotamuses; four "seraphic" +giraffes; antelopes (we did not number them); brush turkeys from +Australia; an apteryx from New Zealand; the curious white sheathbills +from the South Seas; the refulgent metallic green and purple-tinted +monaul, or Impeyan pheasant, strutting with outspread, light-coloured +tail, just as he courts his plain hen-mate on the Indian mountains; a +family of the funny pelicans--cleanliness, ugliness, and contentment in +one happy combination; a band of flamingoes; eagles and vultures; the +harpy--that Picton of the birds--looking defiance as he stands, with +upraised crest, flashing eye, and clenched talons, over his food; the +wily otter; the amiable seal, which carries us to the seas and rocks of +much-loved Shetland, with their long, winding voes, their +bird-frequented cliffs, and outlying skerries; the Indian thrush, which +reminds one of a "mavis" at home; the parrot-house, with its fine +contrasts of colour and its discordant noises; Penny's Esquimaux +dog--poor fellow, a prisoner, unlike to what he was when, with our dear +friends Dr Sutherland and Captain Stewart, this very dog breasted the +blast before a sledge in the Wellington Channel.[202] Look at that +wondrous sloth, organised for a life in a Brazilian forest--those two +restless Polar bears; and though last, not least, those wonders of the +great deep, "the sea-anemones," the exquisite red and white "feathery" +tentacles of the long cylindrical-twisted serpulæ, and +marvellously-transparent streaked shrimps, all leg, and feeler, and eye, +and "nose"--in the salt-water tanks in the Vivarium.--_A. White, in +"Excelsior."_ + + +S. BISSET AND HIS LEARNED PIG. + +S. Bisset, formerly referred to, when at Belfast bought a black sucking +pig, and after several experiments succeeded in training a creature, so +obstinate and perverse by nature, to become most tractable and docile. +In August 1783, he took his learned pig to Dublin for exhibition. "It +was not only under full command, but appeared as pliant and good-natured +as a spaniel. He had taught it to spell the names of any one in the +company, to tell the hour, minute, and second, to make his obeisance to +the company, and he occasioned many a laugh by his pointing out the +married and the unmarried. Some one in authority forced him to leave +Dublin, and he died broken-hearted shortly after at Chester, on his way +to London, where forty and more years before he had first been induced +to train animals."[203] + + +QUIXOTE BOWLES FOND OF PIGS. + +Southey records of Quixote Bowles that he "had a great love for pigs; he +thought them the happiest of all God's creatures, and would walk twenty +miles to see one that was remarkably fat. This love extended to bacon; +he was an epicure in it; and whenever he went out to dinner, took a +piece of his own curing in his pocket, and requested the cook to dress +it."[204] + + +ON JEKYLL NEARLY THROWN DOWN BY A VERY SMALL PIG. + + "As Jekyll walk'd out in his gown and his wig, + He happen'd to tread on a very small pig; + 'Pig of science,' he said, 'or else I'm mistaken, + For surely thou art an _abridgment of Bacon_.'"[205] + + +GOOD ENOUGH FOR A PIG. + +An Irish peasant being asked why he permitted his pig to take up its +quarters with his family, made an answer abounding with satirical +_naïveté_. "Why not? Doesn't the place afford every convenience that _a +pig can require_?"[206] + +Mrs Fry, in 1827, visited Ireland on one of her Christian and +philanthropic tours. In a letter to her children from Armagh she +says--"Pigs abound; I think they have rather a more elegant appearance +than ours, their hair often rather curled. Perhaps naturalists may +attribute this to their intimate association with their betters!"[207] + + +THE COUNTRYMAN'S CRITICISM ON THE PIGS IN GAINSBOROUGH'S PICTURE OF THE +GIRL AND PIGS. + +Thomas Gainsborough, the great English painter, exhibited, in 1782, +among pictures of noblemen, gentlemen, and ladies, his well-known "Girl +and Pigs."[208] + +Wolcot, better known as "Peter Pindar," in his first "Ode to the Royal +Academicians," refers to this picture. + + "And now, O Muse, with song so big, + Turn round to Gainsborough's Girl and Pig, + Or Pig and Girl, I rather should have said; + The pig in white, I must allow, + Is really a well painted sow, + I wish to say the same thing of the maid." + +"The expression and truth of nature in the Girl and Pigs," remarks +Northcote, "were never surpassed. Sir Joshua Reynolds was struck with +it, though he thought Gainsborough ought to have made her a beauty." +Reynolds, indeed, became the purchaser of the painting at one hundred +guineas, Gainsborough asking but sixty. During its exhibition, it is +said to have attracted the attention of a countryman, who +remarked--"They be deadly like pigs, but nobody ever saw pigs feeding +together but what one on 'em had a foot in the trough." + + +HOOK AND THE LITTER OF PIGS. + +Once a gentleman, who had the marvellous gift of shaping a great many +things out of orange-peel, was displaying his abilities at a +dinner-party before Theodore Hook and Mr Thomas Hill, and succeeded in +counterfeiting a pig. Mr Hill tried the same feat; and after destroying +and strewing the table with the peel of a dozen oranges, gave it up, +with the exclamation, "Hang the pig! I _can't_ make him." "Nay, Hill," +exclaimed Hook, glancing at the mess on the table, "you have done more; +instead of one pig, you have made a _litter_."[209] + +Hook, we may add, was an original wit. He did not, like most professed +wits, study his sayings before, and arrange with his seeming opponent +for an imaginary war of words. He was an _impromptu_ wit. + + +JESTS ABOUT SWINE. + +Lord Chancellor Hardwicke's bailiff, having been ordered by his lady to +procure a sow of a particular description, came one day into the +dining-room when full of company, proclaiming with a burst of joy he +could not suppress--"I have been at Royston Fair, my lady, and I have +got a sow exactly of _your ladyship's_ size."[210] + + * * * * * + +John was thought to be very stupid. He was sent to a mill one day, and +the miller said--"John, some people say you are a fool! Now, tell me, +what you do know, and what you don't know."--"Well," replied John, "I +know millers' hogs are fat!"--"Yes, that's well, John; now, what don't +you know?"--"I don't know _whose corn_ fats 'em."[211] + + +PIGS AND SILVER SPOON. + +The Earl of P---- kept a number of swine at his seat in Wiltshire, and +crossing the yard one day, he was surprised to see the pigs gathered +round one trough, and making a great noise. Curiosity prompted him to +see what was the cause, and on looking into the trough he perceived a +large silver spoon. A servant-maid came out, and began to abuse the pigs +for crying so. "Well they may," said his lordship, "when they have got +but one _silver spoon_ among them all." + + * * * * * + +We have heard of one nobleman in Strathearn, who, when a young man, used +to be thus addressed by his mother--"William! how are the children _and +your pigs_?"[212] + + +SYDNEY SMITH ON BEAUTIFUL PIGS. + +DEFINITION OF BEAUTY BY A UTILITARIAN. + +"Go to the Duke of Bedford's piggery at Woburn, and you will see a breed +of pigs with legs so short, that their stomachs trail upon the ground; +a breed of animals entombed in their own fat, overwhelmed with +prosperity, success, and farina. No animal could possibly be so +disgusting, if it were not useful; but a breeder who has accurately +attended to the small quantity of food it requires to swell this pig out +to such extraordinary dimensions,--the extraordinary genius it displays +for obesity,--and the laudable propensity of the flesh to desert the +cheap regions of the body, and to agglomerate on those parts which are +worth ninepence a pound,--such an observer of its utility does not +scruple to call these otherwise hideous quadrupeds a beautiful race of +pigs!"[213] + + +JOSEPH STURGE, WHEN A BOY, AND THE PIGS. + +When Joseph Sturge, that good Quaker, was in his sixth year, his +biographer, Henry Richard,[214] records that he was on a visit to a +friend of his mother's at Frenchay, near Bristol. Sauntering about one +day, he came near the house of an eccentric man, a Quaker, who was much +annoyed by the depredations of his neighbour's pigs. Half in jest, and +half in earnest, he told the lad to drive the pigs into a pond close by. +Joseph, nothing loath, set to work with a will, delighted with the fun. +The woman, to whom the pigs belonged, came out presently, broom in hand, +flourishing it over the young sinner's head. The tempter was standing +by, and sought to cover his share of the transaction by shaking his head +and saying--"Ah, + + 'Satan finds some mischief still + For idle hands to do.' + +The child looked up at him indignantly, and said, 'Thee bee'st Satan +then, for thee told'st me to do it.'" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[194] "Letters from Sarawak," p. 104. 1854. + +[195] "Divides the hoof, and is cloven-footed, yet cheweth not the cud" +(Lev. ii. 7). + +[196] Boner's "Chamois Hunting in the Mountains of Bavaria," p. 97. + +[197] "Travels" (Home and Colonial Library), p. 147. + +[198] "Travels in Syria and the Holy Land," p. 9. + +[199] Symbolæ Physicæ. + +[200] _Potamochoerus penicellatus._ [Greek: Potamos], a river; [Greek: +choiros], a pig; _penicellatus_, pencilled. It is said to be the _Sus +porcus_ of Linnæus. + +[201] "A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea, written +originally in Dutch." London, 1705, p. 247. + +[202] See Dr Sutherland's interesting account in his "Journal of a +Voyage in Baffin Bay and Barrow's Straits in the years 1850, 1851;" a +truly excellent work on the Arctic regions, by one who is now Surveyor +of Natal. + +[203] See Biography in G. H. Wilson's _Eccentric Mirror_, i., No. 3, p. +30. + +[204] "Common-Place Book," iv. p. 514. + +[205] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 107. + +[206] _Ibid._, p. 337. + +[207] "Memoir of the Life of Elizabeth Fry," vol. ii. p. 30. 1847. + +[208] "Life of Thomas Gainsborough, R.A.," by the late George William +Fulcher, edited by his Son, p. 122. 1856. + +[209] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 328. + +[210] _Ibid._, p. 2. + +[211] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 31. The latter of these jests is +attributed by Dean Ramsay to a half-witted Ayrshire man, who said he +"kenned a miller had aye a gey fat sow."--_Reminiscences_, p. 197. + +[212] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 269. This worthy nobleman was and is +much attached to his home-farm. He is well known in Perthshire. + +[213] "Wit and Wisdom of Rev. Sydney Smith," third edition, p. 253. From +a lecture at Royal Institution. + +[214] "Memoirs of Joseph Sturge," by Henry Richard. + + + + +HORSE. + + +The noblest animal employed by man, and consequently the subject of many +volumes of anecdote,--a study for the painter and sculptor, from the +days of the Greek and Assyrian artists to the present day. Charles +Darwin and Sir Francis Head have given graphic descriptions of the +catching of the wild horse, which swarms on the Pampas of South America. + +How pathetic to see the led horse following the bier of a soldier! It +was, perhaps, the most affecting incident in the long array of the +funeral of the great Duke. + +In the Museum at Brussels, Dr Patrick Neill observed, in 1817, "the +stuffed skin of the horse belonging to one of the Alberts, who governed +the Low Countries in the time of the Spaniards. It was shot under him in +the field, and the holes made in the thorax by the musket bullets are +still very evident."[215] + +Poor Copenhagen, the Duke's charger at Waterloo, was buried. Many would +have liked his skin or skeleton. The Duke resisted all attempts to give +his old friend up for such a purpose. We hope no resurrectionist +succeeded in getting up his bones, years after his burial at +Strathfieldsaye. + + +BELL-ROCK HORSE. + +The Bell-Rock Lighthouse, built on a dangerous range of rocks twelve +miles south by east from Arbroath, was begun by Robert Stevenson on the +17th August 1807, and finished in October 1810. Mr Jervise[216] records +that "one horse, the property of James Craw, a labourer in Arbroath, is +believed to have drawn the entire materials of the building. The animal +latterly became a _pensioner_ of the Lighthouse Commissioners, and was +sent by them to graze on the Island of Inchkeith, where it died of old +age in 1813. Dr John Barclay, the celebrated anatomist, had its bones +collected and arranged in his museum, which he bequeathed at his death +to the Royal College of Surgeons, and in their museum at Edinburgh the +skeleton of the _Bell-Rock horse_ may yet be seen." + + +BURKE AND THE HORSE. + +An anecdote of the humanity of the great Edmund Burke in the year 1762 +has been preserved.[217] "An Irishman, of the name of Johnson, was +astonishing the town by his horsemanship. All London crowded to see his +feats of agility and his highly-trained steeds. Dr Johnson and Boswell +talked of this man's wonderful ability, and the Doctor thought that he +fully deserved encouragement on philosophical grounds. He proved what +human perseverance could do. One who saw him riding on three horses at +once, or dancing upon a wire, might hope, that with the same application +in the profession of his choice, he should attain the same success. +Burke, always ready to encourage his countrymen, and curious in all the +ramifications of ingenuity, went frequently to the circus. The favourite +performance of the evening was that of a handsome black horse, which, at +the sound of Johnson's whip, would leave the stable, stand with much +docility at his side, then gallop about the ring, and on hearing the +crack of the lash again return obediently to its master. On one +unfortunate occasion, the signal was disregarded. The horse-rider flew +into a rage, and by a blow between the ears, struck the noble animal to +the earth. The spectators thought the horse was dying, but they had +little time to reflect on the sight before they were surprised at seeing +a gentleman jump into the ring, rush up to Johnson, and with his eyes +flashing, and every muscle in the face quivering with emotion, shout +out, 'You scoundrel! I have a mind to knock you down.' And Johnson would +certainly have been laid sprawling in the sawdust beside his panting +steed, had not the friends of the gentleman interposed, and prevented +him inflicting such summary chastisement. This incident was long +remembered. When the relater of it, many years afterwards, heard Burke +declaiming, on the floor of the House of Commons, against injustice and +oppression, his mind naturally reverted to the time when he saw the same +hatred of all cruelty displayed by the same individual as he stood over +the prostrate body of the poor black horse, prepared to punish the +miscreant who had felled it to the ground." + + +DAVID GARRICK AND HIS HORSE. + +In 1778 Sir Joshua Reynolds visited Dr Warton at Winchester College. +Here he was particularly noticed by George III. and his queen, who were +then making a tour through the summer encampments. The father of Lord +Palmerston, and David Garrick, the great actor, with others, visited +Warton at the same time. + +Mr Northcote[218] relates that a whimsical accident occurred to Garrick +at one of the reviews, which Sir Joshua afterwards recounted with great +humour. + +"At one of those field-days in the vicinity, Garrick found it necessary +to dismount, when his horse escaped from his hold and ran off; throwing +himself immediately into his professional attitude, he cried out, as if +on Bosworth field, 'A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!'" + +This exclamation, and the accompanying attitude, excited great amazement +amongst the surrounding spectators, who knew him not; but it could not +escape his majesty's quick apprehension, for, it being within his +hearing, he immediately said, "Those must be the tones of Garrick! see +if he is not on the ground." The theatrical and dismounted monarch was +immediately brought to his majesty, who not only condoled with him most +good humouredly on his misfortune, but flatteringly added, that his +delivery of Shakspeare could never pass undiscovered. + +This anecdote of Garrick at Winchester is told in the Rev. John Wool's +"Life of Warton." Mr Taylor says--"One can't help suspecting Roscius +took care to make his speech when he knew the king was within earshot--a +little bit of that 'artifice' of his which has left such an impression +in the theatre, that the phrase, 'As deep as Garrick,' is still current +stage slang."[219] + + +BERNARD GILPIN'S HORSES STOLEN AND RECOVERED.[220] + +The biographer of the saintly Bernard Gilpin, the apostle of the +northern counties of England in the days of Edward VI., and Queens Mary +and Elizabeth, relates that, by the carelessness of his servant, his +horses were one day stolen. The news was quickly propagated, and every +one expressed the highest indignation. The thief was rejoicing over his +prize, when, by the report of the country, he found whose horses he had +taken. Terrified at what he had done, he instantly came trembling back, +confessed the fact, returned the horses, and declared he believed the +devil would have seized him directly had he carried them off, knowing +them to have been Mr Gilpin's. The biographer gives an instance of his +benevolent temper. "One day returning home, he saw in a field several +people crowding together; and judging that something more than ordinary +had happened, he rode up to them, and found that one of the horses in a +team had suddenly dropped down, which they were endeavouring to raise; +but in vain, for the horse was dead. The owner of it seeming much +dejected with his misfortune, and declaring how grievous a loss it was +to him, Mr Gilpin bade him not be disheartened; "I'll let you have, +honest man, that horse of mine," and pointed to his servant's. "Ah! +master," replied the countryman, "my pocket will not reach such a beast +as that." "Come, come," says Mr Gilpin, "take him, take him; and when I +demand my money, then thou shalt pay me."[221] + +No wonder that the horses of the apostolic rector of Houghton-le-Spring +were safe, even in those horse-stealing times, and in that Border +county. + + +THE HERALD AND GEORGE III.'S HORSE. + +One day, when Sir Isaac Heard was in company with George III., it was +announced that his majesty's horse was ready for hunting. "Sir Isaac," +said the king, "are you a judge of horses?"--"In my younger days, please +your majesty, I was a great deal among them," was the reply.--"What do +you think of this, then?" said the king, who was by this time preparing +to mount his favourite; and, without waiting for an answer, added, "We +call him _Perfection_."--"A most appropriate name," replied the courtly +herald, bowing as his majesty reached the saddle, "for he _bears_ the +best of characters."[222] + + +ROWLAND HILL AND HIS HORSE AT DUNBAR. + +Many stories of the excellent but eccentric Rowland Hill are told, but +often with considerable exaggeration. The following may be depended on +for its accuracy, as it was told by Robert Haldane.[223] It occurred at +Dunbar, in September 1797, during an evangelistic tour Hill and Haldane +were making in Scotland. They were sleeping at Mr Cunningham's, when, +in the morning, intending to proceed southward, on Mr Hill's carriage +being brought to the door, his horse was found to be dead lame. A +farrier was sent for, who, after careful examination, reported that the +seat of the mischief was in the shoulder, that the disease was +incurable, and that they might shoot the poor animal as soon as they +pleased. To this proposal Mr Hill was by no means prepared to accede. +Indeed, it seemed to Mr Haldane as precipitate as the conduct of an +Irish sailor on board the _Monarch_, who, on seeing another knocked down +senseless by a splinter, and supposing his companion to be dead, went up +to Captain Duncan, on the quarter-deck, in the midst of the action with +Languara, off St Vincent, and exclaimed, "Shall we jerk him overboard, +sir?" On that occasion the sailor revived in a short time, and was even +able to work at his gun. In the present instance the horse, too, +recovered, and was able to carry his master on many a future errand of +mercy. Meanwhile, however, the travellers availed themselves of Mr +Cunningham's hospitality, and remained for two days more at his place, +near Dunbar. In the evening Mr Hill conducted family worship, and after +the supplications for the family, domestics, and friends, added a +fervent prayer for the restoration of the valuable animal which had +carried him so many thousands of miles, preaching the everlasting gospel +to his fellow-sinners. Mr Cunningham, who was remarkable for the staid +and orderly, if not stiff, demeanour, which characterised the +anti-burghers, was not only surprised but grieved, and even scandalised, +at what he deemed so great an impropriety. He remonstrated with his +guest. But Mr Hill stoutly defended his conduct by an appeal to +Scripture, and the superintending watchfulness of Him without whom a +sparrow falls not to the ground. He persisted in his prayer during the +two days he continued at Dunbar, and, although he left the horse, in a +hopeless state, to follow in charge of his servant by easy stages, he +continued his prayer, night and morning, till one day, at an inn in +Yorkshire, while the two travellers were sitting at breakfast, they +heard a horse and chaise trot briskly into the yard, and, looking out, +saw that Mr Hill's servant had arrived, bringing up the horse perfectly +restored. Mr Hill did not fail to return thanks, and begged his +fellow-traveller to consider whether the minuteness of his prayers had +deserved the censure which had been directed against them. + + +A SAYING OF ROWLAND HILL'S. + +Rowland Hill rode a great deal, and exercise preserved him in vigorous +health. On one occasion, when asked by a medical friend, who was +commenting on his invariably good health, what physician and apothecary +he employed, he replied, "My physician has always been a _horse_, and my +apothecary an _ass_!"[224] + + +HOLCROFT ON THE HORSE. + +Thomas Holcroft, the novelist and play-writer, when a lad, was a stable +boy to a trainer of running horses. In his memoirs he has written a good +deal about the habits of the race-horse. He says of them:--"I soon +learned that the safehold for sitting steady was to keep the knee and +the calf of the leg strongly pressed against the sides of the animal +that endeavours to unhorse you; and as little accidents afford frequent +occasions to remind the boys of this rule, it becomes so rooted in the +memory of the intelligent, that their danger is comparatively trifling. +Of the temperaments and habits of blood-horses there are great +varieties, and those very strongly contrasted. The majority of them are +playful, but their gambols are dangerous to the timid or unskilful. They +are all easily and suddenly alarmed, when anything they do not +understand forcibly catches their attention, and they are then to be +feared by the bad horseman, and carefully guarded against by the good. +Very serious accidents have happened to the best. But, besides their +general disposition to playfulness, there is a great propensity in them +to become what the jockeys call vicious. High bred, hot in blood, +exercised, fed and dressed so as to bring that heat to perfection, their +tender skins at all times subject to a sharp curry-comb, hard brushing, +and when they take sweats, to scraping with wooden instruments, it +cannot be but that they are frequently and exceedingly irritated. +Intending to make themselves felt and feared, they will watch their +opportunity to bite, stamp, or kick; I mean those among them that are +vicious. Tom, the brother of Jack Clarke, after sweating a gray horse +that belonged to Lord March, with whom he lived, while he was either +scraping or dressing him, was seized by the animal by the shoulder, +lifted from the ground, and carried two or three hundred yards before +the horse loosened his hold. Old Forrester, a horse that belonged to +Captain Vernon, all the while that I remained at Newmarket, was obliged +to be kept apart, and being foundered, to live at grass, where he was +confined to a close paddock. Except Tom Watson, he would suffer no lad +to come near him; if in his paddock, he would run furiously at the +first person that approached, and if in the stable, would kick and +assault every one within his reach. Horses of this kind seem always to +select their favourite boy. Tom Watson, indeed, had attained to man's +estate, and in his brother's absence, which was rare, acted as +superintendent. Horses, commonly speaking, are of a friendly and +generous nature; but there are anecdotes of the malignant and savage +ferocity of some, that are scarcely to be credited; at least many such +are traditional at Newmarket. + +Of their friendly disposition towards their keepers, there is a trait +known to every boy that has the care of any one of them, which ought not +to be omitted. The custom is to rise very early, even between two and +three in the morning, when the days lengthen. In the course of the day, +horses and boys have much to do. About half after eight, perhaps, in the +evening, the horse has his last feed of oats, which he generally stands +to enjoy in the centre of his smooth, carefully made bed of clean long +straw, and by the side of him the weary boy will often lie down; it +being held as a maxim, a rule without exception, that were he to lie +even till morning, the horse would never lie down himself, but stand +still, careful to do his keeper no harm.[225] + +In one of Thomas Holcroft's novels, "Alwyn; or, The Gentleman Comedian," +founded on his own adventures when a travelling actor, he gives the +character of an enthusiast who had conceived the idea of establishing a +humane asylum for animals, the consequences of which he describes. "I am +pestered, plagued, teased, tormented to death. I believe all the cats +in Christendom are assembled in Oxfordshire. I am obliged to hire a +clerk to pay the people; and the village where I live is become a +constant fair. A fellow has set up the sign of the Three Blind Kittens, +and has the impudence to tell the neighbours, that if my whims and my +money only hold out for one twelvemonth, he shall not care a fig for the +king. I thought to prevent this inundation, by buying up all the old +cats and secluding them in convents and monasteries of my own, but the +value of the breeders is increased to such a degree, that I do not +believe my whole fortune is capable of the purchase. Besides I am made +an ass of. A rascal, who is a known sharper in these parts, hearing of +the aversion I had to cruelty, bought an old one-eyed horse, that was +going to the dogs, for five shillings; then taking a hammer in his hand, +watched an opportunity of finding me alone, and addressed me in the +following manner: 'Look you, master, I know that you don't love to see +any dumb creature abused, and so, if you don't give me ten pounds, why, +I shall scoop out this old rip's odd eye with the sharp end of this here +hammer, now, before your face.' Ay, and the villain would have done it +too, if I had not instantly complied; but what was worse, the abominable +scoundrel had the audacity to tell me, when I wanted him to deliver the +horse first, for fear he should extort a further sum from me, that he +had more honour than to break his word. A whelp of a boy had yesterday +caught a young hedgehog, and perceiving me, threw it into the water to +make it extend its legs; then with the rough side of a knotty stick +sawed upon them till the creature cried like a child; and when I ordered +him to desist, told me he would not, till I had given him sixpence. +There is something worse than all this. The avaricious rascals, when +they can find nothing that they think will excite my pity, disable the +first animal which is not dignified with the title of Christian, and +then bring it to me as an object worthy of commiseration; so that, in +fact, instead of protecting, I destroy. The women have entertained a +notion that I hate two-legged animals; and one of them called after me +the other day, to tell me I was an old rogue, and that I had better give +my money to the poor, than keep a parcel of dogs and cats that eat up +the village. I perceive it is in vain to attempt carrying on the scheme +much longer, and then my poor invalids will be worse off than they were +before."[226] + + +A JOKE OF LORD MANSFIELD'S ABOUT A HORSE. + +Lord Campbell[227] tells an anecdote of George Wood, a celebrated +special pleader at the time when Lord Mansfield was Chief-Justice. +Though a subtle pleader, George was very ignorant of _horse-flesh_, and +had been cruelly cheated in the purchase of a horse on which he had +intended to ride the circuit. He brought an action on the warranty that +the horse was "a good roadster, and free from vice." At the trial before +Lord Mansfield, it appeared that when the plaintiff mounted at the +stables in London, with the intention of proceeding to Barnet, nothing +could induce the animal to move forward a single step. On hearing this +evidence, the Chief-Justice with much gravity exclaimed, "Who would have +supposed that Mr Wood's horse would have _demurred_ when he ought to +have _gone to the country_." Any attempt, adds Lord Campbell, to explain +this excellent joke to _lay gents_ would be vain, and to _lawyers_ would +be superfluous. + + +GENERAL SIR JOHN MOORE AND HIS HORSE AT THE BATTLE OF CORUNNA. + +Charles Napier served in Lord William Bentinck's brigade during the +retreat of the truly great and ill-used Moore at the battle of Corunna; +he was covered with wounds, and was carried off a prisoner. In his +"Biography" General Sir William Napier[228] has published a most +interesting description of the part his brother took in that battle, and +written in his own words. I extract a few vivid lines in which Moore and +his horse are brought before you. A heavy French column was descending +rapidly on the British line at the part where Napier was. "Suddenly I +heard the gallop of horses, and turning saw Moore. He came at speed, and +pulled up so sharp and close he seemed to have alighted from the air; +man and horse looking at the approaching foe with an intenseness that +seemed to concentrate all feeling in their eyes. The sudden stop of the +animal, a cream-coloured one, with black tail and mane, had cast the +latter streaming forward, its ears were pushed out like horns, while its +eyes flashed fire, and it snorted loudly with expanded nostrils, +expressing terror, astonishment, and muscular exertion. My first thought +was, it will be away like the wind; but then I looked at the rider, and +the horse was forgotten. Thrown on its haunches the animal came, sliding +and dashing the dirt up with its fore-feet, thus bending the general +forward almost to its neck; but his head was thrown back, and his look +more keenly piercing than I ever before saw it. He glanced to the right +and left, and then fixed his eyes intently on the enemy's advancing +column, at the same time grasping the reins with both his hands, and +pressing the horse firmly with his knees; his body thus seemed to deal +with the animal, while his mind was intent on the enemy, and his aspect +was one of searching intenseness, beyond the power of words to describe; +for a while he looked, and then galloped to the left, without uttering a +word." + + +NEITHER HORSES NOR CHILDREN CAN EXPLAIN THEIR COMPLAINTS. + +Dr Mounsey, the Chelsea doctor, an eccentric physician, who was a great +friend of David Garrick, related to Taylor that he was once in company +with another physician and an eminent farrier. The physician stated that +among the difficulties of his profession, was that of discovering the +maladies of children, because they could not explain the symptoms of +their disorder. "Well," said the farrier, "your difficulties are not +greater than mine, for my patients, the horses, are equally unable to +explain their complaints."--"Ah!" rejoined the physician, "my brother +doctor must conquer me, as he has brought his cavalry against my +infantry!"[229] + + +HORSES WITH NAMES. + +In this country most horses have a name, but in Germany this custom must +be unusual. Perthes, when on his way from Hamburg to Frankfort, remarked +at Böhmte--"It is a pleasing custom they have here of giving proper +names to horses. The horse is a noble and intelligent animal, and quite +as deserving of such a distinction as the dog; and when it has a name, +it has made some advance towards personality."[230] + + +"OLD JACK" OF WATERLOO BRIDGE. + +In building Waterloo Bridge, the finest of Rennie's bridges, the whole +of the stone required was hewn in some fields on the Surrey side. Nearly +the whole of this material was drawn by one horse called "Old Jack," a +most sensible animal. Mr Smiles, in his "Life of John Rennie,"[231] thus +speaks of this favourite old horse--"His driver was, generally speaking, +a steady and trustworthy man; though rather too fond of his dram before +breakfast. As the railway along which the stone was drawn passed in +front of the public-house door, the horse and truck were usually pulled +up, while Tom entered for his 'morning.' On one occasion the driver +stayed so long that 'Old Jack,' becoming impatient, poked his head into +the open door, and taking his master's coat collar between his teeth, +though in a gentle sort of manner, pulled him out from the midst of his +companions, and thus forced him to resume the day's work." + + +SYDNEY SMITH AND HIS HORSES. + +Sydney Smith, when rector of Foston-le-Clay, in Yorkshire, a living +which he got from Lord Chancellor Erskine in 1806, was in the habit of +riding a good deal. His daughter says that, "either from the badness of +his horses, or the badness of his riding, or perhaps from both (in spite +of his various ingenious contrivances to keep himself in the saddle), he +had several falls, and kept us in continual anxiety."[232] He writes in +a letter--"I used to think a fall from a horse dangerous, but much +experience has convinced me to the contrary. I have had six falls in two +years, and just behaved like the three per cents. when they fall. I got +up again, and am not a bit the worse for it any more than the stock in +question." In speaking of this he says, "I left off riding for the good +of my parish and the peace of my family; for, somehow or other, my horse +and I had a habit of parting company. On one occasion I found myself +suddenly prostrate in the streets of York, much to the delight of the +Dissenters. Another time my horse Calamity flung me over his head into a +neighbouring parish, as if I had been a shuttlecock, and I felt grateful +it was not into a neighbouring planet; but as no harm came of it, I +might have persevered perhaps, if, on a certain day, a Quaker tailor +from a neighbouring village to which I had said I was going to ride, had +not taken it into his head to call, soon after my departure, and request +to see Mrs Sydney. She instantly, conceiving I was thrown, if not +killed, rushed down to the man, exclaiming, 'Where is he?--where is +your master?--is he hurt?' The astonished and quaking snip stood silent +from surprise. Still more agitated by his silence, she exclaimed, 'Is he +hurt? I insist upon knowing the worst!'--'Why, please, ma'am, it is only +thy little bill, a very small account, I wanted thee to settle,' replied +he, in much surprise. + +"After this, you may suppose, I sold my horse; however, it is some +comfort to know that my friend, Sir George, is one fall ahead of me, and +is certainly a worse rider. It is a great proof, too, of the liberality +of this county, where everybody can ride as soon as they are born, that +they tolerate me at all. + +"The horse 'Calamity,' whose name has been thus introduced, was the +first-born of several young horses bred on the farm, who turned out very +fine creatures, and gained him great glory, even amongst the knowing +farmers of Yorkshire; but this first production was certainly not +encouraging. To his dismay a huge, lank, large-boned foal appeared, of +chestnut colour, and with four white legs. It grew apace, but its bones +became more and more conspicuous; its appetite was unbounded--grass, +hay, corn, beans, food moist and dry, were all supplied in vain, and +vanished down his throat with incredible rapidity. He stood, a large +living skeleton, with famine written in his face, and my father +christened him 'Calamity.' As Calamity grew to maturity, he was found to +be as sluggish in disposition as his master was impetuous; so my father +was driven to invent his patent Tantalus, which consisted of a small +sieve of corn, suspended on a semicircular bar of iron, from the ends of +the shafts, just beyond the horse's nose. The corn, rattling as the +vehicle proceeded, stimulated Calamity to unwonted exertions; and under +the hope of overtaking this imaginary feed, he did more work than all +the previous provender which had been poured down his throat had been +able to obtain from him." + +He was very fond of his young horses, and they all came running to meet +him when he entered the field. He began their education from their +birth; he taught them to wear a girth, a bridle, a saddle; to meet +flags, music; to bear the firing of a pistol at their heads from their +earliest years; and he maintained that no horses were so well broken as +his! At p. 388 she records, "At ten we always went down-stairs to +prayers in the library. Immediately after, if we were alone, appeared +the 'farmer' at the door, lantern in hand. 'David, bring me my coat and +stick,' and off he set with him, summer and winter, to visit his horses, +and see that they were all well fed, and comfortable in their regions +for the night. He kept up this custom all his life!" + + * * * * * + +Sydney Smith, when at Foston, used to exercise his skill in medicine on +the poor, and often did much good; his daughter gives some instances of +his practice as a farrier. + +"On one occasion, wishing to administer a ball to Peter the Cruel,[233] +the groom, by mistake, gave him two boxes of opium pills in his bran +mash, which Peter composedly munched, boxes and all. My father, in +dismay, when he heard what had happened, went to look, as he thought, +for the last time on his beloved Peter; but soon found, to his great +relief, that neither boxes nor pills had produced any visible effects on +him. Another time he found all his pigs intoxicated; and, as he +declared, 'grunting "God save the King" about the stye,' from having +eaten some fermented grains which he had ordered for them. Once he +administered castor-oil to the red cow, in quantities sufficient to have +killed a regiment of Christians; but the red cow laughed alike at his +skill and his oil, and went on her way rejoicing."[234] + + * * * * * + +Sydney Smith tells a story, or made one, of a clergyman who was rather +absent. "I heard of a clergyman who went jogging along the road till he +came to a turnpike. 'What is to pay?'--'Pay, sir, for what?' asked the +turnpike man.--'Why, for my horse, to be sure.'--'Your horse, sir? what +horse? here is no horse, sir.'--'No horse? God bless me!' said he, +suddenly, looking down between his legs, 'I thought I was on +horseback.'"[235] + + +JUDGE STORY AND THE NAMES HE GAVE HIS HORSES. + +The son and biographer of the eminent American judge, Joseph Story, +relates of him[236]--"To dumb creatures he was kind and considerate, and +indignant at any ill usage of them. His sportive nature showed itself in +the nicknames which, in parody of the American fondness of titles, he +gave to his horses and dogs, as, 'The Right Honourable Mr Mouse,' or +'Colonel Roy.'" + + +WORDSWORTH ON CRUELTY TO HORSES IN IRELAND. + +The Rev. Cæsar Otway,[237] in a lecture full of interesting anecdotes, +records:--"I remember an observation made to me by one of the most +gifted of the human race--one of the stars of this generation--the poet +of nature and of feeling--the good and the great Mr Wordsworth. Having +the honour of a conversation with him, after he had made a tour through +Ireland, I, in the course of it, asked what was the thing that most +struck his observation here, as making us differ from the English; and +he, without hesitation, said it was the ill treatment of our horses; +that his soul was often, too often, sick within him at the way in which +he saw these creatures of God abused." + + +USE OF TAIL.--SHORT-TAILED AND LONG-TAILED HORSES. + +In an Irish paper was an advertisement for horses to stand at livery on +the following terms:--"Long-tailed horses at 3s. 6d. per week; +short-tailed horses at 3s. per week." On inquiry into the cause of the +difference, it was answered, that the horses with long tails could brush +the flies off their backs while eating, whereas the short-tailed horses +were obliged to take their heads _from the manger_, and so ate +less.[238] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[215] "Journal of Horticultural Tour," p. 306. + +[216] "Memorials of Angus and the Mearns," by Andrew Jervise (1861), p. +175. + +[217] "History of the Life and Times of Edmund Burke," by Thomas +Macknight, vol. i. p. 160. + +[218] "Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds," &c., by James Northcote, Esq., R.A. +(2d edition), vol. ii. p. 80. + +[219] "Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds," by C. R. Leslie and Tom +Taylor, M.A., vol. ii. p. 219. + +[220] "Lives of Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, and of Bernard +Gilpin," by William Gilpin, M.A. (3d edition), 1780, p. 275. + +[221] _Loc. cit._, p. 284. + +[222] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 39. + +[223] "The Lives of Robert Haldane of Airthrey, and of his Brother, +James Alexander Haldane," by Alex. Haldane, Esq., of the Inner Temple +(1852), p. 223. + +[224] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 318. + +[225] "Memoirs of Thomas Holcroft" (ed. 1852), pp. 40, 41. + +[226] "Memoirs of the late Thomas Holcroft," written by himself (ed. +London, 1852), p. 112. + +[227] "Lives of the Chief-Justices of England" (Lord Ellenborough), vol. +iii. p. 100. + +[228] Vol i. pp. 94-115. + +[229] "Physic and Physicians: a Medical Sketch-Book," vol. i. p. 59. + +[230] "Memoirs of Frederick Perthes," vol. i. p. 309. + +[231] "Lives of the Engineers," vol. ii. p. 185. + +[232] "Memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith," by his daughter, Lady Holland, +vol. i. pp. 172-174. + +[233] A horse which he called so. + +[234] "Memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith," by his daughter, Lady Holland, +vol. i. p. 117. + +[235] Mrs Marcet, in Lady Holland's Memoirs of her Father, the Rev. +Sydney Smith, vol. i. p. 364. + +[236] "Life and Letters of Joseph Story, Associate Justice of the +Supreme Court of the United States, and Dane Professor of Law at Harvard +University," edited by his son, Wm. W. Story, vol. ii. p. 611. + +[237] "The Intellectuality of Domestic Animals: a Lecture Delivered +before the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland," p. 25. Dublin, 1847. + +[238] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 263. + + + + +ASS AND ZEBRA. + + +It is strange that one of the most sagacious of animals should have +supplied us with a by-word for "a fool." Coleridge was conscious of this +when, in writing his address to a young ass's foal,[239] he exclaimed-- + + "I hail thee, brother, spite of the fool's scorn." + +How well has he expressed his love for "the languid patience" of its +face. + +In warmer climes the ass attains a size and condition not seen here, +though when cared for in this rougher climate, the donkey assumes +somewhat of the size and elegance he has in the East. But who can bear +his voice? Surely Coleridge was very fanciful when, in any condition of +asshood, he could write-- + + "Yea, and more musically sweet to me + Thy dissonant, harsh bray of joy would be, + Than warbled melodies that soothe to rest + The aching of pale Fashion's vacant breast." + +The wild ass, as it roams over the plains of Asia, or is seen in the +Zoological gardens along with the gracefully-shaped and prettily-striped +zebra, must be admired by every one. + + +COLLINS AND THE OLD DONKEY OF ODELL, COWPER'S MESSENGER AT OLNEY. + +In July 1823, William Collins, R.A., visited Turvey, in Bedfordshire. +His son remarks--"Besides the attractions presented to the pencil by the +natural beauties of this neighbourhood, its vicinity to Olney, the +favourite residence of the poet Cowper, gave it, to all lovers of +poetry, a local and peculiar charm. Conspicuous among its inhabitants at +the time when my father visited it was 'old Odell,' frequently mentioned +by Cowper as the favourite messenger who carried his letters and +parcels. The extreme picturesqueness and genuine rustic dignity of the +old man's appearance made him an admirable subject for pictorial study. +Portraits of him, in water-colours and oils, were accordingly made by my +father, who introduced him into three of his pictures. The donkey on +which he had for years ridden to and fro with letters, was as carefully +depicted by the painter as his rider. On visiting 'old Odell' a year or +two afterwards, Mr Collins observed a strange-looking object hanging +against his kitchen wall, and inquired what it was. 'Oh, sir,' replied +the old man, sorrowfully, 'that is the skin of my poor donkey. He died +of old age, and I did not like to part with him altogether, so I had his +skin dried, and hung up there.' Tears came into his eyes as he spoke of +the old companion of all his village pilgrimages. The incident might +have formed a continuation of Sterne's exquisite episode in the +'Sentimental Journey.'"[240] + +In his picture of "The Cherry-Seller," painted for Mr Higgins of Turvey +House, old Odell and his donkey are chief figures. + + +GAINSBOROUGH KEPT AN ASS. + +The Rev. William Gilpin, in his "Forest Scenery," refers to the +picturesque beauty of the ass in a landscape Berghem often introduced +it; "and a late excellent landscape-painter (Mr Gainsborough), I have +heard, generally kept this animal by him, that he might have it always +at hand to introduce in various attitudes into his pictures. I have +heard also that a plaster cast of an ass, modelled by him, is sold in +the shops in London."[241] + + +IRISHMAN ON THE RAMSGATE DONKEYS. + +In former times, when excise officers were not so sharp, there was a +good deal of smuggling carried on at Ramsgate. Sir Thomas Dick +Lauder[242] tells an anecdote of an Irishman there, who being asked to +name the hardest wrought creature in existence, replied, "Och! a +Ramsgate donkey, to be sure; for, faith, afthur carrying angels all day, +be the powers he is forced to carry speerits all night." + + +ASS'S FOAL. + +Douglas Jerrold and a company of literary friends were out in the +country. In the course of their walk they stopped to notice the gambols +of an ass's foal. A very sentimental poet present vowed that he should +like to send the little thing as a present to his mother. "Do," replied +Jerrold, "and tie a piece of paper round its neck, bearing this motto, +'When this you see, remember me.'"[243] + + +ASS. + +A judge, joking a young barrister, said--"If you and I were turned into +a horse and an ass, which would you prefer to be?"--"The ass, to be +sure," replied the barrister. "I've heard of an ass being made a judge, +but a horse never."[244] + +Ammonianus, the grammarian, had an ass which, as it is said, when he +attended the lectures upon poetry, often neglected his food when laid +before him, though at the same time he was hungry, so much was the ass +taken with the love of poetry.[245] + + +WARREN HASTINGS AND THE REFRACTORY DONKEY. + +The fondness of the first Governor-General of India for horse exercise, +and indeed for the horse itself, was quite oriental, as his biographer +relates.[246] He was a fine rider, and piqued himself on his abilities +in this way. + +"Nothing pleased him," continues Mr Gleig, "more than to undertake some +animal which nobody else could control, and to reduce it, as he +invariably did, to a state of perfect docility. The following anecdote, +which I have from my friend Mr Impey, himself an actor in the little +drama, may suffice to show the extent to which this passion was carried. +It happened once upon a time, when Mr Impey was, with some other boys, +on a visit at Daylesford, that Mr Hastings, returning from a ride, saw +his young friends striving in vain to manage an ass which they had found +grazing in the paddock, and which one after another they chose to mount. +The ass, it appears, had no objection to receive the candidates for +equestrian renown successively on his back, but budge a foot he would +not; and there being neither saddle nor bridle, wherewith to restrain +his natural movements, he never failed, so soon as a difference of +opinion arose, to get the better of his rider. Each in his turn, the +boys were repeatedly thrown, till at last Mr Hastings, who watched the +proceedings with great interest, approached. + +"Why, boys," said he, "how is it that none of you can ride?" + +"Not ride!" cried the little aspirants; "we could ride well enough, if +we had a saddle and a bridle; but he's such an obstinate brute, that we +don't think even you, sir, could sit him bare-backed." + +"Let's try," exclaimed the Governor-General. + +Whereupon he dismounted, and gave his horse to one of the children to +hold, and mounted the donkey. The beast began to kick up his heels, and +lower his head as heretofore; but this time the trick would not answer. +The Governor-General sat firm, and finally prevailed, whether by fair +means or foul, I am not instructed, in getting the quadruped to move +wheresoever he chose. He himself laughed heartily as he resigned the +conquered thistle-eater to his first friends; and the story when told, +as told it was, with consummate humour, at the dinner-table, afforded +great amusement to a large circle of guests. + + +NORTHCOTE, THE ROYAL ACADEMICIAN, AN ANGEL AT AN ASS. + +Fuseli, the artist, was a most outspoken man. His biographer[247] says +that he never concealed his sentiments with regard to men, even to their +faces. + +"Every one knows," writes Mr Knowles, "who is acquainted with art, the +powers which Northcote displays when he paints animals of the brute +creation. When his picture of 'Balaam and the Ass' was exhibited at the +Macklin Gallery, Northcote asked Fuseli's opinion of its merits, who +instantly said, 'My friend, you are an angel at an ass, but an ass at an +angel.'" + + +SYDNEY SMITH'S ACCOMPLISHED DONKEY, WITH FRANCIS JEFFREY ON HIS BACK. + +Lady Holland[248] gives the following picture of her father's pet +donkey:-- + +"Amongst our rural delights at Heslington was the possession of a young +donkey which had been given up to our tender mercies from the time of +its birth, and in whose education we employed a large portion of our +spare time; and a most accomplished donkey it became under our tuition. +It would walk up-stairs, pick pockets, follow us in our walks like a +huge Newfoundland dog, and at the most distant sight of us in the field, +with ears down and tail erect, it set off in full bray to meet us. +These demonstrations on Bitty's part were met with not less affection on +ours, and Bitty was almost considered a member of the family. + +"One day, when my elder brother and myself were training our beloved +Bitty with a pocket-handkerchief for a bridle, and his head crowned with +flowers, to run round our garden, who should arrive in the midst of our +sport but Mr Jeffrey. Finding my father out, he, with his usual kindness +towards young people, immediately joined in our sport, and to our +infinite delight, mounted our donkey. He was proceeding in triumph, +amidst our shouts of laughter, when my father and mother, in company, I +believe, with Mr Horner and Mr Murray, returned from their walk, and +beheld this scene from the garden-door. Though years and years have +passed away since, I still remember the joy-inspiring laughter that +burst from my father at this unexpected sight, as, advancing towards his +old friend, with a face beaming with delight, and with extended hands, +he broke forth in the following impromptu: + + 'Witty as Horatius Flaccus, + As great a Jacobin as Gracchus; + Short, though not as fat as Bacchus, + Riding on a little jackass.' + +"These lines were afterwards repeated by some one to Mr ---- at Holland +House, just before he was introduced for the first time to Mr Jeffrey, +and they caught his fancy to such a degree that he could not get them +out of his head, but kept repeating them in a low voice all the time Mr +Jeffrey was conversing with him. + +"I must end Bitty's history, as he has been introduced, by saying that +he followed us to Foston; and after serving us faithfully for thirteen +years, on our leaving Yorkshire, was permitted by our kind friend, Lord +Carlisle, to spend the rest of his days in idleness and plenty, in his +beautiful park, with an unbounded command of thistles." + + +SYDNEY SMITH ON THE SAGACITY OF THE ASS; A LADY SCARCELY SO WISE AS ONE. + +The Rev. Sydney Smith[249] writes to Colonel Fox in October 1836:-- + +"MY DEAR CHARLES,--If you have ever paid any attention to the habits of +animals, you will know that donkeys are remarkably cunning in opening +gates. The way to stop them is to have two latches instead of one. A +human being has two hands, and lifts up both latches at once; a donkey +has only one nose, and latch _a_ drops, as he quits it to lift up latch +_b_. Bobus and I had the grand luck to see little Aunty engaged +intensely with this problem. She was taking a walk, and was arrested by +a gate with this formidable difficulty: the donkeys were looking on to +await the issue. Aunty lifted up the first latch with the most perfect +success, but found herself opposed by a second; flushed with victory, +she quitted the first latch, and rushed at the second; her success was +equal, till in the meantime the first dropped. She tried this two or +three times, and, to her utter astonishment, with the same results; the +donkeys brayed, and Aunty was walking away in great dejection, till +Bobus and I recalled her with loud laughter, showed her that she had +two hands, and roused her to vindicate her superiority over the donkeys. +I mention this to you to request that you will make no allusion to this +animal, as she is remarkably touchy on this subject, and also that you +will not mention it to Lady Mary!" + + * * * * * + +Lady Holland relates a practical joke of her father's, which the witty +canon carried out at his rectory of Combe Florey. "Opposite was a +beautiful bank, with a hanging wood of fine old beech and oak, on the +summit of which presented themselves, to our astonished eyes, two +donkeys with deers' antlers fastened on their heads, which ever and anon +they shook, much wondering at their horned honours; whilst the attendant +donkey boy, in Sunday garb, stood grinning and blushing at their side. +'There, Lady ----! you said the only thing this place wanted to make it +perfect was deer; what do you say now? I have, you see, ordered my game +gamekeeper to drive my deer into the most picturesque point of view. +Excuse their long ears, a little peculiarity belonging to parsonic deer. +Their voices, too, are singular; but we do our best for you, and you are +too true a friend of the Church to mention our defects.' All this, of +course, amidst shouts of laughter, whilst his own merry laugh might be +heard above us all, ringing through the valley, and making the very +echoes laugh in chorus." + + +ASSES' DUTY FREE! + +During the debate on Sir Robert Peel's tariff, the admission of asses' +duty free caused much merriment. Lord T., who had just read "Vestiges of +the Natural History of Creation," remarked that the House had, he +supposed, passed the donkey clause out of respect to its +ancestors.--"It is a wise measure," said a popular novelist, "especially +as it affects the importation of food; for, should a scarcity come, we +should otherwise have to fall back on the food of our +forefathers."--"And, pray, what is that?" asked an +archæologist.--"Thistles," replied Lord T.[250] + + +THACKERAY AND THE EGYPTIAN DONKEY. + +When the English author landed at Alexandria, there were many scenes and +sounds to dispel all romantic notions; among these "a yelling chorus of +donkey boys shrieking, 'Ride, sir!--donkey, sir!--I say, sir!' in +excellent English. The placid sphinxes, brooding o'er the Nile, +disappeared with that wild shriek of the donkey boys. You might be as +well impressed with Wapping as with your first step on Egyptian soil. + +"The riding of a donkey is, after all, not a dignified occupation. A man +resists the offer first, somehow as an indignity. How is that poor +little, red-saddled, long-eared creature to carry you? Is there to be +one for you and another for your legs? Natives and Europeans, of all +sizes, passed by, it is true, mounted upon the same contrivance. I +waited until I got into a very private spot, where nobody could see me, +and then ascended--why not say descended at once?--on the poor little +animal. Instead of being crushed at once, as perhaps the writer +expected, it darted forward, quite briskly and cheerfully, at six or +seven miles an hour; requiring no spur or admonitive to haste, except +the shrieking of the little Egyptian _gamin_, who ran along by asinus's +side."[251] + + +BEST TO LET MULES HAVE THEIR OWN WAY. + +Dr John Moore, in crossing the Alps, found they had nothing but the +sagacity of their mules to trust to. "For my own part," he says, "I was +very soon convinced that it was much safer on all dubious occasions to +depend on theirs than on my own. For as often as I was presented with a +choice of difficulties, and the mule and I were of different opinions, +if, becoming more obstinate than he, I insisted on his taking my track, +I never failed to repent it, and often was obliged to return to the +place where the controversy had begun, and follow the path to which he +had pointed at first. + +"It is entertaining to observe the prudence of these animals in making +their way down such dangerous rocks. They sometimes put their heads over +the edge of the precipice, and examine with anxious circumspection every +possible way by which they can descend, and at length are sure to fix on +that which, upon the whole, is the best. Having observed this in several +instances, I laid the bridle on the neck of my mule, and allowed him to +take his own way, without presuming to control him in the smallest +degree. This is doubtless the best method, and what I recommend to all +my friends in their journey through life, when they have mules for their +companions."[252] + + +ZEBRA.--"_Un âne rayée._" + +A FRENCHMAN'S "DOUBLE-ENTENDRE." + +When, in 1805, Patrick Lattin, an officer of the Irish Brigade, was +residing in Paris, a M. de Montmorency, whose Christian name was Anne, +made his appearance, announcing that he was enabled to return to France, +in consequence of the First Consul having scratched his name on the list +of _émigrés_. "_A present donc_," observed Lattin, "_mon cher Anne, tu +es un Zèbre--un âne rayée._"[253] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[239] "The Poems of S. T. Coleridge," pp. 26, 27 (1844). + +[240] "Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, R.A.," by his son, W. +Wilkie Collins, vol. i. p. 232. + +[241] Edition of Sir T. D. Lauder, Bart., vol. ii. p. 273. + +[242] "Gilpin's Forest Scenery," vol. ii. p. 275. Edited by Sir T. D. +Lauder. + +[243] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 129. + +[244] Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 307. + +[245] Photius, quoted by Southey in his "Common-Place Book," first +series, p. 588. + +[246] "Memoirs of the Life of the Right Hon. Warren Hastings, compiled +from original papers," by the Rev. G. R. Gleig, M.A., vol. iii. p. 367. + +[247] "The Life and Writings of Henry Fuseli, Esq., M.A., R.A.," the +former written and the latter edited by John Knowles, Esq., F.R.S., vol. +i. p. 364. + +[248] "A Memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith," by his daughter, Lady +Holland, &c., vol. i. p. 152. + +[249] "Memoirs and Letters of Rev. Sydney Smith," vol. ii. p. 393. + +[250] "A Century of Anecdote from 1760 to 1860," by John Timbs, F.S.A., +vol. i. p. 252 (1864). + +[251] "Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo," by Mr M. A. +Titmarsh, p. 177 (1846). + +[252] "View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and Germany," +vol. i. pp. 191, 192 (9th edition). + + + + +CAMEL. + + +Truly the Ship of the Desert, and one that by Lewis and Henry Warren has +afforded the subject of many a pleasing picture. The camel has a most +patriarchal look about him. + + +CAPTAIN WILLIAM PEEL, R.N. REMARKS ON CAMELS. + +Captain William Peel, in his "Ride through the Nubian Desert" (p. 89), +writes--"We met once at a hollow, where some water still remained from +the rains, 2000 camels, all together admirably organised into troops, +and attended by only a few Arabs. On another occasion, we passed some +camels grazing at such a distance from the Nile, that I asked the Arab +attending where they went to drink? He said, he marches them all down +together to the Nile, and they drink every eleventh day. It is now the +cool season, and the heat is tempered by fresh northerly breezes. The +Arab, of course, brings water skins for his own supply. All these camels +were breeding stock. They live on thorns and the top shoots of the +gum-arabic tree, although it is armed with the most frightful spikes. +But very little comes amiss to the camel; he will eat dry wood to keep +up digestion, if in want of a substitute. Instinct or experience has +taught him to avoid the only two tempting-looking plants that grow in +the desert,--the green eusha bush, which is full of milk-coloured juice, +and a creeper, that grows in the sand where nothing else will grow, and +which has a bitter fruit like a melon. I was surprised to learn that the +leopard does not dare to attack the camel, whose tall and narrow flanks +would seem to be fatally exposed to such a supple enemy. Nature, +however, has given him a means of defence in his iron jaw and long +powerful neck, which are a full equivalent for his want of agility. He +can also strike heavily with his feet, and his roar would intimidate +many foes. I never felt tired of admiring this noble creature, and +through the monotony of the desert would watch for hours his ceaseless +tread and unerring path. Carrying his head low, forward, and surveying +everything with his black brilliant eye, he marches resolutely forward, +and quickens his pace at the slightest cheer of the rider. He is too +intelligent and docile for a bridle; besides, he lives on the march, and +with a sudden sweep of the neck will seize, without stopping, the +smallest straw. When the day's march is over, he passes the night in +looking for food, with scarcely an hour to repose his limbs, and less +than that for sleep. He closes the eye fitfully, the smallest noise will +awake him. When lying down for rest, every part of the body is +supported; his neck and head lie lightly along the sand, a broad plate +of bone under the breast takes the weight off his deep chest, and his +long legs lay folded under him, supporting his sides like a ship in a +cradle." + + +A CAPTAIN IN THE ROYAL NAVY MEASURES THE PROGRESS OF "THE SHIP OF THE +DESERT." + +The dromedary has long and deservedly been called "the Ship of the +Desert." A very gallant captain in the Royal Navy, the late Captain +William Peel, son of the Prime Minister, calculated its rate of motion +much after the manner in which he might have measured the path of his +ship. He writes[254]--"In crossing the Nubian Desert I paid constant +attention to the march of the camels, hoping it may be of some service +hereafter in determining our position. The number of strides in a minute +with the same foot varied very little, only from 37 to 39, and 38 was +the average; but the length of the stride was more uncertain, varying +from 6 feet 6 to 7 feet 6. As we were always urging the camels, who +seemed, like ourselves, to know the necessity of pushing on across that +fearful tract, I took 7 feet as the average. These figures give a speed +of 2.62 geographical miles per hour, or exactly three English miles, +which may be considered as the highest speed that camels lightly loaded +can keep up on a journey. In general, it will not be more than two and a +half English miles. My dromedary was one of the tallest, and the seat of +the saddle was 6 feet 6 above the ground." + + +LORD METCALFE ON A CAMEL WHEN A BOY. + +Charles Metcalfe, "first and last Lord Metcalfe," to whose care were +successively intrusted the three greatest dependencies of the British +crown, India, Jamaica, and Canada, and who died in 1846, was sent to +Eton when eleven years old. His biographer relates,[255] that "it is on +record, and on very sufficient authority, that he was once seen riding +on a camel. 'I heard the boys shouting,' said Dr Goodall, many years +afterwards, 'and went out and saw young Metcalfe riding on a camel; so +you see he was always orientally inclined.'" This anecdote will serve as +a comrade to that told by Mr Foss, in his "Lives of the Justices of +England," of Chief-Baron Pollock. When a lad, one of his schoolmasters, +fretted by the boyish energy and exuberant spirits of his scholar, said +petulantly, "You will live to be _hanged_." The old gentleman lived to +see his pupil Lord Chief-Baron, and, not a little proud of his great +scholar, said, "I always said he would occupy an _elevated_ position." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[253] Quoted in Timbs' "Century of Anecdote," vol. i. p. 223 (1864). + +[254] "A Ride through the Nubian Desert," by Captain W. Peel, R.N., p. +49. + + + + +STAGS AND GIRAFFE. + + +The deer family is rather numerous, and found in many different parts of +the world. Reindeers abound in some parts even of Spitzbergen, and with +musk oxen can find their food even under the winter snows of the Parry +Islands. The wapiti and heavy large-headed elk or moose, retreat before +the advancing civilisation of North America. The Indian mountains and +plains have noble races of deer. No species, however, is more celebrated +than our red deer. The giraffe is closely allied to the stag family. The +Arabs name it the seraph, and indeed, that is the origin of its now +best-known English name. Visitors should beware of going too near the +male, for we have seen the dent made by one of the giraffe's bony knobs +on a pannel close to its stall. We have heard of a young lady, who +entered the garden one of those summer days when straw bonnets had great +bunches of ripe barley mingled with artificial poppies as an ornament, +and, going too near the lofty pallisade, found to her confusion and +terror that the long lithe tongue of the giraffe had whisked off her +Leghorn, flowers and all, and had begun leisurely to munch it with +somewhat of the same gusto with which it would have eaten the branch of +a graceful mimosa. + + +EARL OF DALHOUSIE AND THE FEROCIOUS STAG. + +Mr Scrope relates an instance of unprovoked ferocity in a red deer at +Taymouth, in which the present Earl of Dalhousie might have been +seriously injured. + +"In October 1836, the Hon. Mr and Mrs Fox Maule had left Taymouth with +the intention of proceeding towards Dalguise; and in driving through +that part of the grounds where the red deer were kept, they suddenly at +a turn of the road came upon the lord of the demesne standing in the +centre of the passage, as if prepared to dispute it against all comers. +Mr Maule being aware that it might be dangerous to trifle with him, or +to endeavour to drive him away (for it was the rutting season), +cautioned the postilion to go slowly, and give the animal an opportunity +of moving off. This was done, and the stag retired to a small hollow by +the side of the road. On the carriage passing, however, he took offence +at its too near approach, and emerged at a slow and stately pace, till +he arrived nearly parallel with it. Mr Maule then desired the lad to +increase his pace, being apprehensive of a charge in the broadside. + +"The deer, however, had other intentions; for as soon as the carriage +moved quicker, he increased his pace also, and came on the road about +twelve yards ahead of it, for the purpose of crossing, as it was +thought, to a lower range of the parks; but to the astonishment and no +little alarm of the occupants of the carriage, he charged the offside +horse, plunging his long brow antler into his chest, and otherwise +cutting him. + +"The horse that was wounded made two violent kicks, and is supposed to +have struck the stag, and then the pair instantly ran off the road; and +it was owing solely to the admirable presence of mind and sense of the +postilion, that the carriage was not precipitated over the neighbouring +bank. The horses were not allowed to stop till they reached the gate, +although the blood was pouring from the wounded animal in a stream as +thick as a man's finger. He was then taken out of the carriage, and only +survived two or three hours. The stag was shortly afterwards +killed."[256] + + +THE FRENCH COUNT AND THE STAG. + +Mr Scrope, in his "Deer-Stalking," describes a grand deer-drive to +Glen-Tilt, headed by the Duke of Athole. Many an incident of this and +subsequent drives was watched by "Lightfoot," who was present, and whose +pictures, under his name of Sir Edwin Landseer, have rendered the life +of the red deer familiar to us, in mist, amid snow, swimming in the +rapid of a Highland current, pursued and at rest, fighting and feeding, +alive and dead, in every attitude, and at every age. + +In this encounter, the Duke killed three first-rate harts, Lightfoot +two, and other rifles were all more or less successful. A French count, +whose tongue it was difficult to restrain,--and silence is essential to +success in the pursuit,--at last fired into a dense herd of deer. + +Mr Scrope adds,[257] "Everything was propitious--circumstance, +situation, and effect; for he was descending the mountain in full view +of our whole assemblage of sportsmen. A fine stag in the midst of the +herd fell to the crack of his rifle. 'Hallo, hallo!' forward ran the +count, and sat upon the prostrate deer triumphing. '_Hé bien, mon ami, +vous êtes mort, donc! Moi, je fais toujours des coups sûrs. Ah! pauvre +enfant!_' He then patted the sides of the animal in pure wantonness, and +looked east, west, north, and south, for applause, the happiest of the +happy; finally he extracted a mosaic snuff-box from his pocket, and with +an air which nature has denied to all save the French nation, he held a +pinch to the deer's nose--'_Prends, mon ami, prends donc!_' This +operation had scarcely been performed when the hart, who had only been +stunned, or perhaps shot through the loins, sprang up suddenly, +overturned the count, ran fairly away, and was never seen again. +'_Arrêtes, toi traître! Arrêtes, mon enfant! Ah! c'est un enfant, perdu! +Allez donc à tous les diables!_'" + + +VENISON FAT.--REYNOLDS AND THE GOURMAND. + +Northcote[258] says--"I have heard Sir Joshua Reynolds relate an +anecdote of a venison feast, at which were assembled many who much +enjoyed the repast. + +"On this occasion, Reynolds addressed his conversation to one of the +company who sat next to him, but to his great surprise could not get a +single word in answer, until at length his silent neighbour, turning to +him, said, 'Mr Reynolds, whenever you are at a venison feast, I advise +you not to speak during dinner-time, as in endeavouring to answer your +questions, I have just swallowed a fine piece of the fat, entire, +without tasting its flavour.'" + + +STAG-TRENCH AT FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAINE. + +Goethe was born at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, August 28th, 1749. In his +autobiography[259] he says--"The street in which our house was situated +passed by the name of the Stag-trench; but as neither stags nor trenches +were to be seen, we naturally wished to have the expression explained. +They told us that our house stood on a spot that was once outside the +town, and that where the street now ran had formerly been a trench in +which a number of stags were kept. The stags were preserved and fatted +here, because the Senate every year, according to an ancient custom, +feasted publicly on a stag which was always at hand in the trench for +such a festival, in case princes or knights interfered with the city's +right of chase outside, or the walls were encompassed and besieged by an +enemy. This pleased us, and we wished that such a lair for tame wild +animals could have been seen in our times. Where is there a boy or girl +who could not join in the wish of this man, who has been called the +first European poet and literary man of the nineteenth century?" + + +GIRAFFE. + +"Fancy," said Sydney Smith to some ladies, when he was told that one of +the giraffes at the Zoological Gardens had caught a cold,--"fancy a +giraffe with two yards of sore throat." + +In one of the numbers of _Punch_, published in 1864, the quiz of an +artist has made the giraffes twist their necks into a loose knot by way +of a comforter to keep them from catching a cold, or having a sore +throat. He has very audaciously caused to be printed under his cut, "A +FACT." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[255] "Life and Correspondence of Charles Lord Metcalfe," by John +William Kaye, vol. i., p. 8. + +[256] "The Art of Deer-Stalking," p. 33. + +[257] "Deer-Stalking," p. 229. + +[258] "Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds," vol. i., p. 124. + +[259] "Truth and Poetry from my own Life; the Autobiography of Goethe," +edited by Parke Godwin, part i., p. 3. + + + + +SHEEP AND GOATS. + + +These are animals, at least the former, which seem to have been created +in a domestic state. They are represented on the most ancient +monuments. A head of a Lybian ram of very large size, in the British +Museum, has great resemblance to nature, and there is one slab at least +among the Assyrian monuments where sheep and goats, as part of the spoil +of a city, are rendered with great skill. In the writings of the Ettrick +Shepherd, many curious anecdotes of Scottish sheep are given. + + +HOW MANY LEGS HAS A SHEEP? + +When the Earl of Bradford was brought before the Lord Chancellor to be +examined upon application for a statute of lunacy against him, the +Chancellor asked him, "How many legs has a sheep?"--"Does your lordship +mean," answered Lord Bradford, "a live sheep or a dead sheep?"--"Is it +not the same thing?" said the Chancellor.--"No, my lord," said Lord +Bradford, "there is much difference: a live sheep may have four legs, a +dead sheep has only two; the two fore-legs are shoulders; there are only +_two legs of mutton_."[260] + + +GOETHE ON ROOS'S ETCHINGS OF SHEEP. + +In the "Conversations of Goethe with Eckerman and Soret"[261] in 1824, +he handed me some etchings by Roos, the famous painter of animals; they +were all of sheep, in every posture and position. The simplicity of +their countenances, the ugliness and shagginess of the fleece--all was +represented with the utmost fidelity, as if it were nature itself. + +"I always feel uneasy," said Goethe, "when I look at these beasts. Their +state--so limited, dull, gaping, and dreaming--excites in me such +sympathy, that I fear I shall become a sheep, and almost think the +artist must have been one. At all events, it is most wonderful how Roos +has been able to think and feel himself into the very soul of these +creatures, so as to make the internal character peer with such force +through the outward covering. Here you see what a great talent can do +when it keeps steady to subjects which are congenial with its nature." + +"Has not, then," said I, "this artist also painted dogs, cats, and +beasts of prey with similar truth; nay, with this great gift of assuming +a mental state foreign to himself, has he not been able to delineate +human character with equal fidelity?" + +"No," said Goethe; "all that lay out of his sphere, but the gentle, +grass-eating animals--sheep, goats, cows, and the like--he was never +weary of repeating; this was the peculiar province of his talent, which +he did not quit during the whole course of his life. And in this he did +well. A sympathy with these animals was born with him, a knowledge of +their psychological condition was given him, and thus he had so fine an +eye for their bodily structure. Other creatures were perhaps not so +transparent to him, and therefore he felt neither calling nor impulse to +paint them."[262] + + +LORD COCKBURN AND THE SHEEP. + +Lord Cockburn, the proprietor of Bonaly, that pretty place on the slopes +of the Pentlands, was sitting on the hill-side with the shepherd, and, +observing the sheep reposing in the coldest situation, he observed to +him, "John, if I were a sheep, I would lie on the other side of the +hill." The shepherd answered, "Ay, my lord, but if ye had been a +_sheep_, ye would hae had mair sense."[263] + + +WOOLSACK. + +Colman and Banister, dining one day with Lord Erskine, the +ex-chancellor, amongst other things, observed that he had then about +three thousand head of sheep. "I perceive," interrupted Colman, "your +lordship has still an eye to the woolsack."[264] + + +SANDY WOOD AND HIS PETS, A SHEEP AND A RAVEN. + +Alexander Wood, a kind-hearted surgeon, who died in his native town of +Edinburgh in May 1807, aged eighty-two, is alluded to by Sir Walter +Scott in a prophecy put into the mouth of Meg Merrilees in "Guy +Mannering"--"They shall beset his goat; they shall profane his raven," +&c. + +The editor of "Kaye's Edinburgh Portraits"[265] says that, besides his +kindness of disposition to his fellow-creatures, "he was almost equally +remarkable for his love of animals. His pets were numerous, and of all +kinds. Not to mention dogs and cats, there were two others that +_individually_ were better known to the citizens of Edinburgh--a sheep +and a raven, the latter of which is alluded to by Scott in 'Guy +Mannering.' Willy, the sheep, pastured in the ground adjoining to the +Excise Office, now the Royal Bank, and might be daily seen standing at +the railings, watching Mr Wood's passing to or from his house in York +Place, when Willy used to poke his head into his coat-pocket, which was +always filled with supplies for his favourite, and would then trot along +after him through the town, and sometimes might be found in the houses +of the doctor's patients. The raven was domesticated at an ale and +porter shop in North Castle Street, which is still, or very lately was, +marked by a tree growing from the area against the wall. It also kept +upon the watch for Mr Wood, and would recognise him even as he passed at +some distance along George Street, and, taking a low flight towards him, +was frequently his companion during some part of his forenoon walks; for +Mr Wood never entered his carriage when he could possibly avoid it, +declaring that unless a vehicle could be found that would carry him down +the closes and up the turnpike stairs, they produced nothing but trouble +and inconvenience." + + +GENERAL CARNAC AND HIS SHE-GOAT. + +It is pleasant to see, and not rare to find in men of warlike habits, a +love for animals. The goat or deer that used often to march before a +regiment with the band as they proceeded to a review in Bruntsfield +Links, when the writer and his friends were boys, about 1826 to 1832, he +well remembers. Nor is Edinburgh garrison singular. + +General Carnac, in 1770, communicated to Dr William Hunter some +observations on the keenness of smell and its exquisite sensibility. He +says--"I have frequently observed of tame deer, to whom bread is often +given, and which they are in general fond of, that if you present them a +piece that has been bitten, they will not touch it. I have made the same +observation of a remarkably fine she-goat, which accompanied me in most +of my campaigns in India, and supplied me with milk, and which, in +gratitude for her services, I brought from abroad with me."[266] + + +JOHN HUNTER AND THE SHAWL-GOAT. + +HUNTER'S METHOD OF INTRODUCING STRANGE ANIMALS PEACEFULLY TO OTHERS IN +HIS MENAGERIE. + +It is pleasant to meet with a notice of the pursuits of the great +anatomist, John Hunter, in a rather out-of-the-way book.[267] The +ingenious way in which he introduced strange animals into his menagerie +is worthy of notice. + +"The variety of birds and beasts to be met with at Earl's Court (the +villa of the celebrated and much-lamented Mr John Hunter) is matter of +great entertainment. In the same ground you are surprised to find so +many living animals in one herd, from the most opposite parts of the +habitable globe. Buffaloes, rams, and sheep from Turkey, and a +shawl-goat from the East Indies, are among the most remarkable of those +that meet the eye; and as they feed together in the greatest harmony, it +is natural to inquire, what means are taken to make them so familiar, +and well acquainted with each other. Mr Hunter told me, that when he has +a stranger to introduce, he does it by ordering the whole herd to be +taken to a strange place, either a field, an empty stable, or any other +large out-house, with which they are all alike unaccustomed. The +strangeness of the place so totally engages their attention, as to +prevent them from running at, and fighting with, the new-comer, as they +most probably would do in their own fields (in regard to which they +entertain very high notions of their exclusive right of property), and +here they are confined for some hours, till they appear reconciled to +the stranger, who is then turned out with his new friends, and is +generally afterwards well-treated. The shawl-goat was not, however, so +easily reconciled to his future companions; he attacked them, instead of +waiting to be attacked; fought several battles, and at present appears +master of the field. + +"It is from the _down_ that grows under the coarse hair of this species +of goat, that the fine India shawls are manufactured.[268] This +beautiful as well as useful animal was brought over only last June from +Bombay, in the _Duke of Montrose_ Indiaman, Captain Dorin. The female, +unfortunately, died. It was very obligingly presented by the directors +to Sir John Sinclair, the President of the British Wool Society. It is +proposed, under Mr Hunter's care, to try some experiment with it in +England, by crossing it with other breeds of the goat species, before it +is sent to the north." + +As anything that met with Mr Hunter's approval must have been a +judicious arrangement, I may quote from the same source the passage +about the buildings for his cattle at Earl's Court. + +"Mr Hunter has built his stables half under ground; also vaults, in +which he keeps his cows, buffaloes, and hogs. Such buildings, more +especially the arched byres, or cow-houses, retain a more equal +temperature at all times, in regard both to heat and cold, and +consequently are cooler in summer and warmer in winter; and in +situations where ground is so valuable as in the neighbourhood of +London, are an excellent contrivance. Mr Hunter has his hay-yard over +his buffaloes' stables. The expense of vaulting does not exceed that of +building and roofing common cow-houses; and the vaults have this +essential advantage or preference, that they require no repairs." He +then gives an account of some buffaloes which Mr Hunter had trained to +work in a cart, and which became so steady and tractable, that they were +often driven through London streets in the loaded cart, much, no doubt, +to the astonishment of passers-by. With a glimpse of a very beautiful +little cow at Earl's Court, from a buffalo and an Alderney, which was +always plump and fat, and gave very good milk, we must take leave of +John Hunter's menagerie. + + +COMMODORE KEPPEL "BEARDS" THE DEY OF ALGIERS.--A GOAT. + +Sir Joshua Reynolds, when twenty-five, sailed to the Mediterranean in +1749 with the Hon. Augustus Keppel, then a captain in the navy, and +afterwards Viscount Keppel. In 1750, Commodore Keppel returned to +Algiers to remonstrate with the dey on the renewed depredations of the +Corsairs. The dey, surprised at his boldness, for he anchored close to +the palace, and attended by his captain and a barge's crew, went boldly +into the presence of the Algerine monarch to demand satisfaction, +exclaimed, that he wondered at the insolence of the King of Great +Britain sending him a beardless boy. + +Keppel was only twenty-four, but he is said to have answered, "that had +his Majesty, the King of Great Britain, estimated the degree of wisdom +by the length of the beard, he would have sent him _a goat_ as an +ambassador." Northcote is in doubt of the truth of this speech having +been made, but says, that it is certain Keppel answered with great +boldness.[269] The tyrant is said to have actually ordered his mutes to +advance with the bow-string, telling the commodore that his life should +answer for his audacity. Keppel quietly pointed out to the dey the +squadron at anchor, and told him, that if it was his pleasure to put him +to death, there were Englishmen enough on board to make a funeral pile +of his capital. The dey cooled a little, allowed the commodore to +depart, and made satisfaction for the damage done, and promised to +abstain from violence in future. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[260] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 18. + +[261] Translated from the German by John Oxenford, vol. i., p. 138. + +[262] Roos must have been limited in his powers, unlike our Landseer, +who paints dogs, sheep, horses, cows, stags, and fowls with equal power. + +[263] Dean Ramsay's "Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character," 10th +edition, p. 19. + +[264] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 214. + +[265] There are two copperplates devoted to the figure and portrait of +"lang Sandy Wood," as he was called. + +[266] "Philosophical Transactions," LXI. p. 176 (1771). Paper on +Nyl-ghau, with plate, by George Stubbs, engraved by Basire. + +[267] Baird, "Report on the County of Middlesex," quoted in view of the +agriculture of Middlesex, &c., pp. 341, 342, by John Middleton, Esq. +London: 1798. + +[268] The wool which grows on different parts of their bodies, under +very long hair, is obtained by gently combing them. + +[269] "Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds," vol. i., p. 32. + + + + +CALVES AND KINE. + + +The little anecdote of Gilpin and the three cows illustrates one elegant +use of the subjects of the following paragraphs. What home landscape +like that painted by Alfred Tennyson would be perfect without its cows? +Many anecdotes of them could be collected. The Irish are celebrated for +their "bulls," one of them is not the worse for having "Bulls" for its +subject. Patrick was telling, so the story goes, that there were four +"Bull Inns" in a certain English town. "There are but three," said a +native of the place, who knew them well; "the Black Bull, the White +Bull, and the Red Bull,--where is the fourth?"--"Sure and do you not +know, the Dun Cow--the best of them all?" replied the unconscious +Milesian. + + +A GREAT CALF. + +Sir William B----, being at a parish meeting, made some proposals, which +were objected to by a farmer. Highly enraged, "Sir," says he to the +farmer, "do you know, sir, that I have been at the two universities, and +at two colleges in each university?"--"Well, sir," said the farmer, +"what of that? I had a calf that sucked two cows, and the observation I +made was, the more he sucked, the greater _calf_ he grew."[270] + + +RATHER TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING.--VEAL _ad nauseam_. + +At the table of Lord Polkemmet, when the covers were removed, the +dinner was seen to consist of veal broth, a roast fillet of veal, veal +cutlets, a florentine (an excellent Scotch dish, composed of veal), a +calf's head, calf's foot jelly. The worthy judge observing an expression +of surprise among his guests, who, even in Shetland in early spring +would have had the veal varied with fish, broke out in explanation, "Ou, +ay, it's a cauf! when we kill a beast, we just eat up one side, and down +the tither." + + * * * * * + +Boswell, the friend and biographer of Johnson, when a young man, went to +the pit of Covent Garden Theatre, in company with Dr Blair, and in a +frolic imitated the lowing of a cow; and the universal cry in the +gallery was, "Encore the cow! encore the cow!" This was complied with, +and in the pride of success, Boswell attempted to imitate some other +animals, but with less success. Dr Blair, anxious for the fame of his +friend, addressed him thus, "My dear sir, I would confine myself to _the +cow_."[271] + + +ADAM CLARKE AND HIS BULLOCK PAT. + +The Rev. Adam Clarke, LL.D., after one of his evangelical visits to +Ireland, returned to his home at Millbrook. In writing to his sons he +says--"Not only your mother, sisters, and brother, were glad to see me, +but also my poor animals in the field, for I lost no time in going to +visit them. I found the donkey lame, and her son looking much like a +philosopher; it was strange that even the _bullock_, whom we call _Pat_, +came to me in the field, and held out his most honest face for me to +stroke it. The next time I went to him he came running up, and actually +placed his two fore-feet upon my shoulders, with all the affection of a +spaniel; but it was a load of kindness I could ill bear, for the animal +is nearly three years old; I soon got his feet displaced; strange and +uncouth as this manifestation of affectionate gratitude was, yet with it +the master and his _steer Pat_ were equally well pleased; so here is a +literal comment on 'The ox knoweth his owner;' and you see I am in +league with even the beasts of the field."[272] + + +SAMUEL FOOTE AND THE COWS PULLING THE BELL OF WORCESTER COLLEGE CHAPEL. + +Samuel Foote was a student at Worcester College, Oxford, and when there +he practised many tricks, and soon found out what was ridiculous in any +man's character. + +His biographer[273] records one of these tricks which he played off on +Dr Gower, the provost of the college. "The church belonging to the +college fronted the side of a lane where cattle were sometimes turned +out to graze during the night, and from the steeple hung the bell rope, +very low in the middle of the outside porch. Foote saw in this an object +likely to produce some fun, and immediately set about to accomplish his +purpose. He accordingly one night slyly tied a wisp of hay to the rope, +as a bait for the cows in their peregrination to the grazing ground. +The scheme succeeded to his wish. One of the cows soon after smelling +the hay as she passed by the church door, instantly seized on it, and, +by tugging at the rope, made the bell ring, to the astonishment of the +sexton and the whole parish. + +"This happened several nights successively, and the incident gave rise +to various reports, such as not only that the church was haunted by evil +spirits, but that several spectres were seen walking about the +churchyard in all those hideous and frightful shapes which fear, +ignorance, and fancy usually suggest on such occasions. + +"An event of this kind, however, was to be explored, for the honour of +philosophy, as well as for the quiet of the parish. Accordingly the +doctor and the sexton agreed to sit up one night, and on the first alarm +to run out and drag the culprit to condign punishment. Their plan being +arranged, they waited with the utmost impatience for the appointed +signal; at last the bell began to sound its usual alarm, and they both +sallied out in the dark, determined on making a discovery. The sexton +was the first in the attack. He seized the cow by the tail, and cried +out, 'It was a gentleman commoner, as he had him by the tail of his +gown;' while the doctor, who had caught the cow by the horns at the same +time, immediately replied, 'No, no, you blockhead, 'tis the postman, and +here I have hold of the rascal by his blowing-horn.' Lights, however, +were immediately brought, when the character of the real offender was +discovered, and the laugh of the whole town was turned upon the +doctor." + + +THE GENERAL'S COW. + +At Plymouth there is, or was, a small green opposite the Government +House, over which no one was permitted to pass. Not a creature was +allowed to approach save the general's cow. One day old Lady D---- +having called at the general's, in order to make a short cut, bent her +steps across the lawn, when she was arrested by the sentry calling out +and desiring her to return. "But," said Lady D----, with a stately air, +"do you know who I am?"--"I don't know who you be, ma'am," replied the +immovable sentry, "but I knows you b'aint--you b'aint the _general's +cow_." So Lady D---- wisely gave up the argument and went the other +way.[274] + + +GILPIN'S LOVE OF THE PICTURESQUE CARRIED OUT.--A REASON FOR KEEPING +THREE COWS. + +Lord Sidmouth told the Rev. C. Smith Bird that he was partly educated at +Cheam, by Mr Gilpin, the author of many volumes on "Picturesque +Scenery." He was but a poor scholar, but seems to have been loved by his +pupils. He _carried out_ his regard for the picturesque, as would appear +by the following anecdote[275]-- + +"In visiting the Rev. Mr Gilpin at his house in the New Forest on one +occasion, his lordship observed three cows feeding in a small paddock, +which he knew to be all that Mr Gilpin had to feed them in. He asked Mr +Gilpin how he came to have so many cows when he had so little land? 'The +truth is,' said he, 'I found one cow would not do--she went +dry.'--'Well,' said Lord Sidmouth, 'but why not be content with another? +Two, by good management, might be made to supply you constantly with +milk.'--'Oh, yes,' said the old gentleman, '_but two would not group_.'" + + +KING JAMES ON A COW GETTING OVER THE BORDER. + +In the "Life of Bernard Gilpin," his biographer refers to the +inhabitants of the Borders being such great adepts in the art of +thieving, that they could twist a cow's horn, or mark a horse, so as its +owners could not know it, and so subtle that no vigilance could watch +against them. A person telling King James a surprising story of a cow +that had been driven from the north of Scotland into the south of +England, and escaping from the herd had found her way home; "The most +surprising part of the story," the king replied, "you lay least stress +on--that she passed unstolen through the debateable land."[276] + + +DUKE OF MONTAGUE AND HIS HOSPITAL FOR OLD COWS AND HORSES. + +The Rev. Joseph Spence[277] records that "the Duke of Montague has an +hospital for old cows and horses; none of his tenants near Boughton +dare kill a broken-winded horse; they must bring them all to the +_reservoir_. The duke keeps a lap-dog, the ugliest creature he could +meet with; he is always fond of the most hideous, and says he was at +first kind to them, because nobody else would be." + + +PHILIP IV. OF SPAIN IN THE BULL-RING. + +This king, whose form and features are so well known from the pictures +of Velasquez, was entertained magnificently by his great favourite +Olivares, in 1631. At this festival, which was in honour of the birthday +of the heir apparent, the sports of ancient Rome were renewed in the +bull-ring of Spain. In his life by Mr Stirling,[278] it is recorded that +"a lion, a tiger, a bear, a camel--in fact, a specimen of every +procurable wild animal, or, as Quevedo expressed it in a poetical +account of the spectacle, 'the whole ark of Noah, and all the fables of +Æsop,' were turned loose into the spacious Plaza del Parque, to fight +for the mastery of the arena. To the great delight of his Castilian +countrymen, a bull of Xarama vanquished all his antagonists. The 'bull +of Marathon, which ravaged the country of Tetrapolis,' says the +historian of the day, 'was not more valiant; nor did Theseus, who slew +and sacrificed him, gain greater glory than did our most potent +sovereign. Unwilling that a beast which had behaved so bravely should go +unrewarded, his majesty determined to do him the greatest favour that +the animal himself could have possibly desired, had he been gifted with +reason--to wit, to slay him with his own royal hand! Calling for his +fowling-piece, he brought it instantly to his shoulder, and the flash +and report were scarcely seen and heard ere the mighty monster lay a +bleeding corpse before the transported lieges. Yet not a moment,' +continues the chronicler, 'did his majesty lose his wonted serenity, his +composure of countenance, and becoming gravity of aspect; and but for +the presence of so great a concourse of witnesses, it was difficult to +believe that he had really fired the noble and successful shot.'" + + +SYDNEY SMITH AND HIS CATTLE.--HIS "UNIVERSAL SCRATCHER." + +The Rev. Sydney Smith, when at Foston, used to call for his hat and +stick immediately after dinner, and sallied forth for his evening +stroll. His daughter,[279] who often accompanied him, remarks--"Each cow +and calf, and horse and pig, were in turn visited, and fed, and patted, +and all seemed to welcome him; he cared for their comforts as he cared +for the comforts of every living being around him. He used to say, 'I am +all for cheap luxuries, even for animals; now all animals have a passion +for scratching their back bones. They break down your gates and palings +to effect this. Look! there is my universal scratcher, a sharp-edged +pole, resting on a high and a low post, adapted to every height, from a +horse to a lamb. Even the Edinburgh Reviewer can take his turn. You have +no idea how popular it is. I have not had a gate broken since I put it +up. I have it in all my fields.'" + + +REV. AUGUSTUS TOPLADY ON THE FUTURE STATE OF ANIMALS. + +The Rev. Josiah Bull, in the "Memorials of the Rev. William Bull of +Newport, Pagnel,"[280] the friend of Cowper, the poet, and the Rev. John +Newton, tells the following anecdote, in which a favourite theory of the +author of that exquisite hymn, "Rock of Ages Cleft for Me," is alluded +to, and somewhat comically illustrated by the author of the "Olney +Hymns:"-- + +"Mr Newton had been dining with Mr Bull, and they were quietly sitting +together, following after 'the things whereby they might edify one +another,' and that search aided by 'interposing puffs' of the fragrant +weed. It was in that old study I so well remember, ere it was renovated +to meet the demands of modern taste. A room some eighteen feet square, +with an arched roof, entirely surrounded with many a precious volume, +with large, old casement windows, and immense square chairs of fine +Spanish mahogany. There these good men were quietly enjoying their +_tête-à-tête_, when they were startled by a thundering knock at the +door; and in came Mr Ryland of Northampton, abruptly exclaiming, 'If you +wish to see Mr Toplady, you must go immediately with me to the "Swan." +He is on his way to London, and will not live long.' They all proceeded +to the inn, and there found the good man, emaciated with disease, and +evidently fast hastening to the grave. As they were talking together, +they were attracted by a great noise in the street, occasioned, as they +found on looking out, by a bull-baiting which was going on before the +house. Mr Toplady was touched by the cruelty of the scene, and +exclaimed, 'Who could bear to see that sight, if there were not to be +some compensation for these poor suffering animals in a future +state?'--'I certainly hope,' said my grandfather, 'that all the bulls +will go to heaven; but do you think this will be the case with all the +animal creation?'--'Yes, certainly,' replied Mr Toplady, with great +emphasis, 'all, all!'--'What!' rejoined Mr Newton, with some sarcasm in +his tone, 'do you suppose, sir, there will be fleas in heaven? for I +have a special aversion to them.' Mr Toplady said nothing, but was +evidently hurt; and as they separated, Mr Newton said, 'How happy he +should be to see him at Olney, if God spared his life, and he were to +come that way again.' The reply Mr Toplady made was not very courteous; +but the good man was perhaps suffering from the irritation of disease, +and possibly annoyed by the ridicule cast upon a favourite theory." + + +RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM WINDHAM, M.P., ON THE FEELINGS OF A BAITED +BULL. + +That great parliamentary orator, the Right Honourable William Windham, +lived before the days when humanity to animals was deemed a fit subject +for legislation. + +In his speech against "the bill for preventing the practice of +bull-baiting" (April 18, 1800),[281] he refers to the introduction of +such a measure as follows--"In turning from the great interests of this +country, and of Europe, to discuss with equal solemnity such measures as +that which is now before us, the House appears to me to resemble Mr +Smirk, the auctioneer, in the play, who could hold forth just as +eloquently upon a ribbon as upon a Raphael." He speaks of bull-baiting +as being, "it must be confessed, at the expense of an animal which is +not by any means a party to the amusement; but then," he adds, "it +serves to cultivate the qualities of a certain species of dogs, which +affords as much pleasure to their owners as greyhounds do to others. It +is no small recommendation to bull-dogs that they are so much in repute +with the populace." In a second speech, May 24, 1802, he said that he +believed "the bull felt a satisfaction in the contest, not less so than +the hound did when he heard the sound of the horn that summoned him to +the chase. True it was that young bulls, or those which were never +baited before, showed reluctance to be tied to the stake; but those +bulls which, according to the language of the sport, were called _game +bulls_, who were used to baiting, approached the stake, and stood there +while preparing for the contest, with the utmost composure. If the bull +felt no pleasure, and was cruelly dealt with, surely the dogs had also +some claim to compassion; but the fact was that both seemed equally +arduous in the conflict; and the bull, like every other animal, while it +had the better side, did not dislike his situation--it would be +ridiculous to say he felt no pain--yet, when on such occasions he +exhibited no signs of terror, it was a demonstrable proof that he felt +some pleasure." + +The "sober loyal men" of Stamford, it would seem, had petitioned for the +continuance of their annual sport, which had been continued for a +period of five or six hundred years, and who were displeased with their +landlord, the Marquis of Exeter, for his endeavours to put down their +cruel sport. Windham refers to "the antiquity of the thing being +deserving of respect, for respect for antiquity was the best +preservation of the Church and State!!" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[270] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 36. + +[271] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 111. + +[272] "An Account of the Religious and Literary Life of Adam Clarke, +LL.D., F.A.S.," by a Member of his Family, vol ii., p. 346. + +[273] "Memoirs of Samuel Foote, Esq.," by Wm. Cooke, Esq., vol. i., p. +13. + +[274] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book", p. 246. + +[275] Lord Sidmouth lived near Burghfield, where Mr Bird kept pupils, +and was curate. See "Sketches from the Life of the Rev. Charles Smith +Bird." + +[276] "Lives of Hugh Latimer and Bernard Gilpin," by the Rev. William +Gilpin, p. 271. + +[277] Anecdotes. Supplement, p. 249 (Singer's edition). Spence died in +1768, aged 70. + +[278] "Velasquez and his Works," by William Stirling, p. 62. + +[279] Lady Holland's "Memoirs of her Father, the Rev. Sydney Smith," +vol. i., p. 118. + +[280] "Memorials of the Rev. William Bull of Newport, Pagnel," &c., by +his grandson, the Rev. Josiah Bull, M.A. 1864. + +[281] "Speeches in Parliament of the Right Honourable William Windham, +to which is prefixed some account of his Life," by Thomas Amyot, Esq., +vol. i. pp. 332, 353 (1812). + + + + +WHALES. + + +Last and greatest of the mammalia are the whales. The adventures of +hardy seamen, like Scoresby, in the pursuit of the Greenland whale, or +Beale in the more dangerous chase of the spermaceti, in southern waters, +form the subjects of more than one readable volume. But here we give no +such extracts, but content ourselves with four short skits, having the +cetacea for their subject. + +In these days of zoological gardens, they have succeeded in bringing one +of the smallest of the order, a porpoise, to the Zoological Gardens. His +speedy dissolution showed that even the bath of a hippopotamus or an +elephant was too limited for the dwelling of this pre-eminently marine +creature. But he had begun to show an intelligence, they say, which, +independently of all zoological and anatomical considerations, showed +that he had nothing in common with a fish, but a somewhat similar form, +and an equal necessity for abundance of the pure liquid element. + + +WHALEBONE. + +A thin old man, with a rag-bag in his hand, was picking up a number of +small pieces of whalebone, which lay on the street. The deposit was of +such a singular nature, that we asked the quaint-looking gatherer how he +supposed they came there? "Don't know," he replied, in a squeaking +voice; "but I s'pect some unfortunate female was _wrecked_ hereabout +somewhere."[282] + + * * * * * + +A Scotch lady, who was discomposed by the introduction of gas, asked +with much earnestness, "What's to become o' the _puir whales_?' deeming +their interests materially affected by this superseding of their +oil."[283] + + +VERY LIKE A WHALE. + + The first of all the royal infant males + Should take the title of the Prince of _Wales_: + Because, 'tis clear to seamen and to lubber, + Babies and _whales_ are both inclined to _blubber_.[284] + + +CHRISTOPHER NORTH ON THE WHALE. + +_Tickler._ What fish, James, would you incline to be, if put into +scales? + +_Shepherd._ A dolphin: for they hae the speed o' lichtnin. They'll dart +past and roun' about a ship in full sail before the wind, just as if she +was at anchor. Then the dolphin is a fish o' peace,--he saved the life +o' a poet of auld, Arion, wi' his harp,--and oh! they say the cretur's +beautifu' in death. Byron, ye ken, comparin' his hues to those o' the +sun settin' ahint the Grecian isles. I sud like to be a dolphin. + + * * * * * + +_Shepherd._ Let me see--I sud hae nae great objections to be a whale in +the Polar Seas. Gran' fun to fling a boatfu' o' harpooners into the +air--or, wi' ae thud o' your tail, to drive in the stern posts o' a +Greenlandman. + +_Tickler._ Grander fun still, James, to feel the inextricable harpoon in +your blubber, and to go snoving away beneath an ice-floe with four miles +of line connecting you with your distant enemies. + +_Shepherd._ But, then, whales marry but ae wife, and are passionately +attached to their offspring. There they and I are congenial speerits. +Nae fish that swims enjoys so large a share of domestic happiness. + +_Tickler._ A whale, James, is not a fish. + +_Shepherd._ Isna he? Let him alane for that. He's ca'd a fish in the +Bible, and that's better authority than Buffon. Oh that I were a +whale![285] + + * * * * * + +With these sentences, we conclude this book, as well as our selections +on the whale. In the Museum at Edinburgh may be seen one of the finest, +if not the most perfect, skeleton of a whale exhibited in this kingdom. +Our young readers there can soon see, by examining it from the gallery, +that the whale is no "fish." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[282] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 122. + +[283] _Ibid._, p. 201. + +[284] _Ibid._, p. 142. + +[285] "Noctes Ambrosianæ," Works of Professor Wilson, vol. ii., p. 4. + + + + +INDEX. + + + Addison and Steele on the peculiarities of the natural history collectors, 5-8 + + Albert's horse at Brussels, 256. + + Ammonianus and his ass, 279. + + Androcles and the lion, 167-169. + + Ant-eater, the great, 225-229. + + Arctic fox, 142-148. + + Ass, Sydney Smith on sagacity of, 283. + + Ass and zebra, 276. + + Ass's foal, 278. + + Asses with deers' antlers fastened on heads, 284; + duty free, 284. + + Asylum for animals, 265, 266. + + Austrian general and a bear, 58, 59. + + Aye-aye, its singular structure and habits, 36-38. + + + Baboons, Lady Anne Barnard on, 24, 25. + + Babylon, bas-relief of dog found at, 86, 87. + + Babyrusa, 240. + + Back, Sir George, anecdote of Arctic lemming, 196. + + Badger, 71; + anecdotes of, 72-75. + + Baird, origin of name, 241. + + Barrentz on white or Polar bear, 64. + + Barnard, Lady Anne, pleads for the baboons, 24, 25; + on some rabbits, 222. + + Bats, fantastic faces of, 38, 39. + + Bearable pun, 61. + + Bears, 56, 57; + anecdotes of, 58-70. + + Beechey, Captain, on Polar bear, 63; + on the walrus, 184-186, 187. + + Bell, Professor, on cats, 149. + + Bell, Sir Charles, on the head of a pig, 239. + + Bell-Rock horse, 257. + + Bentham, Jeremy, and his pet cat, 150-152; + and the mice, 205, 206. + + Berwickshire, names of places in, derived from swine, 241. + + Bess, a pet hare of the poet Cowper's, 216. + + Bisset and his trained monkeys, 25, 26; + musical cats, 152, 153; + trained hares and turtle, 221, 222; + learned pig, 250. + + Black Dwarf's cat, 157. + + Blomfield, Bishop, bitten by a dog, 88. + + Boar, wild, 239-245. + + Border, cow getting across, 309. + + Borneo, the home of the orang, 11. + + Boswell imitates the lowing of a cow, 305. + + Bradford, Earl of, on the number of legs of a sheep, 296. + + Bristol, Bishop of, comparing Cambridge freshmen to puppies, 89. + + Brock, or badger, 72. + + Brown, Dr John, "Rab" and "Our Dogs," 78. + + Browning, Mrs Elizabeth Barrett, lines on her dog Flush, 89-93. + + Browning's, Robert, description of rats, 199. + + Bull, an Irish, 304. + + Bull, Rev. Wm., Newton, and Toplady, anecdote of, 312. + + Bull-baiting at Olney, 313; + Windham on, 314. + + Bull-ring, Philip IV. in, 310. + + Bullock and Dr Adam Clarke, 305, 306. + + Burke, Edmund, question when interrupted, 149; + anecdote of his humanity, 257, 258. + + Burns' "Twa Dogs," 81, 82; + the field-mouse, 206-208. + + Bush-pig, 148. + + Bussapa, the tiger-slayer, 162-164. + + Buxton, Sir Thomas Fowell, Bart., and his dog Speaker, 93, 94. + + Byron on his dog, 79; + on Boatswain, a Newfoundland dog, 94, 95; + pets, 26, 27; + bear at Cambridge, 59. + + + "Calamity," a horse of Sydney Smith's, 272. + + Calf, a great, 304. + + Calves and kine, 304. + + Camel, Captain Wm. Peel on, 287-289. + + Campbell, Colonel, account of Bussapa and the tiger, 162-164. + + Canova's sculptured lions and the child, 171-173. + + Carnac and the she-goat, 299. + + Cats, 149-161. + + Cat's letter, by Montgomery, 156. + + Cattle of Sydney Smith, and their universal scratcher, 311. + + Chalmers, Dr, and the guinea-pig, 223, 224. + + _Cheiroptera_, the order which contains the bats, 38, 39. + + Children and horses cannot explain their complaints, 269. + + Chimpanzee, Mr Mitchell on the habits of a young one, 22-42. + + China, roasted pups eaten in, 78. + + _Chiromys Madagascariensis_, its habits, 36-38. + + _Choiropotamus Africanus_, 140. + + Choiseul, Madame de, and her pet monkey and parrot, 33, 34. + + Chunie, the elephant, 230. + + Clare's dog and Curran, 98. + + Clarke, Dr Adam, on Shetland seals, 175, 176; + his bullock Pat, 305. + + Clive's, Lord, handwriting misunderstood, 230. + + Cockburn, Lord, and the sheep at Bonaly, 298. + + Collie at Cultershaw, 82. + + Collins, Wm., R.A., and Sir David Wilkie, 3; + the rat-catcher with the ferret, 76; + his dog Prinny, 96, 97; + paints Odell's old donkey, 277. + + Collins, W. Wilkie, Sir David Wilkie's first remark on him, 3, 4. + + Constant and his cat, 153. + + Cook's sailor, who took a fox-bat for the devil, 40. + + Cooke, Major-General, 189. + + Coon, a gone, 71. + + Couthon and the spaniel, 195. + + Cowper's narrative of his pet hares, 213-219; + dog Beau and the water-lily, 79-81. + + Cows, anecdotes of, 306-311. + + Cross, Edward, of Exeter Change and Walworth, 33. + + Cruelty to horses in Ireland, 275. + + Cunningham, Major, on Ladak dog, 86. + + Curran on Lord Clare's dog, 98. + + Cuvier and the fossil, 236. + + _Cynocephali_, or African baboons, 9, 24, 25. + + + Dalhousie, Earl of, and the ferocious red-deer, 291. + + Dandie Dinmont educates his terriers, 122. + + Davis, Sir George, and the lion, 170, 171. + + Deer family, 290, 291; + their sensibility of smell, 300. + + Dessin Island, rabbits on, blind of one eye, 222. + + Dickens on sellers of bears' grease, 59, 60. + + Dog and the French murderers, 104, 105. + + Dog-cheap, 100. + + Dog-matic, 113. + + Dog-rose, 133. + + Dogs, 77-87. + + Douglas, General, and the rats, 201. + + Dragon-fly exhibited at a show, 61. + + Dresden, Battle of, General Moreau killed at, 113. + + Drew on the instinct of dogs, 98-100. + + Dromedary, Capt. Peel on its rate of motion, 289. + + Dunbar, Rev. Rowland Hill at, 261. + + Durian, an eastern fruit, 14. + + + Earl's Court, Hunter's menagerie at, 300-302. + + Eastern dogs, 84, 85. + + _Echidna aculeata_, 192. + + _Edentata_, 228. + + Edmonstone, Dr, on Shetland seals, 176-182. + + Eglintoun, Countess of, her fondness for rats, 200, 201. + + Elephant and his trunk, 232; + anecdotes of, 234-236. + + _Epomophorus_, a genus of tropical bats alluded to by the poet-laureate, 39. + + Erskine's sheep and the woolsack, 298. + + Esquimaux dogs, 78, 86. + + Ettrick Shepherd's monkey, 27, 28; + on fox-hunting, 139-141; + on whales, 316. + + + Fabricius on Arctic fox, 143. + + Ferret, 75, 76. + + Field mouse turned up by Robert Burns, 206-208. + + Findhorn fisherman and monkey, 29, 30. + + Flush, lines to her dog, by Mrs Browning, 89-93. + + Foote, Samuel, makes cows pull bell at Oxford, 306. + + Forster, Dr, on the fox-bats of the Friendly Islands, 42, 43. + + Fournier on the squirrel, 196. + + Fowler the tailor and Gainsborough the artist, 2, 3. + + Fox, Charles James, on the poll-cat, 77. + + Fox, 138. + + Fox-hunting, from the "Noctes," 139-141. + + Fox-bats, particulars of their history, 41-47. + + Frederick the Great and his Italian greyhounds, 104. + + French count at deer-stalking, 293, 294; + dogs, time of Louis XI., 110; + marquis and his monkey, 30, 31. + + Fry, Mrs, on Irish pigs, 252. + + Fuller, Thomas, on destructive fieldmice, 208, 209. + + Fuller on Norfolk rabbits, 223. + + Fuseli on Northcote's picture of Balaam and the Ass, 281. + + Future state of animals, Toplady on, 312. + + + Gainsborough and Fowler the tailor, 2, 3; + his wife and their dogs, 100, 101; + pigs, countryman on, 252; + kept an ass, 277. + + Garrick and the horse, 259. + + Gell, Sir William, his dog, 101. + + General's cow at Plymouth, 308. + + George III. at Winchester, meets Garrick, 259. + + George IV. visited at Windsor by "Happy Jerry," 32. + + Gilpin's, Bernard, horses stolen and recovered, 260. + + Gilpin's, Rev. Mr, love of the picturesque, 308. + + Gilray's caricature of Fox and Burke as dogs, 724. + + Gimcrack, the widow, her letter to Mr Bickerstaff on her husband's peculiarities, 6-8. + + Giraffe, anecdotes of, 291-295. + + _Glirine_ animals, 195, 212. + + Goats, anecdotes of, 299, 300. + + Goethe on stag-trench at Frankfort, 294; + on Roos's etchings of sheep, 296. + + Good enough for a pig, 251. + + Gordon, Duchess of, and the wolf-dog, 102, 103. + + Gorilla and its story, 9-22. + + Graham, Rev. W., on dogs in the East, 85. + + Grange, the, near Edinburgh, 30. + + Gray compares poet-laureate to a rat-catcher, 204, 205. + + Gray. Dr, gets large specimen of gorilla, 17. + + Greenland seal, 181. + + Grotta del Cane, the poor dog at, 111, 112. + + Guilford, Lord Keeper, and the rhinoceros, 230. + + Guinea pig, Dr Chalmers, 223, 224. + + Gunn, Mr, on tiger-wolf, 192, 193. + + + Haff-fish, the Shetland name for seal, 179. + + Hairs or hares, 220. + + Hall, Robert, and the dog, 106. + + Hamilton, Sir Wm., his definition of man, 1, 2. + + Hanover rats, 202, 203. + + Happy Jerry, the rib-nosed mandrill, 31, 32. + + Hardwicke's lady, sow, 253. + + Hares, Mrs Browning on Cowper's, 212; + petted by Cowper the poet, 213-219. + + Hastings and the refractory donkey, 279. + + Heard, the herald, on the horse of George III., 261 + + Hedgehogs, 48. + + Hill, Rev. Rowland, prayed for his horse, 261, 262. + + Holcroft on race-horses, 263-265. + + Hood's dog Dash, 110. + + Hook and the litter of pigs, 253. + + Hooker's sea-bear in Regent's Park, 175. + + Hospital for old cows and horses, 309. + + Horse, 256; + that carried stones to build Bell-Rock lighthouse, 257. + + Horse exercises, a saying of Rowland Hill's, 263. + + Horsemanship of Johnson the Irishman, 257, 258. + + Horsfield, Dr, on the Javanese fox-bat, 45, 46. + + Hunter, John, and the dead tiger, 165; + his menagerie at Earl's Court, 300, 302. + + Hunters of Polmood, dog that belonged to, 107. + + + Impey, Warren Hastings, and the ass, 279, 280. + + India shawls, 301. + + Inglefield, Capt., on the affection of a Polar bear and her two cubs, 65. + + Irish clergyman and the dogs, 108. + + Irishman on rat-shooting, 203. + + Irving, Washington, and the dog, 108, 109. + + Ivory dust, 233. + + + Jackal, 148, 149. + + Jeffrey on a donkey; Sydney Smith's lines on 281, 282. + + Jekyll treading on a small pig, 251; + on a squirrel, 195. + + Jerrold, Douglas, and his dog, 109. + + + Kangaroo Cooke, 189. + + Kangaroos, Charles Lamb on, 188, 189. + + Keppel, Commodore, and the Dey of Algiers, 303. + + King James, on a cow getting over the Border, 309. + + + Laird of Balnamoon and the brock, 75. + + Lamb, Charles, and the dog, 110; + on Kangaroos, 188, 189; + on the hare, 212. + + Landseer's "Monkeyana," 10; + stags, 293. + + Lap-dogs before the House of Commons, 124. + + Lauder, Sir Thomas Dick, adventures of a monkey in Morayshire, 29, 30. + + Laurillard, Cuvier's assistant, 237. + + Lawyer's horse, 268. + + Lemming, and Arctic voyager, 196; + habits of the Arctic, 197, 198. + + Leifchild, Dr, at Hoxton, 127. + + Leopard, its ferocity when wounded, 161. + + Letter from the gorilla, now in British Museum, 13-17. + + Lightfoot, name for Sir Edwin Landseer, 293. + + Lion and tiger, 166. + + Lion, hunts on Assyrian monuments, 162. + + Lions on monument of Clement XII., 171-173. + + Liston the surgeon and his cat, 153, 154. + + Livingston, Dr, on paralysing effect of lion's bite, 162. + + Luther observes a dog at Lintz, 111. + + Lyon, Capt., on Arctic fox, 144, 145. + + Lytton, Sir Edward Bulwer, on the pets of some of the Revolutionary butchers, 195, 196. + + + Macaulay, Lord, on the last days of King William III., 50-56. + + M'Clintock on Arctic fox, 144. + + M'Dougall on habits of Arctic lemming, 197. + + Macgillivray, John, on a fox-bat from Fitzroy Island, 45. + + Mackenzie, Mrs Colin, on the habits of the apes at Simla, 35, 36; + on the tiger being worshipped, 166. + + Man, Professor Owen on his position, 1; + definition of, by Linnæus, 12; + defined in the Linnæan manner, 4. + + Mandrill and George IV., 31, 32. + + Mansfield's, Lord, joke about a horse, 267. + + Marat, the citizen, and his doves, 196. + + Markham, Mr Clement, on the Polar bear, 69. + + _Marsupialia_, 188-191. + + Mastiff and the soldier, 97. + + Matthews, Henry, on the Grotta del Cane, 112. + + Mayerne, Dr, and his balsam of bats, 47. + + Metcalfe, when a boy, on camel, 290. + + Miller, Hugh, on badger-baiting in the Canongate, 72-74. + + Miscellaneous eating about a pig, 238. + + Mitchell, D. W., on the habits of a young chimpanzee, 22-24. + + Mitchell's antipathy to cats, 155. + + Model dog of the artist Collins, 96, 97. + + Mole, its habits, 49. + + Monkey revered by Hindoos, 35. + + Monkeys, 9; + liable to lung disease in British islands, 22; + Rev. Sydney Smith on, 34, 35; + poor relations, 34. + + Montagu, Duke of, and his hospital for old cows, &c., 309. + + Montgomery, James, his translation of a definition of man, 4; + and his cats, 155, 156. + + Moore, General, and his horse at Corunna, 268. + + Moore on Gilpin and Boatswain, two dogs, 95, 96. + + Moore, Dr John, sketch of a French marquis and his monkey, 30, 31. + + More, Hannah, on dog of Garrick's, 105. + + Moreau and his greyhound, 113. + + Moses, a dog of Mrs Schimmelpenninck's, 122. + + Moth larvæ eating at night, 37. + + Mounsey, anecdote of, 269. + + Mouse that amused Baron von Trenck, 209, 210. + + Mules should have their own way, 286. + + Museum of John Hunter, 164, 165. + + Musical cats, 152, 153. + + Musk rat, 200. + + _Myrmecophaga jubata_, 225-229. + + + Names given to horses, 270-274. + + Napier, Charles, and the lion in the Tower, 173. + + Natural history collectors of the days of Addison and Steele, 5, 8. + + Neill, Dr Patrick, 5. + + Nelson and the Polar bear, 67-69; + in Arctic seas, 186. + + Newfoundland dog, 126. + + N'Geena, or gorilla, 18. + + Nicol, George, the bookseller and hunter, 165. + + Norfolk, Duke of, and his spaniels, 114. + + North, Sir Dudley, visits the rhinoceros, 231. + + North, Lord, and the dog, 115. + + Northcote's Balaam and the Ass, 281. + + Norton, Hon. Mrs, address to a dog, 83. + + + Odell and his old donkey, 277. + + Old Jack, a horse that drew stones for building Waterloo Bridge, 270. + + Old lady and the beasts on the mound, 173. + + Ommaney, Capt., and the Polar bear, 70. + + Opossum, 190. + + _Ornithorhynchus_, the duck-bill, 192. + + Owen, Professor, on the gorilla, 18; + on the aye-aye, 36. + + + Parasols, how ladies used them at Cross's menagerie, 33. + + Parrot and monkey, anecdote of two pets, 33, 34. + + Parry, Capt., on flesh of Polar bear, 66. + + Paton, Sir J. Noel, has studied physiognomies of bats, &c., 38. + + Peale, Titian, on a tame fox-bat, 44. + + Peccaries of South America, 240. + + Peel, Capt. Wm., on camel, 287-289. + + _Peracyon_, 19. + + Perchance, a lap-dog, 96. + + Perthes derives hints from his dog, 115. + + Peter the Great and his dog Lisette, 161, 117. + + _Phascolomys vombatus_, 193. + + Philip IV. in bull-ring, 310. + + Phillips, Sir Richard, eats jelly of ivory dust, 233. + + _Phoca barbata_, 180; + _vitulena_, 177. + + Pied Piper of Hamelin, extract from, 199. + + Pig, monument to, 239. + + Pigs and silver spoons, 254. + + Plants liked by hares, 218. + + Polar bear, its history, 61-70. + + Poll-cat, Fox and the, 77. + + Polkemmet, Lord, a dinner on veal, 305. + + Polson and the last Scottish wolf, 135-137. + + Ponsonby and the poodle, 118. + + Porpoise in Zoological Gardens, 315. + + Pope on dogs, 95. + + Porcupine ant-eater, 192. + + Postman and carrier dog at Moffat, 113. + + Postmen, Capt. Osborn, on Arctic foxes as, 146. + + _Potamochoerus_, 240, 245. + + Prinny, a pet dog of Collins the artist, 96, 97. + + Prison mouse, 209, 210. + + _Pteropus conspicillatus_, 44; + _medius_, 45. + + Puss, a pet hare of the poet Cowper's 214, 215. + + + _Quadrumana_, 9-38. + + Queen of Charles I. and the lap-dog 107. + + Quixote Bowles fond of pigs, 251. + + + Rabbits, a family all blind of one eye, 222. + + Raccoon, 71. + + Race-horses, Holcroft's anecdotes of, 263-265. + + Ramsgate donkeys, Irishman on, 278. + + Rats and mice, 198. + + Rats' whiskers good for artists' brushes, 204. + + Ravages of rats, 203. + + Raven, pet of Wood the surgeon, 299. + + Red-deer at Taymouth, 291, 292. + + "Relais," a dog belonging to Louis XII., 111. + + Revolutionary butchers and their pets, 195, 196. + + Rhinoceros and elephant, 229. + + Richardson, Sir J., on Arctic fox, 143. + + River pig, 245. + + Rodent animals, 195, 212. + + Rodney, Lord, and his dog Loup, 119. + + Rogue elephant, skull of one, 230. + + Roos's etchings of sheep, Goethe on, 296, 297. + + Ross, Sir James, on Arctic fox, 142, 145. + + Rowan berries, dog that fetched, 128. + + Ruddiman and his dog Rascal, 119. + + + Sand liked by hares, 218. + + Schimmelpenninck, Mrs, her fondness for dogs, 121. + + Scott, Sir Walter, when a boy, saw Burns, 84; + his fondness for his dogs, 122; + on a fox, 138; + visit to the Black Dwarf, 157. + + "Scratcher" of Sydney Smith, 311. + + Scriptures, dogs mentioned in the, 84, 103, 106. + + Seals, their intelligence, 174-182. + + _Semnopithecus Entellus_, an Indian monkey, 35. + + Sergent and his spaniel, 196. + + Shaved bear at Bristol, 61. + + Shawl-goat at John Hunter's menagerie, 301. + + Sheep, anecdotes of, 295-298; + and goats, 295; + pet, of Alex. Wood the surgeon, 299. + + Shepherd dogs, 82. + + Sheridan and the dog, 109; + on the dog-tax, 123. + + Shetland seals, 174-182. + + Sidmouth, Lord, educated by the Rev. Mr Gilpin, 308. + + Skins of rabbits, 223. + + Sloth, Sydney Smith on, 224. + + Smith, Rev. Sydney, on the differences between man and monkeys, 34, 35; + his answer to Landseer, 78; + remark on a dog, 88; + his dislike of dogs, 124, 125; + on pigs, 254; + and his horses, 271-274. + + Smith and the elephant, 234. + + Sorrel, the horse of William III., 51. + + Southey and his critics, 48; + on dogs, 126; + loved cats, 158-160. + + Sow and swine, 238-255. + + Spencer, Lord, and Rev. Sydney Smith, 124, 125. + + _Spermophilus Parryi_, 197. + + Sportsmen, exaggeration of some, 221. + + Squirrel, 195. + + Stags, anecdotes of, 291-293. + + Stag-trench at Frankfort, 294. + + Stanhope, Earl, on Jacobites calling adherents of Court "Hanover rats," 202, 203; + on the poet Cowper's tastes, 220. + + Stapelia, a plant at the Cape, 25. + + Stirling Castle, "Lion's den" at, 162. + + Stokes, Capt. Lort, on the red-necked fox-bat, 43. + + Story, Judge, names he gave his horses, 274. + + Sturge and the pigs, 255. + + Surgeon, an enthusiastic fox-hunting, 138. + + Swinton, origin of name, 241. + + Sykes, Colonel, on the flesh of a fox-bat, 45. + + Syria, wild boar in, 244. + + + Tail, short-tailed and long-tailed horses, 275. + + Tailor and the elephant, 235. + + _Tamandua_, or ant-eater, 226. + + Tennyson, lines on man, and modern systems, 10; + lines describing tropical bats, 39. + + Thackeray on the Egyptian donkey, 285. + + _Thalassarctos maritimus_--the polar bear, 61-70. + + _Thylacinus Harrisii_, 191. + + Tibetan mastiff, 86, 87. + + Tiger and lion, 161. + + Tigers' claws and whiskers regarded as charms, 165. + + Tiger-wolf of Tasmania, 190-194. + + Tiney, a pet hare of Cowper's, 216. + + Toplady on future state of animals, 312. + + Tonton, Walpole's pet dog, 129, 130. + + Trained monkeys, 26. + + Trenck and the tame mouse in prison, 209. + + _Trichechus rosmarus_, 183. + + True, on dog being a good judge of eloquence, 127. + + + Ulysses and his dog, 133. + + _Ursus lotor_, why raccoon was so called, 71. + + + Veal _ad nauseam_, 304 + + Venison fat, 294. + + _Vulpes lagopus_, 142. + + + Walker, Dr David, on Polar bear, 62. + + Wallace, Alfred, on orang-utan, 11; + on great ant-eater, 227. + + Walpole, Horace, the young lady's pet monkey and her parrot, 33, 34; + pet dog Rosette, lines on, 129. + + Walrus, history of, 182-188. + + Waterton, Charles, letter from, on young gorilla, 18-20; + letter to Mrs Wombwell on her young gorilla, 21; + "Hanover rats," 202. + + Watt, James, on rats' whiskers, 204. + + Wellington's story of musk rat, 200. + + Whalebone, 315. + + Whales, 315, 317. + + Whateley, Archbishop, and his dogs, 131, 132; + on a cat that rung the bell, 160. + + Wild boar, 239-245. + + Wilkie, Sir David, and the baby, 3, 4; + and the puppy, 133. + + William III., his death, as related by Lord Macaulay, 49-56. + + Wilson, the American ornithologist, and the mouse, 211. + + Windham, Right Hon. William, on Capt. Phipps's Arctic expedition, 67, 68; + on the feelings of a baited bull, 313. + + Wolf, 135. + + Wolf-dog, Hungarian, anecdote of, 102, 103. + + Wombat, 193. + + Wood, Sandy, and his pets, 298, 299. + + Wordsworth on cruelty to horses in Ireland, 275. + + + Zebra, Lattin's joke, 287. + + Zoological Gardens, 249. + + +THE END. + + +PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY + +EDINBURGH AND LONDON + ++------------------------------------------------------------------+ +|Transcriber's note: | +| | +|"The Aye-Aye, or Cheiromys of Madagascar (_with a Plate_)" | +| | +|Unfortunately no plate could be found for this particular section.| +|Reference to it was removed from the Table of Contents. | ++------------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Heads and Tales, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEADS AND TALES *** + +***** This file should be named 25918-8.txt or 25918-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/9/1/25918/ + +Produced by Julia Miller, Janet Blenkinship and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Heads and Tales + or, Anecdotes and Stories of Quadrupeds and Other Beasts, + Chiefly Connected with Incidents in the Histories of More + or Less Distinguished Men. + +Author: Various + +Editor: Adam White + +Release Date: June 28, 2008 [EBook #25918] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEADS AND TALES *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller, Janet Blenkinship and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + + + + + + + + <h1>HEADS AND TALES;</h1> + + <h4>OR,</h4> + + <h2>ANECDOTES AND STORIES OF QUADRUPEDS<br /> + AND OTHER BEASTS,</h2> + + <h3>CHIEFLY CONNECTED WITH INCIDENTS IN THE<br /> + HISTORIES OF MORE OR LESS DISTINGUISHED MEN.</h3> + + <h4>COMPILED AND SELECTED BY</h4> + + <h2>ADAM WHITE,</h2> + <h4>LATE ASSISTANT IN THE ZOOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT, BRITISH MUSEUM.</h4> + + + + <p class="center">PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY<br /> + EDINBURGH AND LONDON<br /><br /> + + Second Edition.<br /> + + LONDON:<br /> + JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET.<br /> + MDCCCLXX.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" width="600" height="364" alt="The Tasmanian Wolf. " title="" /> +<span class="caption">The Tasmanian Wolf. <i>Thylacinus Cynocephalus.</i></span> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p>In this work, a part of which is, so far as it extends, a careful +compilation from an extensive series of books, the great order mammalia, +or, rather, a few of its subjects, is treated anecdotically. The +connexion of certain animals with man, and the readiness with which man +can subdue even the largest of the mammalia, are very curious subjects +of thought. The dog and horse are our special friends and associates; +they seem to understand us, and we get very much attached to them. The +cat or the cow, again, possess a different degree of attachment, and +have "heads and hearts" less susceptible of this education than the +first mentioned. The anecdotes in this book will clearly show facts of +this nature. In the Letter of the Gorilla, under an appearance of +exaggeration, will be found many facts of its history. We have a strong +belief that natural history, written as White of Selborne did his Letter +of Timothy the Tortoise, would be very enticing and interesting to young +people. To make birds and other animals relate their stories has been +done sometimes, and generally with success. There are anecdotes hinging, +however, on animals which have more to do with man than the other +mammals referred to in the little story. These stories we have felt to +be very interesting when they occur in biographies of great men. Cowper +and his Hares, Huygens and his Sparrow, are tales—at least the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span>former—full of interesting matter on the history of the lower animal, +but are of most value as showing the influence on the man who amused +himself by taming them. We like to know that the great Duke, after +getting down from his horse Copenhagen, which carried him through the +whole battle of Waterloo, clapped him on the neck, when the war-charger +kicked out, as if untired.</p> + +<p>We could have added greatly to this book, especially in the part of +jests, puns, or cases of <i>double entendre</i>. The few selected may +suffice. The so-called conversations of "the Ettrick Shepherd" are full +of matter of this kind, treated by "Christopher North" with a happy +combination of rare power of description and apt exaggeration of detail, +often highly amusing. One or two instances are given here, such as the +Fox-hunt and the Whale. The intention of this book is primarily to be +amusing; but it will be strange if it do not instruct as well. There is +much in it that is <i>true</i> of the habits of mammalia. These, with birds, +are likely to interest young people generally, more than anecdotes of +members of orders like fish, insects, or molluscs, lower in the scale, +though often possessing marvellous instincts, the accounts of which form +intensely interesting reading to those who are fond of seeing or hearing +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span>of "the works of the Lord," and who "take pleasure" in them.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> + + +<div class='centered'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="6" width="80%" cellspacing="0" summary="CONTENTS"> +<tr><th align="center"><big>MAMMALIA.</big><a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></th></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Man</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1'><b>1</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Gainsborough's Joke—Skull of Julius Cæsar when a boy</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_2'><b>2</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sir David Wilkie's simplicity about Babies</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_3'><b>3</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>James Montgomery translates into verse a description of Man, after the manner of Linnæus</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_4'><b>4</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Addison and Sir Richard Steele's Description of Gimcrack the Collector</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_5'><b>5</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Monkeys</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_9'><b>9</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Gorilla and its Story</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_9'><b>9</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Orang-Utan</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_11'><b>11</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Chimpanzee</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_12'><b>12</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Letter of Mr Waterton</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_20'><b>20</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Mr Mitchell and the Young Chimpanzee</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_22'><b>22</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lady Anne Barnard pleads for the Baboons</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_24'><b>24</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>S. Bisset and his Trained Monkeys</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_25'><b>25</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lord Byron's Pets</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_26'><b>26</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Ettrick Shepherd's Monkey</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_27'><b>27</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Findhorn Fisherman and the Monkey</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_29'><b>29</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"We ha'e seen the <i>Enemy</i>!"</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_29'><b>29</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The French Marquis and his Monkey</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_30'><b>30</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>George IV. and Happy Jerry.—Mr Cross's Rib-nosed Baboon at Exeter Change</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_31'><b>31</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Young Lady's pet Monkey and the poor Parrot</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_33'><b>33</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Monkeys "poor relations"</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_34'><b>34</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sydney Smith on Monkeys</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_34'><b>34</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Mrs Colin Mackenzie on the Apes at Simla</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_35'><b>35</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Aye-Aye, or Cheiromys of Madagascar</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_36'><b>36</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Bats</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_38'><b>38</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>One of Captain Cook's Sailors sees a Fox-Bat, and describes it as a devil</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_39'><b>39</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Fox Bats (<i>with a Plate</i>)</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_41'><b>41</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Dr Mayerne and his Balsam of Bats</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_47'><b>47</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Hedgehog</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_48'><b>48</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Robert Southey to his Critics</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_48'><b>48</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Mole</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_49'><b>49</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Mole, cause of Death of William III.</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_49'><b>49</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Brown Bear</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_56'><b>56</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Austrian General and the Bear—"Back, rascal, I am a general!"</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_58'><b>58</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lord Byron's Bear at Cambridge</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_59'><b>59</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Charles Dickens on Bear's Grease and Bear-keepers</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_59'><b>59</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A Bearable Pun</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_60'><b>60</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A Shaved Bear</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_61'><b>61</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Polar Bear</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_61'><b>61</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>General History and Anecdotes of Polar Bear, as observed on recent Arctic Expeditions (<i>with a Plate</i>)</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_61'><b>61</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Nelson and the Polar Bear</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_67'><b>67</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A Clever Polar Bear</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_67'><b>67</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Captain Ommaney and the Polar Bear</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_70'><b>70</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Raccoon</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_71'><b>71</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"A Gone Coon"</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_71'><b>71</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Badger</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_71'><b>71</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Hugh Miller sees the "Drawing of the Badger"</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_72'><b>72</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Laird of Balnamoon and the Brock</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_75'><b>75</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Ferret</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_75'><b>75</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Collins and the Rat-catcher, with the Ferret</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_76'><b>76</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Pole-Cat</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_76'><b>76</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Fox and the Poll-Cat</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_77'><b>77</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Dog</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_77'><b>77</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Phrases about Dogs</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_77'><b>77</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Cowper's Dog</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_79'><b>79</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Cowper and his dog Beau</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_81'><b>81</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Burns's "Twa Dogs"</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_81'><b>81</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Dog of Assyrian Monument</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_86'><b>86</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Bishop Blomfield bitten by a Dog</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_88'><b>88</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sydney Smith's Remark on it</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_88'><b>88</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Bishop of Bristol—"Puppies never see till they are nine days old"</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_88'><b>88</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Mrs Browning, the Poetess, and her dog Flush</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_89'><b>89</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart., and his dog Speaker</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_93'><b>93</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lord Byron and his dog Boatswain</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_94'><b>94</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lady's reason for calling her dog Perchance</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_96'><b>96</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Collins the Artist and his dog Prinny—the faithful Model</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_96'><b>96</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Soldier and Dog</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_97'><b>97</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Bark and Bite!—Curran on Lord Clare and his Dog</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_98'><b>98</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Mrs Drew and the two Dogs</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_98'><b>98</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Gainsborough and his Wife and their Dogs</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_100'><b>100</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sir William Gell's Dog, which was said to speak</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_101'><b>101</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Duke of Gordon's Wolf-hounds</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_102'><b>102</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Frederick the Great and his Italian Greyhounds</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_104'><b>104</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Dog and the French Murderers</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_104'><b>104</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Hannah More on Garrick's Dog</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_105'><b>105</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Rev. Robert Hall and the Dog</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_106'><b>106</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A Queen (Henrietta Maria) and her Lap-Dog</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_106'><b>106</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Clever Dog that belonged to the Hunters of Polmood</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_107'><b>107</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Irish Clergyman and the Dogs</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_108'><b>108</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Washington Irving and the Dog</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_108'><b>108</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Douglas Jerrold and his Dog</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_109'><b>109</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sheridan and the Dog</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_109'><b>109</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Charles Lamb and his dog "Dash"</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_110'><b>110</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>French Dogs of Louis XII.</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_110'><b>110</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Martin Luther observes a Dog at Lintz</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_111'><b>111</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Poor Dog at the Grotta del Cane</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_111'><b>111</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Dog a Postman and Carrier</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_113'><b>113</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>South and Sherlock—Dog-matic</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_113'><b>113</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>General Moreau and his Greyhound</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_113'><b>113</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Duke of Norfolk and his Spaniels</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_114'><b>114</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lord North and the Dog</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_115'><b>115</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Perthes derives Hints from his Dog</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_115'><b>115</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Peter the Great and his dog Lisette</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_116'><b>116</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Light Company's Poodle and Sir F. Ponsonby</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_118'><b>118</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Admiral Rodney and his dog Loup</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_119'><b>119</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Ruddiman and his dog Rascal</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_119'><b>119</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Mrs Schimmelpenninck and the Dogs</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_120'><b>120</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sir Walter Scott and his Dogs</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_122'><b>122</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sheridan on the Dog-Tax</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_123'><b>123</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sydney Smith dislikes Dogs.—An ingenious way of getting rid of them</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_124'><b>124</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sydney Smith on Dogs</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_125'><b>125</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sydney Smith.—"Newfoundland Dog that breakfasted on Parish Boys"</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_126'><b>126</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Robert Southey on his Dogs</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_126'><b>126</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A Dog that was a good judge of Elocution.—Mr True and his Pupil</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_127'><b>127</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Dog that tried to please a Crying Child</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_128'><b>128</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Horace Walpole's pet dog Rosette</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_128'><b>128</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Horace Walpole.—Arrival of his dog Tonton</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_129'><b>129</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Horace Walpole.—Death of his dog Tonton</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_130'><b>130</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Archbishop Whateley and his Dogs</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_131'><b>131</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Archbishop Whately on Dogs</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_132'><b>132</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sir David Wilkie.—A Dog Rose</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_133'><b>133</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Ulysses and his Dog</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_133'><b>133</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Wolf</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_135'><b>135</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Polson and the Last Wolf in Sutherlandshire</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_135'><b>135</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"If the tail break, you'll find that"</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_137'><b>137</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Fox</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_138'><b>138</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>An Enthusiastic Fox-hunting Surgeon</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_138'><b>138</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, on the Pleasures of Fox-hunting, and the gratification of the Fox</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_139'><b>139</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Arctic Foxes converted into Postmen, with Anecdotes (<i>with a plate</i>)</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_142'><b>142</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Jackal</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_148'><b>148</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Burke on the Jackal and Tiger</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_149'><b>149</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Cat</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_149'><b>149</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Jeremy Bentham and his pet cat "Sir John Langborn</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_150'><b>150</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>S. Bisset and his Musical Cats</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_152'><b>152</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Constant, Chateaubriand, and their Cats</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_153'><b>153</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Liston, the Surgeon, and his Cat</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_153'><b>153</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Banker Mitchell's Antipathy to Kittens</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_154'><b>154</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>James Montgomery and his Cats</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_155'><b>155</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>David Ritchie's Cat</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_157'><b>157</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sir Walter Scott's Visit to the Black Dwarf</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_157'><b>157</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Southey, the Poet, and his Cats</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_158'><b>158</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Archbishop Whateley and the Cat that used to ring the Bell</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_160'><b>160</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Tiger and Lion</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_161'><b>161</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Bussapa, the Tiger-slayer, and the Tiger</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_162'><b>162</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>John Hunter and the Dead Tiger</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_164'><b>164</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Mrs Mackenzie on the Indian's regard and awe for the Tiger</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_165'><b>165</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Jolly Jack-tar on Lion and Tiger</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_166'><b>166</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Androcles and the Lion</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_167'><b>167</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sir George Davis and the Lion</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_170'><b>170</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Canova's Lions and the Child</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_171'><b>171</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Admiral Napier and the Lion in the Tower</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_173'><b>173</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Old Lady and the Beasts on the Mound</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_173'><b>173</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Seals</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_174'><b>174</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Dr Adam Clarke on Shetland Seals</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_175'><b>175</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Dr Edmonstone and the Shetland Seals</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_176'><b>176</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Walrus or Morse (<i>with a Plate</i>)</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_182'><b>182</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Kangaroo</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_188'><b>188</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Charles Lamb on its Peculiarities</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_188'><b>188</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Captain Cooke's Sailor and the first Kangaroo seen</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_189'><b>189</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Charles Lamb on Kangaroos having Purses in front</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_189'><b>189</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Kangaroo Cooke</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_189'><b>189</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Tiger Wolf</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_190'><b>190</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Squirrel</span>, &c.</th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_194'><b>194</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Jekyll on a Squirrel</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_195'><b>195</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Pets of some of the Parisian Revolutionary Butchers</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_195'><b>195</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sir George Back and the poor Lemming</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_196'><b>196</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>M<sup>c</sup>Dougall and Arctic Lemming</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_197'><b>197</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Rats and Mice</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_198'><b>198</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Duke of Wellington and Musk-Rat</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_200'><b>200</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lady Eglinton and the Rats</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_200'><b>200</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>General Douglas and the Rats</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_201'><b>201</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Hanover Rats</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_202'><b>202</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Irishman Shooting Rats</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_203'><b>203</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>James Watt and the Rat's Whiskers</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_204'><b>204</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Gray the Poet compares Poet-Laureate to Rat-catcher</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_204'><b>204</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Jeremy Bentham and the Mice</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_205'><b>205</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Robert Burns and the Field Mouse</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_206'><b>206</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Fuller on Destructive Field Mice</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_208'><b>208</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Baron Von Trenck and the Mouse in Prison</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_209'><b>209</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Alexander Wilson, the American Ornithologist, and the Mouse</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_211'><b>211</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Hares, Rabbits, Guinea-Pig</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_212'><b>212</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>William Cowper on his Hares</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_213'><b>213</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lord Norbury on the Exaggeration of a Hare-Shooter</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_220'><b>220</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Duke of L. prefers Friends to Hares</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_221'><b>221</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>S. Bisset and his Trained Hare and Turtle</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_221'><b>221</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lady Anne Barnard on a Family of Rabbits all blind of one eye</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_222'><b>222</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Thomas Fuller on Norfolk Rabbits</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_222'><b>222</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Dr Chalmers and the Guinea-Pig</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_223'><b>223</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Sloth</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_224'><b>224</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sydney Smith on the Sloth—a Comparison</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_224'><b>224</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">The Great Ant-Eater</span> (<i>with a Plate</i>)</th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_225'><b>225</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Elephant</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_229'><b>229</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lord Clive—Elephant or Equivalent?</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_230'><b>230</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Canning on the Elephant and his Trunk</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_232'><b>232</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sir R. Phillips and Jelly made of Ivory Dust</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_233'><b>233</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>J. T. Smith and the Elephant</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_234'><b>234</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sydney Smith on the Elephant and Tailor</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_235'><b>235</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Elephant's Skin—a teacher put down</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_236'><b>236</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Fossil Pachydermata</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_236'><b>236</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Cuvier's Enthusiasm over Fossils</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_236'><b>236</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Sow</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_238'><b>238</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"There's a hantle o' miscellaneous eatin' aboot a Pig"</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_238'><b>238</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"Pig-Sticking at Chicago"</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_238'><b>238</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Monument to a Pig at Luneberg</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_239'><b>239</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Wild Boar</span> (<i>with a Plate</i>)</th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_239'><b>239</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">The River Pig</span> (<i>with a Plate</i>)</th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_245'><b>245</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>S. Bisset and his Learned Pig</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_250'><b>250</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Quixote Bowles fond of Pigs</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_251'><b>251</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>On Jekyll's treading on a small Pig</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_251'><b>251</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Good enough for a Pig</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_251'><b>251</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Gainsborough's Pigs</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_252'><b>252</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Theodore Hook and the Litter of Pigs</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_253'><b>253</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lady Hardwicke's Pig—her Bailiff</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_253'><b>253</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Pigs and Silver Spoon</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_253'><b>253</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sydney Smith on Beautiful Pigs</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_254'><b>254</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Joseph Sturge, when a boy, and the Pigs</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_255'><b>255</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Rhinoceros</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_229'><b>229</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Lord Keeper Guildford and the Rhinoceros in the</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>City of London</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_230'><b>230</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Horse</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_256'><b>256</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Horse shot under Albert</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_256'><b>256</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Bell-Rock Lighthouse Horse</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_257'><b>257</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Edmund Burke and the Horse</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_257'><b>257</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>David Garrick and his Horse, "A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!"</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_258'><b>258</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Bernard Gilpin's Horses stolen and recovered</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_260'><b>260</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Herald and George III.'s Horse</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_261'><b>261</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Rev. Rowland Hill and his Horse</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_261'><b>261</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Holcroft on the Horse</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_263'><b>263</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lord Mansfield, his Joke about a Horse</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_267'><b>267</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sir John Moore and his Horse at Corunna</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_268'><b>268</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Neither Horses nor Children can explain their Complaints</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_269'><b>269</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Horses with Names</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_270'><b>270</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Rennie the Engineer and the Horse Old Jack</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_270'><b>270</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sydney Smith and his Horses</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_271'><b>271</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sydney Smith.—He drugs his Domestic Animals</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_273'><b>273</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Horseback, an Absent Clergyman</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_273'><b>273</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Judge Story and the Names he gave his Horses</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_274'><b>274</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Short-tailed and Long-tailed Horses at Livery, difference of Charge</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_275'><b>275</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Ass and Zebra</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_276'><b>276</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Coleridge on the Ass</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_276'><b>276</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Collins and the old Donkey at Odell</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_276'><b>276</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Gainsborough kept one to Study from</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_277'><b>277</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Irishman on the Ramsgate Donkeys</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_278'><b>278</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Douglas Jerrold and the Ass's Foal</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_278'><b>278</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Judge and the Barrister</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_279'><b>279</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Ass that loved Poetry</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_279'><b>279</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Warren Hastings and the refractory Donkey</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_279'><b>279</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Northcote, an Angel at an Ass</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_281'><b>281</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sydney Smith's Donkey with Jeffrey on his back</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_281'><b>281</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sydney Smith on the Sagacity of the Ass</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_283'><b>283</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sydney Smith's Deers, how he introduced them into his Grounds to gratify Visitors</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_284'><b>284</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Asses' Duty Free</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_284'><b>284</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Thackeray on Egyptian Donkey</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_285'><b>285</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Zebra, a Frenchman's <i>double-entendre</i></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_287'><b>287</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Camels</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_287'><b>287</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Captain William Peel, R.N., on Camel</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_287'><b>287</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Captain in Royal Navy measures the progress of the Ship of the Desert</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_289'><b>289</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lord Metcalfe on a Camel when a Boy</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_290'><b>290</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Red Deer</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_291'><b>291</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Earl of Dalhousie and the ferocious Stag</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_291'><b>291</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The French Count and the Stag</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_293'><b>293</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Fallow Deer</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_294'><b>294</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Venison Fat, Reynolds and the Gourmand</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_294'><b>294</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Goethe on Stag-trench at Frankfort-on-Maine</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_294'><b>294</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Giraffe</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_295'><b>295</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"Fancy Two Yards of Sore Throat!"</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_295'><b>295</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Sheep and Goat</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_295'><b>295</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>How many Legs has a Sheep?</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_296'><b>296</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Goethe on Roos's Etchings of Sheep</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_296'><b>296</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lord Cockburn and the Sheep</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_298'><b>298</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Erskine's Sheep—an Eye to the Woolsack</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_298'><b>298</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sandy Wood and his Pet Sheep and Raven</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_298'><b>298</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>General Carnac and She-goat</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_299'><b>299</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>John Hunter and the Shawl-goat</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_300'><b>300</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Commodore Keppel <i>beards</i> the Dey of Algiers</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_303'><b>303</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Ox</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_304'><b>304</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Irish Bulls</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_304'><b>304</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A great Calf! "The more he sucked the greater Calf he grew!"</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_304'><b>304</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Veal <i>ad nauseam!</i> too much of a good thing</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_304'><b>304</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>James Boswell should confine himself to the Cow</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_305'><b>305</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Rev. Adam Clarke and his Bullock Pat</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_305'><b>305</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Samuel Foote and the Cows pulling the Bell of Worcester College</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_306'><b>306</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The General's Cow at Plymouth</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_308'><b>308</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Gilpin's Love of the Picturesque carried out—a reason for keeping three Cows</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_308'><b>308</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>King James on a Cow getting over the Border</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_309'><b>309</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Duke of Montague and his Hospital for Old Cows and Horses</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_309'><b>309</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Philip IV. of Spain in the Bull-ring</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_310'><b>310</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sydney Smith and his "Universal Scratcher"</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_311'><b>311</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Rev. Augustus Toplady on the Future State of Animals—the Rev. William Bull</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_312'><b>312</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Windham on the Feelings of a Baited Bull</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_313'><b>313</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><th align='center'><span class="smcap">Whale</span></th><td align='right'><a href='#Page_315'><b>315</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A Porpoise not at Home</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_315'><b>315</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Whalebone</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_315'><b>315</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"What's to become o' the puir Whales?"</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_316'><b>316</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Very like a Whale!</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_316'><b>316</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Christopher North on the Whale</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_316'><b>316</b></a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><br /><br /><a name="HEADS_AND_TALES" id="HEADS_AND_TALES"></a>HEADS AND TALES.<br /><br /></h2> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MAN" id="MAN"></a>MAN.</h2> + + +<p>In this collection, like Linnæus, we begin with man as undoubtedly an +animal, as opposed to a vegetable or mineral. Like Professor Owen, we +are inclined to fancy he is well entitled to separate rank from even the +Linnæan order, <i>Primates</i>, and to have more systematic honour conferred +on him than what Cuvier allowed him. That great French naturalist placed +man in a section separate from his four-handed order, <i>Quadrumana</i>, and, +from his two hands and some other qualities, enrolled our race in an +order, <i>Bimana</i>. Surely the ancients surpassed many modern naturalists +of the Lamarckian school, who would derive him from an ourang, a +chimpanzee, or a gorilla. One of them has nobly said—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Os homini sublime dedit, cœlumque tueri."</p></div> + +<p>Our own Sir William Hamilton, in a few powerful words has condensed what +will ever be, we are thankful to suppose, the general idea of most men, +be they naturalists or not, that mind and soul have much to distinguish +us from every other animal:—</p> + +<p>"What man holds of matter does not make up his per<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>sonality. Man is not +an organism. He is an intelligence served by organs. <i>They are</i> <span class="smcap">his</span>, +<i>not</i> <span class="smcap">he</span>."</p> + +<p>As a mere specimen, we subjoin two or three anecdotes, although the +species, <i>Homo sapiens</i>, has supplied, and might supply, many volumes of +anecdotes touching on his whims and peculiarities. As a good example of +the Scottish variety, who is there that does not know Dean Ramsay's +"Reminiscences?" Surely each nation requires a similar judicious +selection. Mr Punch, especially when aided by his late admirable artist, +John Leech, shows seemingly that John Bull and his family are as +distinct from the French, as the French are from the Yankees.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Thomas Gainsborough the Artist, and the Tailor.</span></h4> + +<p>Gainsborough, the painter, was very ready-witted. His biographer<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> +records the following anecdote of him as very likely to be authentic. +The great artist occasionally made sketches from an honest old tailor, +of the name of Fowler, who had a picturesque countenance and silver-gray +locks. On the chimney-piece of his painting-room, among other +curiosities, was a beautiful preparation of an infant <i>cranium</i>, +presented to the painter by his old friend, Surgeon Cruickshanks. +Fowler, without moving his position, continually peered at it askance +with inquisitive eye. "Ah! Master Fowler," said the painter, "that is a +mighty curiosity." "What might it be, sir, if I may be so bold?" "A +<i>whale's eye</i>," replied Gainsborough. "Oh! not so; never say so,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> Muster +Gainsborough. Laws! sir, it is a little child's skull!" "You have hit +upon it," said the wag. "Why, Fowler, you are a witch! But what will you +think when I tell you that it is the skull of <i>Julius Cæsar</i> when he was +a little boy?" "Do you say so!" exclaimed Fowler, "what a phenomenon!"</p> + +<p>This reminds us of a similar story told of a countryman, who was shown +the so-called skull of Oliver Cromwell at the museum in Oxford, and +expressed his delight by saying how gratifying it was to see skulls of +great men at different ages, for he had just seen at Bath the skull of +the Protector when a youth!</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Sir David Wilkie and the Baby.</span></h4> + +<p>A very popular novelist and author of the present day tells the +following anecdote of the simplicity of Sir David Wilkie, with regard to +his knowledge of <i>infant</i> human nature:—</p> + +<p>On the birth of his first son, at the beginning of 1824, William +Collins,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> the great artist, requested Sir David Wilkie to become one +of the sponsors for his child.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> The painter's first criticism on his +future godson is worth recording from its simplicity. Sir David, whose +studies of human nature extended to everything but <i>infant</i> human +nature, had evidently been refreshing his faculties for the occasion, by +taxing his boyish recollections of puppies and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> kittens; for, after +looking intently into the child's eyes as it was held up for his +inspection, he exclaimed to the father, with serious astonishment and +satisfaction, "He <i>sees</i>!"</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Man Defined Somewhat in the Linnæan Manner.</span></h4> + +<p>One who is partial to the Linnæan mode of characterising objects of +natural history has amused himself with drawing up the following +definition of man:—"<i>Simia sine cauda; pedibus posticis ambulans; +gregarius, omnivorus, inquietus, mendax, furax, rapax, salax, pugnax, +artium variarum capax, animalium reliquorum hostis, sui ipsius inimicus +acerrimus.</i>"</p> + +<p>Montgomery translated the description thus:—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"Man is an animal unfledged,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">A monkey with his tail abridged;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">A thing that walks on spindle legs,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">With bones as brittle, sir, as eggs;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">His body, flexible and limber,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And headed with a knob of timber;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">A being frantic and unquiet,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And very fond of beef and riot;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Rapacious, lustful, rough, and martial,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">To lies and lying scoundrels partial!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">By nature form'd with splendid parts</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">To rise in science—shine in arts;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Yet so confounded cross and vicious,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">A mortal foe to all his species!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">His own best <i>friend</i>, and you must know,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">His own worst <i>enemy</i> by being so!"<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Addison and Steele on some of the Peculiarities of the Natural History +Collectors of the day.</span></h4> + +<p>In one of the early volumes of <i>Chambers's Edinburgh Journal</i>, there was +a very curious paper entitled "Nat Phin." Although considerably +exaggerated, no one who had the happiness of knowing the learned, +amiable, and excellent Dr Patrick Neill, could fail to recognise, in the +transposed title, an amusing description of his love of natural history +pets, zoological and botanical. The fun of the paper is that "Nat" gets +married, and, coming home one day from his office, finds that his young +wife has caused the gardener to clear out his ponds of tadpoles and +zoophytes.</p> + +<p>Addison or Sir Richard Steele, or both of them, in the following paper +of the <i>Tatler</i> (No. 221, Sept. 7, 1710), has given one of those quietly +satiric pictures of many a well-known man of the day, some Petiver or +Hans Sloane. The widow Gimcrack's letter is peculiarly racy. Although +old books, the <i>Tatler</i> and <i>Spectator</i> still furnish rare material to +many a popular magazine writer of the day, who sometimes does little +more than dilute a paper in these and other rare repertories of the +style and wit of a golden age. We meditated offering various extracts +from Swift and Daniel Defoe; but our space limits us to one, and the +following may for the present suffice.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"<i>From my own Apartment, September 6.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"As I was this morning going out of my house, a little boy in a black +coat delivered me the following letter. Upon asking who he was, he told +me that he belonged to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> my Lady Gimcrack. I did not at first recollect +the name, but, upon inquiry, I found it to be the widow of Sir Nicholas, +whose legacy I lately gave some account of to the world. The letter ran +thus:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"'<span class="smcap">Mr Bickerstaff</span>,—I hope you will not be surprised to receive a letter +from the widow Gimcrack. You know, sir, that I have lately lost a very +whimsical husband, who, I find, by one of your last week's papers, was +not altogether a stranger to you. When I married this gentleman, he had +a very handsome estate; but, upon buying a set of microscopes, he was +chosen a <i>Fellow of the Royal Society; from which time I do not remember +ever to have heard him speak as other people did</i>, or talk in a manner +that any of his family could understand him. He used, however, to pass +away his time very innocently in conversation with several members of +that learned body: for which reason I never advised him against their +company for several years, until at last I found his brain quite turned +with their discourses. The first symptoms which he discovered of his +being a <i>virtuoso</i>, as you call him, poor man! was about fifteen years +ago; when he gave me positive orders to turn off an old weeding woman, +that had been employed in the family for some years. He told me, at the +same time, that there was no such thing in nature as a weed, and that it +was his design to let his garden produce what it pleased; so that, you +may be sure, it makes a very pleasant show as it now lies. About the +same time he took a humour to ramble up and down the country, and would +often bring home with him his pockets full of moss and pebbles. This, +you may be sure, gave me a heavy heart; though, at the same time, I must +needs say, he had the character of a very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> honest man, notwithstanding +he was reckoned a little weak, until he began to sell his estate, and +buy those strange baubles that you have taken notice of. Upon +midsummerday last, as he was walking with me in the fields, he saw a +very odd-coloured butterfly just before us. I observed that he +immediately changed colour, like a man that is surprised with a piece of +good luck; and telling me that it was what he had looked for above these +twelve years, he threw off his coat, and followed it. I lost sight of +them both in less than a quarter of an hour; but my husband continued +the chase over hedge and ditch until about sunset; at which time, as I +was afterwards told, he caught the butterfly as she rested herself upon +a cabbage, near five miles from the place where he first put her up. He +was here lifted from the ground by some passengers in a very fainting +condition, and brought home to me about midnight. His violent exercise +threw him into a fever, which grew upon him by degrees, and at last +carried him off. In one of the intervals of his distemper he called to +me, and, after having excused himself for running out his estate, he +told me that he had always been more industrious to improve his mind +than his fortune, and that his family must rather value themselves upon +his memory as he was a wise man than a rich one. He then told me that it +was a custom among the Romans for a man to give his slaves their liberty +when he lay upon his death-bed. I could not imagine what this meant, +until, after having a little composed himself, he ordered me to bring +him a flea which he had kept for several months in a chain, with a +design, as he said, to give it its manumission. This was done +accordingly. He then made the will, which I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> since seen printed in +your works word for word. Only I must take notice that you have omitted +the codicil, in which he left a large <i>concha veneris</i>, as it is there +called, to a <i>Member of the Royal Society</i>, who was often with him in +his sickness, and <i>assisted him in his will</i>. And now, sir, I come to +the chief business of my letter, which is to desire your friendship and +assistance in the disposal of those many rarities and curiosities which +lie upon my hands. If you know any one that has an occasion for a parcel +of dried spiders, I will sell them a pennyworth. I could likewise let +any one have a bargain of cockle-shells. I would also desire your advice +whether I had best sell my beetles in a lump or by retail. The gentleman +above mentioned, who was my husband's friend, would have me make an +auction of all his goods, and is now drawing up a catalogue of every +particular for that purpose, with the two following words in great +letters over the head of them, Auctio Gimcrackiana. But, upon talking +with him, I begin to suspect he is as mad as poor Sir Nicholas was. Your +advice in all these particulars will be a great piece of charity to, +Sir, your most humble servant,</p> + +<p class="author"> +"'<span class="smcap">Elizabeth Gimcrack.</span>' +</p></div> + +<p>"I shall answer the foregoing letter, and give the widow my best advice, +as soon as I can find out chapmen for the wares which she has to put +off."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MONKEYS" id="MONKEYS"></a>MONKEYS.</h2> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Gorilla and its Story.</span></h4> + + +<p>In the British Museum, in handsome glass cases, and on the floors of the +three first rooms at the top of the stairs, may be seen the largest +collection of the skins and skeletons of quadrupeds ever brought +together. In the third, or principal room, will be found a nearly +complete series of the <span class="smcap">Quadrumana</span> or four-handed Mammalia. Monkeys are +<i>quadrumanous mammalia</i>. The resemblance of these animals to men is most +conspicuous, in the largest of them, such as the gorilla, orang-utan, +chimpanzee, and the long-armed or gibbous apes. Such resemblance is most +distant in the ferocious dog-faced baboons of Africa, the <i>Cynocephali</i> +of the ancients. It is softened off, but not effaced, in the pretty +little countenances of those dwarf pets from South America, the +ouistities or marmosets, and other species of new-world monkeys, some of +which are not larger than a squirrel.</p> + +<p>They are well called <span class="smcap">Monkeys</span>, Monnikies, Mannikies—little men, "<i>Simiæ +quasi bestiæ hominibus similes</i>," "monkeys, as if beasts resembling +man," or "mon," as the word man is pronounced in pure <i>Doric</i> Saxon, +whether in York or Peebles.</p> + +<p>"Monkey! you very degraded little brute, how much you resemble us!" said +old Ennius, without ever fancying that the day would come when some men +would regard their own race as little better than highly-advanced +monkeys.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p> + +<p>Let us never for a moment rest in such fallacious theories, or accept +the belief of Darwin and Huxley, with a few active agitating disciples, +that animals, and even plants, may pass into each other.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"I think we are not wholly brain,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Magnetic mockeries; ...</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Not only cunning casts in clay;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Let science prove we are, and then</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">What matters science unto men,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">At least to me! I would not stay:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Let him, the wiser man who springs</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hereafter, up from childhood shape</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">His action, like the greater ape,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">But I was born to other things."</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">—<i>In Memoriam</i>, cxix.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Darwin and Huxley cannot change nature. They may change their minds and +opinions, as their fathers did before them. It is, we suspect, only the +old heathen materialism cropping out,—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"Our little systems have their day—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">They have their day and cease to be.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">They are but broken lights of Thee,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And Thou, O Lord! art more than they."</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">—<i>In Memoriam.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>No artists or authors have ever pictured or described monkeys like Sir +Edwin Landseer and his brother Thomas. Surely a new edition of the +<i>Monkeyana</i> is wanted for the rising generation. Oliver Goldsmith, that +great writer, who was most feeble in knowledge of natural history from +almost total ignorance of the subject, over which he threw the graces of +his charming style, noticed, as remarkable, that in countries "where the +men are barbarous and stupid, the brutes are the most active and +sagacious." He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> continues, that it is in the torrid tracts, inhabited by +barbarians, that animals are found with instinct so nearly approaching +reason. Both in Africa and America, accordingly, he tells us, "the +savages suppose monkeys to be men; idle, slothful, rational beings, +capable of speech and conversation, but obstinately dumb, for fear of +being compelled to labour."</p> + +<p>For the present, I shall suppose that the gorilla, largest of all the +apes, can not only speak, but write; and is speaking and writing to an +orang-utan of Borneo. Even a Lamarckian will allow this to be within the +range of possibility. Were it possible to get Gay or Cowper to write a +new set of fables, animals, in the days of postoffices and letters, +would become, like the age, epistolary. But a word on the imaginary +correspondent.</p> + +<p>The orang, as the reader knows, is the great red-haired "Man of the +Woods," as the name may be rendered in English. My old friend, Mr Alfred +Wallace, lately in New Guinea, and the adjoining parts, collecting +natural history subjects, and making all kinds of valuable observations +and surveys, sent to Europe most of the magnificent specimens of this +"ugly beast" now in the museum. He has detailed its habits and history +in an able account, published some years ago in "The Annals and Magazine +of Natural History."</p> + +<p>Its home seems to be the fine forests which cover many parts of the +coast of Borneo. The home of the gorilla and chimpanzee are in the +tropical forests of the coasts of Western Africa.</p> + +<p>There would seem to be but three or four well established <i>species</i> of +these apes, though there are, as in man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> and most created beings, some +marked or decided varieties. These apes are altogether <i>quadrupeds</i>, +adapted for a life among trees. The late Charles Waterton, of Walton +Hall, whom I deem it an honour to have known for many years, personally +and in his writings, has well shown this in his "Essays on Natural +History." Professor Owen, with his osteologies, and old Tyson, with his +anatomies, have each demonstrated that—draw what inferences the +followers of Mr Darwin may choose—monkeys are not men, but quadrupeds.</p> + +<p>The structure of chimpanzee, orang, and gorilla considerably resembles +that of man, but so more distantly does a frog's, so does Scheuchzer's +fossil amphibian in the museum, so does a squirrel's, so does a +parrot's. Yet, because parrots, squirrels, frogs, and asses have skulls, +a pelvis, and fore-arms, they are <i>not</i> men any more than fish are. +Linnæus has given the <i>real</i> specific, the <i>real</i> class, order, and +generic character of man, unique as a species, as a genus, as an order, +or as a class, as even the greatest comparative anatomist of England +regards him; "Nosce teipsum:" "Γνωθι σεαυτον"—KNOW THYSELF. +Man alone expects a hereafter. He is immortal, and anticipates, hopes +for, or dreads a resurrection. Melancholy it is that he alone, as an +American writer curiously remarks, collects bodies of men of <i>one</i> blood +to fight with each other. He alone can become a <i>drunkard</i>.</p> + +<p>The reader must leave rhapsody, and may now be reminded, in explanation +of allusions in the following letter, that the arm of Dr Livingstone, +the African traveller, was crushed and crunched by the bite and "chaw" +of a lion. He will also please to notice, that the skeleton of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +gorilla in the museum has the left arm broken by some dreadful accident. +This injury may <i>possibly</i> have been caused by a fall when young, or +more probably by the empoisoned bite of a larger gorilla, or of a +tree-climbing Leopard. So much may be premised before giving a letter, +supposed to be intercepted on its way between the Gaboon and London, and +London and Borneo, opened at St Martin's-le-Grand, and detained as +unpaid.</p> + +<p>"I was born in a large baobab tree, on the west coast of Africa, not +very far from Calabar. We gorillas are good time-keepers, rise early and +go to bed early, guided infallibly by the sun. But though our family has +been in existence at least six thousand years, we have no chronology, +and care not a straw about our grandfathers. I suppose I had a +grandmother, but I never took <i>any</i> interest in any but very close +relationships.</p> + +<p>"We never toiled for our daily food, and are not idle like these lazy +black fellows who hold their palavers near us, and whom I, for my part, +heartily despise. They cannot climb a tree, as we do, although they can +talk to each other, and make one another slaves. At least they so treat +their countrymen far off where the fine sweet plantains grow, and some +other juicy tit-bits, the memory of which makes my mouth water. These +fellows have ugly wives, not nearly so big-mouthed as ours, without our +noble bony ridge, small ears, and exalted presence. They are actually +forced to walk erect, and their fore-legs seldom touch the ground, +except in the case of piccanninies. These little creatures crawl on the +ground, are much paler when born, and are then perfectly helpless; and +have no hair except on their heads, whereas our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> beautiful young are +fine and hairy, and can swing among the branches, shortly after birth, +nearly as well as their parents. When I was very young, I could soon +help myself to fruits which abound on our trees.</p> + +<p>"Have you dates, plantains, and soursops—so sweet—at Sarawak, Master +Redhair? We have, and all kinds of them. I should like, for a variety, +to taste yours. Mind you send me some of the <i>durian</i>.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Make haste and +send it, for Wallace's description makes my mouth water.</p> + +<p>"I have told you our little ones soon learn to help themselves, whereas +I have seen the piccaninnies of the blacks nursed by their mothers till +many rainy seasons had come and gone. I really think nothing of the +talking blacks who live near us. They put on bits of coloured rags, not +nearly so bright, so regular, nor so <i>contrasting</i> as the feathers of +our birds.</p> + +<p>"Beautifully coloured are the green touraco and the purple +plantain-eater, a rascally bird! who eats some of our finest plantains, +and has bitten holes in many a one I thought to get entirely to myself. +Why, our parrots beat these West-African negroes to sticks! Even our +common gray parrot, so prettily scaled with gray, and with the red +feathers under his tail, is more natural than these blacks, with their +dirty-white, yellow, blue, green, and red rags.</p> + +<p>"Besides, that gray parrot beats them hollow both in its voice and in +the way it imitates. Do you know that when I have been giving my quick +short bark, to tell that I am not well pleased, I have heard one of +these fellows near me actually make me startle—its bark was so like to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +that of one of our kind! I cannot bear the blacks! I have had a grudge +against them since some little urchins shot at me when I was young, and +made my hand bleed. How it bled! My mother, with whom I had been, kept +out of the way of these blackguards, but I was playing with another +little gorilla, and forgot to keep a look-out. I have kept a good +look-out ever since I got <i>that</i> wound, I assure you. I licked it often, +and so did my mother with her delicious mouth. It soon left off bleeding +and healed. We gorillas have no brandy, no whisky, no wine, not even +small beer, to inflame our blood. We sleep, too, among the trees, clear +off the ground, where there are dangerous vapours, so that we are free +from all miasmata. West Africa is my lovely home, and I am big and +beautifully pot-bellied. It is the home of the large-eared chimpanzee, a +near relative of ours, though we never marry. He is an active fellow, +with rather large vulgar-looking ears; while mine, though I ought not to +say so, are beautifully small, and denote my more exalted birth. Master +Chimpanzee needs all his ears, for he is not so strong as I, and as you +will hear, we anthropoids have enemies in our trees, just as you perhaps +have, Master Redhair. We are both cautious of getting on the ground, and +when there, I assure you I keep a sharp look-out.</p> + +<p>"I have told you of one adventure I had in my youth, and now listen to +another which I have not forgotten to this day. My left arm aches now as +I think of it.</p> + +<p>"As I was one day gambolling with another playfellow in a large tree, +with great branches standing out from the trunk, and at a good height +from the ground, my companion, another young gorilla, but with smaller +mouth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> larger nose, and other features uglier than mine, suddenly +shrieked, and looked frightened and angry. No sooner had I noticed him +than my whole frame was shaken. I was seized by two paws in the small of +my back—a very painful part to be dug into—by ten hooked claws, nearly +as long as tenpenny nails, but horribly sharp and hooked.—Oh my arm!</p> + +<p>"I tried to turn round, and there was a most ferocious leopard growling +at me. I tried to bite, and to scratch his eyes out, but the pain in the +small of my back made me quite giddy. The spotted scoundrel seized my +left arm—how it aches!—and gave me a <i>crunch</i> or two. I hear, I feel +the teeth against my bones as I write. My whole body is full of pain.</p> + +<p>"My mother came and released me. She was large, handsome, and +well-to-do, with <i>such</i> long and strong arms, and with a magnificent +bulging and pouting mouth. In those days of my infancy I used to fancy I +should like to try to take as large a bite of a plantain as she could. I +tried twice or thrice, but could only squash a tenth of the juice of the +fruit into my mouth. She had glorious white teeth. Her grin clearly +frightened the leopard, as well as a pinch she gave him in the 'scruff' +of the neck with one of her hands, while with the other she caught hold +of his tail and made him yell. How he roared! He fell off the branch on +to another; but soon, like all the cats, recovered his hold and jumped +down to the ground, when he skulked away with his tail behind him.</p> + +<p>"I must really leave off, warned both by my paper and your impatience. +Well, I grew stronger and bigger every day, and swung by one arm almost +as well as the rest did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> with their two. I got, in fact, so strong on my +hind feet, that my toes were actually in time thicker than those of any +of my race. It is well, my dear Orang, to use what you have left you, +and to try as soon as possible to forget what has been taken from you.</p> + +<p>"... Look at my portrait, I am as strong, and as bony, and as bonnie, as +any gorilla. But I begin to boast, so I will leave off."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>No doubt that gorilla's injured arm affected its habits and its activity +every day of its life. The broken arm, never set by some gorilla surgeon +of celebrity, formed a highly important feature in its biography. +Reader! when next thou visitest the noble Museum in Bloomsbury, look at +the skeleton of that gorilla, whose probable story Arachnophilus hath +tried to give thee, and remember that both skin and skeleton were +exhibited there before Du Chaillu became "a lion."</p> + +<p>The gorilla is a native of West Africa. It is closely allied to the +chimpanzee, but grows to a larger size, and has many striking anatomical +characters and external marks to distinguish it. It is certainly much +dreaded by the natives on the banks of the Gaboon, and, doubtless, +dreads them equally. Dr Gray procured a large specimen in a tub from +that district. It was skinned and set up by Mr Bartlett. I have seen +photographs in the hands of my excellent old friend—that admirable +natural history and anatomical draughtsman—Mr George Ford of Hatton +Garden. These photographs were taken from its truly ugly face as it was +pulled out of the stinking brine. Life in death, or death in life, it +was most repulsive.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + +<p>Professor Owen read a most elaborate paper on the gorilla before the +Zoological Society. The great comparative anatomist and zoologist shows +that it <i>may</i> have been the very species whose skins were brought by +Hanno to Carthage, in times before the Christian era, as the skins of +<i>hairy wild men</i>. The historian refers to them as "gorullai" (γωριλλαι.)</p> + +<p>The natives of West Africa name it "N'Geena."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The stuffed specimen at the Museum is a young male. Its preparation does +great credit to Mr Bartlett's care and knowledge, for the hair over +nearly all the body was in patches among the spirit—thoroughly +corrupted in its alcoholic strength by animal matter. The peculiarly +anthropoid and morbidly-disagreeable look that even the face of the +young gorilla had was, of course, perfect in the photograph. In the +<i>Leisure Hour</i>, a tolerably good cut of it was given, but the artist did +not copy the label accurately, for on the photograph from which that cut +was derived, <i>another name</i> was rendered by <i>that</i> sun, who pays no +compliments and tells no lies. Professor Owen, the greatest of +comparative anatomists, has made the subject of anthropoid apes his own, +by the perfection of his researches, continued and continuous. He would +have liked, at least I may venture, I believe, to say so (if the matter +gave him more than a moment's thought), that the name of Dr Gray had +been on that label.</p> + + +<p class="center"><i>Letter from C. Waterton, Esq., mentioning a young gorilla.</i></p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="smcap">Walton Hall</span>, <i>Feb</i>. 4, 1856. +</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,—As your favour of the 28th did not seem<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> to require an +immediate answer I put it aside for a while, having a multiplicity of +business then on hand, and being obliged to be from home for a couple of +days.</p> + +<p>"I beg to enclose you the letter to which you allude.</p> + +<p>"Pray do not suppose that for one single moment I should be illiberal +enough to undervalue a 'closet naturalist.' 'Non cuivis homini contingit +adire corinthum.' It does not fall to every one's lot to range through +the forests of Guiana, still, a gentleman given to natural history may +do wonders for it in his own apartments on his native soil; and had +Audubon, Swainson, Jameson, &c., not attacked me in all the pride of +pompous self-conceit, I should have been the last man in the world to +expose their gross ignorance.</p> + +<p>"You ask me 'If we are to have another volume of essays?' I beg to +answer, no. Last year, Mrs Loudon (to whom I made a present of the +essays) wrote to me, and asked for a few papers to be inserted in a +forthcoming edition. I answered, that as I had had some strange and +awful adventures since the 'Autobiography' made its appearance, I would +tack them on to it. But from that time to this, I have never had a line, +either from Mrs Loudon or from her publishers. But some months ago, +having made a present of a superb case of preserved specimens in natural +history to the Jesuits' College in Lancashire, I gave directions to my +stationer at Wakefield to procure me from London the fourth or last +edition of the essays; and I made references to it accordingly. But, lo +and behold, when I had opened this supposed fourth edition, I saw +printed on the title page 'a new edition.' Better had they printed a +<i>fifth edition</i>. This threw all my references<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> wrong. Should you be +passing by Messrs Longman, perhaps you will have the goodness to ask +when this 'new edition' was printed.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry you did not show me your drawing of the chimpanzee before it +was engraved. The artist has not done justice to it. He has made the +ears far too large.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> The little brown chimpanzee has very small ears; +fully as small in proportion as those of a genuine negro. I am half +inclined to give to the world a little treatise on the monkey tribe. I +am prepared to show that Linnæus, Buffon, and all our hosts of +naturalists who have copied the remarks of these celebrated naturalists, +are perfectly in the dark with regard to the true character of <i>all</i> the +monkey tribe. Yesterday, I sent up to the <i>Gardener's Chronicle</i> a few +notes on the woodpecker.—Believe me, dear sir, very truly yours,</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="smcap">Charles Waterton.</span> +</p> + +<p>"P.S.—Many thanks for your nice little treatise on the chimpanzee."</p> + +<p>Mr Waterton enclosed me a copy of the following letter, which he +published in a Yorkshire newspaper:—</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>To Mrs Wombwell.</i> +</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Madam</span>,—I am truly sorry that the inclemency of the weather has +prevented the inhabitants of this renowned watering-place from visiting +your wonderful gorilla, or brown orang-outang.</p> + +<p>"I have passed two hours in its company, and I have been gratified +beyond expression.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Would that all lovers of natural history could get a sight of it, as, +possibly, they may never see another of the same species in this +country.</p> + +<p>"It differs widely in one respect from all other orang-outangs which +have been exhibited in England—namely, that, when on the ground, it +never walks on the soles of its fore-feet, but on the knuckles of the +toes of those feet; and those toes are doubled up like the closed fist +of a man. This must be a painful position; and, to relieve itself, the +animal catches hold of visitors, and clings caressingly to Miss Bright, +who exhibits it. Here then, it is at rest, with the toes of the +fore-feet performing their natural functions, which they never do when +the animal is on the ground.</p> + +<p>"Hence I draw the conclusion that this singular quadruped, like the +sloth, is not a walker on the ground of its own free-will, but by +accident only.</p> + +<p>"No doubt whatever it is born, and lives, and dies aloft, amongst the +trees in the forests of Africa.</p> + +<p>"Put it on a tree, and then it will immediately have the full use of the +toes of its fore-feet. Place it on the ground, and then you will see +that the toes of the fore-feet become useless, as I have already +described.</p> + +<p>"That it may retain its health, and thus remunerate you for the large +sum which you have expended in the purchase of it, is, madam, the +sincere hope of your obedient servant and well-wisher,</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="smcap">Charles Waterton."</span> +</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Scarborough Cliff, No. 1, <i>Nov. 1, 1855</i>.</span></p> + +<p>"<i>P.S.</i>—You are quite at liberty to make what use you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> choose of this +letter. I have written it for your own benefit, and for the good of +natural history."<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Mr Mitchell on a Young Chimpanzee.</span></h4> + +<p>The writer of a most readable article on the acclimatisation of animals +in the <i>Edinburgh Review</i>,<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> gives an amusing recital of the arrival of +a chimpanzee at the Zoological Gardens. It was related to him by the +late Mr Mitchell, who was long the active secretary of the society, and +who did much to improve the Gardens. "One damp November evening, just +before dusk, there arrived a French traveller from Senegal, with a +companion closely muffled up in a burnoose at his side. On going, at his +earnest request, to speak to him at the gate, he communicated to me the +interesting fact that the stranger in the burnoose was a young chim, who +had resided in his family in Senegal for some twelve months, and who had +accompanied him to England. The animal was in perfect health; but from +the state of the atmosphere required good lodging, and more tender care +than could be found in a hotel. He proposed to sell his friend. I was +hard; did not like pulmonic property<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> at that period of the year, +having already two of the race in moderate health, but could not refrain +from an offer of hospitality during Chim's residence in London. Chim was +to go to Paris if I did not buy him. So we carried him, burnoose and +all, into the house where the lady<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> chims were, and liberated him in the +doorway. They had taken tea, and were beginning to think of their early +couch. When the Senegal Adonis caught sight of them, he assumed a jaunty +air and advanced with politeness, as if to offer them the last news from +Africa. A yell of surprise burst from each chimpanzella as they +successively recognised the unexpected arrival. One would have supposed +that all the Billingsgate of Chimpanzeedom rolled from the voluble +tongues of these unsophisticated and hitherto unimpressible young +ladies; but probably their gesticulations, their shrill exclamations, +their shrinkings, their threats, were but well-mannered expressions of +welcome to a countryman thus abruptly revealed in the foreign land of +their captivity. Sir Chim advanced undaunted, and with the composure of +a high-caste pongo; if he had had a hat he would have doffed it +incontinently, as it was, he only slid out of his burnoose and ascended +into the apartment which adjoined his countrywomen with agile grace, and +then, through the transparent separation, he took a closer view. Juliana +yelled afresh. Paquita crossed her hands, and sat silently with face +about three quarters averted. Sir Chim uttered what may have been a +tranquillising phrase, expressive of the great happiness he felt on thus +being suddenly restored to the presence of kinswomen in the moment of +his deepest bereavement. Juliana calmed. Paquita diminished her angle of +aversion, and then Sir Chim, advancing quite close to the division, +began what appeared to be a recollection of a minuet. He executed +marvellous gestures with a precision and aplomb which were quite +enchanting, and when at last he broke out into a quick movement with +loud smacking stamps, the ladies were completely carried<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> away, and gave +him all attention. Friendship was established, refreshments were served, +notwithstanding the previous tea, and everybody was apparently +satisfied, especially the stranger. Upon asking the Senegal proprietor +what the dance meant, he told me that the animal had voluntarily taken +to that imitation of his slaves, who used to dance every evening in the +courtyard."</p> + +<p>So far Mr Mitchell's narrative; the reviewer relates how a chimpanzee, +placed for a short time in the society of the children of his owner in +this country, not only throve in an extraordinary manner, was perfectly +docile and good-tempered, but learnt to imitate them. When the eldest +little boy wished to tease his playfellow, he used, childlike, to make +faces at him. Chim soon outdid him, and one of the funniest things +imaginable was to see him blown at and blowing in return; his +protrusible lips converted themselves into a trumpet-shaped instrument, +which reminded one immediately of some of the devils of Albert Dürer, or +those incredible forms which the old painters used to delight in piling +together in their temptations of Saint Anthony.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Lady Anne Barnard pleads for the Baboons.</span></h4> + +<p>Lady Anne Barnard, whose name as the writer of "Auld Robin Gray" is +familiar to every one who knows that most pathetic ballad, spent five +years with her husband at the Cape (1797-1802). Her journal letters to +her sisters are most amusing, and full of interesting observations.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> +After describing "Musquito-hunting" with her husband, she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> writes:—"In +return, I endeavoured to effect a treaty of peace for the baboons, who +are apt to come down from the mountain in little troops to pillage our +garden of the fruit with which the trees are loaded. I told him he would +be worse than Don Carlos if he refused the children of the sun and the +soil the use of what had descended from ouran-outang to ouran-outang; +but, alas! I could not succeed. He had pledged himself to the +gardener,<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> to the slaves, and all the dogs, not to baulk them of +their sport; so he shot a superb man-of-the-mountain one morning, who +was marauding, and electrified himself the same moment, so shocked was +he at the groan given by the poor creature as he limped off the ground. +I do not think I shall hear of another falling a sacrifice to Barnard's +gun; they come too near the human race" (p. 408).</p> + +<p>In another letter she says (p. 391), "The best way to get rid of them is +to catch one, whip him, and turn him loose; he skips off chattering to +his comrades, and is extremely angry, but none of them return the season +this is done. I have given orders, however, that there may be no +whipping."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">S. Bisset and his Trained Monkeys.</span></h4> + +<p>We have elsewhere referred to S. Bisset as a trainer of animals. Among +the earliest of his trials, this Scotchman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> took two monkeys as pupils. +One of these he taught to dance and tumble on the rope, whilst the other +held a candle with one paw for his companion, and with the other played +a barrel organ. These animals he also instructed to play several +fanciful tricks, such as drinking to the company, riding and tumbling +upon a horse's back, and going through several regular dances with a +dog. The horse and dog referred to, were the first animals on which this +ingenious person tried his skill. Although Bisset lived in the last +century, few persons seem to have surpassed him in his power of teaching +the lower animals. We have seen a man in Charlotte Square, in 1865, make +a new-world monkey go through a series of tricks, ringing a bell, firing +a pea-gun, and such like. Poor Jacko was to be pitied. His want of heart +in his labours was very evident. Poor fellow, no time for reflection was +allowed him. Like some of the masters in the Old High School,—such +cruelty dates back more than thirty years,—a ferule, or a pair of tawse +kept Jacko to his work. It was play to the onlookers, but no sport to +master Cebus. Had he possessed memory and reflection, how his thoughts +must have wandered from Edinburgh to the forests of the Amazon!</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Lord Byron's Pets.</span></h4> + +<p>Beside horses and dogs, the poet Byron, like his own Don Juan, had a +kind of inclination, or weakness, for what most people deem mere vermin, +<i>live animals</i>.</p> + +<p>Captain Medwin records, in one of his conversations, that the poet +remarked that it was troublesome to travel about with so much live and +dead stock as he did, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> adds—"I don't like to leave behind me any of +my pets, that have been accumulating since I came on the Continent. One +cannot trust to strangers to take care of them. You will see at the +farmer's some of my pea-fowls <i>en pension</i>. Fletcher tells me that they +are almost as bad fellow-travellers as the monkey, which I will show +you." Here he led the way to a room where he played with and caressed +the creature for some time. He afterwards bought another monkey in Pisa, +because he saw it ill-used.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>Lord Byron's travelling equipage to Pisa in the autumn of 1821, +consisted, <i>inter cætera</i>, of nine horses, a monkey, a bull-dog, and a +mastiff, two cats, three pea-fowls, and some hens.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Ettrick Shepherd's Monkey.</span></h4> + +<p class="center">(<i>From the "Noctes Ambrosianæ," Dec. 1825.</i><a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>)</p> + +<p><i>Shepherd.</i> I wish that you but saw my monkey, Mr North. He would make +you hop the twig in a guffaw. I ha'e got a pole erected for him, o' +about some 150 feet high, on a knowe ahint Mount Benger; and the way the +cretur rins up to the knob, looking ower the shouther o' him, and +twisting his tail roun' the pole for fear o' playin' thud on the grun', +is comical past a' endurance.</p> + +<p><i>North.</i> Think you, James, that he is a link?</p> + +<p><i>Shepherd.</i> A link in creation? Not he, indeed. He is merely a monkey. +Only to see him on his observatory,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> beholding the sunrise! or weeping, +like a Laker, at the beauty o' the moon and stars!</p> + +<p><i>North.</i> Is he a bit of a poet?</p> + +<p><i>Shepherd.</i> Gin he could but speak and write, there can be nae manner o' +doubt that he would be a gran' poet. Safe us! what een in the head o' +him! Wee, clear, red, fiery, watery, malignant-lookin een, fu' o' +inspiration.</p> + +<p><i>Tickler.</i> You should have him stuffed.</p> + +<p><i>Shepherd.</i> Stuffed, man! say, rather, embalmed. But he's no likely to +dee for years to come—indeed, the cretur's engaged to be married; +although he's no in the secret himsel yet. The bawns are published.</p> + +<p><i>Tickler.</i> Why really, James, marriage I think ought to be simply a +civil contract.</p> + +<p><i>Shepherd.</i> A civil contract! I wuss it was. But, oh! Mr Tickler, to see +the cretur sittin wi' a pen in 's hand, and pipe in 's mouth, jotting +down a sonnet, or odd, or lyrical ballad! Sometimes I put that black +velvet cap ye gied me on his head, and ane o' the bairns's auld +big-coats on his back; and then, sure aneugh, when he takes his stroll +in the avenue, he is a heathenish Christian.</p> + +<p><i>North.</i> Why, James, by this time he must be quite like one of the +family?</p> + +<p><i>Shepherd.</i> He's a capital flee-fisher. I never saw a monkey throw a +lighter line in my life.... Then, for rowing a boat!</p> + +<p><i>Tickler.</i> Why don't you bring him to Ambrose's?</p> + +<p><i>Shepherd.</i> He's sae bashfu'. He never shines in company; and the least +thing in the world will make him blush.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Findhorn Fisherman and the Monkey.</span></h4> + +<p>Sir Thomas Dick Lauder<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> records the adventures of a monkey in +Morayshire, whose wanderings sadly alarmed the inhabitants who saw him, +all unused as they were to the sight of such an exotic stranger.</p> + +<p>"We knew a large monkey, which escaped from his chain, and was abroad in +Morayshire for some eight or ten days. Wherever he appeared he spread +terror among the peasantry. A poor fisherman on the banks of the +Findhorn was sitting with his wife and family at their frugal meal, when +a hairy little man, as they in their ignorance conceived him to be, +appeared on the window sill and grinned, and chattered through the +casement what seemed to them to be the most horrible incantations. +Horror-struck, the poor people crowded together on their knees on the +floor, and began to exorcise him with prayers most vehemently, until +some external cause of alarm made their persecutor vanish. The +neighbours found the family half dead with fear, and could with +difficulty extract from them the cause. 'Oh! worthy neebours!' at last +exclaimed the goodman with a groan, 'we ha'e seen the <i>Enemy</i> glowrin' +at us through that vera wundow there. Lord keep us a'!!' He next alarmed +a little hamlet near the hills; appearing and disappearing to various +individuals in a most mysterious manner; till at last a clown, with a +few grains of more courage than the rest, loaded his gun and put a +sixpence into it, with the intention of stealing upon him as he sat most +mysteriously chattering on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> top of a cairn of stones, and then +shooting him with silver, which is known never to fail in finishing the +imps of the Evil One. And lucky indeed was it for pug that he chanced, +through whim, to abscond from that quarter; for if he had not so +disappeared, he might have died by the lead, if not by the silver. As it +was, the bold peasant laid claim to the full glory of compelling this +dreaded goblin to flee."</p> + +<p>Sir Thomas Lauder kept several pets in his beautiful seat at the Grange, +long occupied by the Messrs Dalgleish of Dreghorn Castle as a genteel +boarding-school, and now by the Misses Mouatt as one for young ladies. +We have often seen the tombstones to his dogs, which were buried to the +south of that mansion, in which Principal Robertson the historian died, +and where Lord Brougham, his relation, used to go when a boy at the High +School.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The French Marquis and his Monkey.</span></h4> + +<p>Dr John Moore, the father of General Moore, who fell at Corunna, in one +of the graphic sketches of a Frenchman which he gives in his work on +Italy, records a visit he paid to the Marquis de F—— at Besançon. +After many questions, he says, "Before I could make any answer, I +chanced to turn my eyes upon a person whom I had not before observed, +who sat very gravely upon a chair in a corner of the room, with a large +periwig in full dress upon his head. The marquis, seeing my surprise at +the sight of this unknown person, after a very hearty fit of laughter, +begged pardon for not having introduced me sooner to that gentleman (who +was no other than a large<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> monkey), and then told me, he had the honour +of being attended by a physician, who had the reputation of possessing +the greatest skill, and who <i>certainly</i> wore the largest periwigs of any +doctor in the province. That one morning, while he was writing a +prescription at his bedside, this same monkey had catched hold of his +periwig by one of the knots, and instantly made the best of his way out +at the window to the roof of a neighbouring house, from which post he +could not be dislodged, till the doctor, having lost patience, had sent +home for another wig, and never after could be prevailed on to accept of +this, which had been so much disgraced. That, <i>enfin</i>, his valet, to +whom the monkey belonged, had, ever since that adventure, obliged the +culprit by way of punishment to sit quietly, for an hour every morning, +with the periwig on his head.—Et pendant ces moments de tranquillité je +suis honoré de la société du venerable personage. Then, addressing +himself to the monkey, "Adieu, mon ami, pour aujourdhui—au plaisir de +vous revoir;" and the servant immediately carried Monsieur le Médicin +out of the room.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> + +<p>This is a most characteristic bit, which could scarcely have occurred +out of France, where monkeys and dogs are petted as we never saw them +petted elsewhere. These things were so when we knew Paris under +Louis-Philippe. Frenchmen, surely, have not much changed under Louis +Napoleon.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Mandrill and George the Fourth.</span></h4> + +<p>One of the attractive sights of Mr Cross's menagerie,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> some forty years +or so ago, was a full-grown baboon, to which had been given the name of +"Happy Jerry." He was conspicuous from the finely-coloured rib-like +ridges on each side of his cheeks, the clear blue and scarlet hue of +which, on such a hideous long face and muzzle, with its small, +deeply-sunk malicious eyes, and projecting brow and cheeks, seemed +almost as if beauty and bestiality were here combined. But Jerry had a +habit which would have made Father Matthew loathe him and those who +encouraged him. He had been taught to sit in an armchair and to drink +porter out of a pot, like a thirsty brickmaker; and, as an addition to +his accomplishments, he could also smoke a pipe, like a trained pupil of +Sir Walter Raleigh. This rib-nosed baboon, or mandrill, as he is often +called, obtained great renown; and among other distinguished personages +who wished to see him was his late majesty King George the Fourth. As +that king seldom during his reign frequented places of public resort, Mr +Cross was invited to bring Jerry to Windsor or Brighton, to display the +talents of his redoubtable baboon. I have heard Mr Cross say, that the +king placed his hands on the arm of one of the ladies of the Court, at +which Jerry began to show such unmistakable signs of ferocity, that the +mild, kind menagerist was glad to get Jerry removed, or at least the +king and his courtiers to withdraw. He showed his great teeth and +grinned and growled, as a baboon in a rage is apt to do. Jerry was a +powerful beast, especially in his fore-legs or arms. When he died, Mr +Cross presented his skin to the British Museum, where it has been long +preserved. The mandrill is a native of West Africa, where he is much +dreaded by the negroes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> + +<p>In Cross's menagerie at Walworth, nearly twenty years ago, there was +generally a fine mandrill. We remember the sulky ferocity of that +restless eye. How angry the mild menagerist used to be at the ladies in +the monkey-room with their parasols! These appendages were the feelers +with which some of the softer sex used to touch Cross's monkeys, and, as +the old gentleman used to insist, helped to kill them. Parasols were +freely used to touch the boas and other snakes feeding in the same warm +room. No doubt a boa-constrictor could not live comfortably if his soft, +muscular sides got fifty pokes a day from as many sticks or parasols. +Edward Cross, mild, gentle, gentlemanly, Prince of show-keepers, used to +be very indignant at the inquisitorial desire possessed, especially by +some of the fairer sex, to try the relative hardness and softness of +serpents and monkeys, and other mammals and creatures. This story of the +mandrill may excuse this pendant of an episode.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Young Lady's Pet Monkey and her Parrot.</span></h4> + +<p>Horace Walpole tells an anecdote of a fine young French lady, a Madame +de Choiseul. She longed for a parrot that should be a miracle of +eloquence. A parrot was soon found for her in Paris. She also became +enamoured of General Jacko, a celebrated monkey, at Astley's. But the +possessor was so exorbitant in his demand for Jacko, that the General +did not change proprietors. Another monkey was soon heard of, who had +been brought up by a cook in a kitchen, where he had learned to pluck +fowls with inimitable dexterity. This accomplished pet was bought and +presented to Madame, who accepted him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> The first time she went out, the +two animals were locked up in her bed-chamber. When the lady returned, +the monkey was alone to be seen. Search, was made for Pretty Poll, and +to her horror she was found at last under bed, shivering and cowering, +and without a feather. It seems that the two pets had been presented by +rival lovers of Madame. Poll's presenter concluded that his rival had +given the monkey with that very view, challenged him; they fought, and +both were wounded: and a heroic adventure it was!<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Monkeys Poor Relations.</span></h4> + +<p>One of Luttrell's sayings, recorded by Sydney Smith, was,—</p> + +<p>"I hate the sight of monkeys, they remind me so of poor relations." Here +follows a fine passage of Sydney Smith, which he might have written +after hearing the lectures of Professor Huxley.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> "I confess I feel +myself so much at my ease about the superiority of mankind,—I have such +a marked and decided contempt for the understanding of every baboon I +have yet seen,—I feel so sure that the blue ape without a tail will +never rival us in poetry, painting, and music,—that I see no reason +whatever why justice may not be done to the few fragments of soul, and +tatters of understanding, which they may really possess. I have +sometimes, perhaps, felt a little uneasy at Exeter 'Change, from +contrasting the monkeys with the 'prentice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> boys who are teasing them; +but a few pages of Locke, or a few lines of Milton, have always restored +my tranquillity, and convinced me that the superiority of man had +nothing to fear."<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Mrs Colin Mackenzie observes Apes at Simla.</span><a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></h4> + +<p>The monkey she alludes to seems to be the <i>Semnopithecus Entellus</i>, a +black-faced, light-haired monkey, with long legs and tail, much +venerated by the Hindoos.</p> + +<p>"Mrs L. and I were very much amused, early this morning (July 5), by +watching numbers of huge apes, the size of human beings, with white hair +all round their faces, and down their backs and chests, who were +disporting themselves and feeding on the green leaves, on the sides of +the precipice close to the house. Many of them had one or two little +ones—the most amusing, indefatigable little creatures imaginable—who +were incessantly running up small trees, jumping down again, and +performing all sorts of antics, till one felt quite wearied with their +perpetual activity. When the mother wished to fly, she clutched the +little one under her arm, where, clinging round her body with all its +arms, it remained in safety, while she made leaps of from thirty to +forty feet, and ran at a most astonishing rate down the khad, catching +at any tree or twig that offered itself to any one of her four arms. +There were two old grave apes of enormous size sitting together<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> on the +branch of a tree, and deliberately catching the fleas in each other's +shaggy coats. The patient sat perfectly still, while his brother ape +divided and thoroughly searched his beard and hair, lifted up one arm +and then the other, and turned him round as he thought fit; and then the +patient undertook to perform the same office for his friend."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Aye-Aye</span> (<i>Chiromys Madagascariensis</i>).</h4> + +<p>Zoologists used to know a very curious animal from Madagascar, by name, +or by an indifferent specimen preserved in the Paris Museum. Sonnerat, +the naturalist, obtained it from that great island so well known to +geographical boys in former days by its being, so they were told, the +largest island in the world. This strange quadruped was named by a word +which meant "handed-mouse," for such is the signification of <i>chiromys</i>, +or <i>cheiromys</i>, as it used to be spelled. This creature, when its +history was better known, was believed to be not far removed in the +system from the lemurs and loris. Its soft fur, long tail, large eyes, +and other features and habits connected it with these quadrumana, while +its rodent dentition seemed to refer it to the group containing our +squirrels, hares, and mice. It has been the subject of a profound memoir +by Professor Owen, our greatest comparative anatomist; and I remember, +with pleasure, the last time I saw him at the Museum he was engaged in +its dissection. I may here refer to one of the Professor's lighter +productions—a lecture at Exeter Hall on some instances of the "power of +God as manifested in His animal creation"—for a very nice notice of +this curious quadruped. In one of the French journals, there was an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +excellent account given of the peculiar habits of the little nocturnal +creature. In those tropical countries the trees are tenanted by +countless varieties of created things. Their wood affords rich feeding +to the large, fat, pulpy grubs of beetles of the families <i>Buprestidæ</i>, +<i>Dynastidæ</i>, <i>Passalidæ</i>, and, above all, that glorious group the +<i>Longicornia</i>. These beetles worm their way into the wood, making often +long tunnels, feeding as they work, and leaving their <i>ejecta</i> in the +shape of agglomerated sawdust. It is into the long holes drilled by +these beetles that the Aye-Aye searches with his long fingers, one of +which, on the fore-hand, is specially thin, slender, and skeleton-like. +It looks like the tool of some lock-picker. Our large-eyed little +friend, like the burglar, comes out at night and finds these holes on +the trees where he slept during the day. His sensitive thin ears, made +to hear every scratch, can detect the rasping of the retired grub, +feasting in apparent security below. Naturalists sometimes hear at +night, so Samouelle once told me, the grubs of moths munching the dewy +leaves. Our aye-aye is no collector, but he has eyes, ears, and fingers +too, that see, hear, and get larvæ that, when grown and changed into +beetles, are the valued prizes of entomologists. Into that tunnelled +hole he inserts his long finger, and squash it goes into a large, pulpy, +fat, sweet grub. It takes but a moment to draw it out; and if it be a +pupa near the bark, so much the better for the aye-aye, so much the +worse for the beetle or cossus. I might dilate on this subject, but +prefer referring the reader to Professor Owen's memoir, and to his +lecture.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> The aye-aye, in every point of its structure,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> like every +created thing, is full of design. Its curious fingers, especially the +skeleton-like chopstick of a digit referred to, attract especial notice, +from their evident adaptation to the condition of its situation and +existence, as one of the works of an omnipotent and beneficent Creator.</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="BATS" id="BATS"></a>BATS.</h2> + + +<p>A highly curious, if not the strangest, order of the class are these +flying creatures called bats. It is evident from Noel Paton's fairy +pictures that he has closely studied their often fantastic faces. The +writer could commend to his attention an African bat, lately figured by +his friend Mr Murray.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> Its enormous head, or rather muzzle, compared +with its other parts, gives it an outrageously hideous look. In the late +excellent Dr Horsfield's work on the animals of Java, there are some +engravings of bats by Mr Taylor, who acquired among engravers the title +of "Bat Taylor," so wonderfully has he rendered the exquisite pileage or +fur of these creatures. It is wonderful how numerous the researches of +naturalists, such as Mr Tomes, of Welford, near Stratford, have shown +the order <i>Cheiroptera</i> to be in genera and species. Their profiles and +full faces, even in outline, are often most bizarre and strange. Their +interfemoral membranes, we may add, are actual "unreticulated" nets, +with which they catch and detain flies as they skim through the air. +They pick these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> out of this bag with their mouths, and "make no bones" +of any prey, so sharp and pointed are their pretty insectivorous teeth. +Their flying membranes, stretched on the elongated finger-bones of their +fore-legs, are wonderful adaptations of Divine wisdom, a capital subject +for the natural theologian to select.</p> + +<p>Our poet-laureate must be a close observer of natural history. In his +"In Memoriam," xciv., he distinctly alludes to some very curious West +African bats first described by the late amiable Edward T. Bennett, long +the much-valued secretary of the Zoological Society. These bats are +closely related to the fox bats, and form a genus which is named, from +their shoulder and breast appendages, <i>Epomophorus</i>:—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"Bats went round in fragrant skies,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And wheel'd or lit the filmy shapes</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">That haunt the dusk, with ermine capes,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And woolly breasts and beaded eyes."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The species Mr Bennett named <i>E. Whitei</i>, after the good Rev. Gilbert +White, that well-known worthy who wrote "The Natural History of +Selborne," wherein are many notices of bats.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Captain Cook's Sailor and His Description of a Fox-Bat.</span></h4> + +<p>It is curious, now that Australia is almost as civilised, and in parts +nearly as populous, as much of Europe, to read "Lieutenant Cook's Voyage +Round the World," in vol. iii. of Hawkesworth's quartos, detailing the +discoveries of June, July, and August 1770—that is close upon a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +century ago. What progress has the world made since that period! We do +not require long periods of ages to alter, to adapt, to develop the +customs and knowledge of man. At p. 156 we get an account of a large +bat. On the 23d June 1770 Cook says:—"This day almost everybody had +seen the animal which the pigeon-shooters had brought an account of the +day before; and one of the seamen, who had been rambling in the woods, +told us, at his return, that he verily believed he had seen the devil. +We naturally inquired in what form he had appeared, and his answer was +in so singular a style that I shall set down his own words. 'He was,' +says John, 'as large as a one-gallon keg, and very like it; he had horns +and wings, yet he crept so slowly through the grass, that if I had not +been <i>afeared</i> I might have touched him.' This formidable apparition we +afterwards discovered to have been a bat, and the bats here must be +acknowledged to have a frightful appearance, for they are nearly black, +and full as large as a partridge; they have indeed no horns, but the +fancy of a man who thought he saw the devil might easily supply that +defect."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Having seen some of the very curious fox-bats alive, and given some +condensed information about them in Dr Hamilton's series of volumes +called "Excelsior," the writer may extract the account, with some slight +additions, especially as the article is illustrated with a truly +admirable figure of a fox-bat, from a living specimen by Mr Wolf. In Sir +Emerson Tennent's "Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon," p. 14, Mr +Wolf has represented a whole colony of the "flying-foxes," as they are +called.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> +<h4><span class="smcap">Fox-Bats</span> (<i>Pteropus</i>).</h4> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 381px;"> +<img src="images/illus-041-f.jpg" width="381" height="600" alt="Flying Fox. (Pteropus ruficollis.)" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Flying Fox. (Pteropus ruficollis.)</span> +</div> + + + +<p>In this country that bat is deemed a large one whose wings, when +measured from tip to tip, exceed twelve inches, or whose body is above +that of a small mouse in bulk. In some parts of the world, however, +there are members of this well-marked family, the wings of which, when +stretched and measured from one extremity to the other, are five feet +and upwards in extent, and their bodies large in proportion. These are +the fox-bats, a pair of which were lately procured for the Zoological +Gardens. It is from one of this pair that the very characteristic figure +of Mr Wolf has been derived.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> There is something very odd in the +appearance of such an animal, suspended as it is during the day head +downwards, in a position the very sight of which suggests to the +looker-on ideas of nightmare and apoplexy. As the head peers out from +the membrane, contracted about the body and investing it as in a bag, +and the strange creature chews a piece of apple presented by its keeper, +the least curious observer must be struck with the peculiarity of the +position, and cannot fail to admire the velvety softness and great +elasticity of the membrane which forms its wings. It must have been from +an exaggerated account of the fox-bats of the Eastern Islands that the +ancients derived their ideas of the dreaded Harpies, those fabulous +winged monsters sent out by the relentless Juno, and whose names are +synonymous with rapine and cruelty.</p> + +<p>Some of these bats, before they were thoroughly known,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> frightened +British sailors not a little when they met with them. We have given an +anecdote, illustrative of this, in a preceding page.</p> + +<p>Dr Forster, who accompanied Captain Cook on the voyage round the world +from 1772 to 1775, observed fox-bats at the Friendly Islands, where they +were seen in large groups of hundreds. Our traveller even notices that +some of them flew about the whole day, doubtless from being disturbed by +the wandering crews of the British discovery ships. He saw a Casuarina +tree of large size, the branches of which were festooned with at least +five hundred of these pendent Cheiroptera in various attitudes of ease, +according to the habits and notions of the bat tribes, who can hang +either by the hind or by the fore-feet. He noticed that they skimmed +over the water with wonderful facility, and he saw one in the act of +swimming, though he cannot say that it did so with either ease or +expertness; they are known, however, to frequent the water in order to +wash themselves from any impurities on their fur and wings, as well as +to get rid of the vermin which may be infesting them.</p> + +<p>Captain Lort Stokes found the red-necked species to be very abundant, +during his survey of the north coast of Australia in H.M.S. <i>Beagle</i>. As +the boats were engaged in the survey, flights of these bats kept +hovering over them, uttering a disagreeable screeching noise and filling +the air with a faint mildewy odour, far from agreeable to the smell. The +sailors gave these bats the name of "monkey-birds," without being aware +that naturalists in their system consider them as following closely the +order which contains these four-handed lovers of trees. Captain Stokes +observes that the leathern wings have a singular heavy flap, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> that a +flight of bats would suddenly alight on a bamboo and bend it to the +ground with their weight. Each individual struggles on alighting to +settle on the same spot, and like rooks or men in similar circumstances, +they do not succeed in fixing themselves without making a great deal of +noise. When first they clung to the bamboo, they did so by means of the +claw on the outer edge of the flying membrane, and then they gradually +settled.</p> + +<p>Among the wild and varied scenery of those groups of islands called the +Friendly Islands, the Feejees, and the Navigators, species of fox-bat +form one of the characteristics of the place to the observant eye; +while, if the traveller should happen to be blind, their presence among +the otherwise fragrant forests would be readily perceived from the +strong odour which taints the atmosphere, and which, says the Naturalist +of the United States Exploring Expedition, "will always be remembered by +persons who have visited the regions inhabited by these animals." Mr +Titian Peale mentions that a specimen of the fox-bat was kept in +Philadelphia for several years; and like most creatures, winged as well +as wingless, was amiable to those persons who were constantly near it, +while it showed clearly and unmistakably its dislike to strangers.</p> + +<p>On its voyage, this strange passenger was fed on boiled rice, sweetened +with sugar; while at the Museum, it was solaced and fed during its +captivity chiefly on fruit, and now and then appeared to enjoy the +picking from the bones of a boiled fowl. The fox-bat is but seldom +brought alive to this country. The late Mr Cross of the Surrey +Zoological Gardens kept one for a short time, and deemed it one of his +greatest rarities; and, till the arrival lately of the pair<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> alluded to +at the Gardens in the Regent's Park, we have not heard of other +specimens having been exhibited in this country. They are difficult to +keep, and seem to feel very sensibly the changes of our climate, while +it is a hard thing to get for them the food on which they live when in a +state of liberty.</p> + +<p>Mr Macgillivray discovered a new species of fox-bat on Fitzroy Island, +off the coast of Australia, when he was naturalist of H.M.S. +<i>Rattlesnake</i>.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> He fell in with this large fruit-eating bat +(<i>Pteropus conspicillatus</i>) on the wooded slope of a hill. They were in +prodigious numbers, and presented the appearance, as they flew along in +the bright sunshine, of a large flock of rooks. As they were approached, +a strong musky odour became apparent, and a loud incessant chattering +was heard. He describes the branches of some of the trees as bending +beneath the loads of bats which clung to them. Some of these were in a +state of inactivity, sleeping or composing themselves to sleep, while +many specimens scrambled along among the boughs and took to flight on +being disturbed. He shot several specimens, three or four at a time, as +they hung in clusters. Unless they were killed outright, they continued +suspended for some time; when wounded they are difficult to handle, as +they bite severely, and at such times their cry resembles somewhat the +squalling of a child. The flesh of these bats is described to be +excellent, and no wonder, when they feed on the sweetest fruits; the +natives regard it as nutritious food, and travellers in Australia, like +the adventurous Leichhardt on his journey to Port Essington, sometimes +are furnished with a welcome meal from the fruit-eating fox-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>bats which +fall in their way. Even the polished French, in the Isle of Bourbon, as +they used to call the Mauritius, sometimes stewed a Pteropus, in their +<i>bouillon</i> or broth to give it a relish.</p> + +<p>Travellers observe that in a state of nature the fox-bats only eat the +ripest and the best fruit, and in their search for it they climb with +great facility along the under side of the branches. In Java, as Dr +Horsfield observes, these creatures, from their numbers and fruit-eating +propensities, occasion incalculable mischief, as they attack every kind +that grows there, from the cocoa-nut to the rarer and more delicate +productions, which are cultivated with care in the gardens of princes +and persons of rank. The doctor observes, that "delicate fruits, as they +approach to maturity, are ingeniously secured by means of a loose net or +basket, skilfully constructed of split bamboo. Without this precaution +little valuable fruit would escape the ravages of the kalong."</p> + +<p>We have mentioned that the fox-bats are occasionally eaten in Australia. +Colonel Sykes alludes to the native Portuguese in Western India eating +the flesh of another species of Pteropus; and it would seem that but for +prejudice, their flesh, like that of the young of the South American +monkeys, is extremely delicate; the colonel says, writing of the +<i>Pteropus medius</i>, a species found in India, "I can personally testify +that their flesh is delicate and without disagreeable flavour."</p> + +<p>The Javanese fox-bat occasionally affords amusement to the colonists as +well as natives, who chase it, according to Dr Horsfield, "during the +moonlight nights, which, in the latitude of Java, are uncommonly serene. +He is watched in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> his descent to the fruit-trees, and a discharge of +small shot readily brings him to the ground. By this means I frequently +obtained four or five individuals in the course of an hour." The natives +of New Caledonia, according to Dr Forster, use the hair of these great +bats in ropes, and in the tassels to their clubs, while they interweave +the hair among the threads of the <i>Cyperus squarrosus</i>, a grassy-looking +plant which they employ for that purpose.</p> + +<p>William Dampier,<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> in 1687, observed the habits of a fox-bat on one of +the Philippine Islands, though he has exaggerated its size when he +judged "that the wings stretched out in length, could not be less +asunder than seven or eight foot from tip to tip." He records that "in +the evening, as soon as the sun was set, these creatures would begin to +take their flight from this island in swarms like bees, directing their +flight over to the main island. Thus we should see them rising up from +the island till night hindered our sight; and in the morning, as soon as +it was light, we should see them returning again like a cloud to the +small island till sunrising. This course they kept constantly while we +lay here, affording us every morning and evening an hour's diversion in +gazing at them and talking about them." Dr Horsfield describes the +species, which is abundant in the lower parts of Java, as having the +same habit. During the day it retreats to the branches of a tree of the +genus <i>Ficus</i>, where it passes the greater portion of the day in sleep, +"hanging motionless, ranged in succession, and often in close contact, +they have little resemblance to living beings, and by a person not +accustomed to their economy, are readily mistaken for a part of the +tree, or for a fruit of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> uncommon size suspended from its branches." The +doctor describes their society as being generally silent during the day, +except when a contention arises among them to get out of the influence +of the sun, when they utter a sharp piercing shriek. Their claws are so +sharp, and their attachment is consequently so strong, that they cannot +readily leave their hold without the assistance of their wings, and if +shot when in this position, they remain suspended.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Dr Mayerne and His Balsam of Bats.</span></h4> + +<p>Dr Mayerne, a learned English physician, who died, aged eighty-two, in +1655, showed by his prescriptions that his enlightenment was not more +than that of the prevailing ignorance of the period. The chief +ingredient in his gout-powder was "raspings of a human skull unburied;" +"but," writes Mr Jeaffreson,<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> "his sweetest compound was his 'balsam +of bats,' strongly recommended as an unguent for hypochondriacal +persons, into which entered adders, bats, sucking whelps, earth-worms, +hogs' grease, the marrow of a stag, and the thigh-bone of an ox."</p> + +<p>No doubt the doctor imagined that a combination of the virulence, +flightiness, swiftness, strength, and other qualities of all these +animals would in some mysterious way be communicated to his melancholy +patient; and, indeed, by acting on the imagination of such persons a +favourable direction is given to their thoughts, and in this way their +severe malady may at times have been removed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="HEDGEHOG" id="HEDGEHOG"></a>HEDGEHOG.</h2> + + +<p>This well-armed genus of insect-eating quadruped has sometimes given to +describing zoologists, at least so it is said, an opportunity of paying +a sly compliment, concealing an allusion to the <i>touchy</i> or supposed +irritable disposition of the party after whom the species has been +named. When Southey wrote the following paragraph, he happily expressed +what is too commonly the meaning and wish of critics and criticised. If +my readers look into any system of mammalia of recent date, under the +article <i>Erinaceus</i>, he will see one or more instances of concealed +allusions to touchiness of disposition in the persons of the +naturalists, <i>honoured</i> by the seeming compliment. The hedgehog is +itself a very useful and very harmless quadruped. It is of great use in +a garden, and also in a kitchen frequented by crickets or black-beetles. +Its food is chiefly grubs, insects, worms, and such like. The creature +is easily tamed, and becomes a lovable and not a touchy pet. It is +eminently nocturnal.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Southey and his Critics.</span></h4> + +<p>Robert Southey ("Common-Place Book," 4th series, p.44) writes:—</p> + +<p>"I intend to be a hedgehog, and roll myself up in my own prickles: all I +regret is that I am not a porcupine, and endowed with the property of +shooting them to annoy the beasts who come near enough to annoy me."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MOLE" id="MOLE"></a>MOLE.</h2> + + +<p>This is perhaps the most remarkable of all our quadrupeds. Its +subterranean haunts and curious aptitudes for a life below the surface +of the ground are peculiarly worthy of study. The little hillocks it +turns up in its excavations are noticed by every one. Its pursuit of +worms and grubs, its nest, its soft plush-like fur, the pointed nose, +the strong digging fore-feet, the small all but hidden eyes, and +hundreds of other properties, render it a noticeable creature. The +following passage from Lord Macaulay's latest writings, although rather +long, may interest some in the story of this curious creature:—</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Mole and King William.</span></h4> + +<p>"A fly, if it had God's message, could choke a king."<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> I never knew +till the 9th January 1862, when reading vol. v. of Macaulay's England, +that a horse, stumbling on a mole-hill, was the immediate cause of the +death of the great William III.</p> + +<p>Lady Trevelyan, the sister of Macaulay, published vol. v. of her +brother's work, and added an account of the death of the illustrious +Dutchman, who did so much for our religious and civil liberties. The +historian was very partial to William, and the account of that monarch's +last days is Macaulay's last finished piece: it is here quoted in full +from the history:<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a>—</p> + +<p>"Meanwhile reports about the state of the king's health<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> were constantly +becoming more and more alarming. His medical advisers, both English and +Dutch, were at the end of their resources. He had consulted by letter +all the most eminent physicians of Europe; and, as he was apprehensive +that they might return flattering answers if they knew who he was, he +had written under feigned names. To Fagon he had described himself as a +parish priest. Fagon replied, somewhat bluntly, that such symptoms could +have only one meaning, and that the only advice which he had to give to +the sick man was to prepare himself for death. Having obtained this +plain answer, William consulted Fagon again without disguise, and +obtained some prescriptions which were thought to have a little retarded +the approach of the inevitable hour. But the great king's days were +numbered. Headaches and shivering fits returned on him almost daily. He +still rode, and even hunted; but he had no longer that firm seat, or +that perfect command of the bridle, for which he had once been renowned. +Still all his care was for the future. The filial respect and tenderness +of Albemarle had been almost a necessary of life to him. But it was of +importance that Heinsius should be fully informed both as to the whole +plan of the next campaign, and as to the state of the preparations. +Albemarle was in full possession of the king's views on these subjects. +He was therefore sent to the Hague. Heinsius was at that time suffering +from indisposition, which was indeed a trifle when compared with the +maladies under which William was sinking. But in the nature of William +there was none of that selfishness which is the too common vice of +invalids. On the 20th of February he sent to Heinsius a letter, in which +he did not even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> allude to his own sufferings and infirmities. 'I am,' +he said, 'infinitely concerned to learn that your health is not yet +quite re-established. May God be pleased to grant you a speedy recovery. +I am unalterably your good friend, <span class="smcap">William</span>.' These were the last lines +of that long correspondence.</p> + +<p>"On the 20th of February, William was ambling on a favourite horse named +Sorrel through the park of Hampton Court. He urged his horse to strike +into a gallop just at the spot where a mole had been at work. Sorrel +stumbled on the mole-hill, and went down on his knees. The king fell +off, and broke his collar-bone. The bone was set, and he returned to +Kensington in his coach. The jolting of the rough roads of that time +made it necessary to reduce the fracture again. To a young and vigorous +man such an accident would have been a trifle; but the frame of William +was not in a condition to bear even the slightest shock. He felt that +his time was short, and grieved, with a grief such as only noble spirits +feel, to think that he must leave his work but half finished. It was +possible that he might still live until one of his plans should be +carried into execution. He had long known that the relation in which +England and Scotland stood to each other was at best precarious, and +often unfriendly, and that it might be doubted whether, in an estimate +of the British power, the resources of the smaller country ought not to +be deducted from those of the larger. Recent events had proved that +without doubt the two kingdoms could not possibly continue for another +year to be on the terms on which they had been during the preceding +century, and that there must be between them either absolute union or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +deadly enmity. Their enmity would bring frightful calamities, not on +themselves alone, but on all the civilised world. Their union would be +the best security for the prosperity of both, for the internal +tranquillity of the island, for the just balance of power among European +states, and for the immunities of all Protestant countries. On the 28th +of February, the Commons listened, with uncovered heads, to the last +message that bore William's sign-manual. An unhappy accident, he told +them, had forced him to make to them in writing a communication which he +would gladly have made from the throne. He had, in the first year of his +reign, expressed his desire to see a union accomplished between England +and Scotland. He was convinced that nothing could more conduce to the +safety and happiness of both. He should think it his peculiar felicity +if, before the close of his reign, some happy expedient could be devised +for making the two kingdoms one; and he, in the most earnest manner, +recommended the question to the consideration of the Houses. It was +resolved that the message should be taken into consideration on Saturday +the 7th of March.</p> + +<p>"But, on the 1st of March, humours of menacing appearance showed +themselves in the king's knee. On the 4th of March he was attacked by +fever; on the 5th, his strength failed greatly; and on the 6th he was +scarcely kept alive by cordials. The Abjuration Bill and a money bill +were awaiting his assent. That assent he felt that he should not be able +to give in person. He therefore ordered a commission to be prepared for +his signature. His hand was now too weak to form the letters of his +name, and it was suggested that a stamp should be prepared. On the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> 7th +of March the stamp was ready. The Lord Keeper and the Clerks of the +Parliament came, according to usage, to witness the signing of the +commission. But they were detained some hours in the ante-chamber while +he was in one of the paroxysms of his malady. Meanwhile the Houses were +sitting. It was Saturday the 7th, the day on which the Commons had +resolved to take into consideration the question of the union with +Scotland. But that subject was not mentioned. It was known that the king +had but a few hours to live; and the members asked each other anxiously +whether it was likely that the Abjuration and money bills would be +passed before he died. After sitting long in the expectation of a +message, the Commons adjourned till six in the afternoon. By that time +William had recovered himself sufficiently to put the stamp on the +parchment which authorised his commissioners to act for him. In the +evening, when the Houses had assembled, Black Rod knocked. The Commons +were summoned to the bar of the Lords; the commission was read, the +Abjuration Bill and the Malt Bill became law, and both Houses adjourned +till nine o'clock in the morning of the following day. The following day +was Sunday. But there was little chance that William would live through +the night. It was of the highest importance that, within the shortest +possible time after his decease, the successor designated by the Bill of +Rights and the Act of Succession should receive the homage of the +Estates of the Realm, and be publicly proclaimed in the Council: and the +most rigid Pharisee in the Society for the Reformation of Manners could +hardly deny that it was lawful to save the state, even on the Sabbath.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The king meanwhile was sinking fast. Albemarle had arrived at +Kensington from the Hague, exhausted by rapid travelling. His master +kindly bade him go to rest for some hours, and then summoned him to make +his report. That report was in all respects satisfactory. The States +General were in the best temper; the troops, the provisions, and the +magazines were in the best order. Everything was in readiness for an +early campaign. William received the intelligence with the calmness of a +man whose work was done. He was under no illusion as to his danger. 'I +am fast drawing,' he said, 'to my end.' His end was worthy of his life. +His intellect was not for a moment clouded. His fortitude was the more +admirable because he was not willing to die. He had very lately said to +one of those whom he most loved, 'You know that I never feared death; +there have been times when I should have wished it, but, now that this +great new prospect is opening before me, I do wish to stay here a little +longer.' Yet no weakness, no querulousness disgraced the noble close of +that noble career. To the physicians the king returned his thanks +graciously and gently. 'I know that you have done all that skill and +learning could do for me, but the case is beyond your art; and I +submit.' From the words which escaped him he seemed to be frequently +engaged in mental prayer. Burnet and Tenison remained many hours in the +sick-room. He professed to them his firm belief in the truth of the +Christian religion, and received the sacrament from their hands with +great seriousness. The antechambers were crowded all night with lords +and privy-councillors. He ordered several of them to be called in, and +exerted himself to take leave of them with a few<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> kind and cheerful +words. Among the English who were admitted to his bedside were +Devonshire and Ormond. But there were in the crowd those who felt as no +Englishman could feel, friends of his youth, who had been true to him, +and to whom he had been true, through all vicissitudes of fortune; who +had served him with unalterable fidelity when his Secretaries of State, +his Treasury, and his Admiralty had betrayed him; who had never on any +field of battle, or in an atmosphere tainted with loathsome and deadly +disease, shrunk from placing their own lives in jeopardy to save his, +and whose truth he had at the cost of his own popularity rewarded with +bounteous munificence. He strained his feeble voice to thank +Auverquerque for the affectionate and loyal services of thirty years. To +Albemarle he gave the keys of his closet and of his private drawers. +'You know,' he said, 'what to do with them.' By this time he could +scarcely respire. 'Can this,' he said to the physicians, 'last long?' He +was told that the end was approaching. He swallowed a cordial, and asked +for Bentinck. Those were his last articulate words. Bentinck instantly +came to the bedside, bent down, and placed his ear close to the king's +mouth. The lips of the dying man moved, but nothing could be heard. The +king took the hand of his earliest friend, and pressed it tenderly to +his heart. In that moment, no doubt, all that had cast a slight passing +cloud over their long and pure friendship was forgotten. It was now +between seven and eight in the morning. He closed his eyes, and gasped +for breath. The bishops knelt down and read the commendatory prayer. +When it ended William was no more!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was assuredly the stumbling of his horse against a mole-hill that led +more immediately to the death of this great monarch. It is but one link +in the chain of many providences affecting his life. We all remember the +schoolboy ditty—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"For want of a nail the shoe was lost;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">For want of a shoe the rider was lost;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">For want of the rider the battle was lost;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">For want of the battle the kingdom was lost."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>How much the death of King William retarded progress in Great Britain +can never be judged or determined. His appointed hour had come. It was +no bullet with its billet on the banks of the Boyne that laid the +Dutchman low, but the cast-up earth of a specimen of a little +insectivorous quadruped called the mole, which laid him on that bed from +which he never arose.</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="BEARS" id="BEARS"></a>BEARS.</h2> + + +<p>A most comfortably clad set of plantigrade creatures, as fond, most of +them, of fruits as they are of flesh. No creatures are more amusing in +zoological gardens to children, who wonder at their climbing powers. Who +is so heartless as not to have pitied the roving polar bear, caged, on a +sultry July day, in a small paddock with a puddle, and wandering about +restlessly in his few feet of ground, as the well-dressed mob lounged to +hear the military band performing in the Regent's Park Zoological<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +Gardens? Even young bears have an <i>adult</i> kind of look about them. The +writer remembers the manner of one, disappointed at its bread sap, most +of the milk of which had been absorbed. A little girl standing by, not +two years old, perfectly understood what the little creature was +searching for, and, looking up, said "milka," or something closely +resembling it. We recently saw a little brown bear, on board a Russian +ship at Leith. He acted as a capital guard. The little creature had a +grown-up face, more easily observed than described.</p> + +<p>Bear hams, we speak from rare experience, are truly excellent. Bears, in +our early London days, were kept by many hairdressers and perfumers. The +anecdote or passage from Dickens's "Humphrey's Clock" is very +characteristic.</p> + +<p>In one of Wilkie's pictures the brown bear is figured on its way with +its owners to the parish beadle's "house of detention." We remember the +very bear and its owners. A fine chapter might be written on the animals +that used to be led about the country by wandering foreigners. Our first +sight of guinea-pigs, our first view of the black-bellied hamster, our +first sight of the camel and dromedary, with a monkey on his neck, and +our first bear, were seen in this way. Boys and girls in those days +seldom saw menageries. A muzzled bear on its hind legs in Nicolson +Street, or at the Sciennes, was an exotic sight seldom witnessed, and +not easily forgotten. The last we saw was in Bernard Street, Leith, in +1869. That very day, the police were hunting for Bruin and its leaders +all over Edinburgh. Bears are now debarred from parading our streets.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">An Austrian General and a Bear.</span><a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></h4> + +<p>Mr Paget was told an excellent story of a bear hunt, which took place in +the mountains of Transylvania, and in the presence of the gentleman who +told him the story.</p> + +<p>"General V——, the Austrian commander of the forces in this district, +had come to Cronstadt to inspect the troops, and had been invited by our +friend, in compliment to his rank, to join him in a bear hunt. Now, the +general, though more accustomed to drilling than hunting, accepted the +invitation, and appeared in due time in a cocked hat and long gray +greatcoat, the uniform of an Austrian general. When they had taken up +their places, the general, with half a dozen rifles arrayed before him, +paid such devoted attention to a bottle of spirits he had brought with +him, that he quite forgot the object of his coming. At last, however, a +huge bear burst suddenly from the cover of the pine forest, directly in +front of him. At that moment the bottle was raised so high that it quite +obscured the general's vision, and he did not perceive the intruder till +he was close upon him. Down went the bottle, up jumped the astonished +soldier, and, forgetful of his guns, off he started, with the bear +clutching at the tails of his greatcoat as he ran away. What strange +confusion of ideas was muddling the general's intellect at the moment it +is difficult to say, but I suspect he had some notion that the attack +was an act of insubordination on the part of Bruin, for he called out +most lustily, as he ran along, 'Back, rascal! back! I am a general!' +Luckily, a poor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> Wallack peasant had more respect for the epaulettes +than the bear, and, throwing himself in the way, with nothing but a +spear for his defence, he kept the enemy at bay till our friend and the +jägers came up, and finished the contest with their rifles."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Byron's Bear at Cambridge.</span></h4> + +<p>When at Trinity College, Cambridge, Lord Byron had a strange pet. He +"brought up a bear for a degree." He said to Captain Medwyn,<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> "I had +a great hatred of college rules, and contempt for academical honours. +How many of their wranglers have ever distinguished themselves in the +world? There was, by the by, rather a witty satire founded on my bear. A +friend of Shelley's made an ourang-outang (Oran Hanton, Esq.) the hero +of a novel ('Melincourt'), had him created a baronet, and returned for +the borough of One Vote."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Charles Dickens on Bears' Grease and its Producers.</span></h4> + +<p>Any one who has been long resident in London, or who has passed through +Fenchurch Street, or Everett Street, Russell Square, must have been +struck with the way in which "bears' grease" is or used to be advertised +in these localities. Dickens makes Mr Samuel Weller tell of an +enthusiastic tradesman of this description.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p> + +<p>"His whole delight was in his trade. He spent all his money in bears, +and run in debt for 'em besides, and there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> they wos a growling away in +the front cellar all day long and ineffectually gnashing their teeth, +vile the grease o' their relations and friends wos being retailed in +gallipots in the shop above, and the first floor winder wos ornamented +with their heads; not to speak o' the dreadful aggrawation it must have +been to 'em to see a man always a walkin' up and down the pavement +outside, with the portrait of a bear in his last agonies, and +underneath, in large letters, 'Another fine animal was slaughtered +yesterday at Jenkinson's!' Hous'ever, there they wos, and there +Jenkinson wos, till he was took very ill with some inward disorder, lost +the use of his legs, and wos confined to his bed, vere he laid a wery +long time; but sich wos his pride in his profession even then, that +wenever he wos worse than usual the doctor used to go down-stairs, and +say, 'Jenkinson's wery low this mornin', we must give the bears a stir;' +and as sure as ever they stirred 'em up a bit, and made 'em roar, +Jenkinson opens his eyes, if he wos ever so bad, calls out, 'There's the +bears!' and rewives agin."</p> + +<p>The author of a most amusing article in the seventy-seventh volume of +the <i>Edinburgh Review</i>, on the modern system of advertising, records +that, in his puff, the first vendor of bears' grease cautioned his +customers to wash their hands in warm water after using it, to prevent +them from assuming the hairy appearance of a paw.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">A Bearable Pun.</span></h4> + +<p>An illiterate vendor of beer wrote over his door at Harrowgate, "<i>Bear</i> +sold here." "He spells the word<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> quite correctly," said Theodore Hook, +"if he means to apprise us that the article is his own <i>Bruin</i>."<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/illus-061-f.jpg" width="600" height="356" alt="Polar Bear. (Thalassarctos maritimus.)" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Polar Bear. (Thalassarctos maritimus.)</span> +</div> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Shaved Bear.</span></h4> + +<p>Robert Southey ("Common-Place Book," 4th ser., p. 359) says:—"At +Bristol I saw a shaved monkey shown for a fairy; and a shaved bear, in a +check waistcoat and trousers, sitting in a great chair as an Ethiopian +savage. This was the most cruel fraud I ever saw. The unnatural position +of the beast, and the damnable brutality of the woman-keeper, who sat +upon his knee, put her arm round his neck, called him husband and +sweetheart, and kissed him, made it the most disgusting spectacle I ever +witnessed. Cottle was with me."</p> + +<p>He also tells of a fellow exhibiting a dragon-fly under a magnifier at a +country fair, and calling it the great High German "Heiter-Keiter."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Polar Bear.</span></h4> + +<p class="center">(<i>Thalassarctos maritimus.</i><a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a>)</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding ice and snow, and the darkness of a nine months' winter, +the Arctic regions are tenanted by several mammalia. Some of these are +constant residents, the rest are migratory visitors. Of the former +division, one of the most conspicuous, as it is certainly the most +formidable, is the polar bear,—a creature between eight and nine feet +in length, which, shuffling along the snow at a very quick<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> pace, and +being an excellent swimmer besides, cannot fail to inspire dread. The +large wide head and fearfully armed jaws are united by a strong neck to +powerful shoulders, from which spring the thick and muscular fore-legs. +The paws, both of the fore and of the hind feet, are broad and admirably +adapted, with their long hairy covering, to keep the polar bear from +sinking in the snow. Although the creature has an appearance of +clumsiness, it is the reverse of inactive. Every one who knows the +boundless spaces it has to traverse, when in a state of liberty and the +"monarch of all it surveys," cannot but pity it as a prisoner in the +Regent's Park, where a tolerably capacious den, supplied with a bath of +water of very limited dimension, affords the restless creature less +liberty than a squirrel has in its round-about, or a poor lark in its +cage.</p> + +<p>Voyagers to the Arctic regions describe it as wandering over the fields +of ice, mounting the hummocks,<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> and look<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>ing around for prey. With +outstretched head, its little but keen eye directed to the various +points of a wide horizon, the polar bear looks out for seals; or scents +with its quick nostrils the luscious smell of some stinking +whale-blubber or half-putrid whale-flesh. Dr Scoresby relates<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> that a +piece of the <i>kreng</i> of a whale thrown into the fire drew a bear to a +ship from the distance of miles. Captain Beechey mentions, that his +party in 1818, as they were off the coast of Spitzbergen, by setting on +fire some fat of the walrus, soon attracted a bear to their close +vicinity. This polar Bruin was evidently unaccustomed to the sight of +masts, and, when approaching, occasionally hesitated, and seemed half +inclined to turn round and be off. So agreeable a smell as burning +walrus fat dispelled all distrust, and brought him within musket-shot. +On receiving the first ball, he sprang round, growled terrifically, and +half raised himself on his hind-legs, as if expecting to seize the +object which had caused so much pain; woe to any one who had at that +moment been within reach of his merciless paws! Although a second and +third ball laid him writhing on the ice, he was not mastered; and on the +butt end of a musket directed at his head breaking short off, the bear +quickly seized the thigh of his assailant, and, but for the immediate +assistance of two or three of his shipmates, the man would have been +seriously injured. In these very seas—nearly fifty years before—the +hero of Trafalgar encountered this Arctic tyrant, and, when missed from +his ship, was discovered with a comrade attacking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> a large specimen, +separated from them by a chasm in the ice. On being reprimanded by his +captain for his foolhardiness, "Sir," said the young middy, pouting his +lips, as he used to do when excited, "I wished to kill the bear that I +might carry the skin to my father."<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p> + +<p>Barentz, in his celebrated voyage in 1595, had two of his men killed by +"a great leane white beare." In these early days, so unused were polar +bears to man, that though thirty of their comrades attempted a rescue, +the prey was not abandoned. The purser, "stepping somewhat farther +forward, and seeing the beare to be within the length of a shot, +presently levelled his peece, and discharging it at the beare, shot her +into the head, betweene both the eyes, and yet shee held the man still +fast by the necke, and lifted up her head with the man in her mouth, but +shee beganne somewhat to stagger; wherewith the purser and a Scottishman +drew out their courtlaxes (cutlasses), and stroke at her so hard, that +their courtlaxes burst, and yet shee would not leave the man. At last +Wm. Geysen went to them, and with all his might stroke the beare upon +the snowt with his peece, at which time the beare fell to the ground, +making a great noyse, and Wm. Geysen leaping upon her cut her throat. +The 7th of September wee buried the dead bodies of our men in the States +Island, and having fleaed the beare, carryed her skinne to Amsterdam."</p> + +<p>This is about the earliest record of an encounter with this formidable +creature; sailors now find that they can be attacked with most advantage +in the water. When in this element, they try to escape by swimming to +the ice, and when the ice is in the form of loose and detached<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> small +floes, Dr Sutherland has seen them dive underneath, and appear on the +opposite side. Scoresby records, that when shot at a distance, and able +to escape, the bear has been observed to retire to the shelter of a +hummock, and, as if aware of the styptical effect of cold, apply snow to +the wound.</p> + +<p>In common with nearly every animal, this huge despot of the North is +strongly attached to its young. Captain Inglefield, on his return home +from Baffin's Bay in 1852, pursued three bears, as he was anxious to get +a supply of fresh meat for his Esquimaux dogs. The trio were evidently a +mother and twins. The captain was anxious to secure the cubs alive as +trophies, and was cautious in shooting at the mother. All three fell, +and were brought on board the <i>Isabel</i>. He records that it was quite +heartrending to see the affection that existed between them. When the +cubs saw their mother was wounded, they commenced licking her wounds, +regardless of their own sufferings. At length the mother began to eat +the snow, a sure sign that she was mortally wounded. "Even then her care +for the cubs did not cease, as she kept continually turning her head +from one to the other, and, though roaring with pain, she seemed to warn +them to escape if possible. Their attachment was as great as hers, and I +was thus obliged to destroy them all. It went much against my feelings, +but the memory of my starving dogs reconciled me to the necessity."</p> + +<p>The female bear when pursued carries or pushes her cubs forwards, and +the little creatures are described as placing themselves across her path +to be shoved forwards. Scoresby mentions an instance where, when +projected some yards in advance, the cubs ran on until she overtook +them,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> when they alternately adjusted themselves for a second throw.</p> + +<p>It is chiefly on the seal that this bear feeds, and it displays great +cunning in catching them as they sleep on the ice, or come to the holes +in the ice to breathe, when it destroys them with one blow of its +formidable and heavy paw. For its mode of getting the walrus we refer +the reader to "Excelsior," vol. i. p. 37. Notwithstanding his strength +and ferocity, the Esquimaux frequently kill the polar bear, as they +esteem its flesh and fat, and highly prize its skin. The flesh is not so +prized by Saxons, whether they be European or American. Dr Kane's +opinion would differ but little from that of Arctic voyagers on our side +of the Atlantic. The surgeon to the "Grinnell Expedition" in search of +Sir John Franklin thus characterises its flesh: "Bear is strong, very +strong, and withal most capricious meat; you cannot tell where to find +him. One day he is quite beefy and bearable; another, hircine, hippuric, +and detestable."</p> + +<p>It is but fair to say that Captain Parry<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> regards the flesh of the +polar bear to be as wholesome as any other, though not quite so +palatable. His men suffered from indigestion after eating it; but this +he attributes to the quantity, and not to the quality, of the meat they +had eaten.</p> + +<p>There seems to be little doubt that the liver is highly deleterious. +Some of the sailors of Barentz, who made a meal of it, were very sick, +"and we verily thought we should have lost them, for all their skins +came off from the foot to the head."</p> + +<p>The skin of the bear is covered with long yellowish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> white hair, which, +is very close, and forms a wonderful defence against the cold, and +against the tusk of the animals on which it feeds. We heard of another +use of this hair from an officer on one of the late Arctic searching +expeditions. A bear was seen to come down a tolerably high and steep +declivity by sliding down on its hinder quarters, in an attitude known, +in more than one part of the British Islands, by the expressive name of +"katy-hunkers;" the shaggy hair with which it was covered serving like a +thick mat to protect the creature from injury. The Esquimaux prepare the +skin sometimes without ripping it up, and turning the hairy side inward +a warm sack-like bed is formed, into which they creep, and lie very +comfortably. Otho Fabricius, in his "Fauna Grænlandica" (p. 24), informs +us that the tendons are converted into sewing threads. The female bear +has one or two, and sometimes three, cubs at a time. They are born in +the winter, and the mother generally digs for them and for herself a +snug nestling-place in the snow. The males in the winter time leave the +coast, and go out on the ice-fields, to the edge of the open water after +seals.—<i>Adam White, in "Excelsior" (with additions).</i></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Nelson and the Polar Bear.</span></h4> + +<p>In 1773, Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, sailed on a voyage of +discovery towards the North Pole. In this expedition sailed two Norfolk +young men, one in his twenty-third year, the other a mere lad in his +fifteenth year. The former sailed from a spirit of curiosity, and being +sorely distressed by sea-sickness was landed in Norway. He afterwards +became famous in the British Parlia<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>ment, and the speeches of the Right +Hon. William Windham, Secretary at War, are often referred to even now. +The younger man was Horatio Nelson, cockswain under Captain Lutwidge, +who was killed at the battle of Trafalgar, thirty-two years after his +Polar expedition, and left a name which is synonymous with the glory of +the British navy.</p> + +<p>Southey, in his admirable life,<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> records an instance of his hardihood +on this expedition:—"One night, during the mid-watch, he stole from the +ship with one of his comrades, taking advantage of a rising fog, and set +off over the ice in pursuit of a bear. It was not long before they were +missed. The fog thickened, and Captain Lutwidge and his officers became +exceedingly alarmed for their safety. Between three and four in the +morning the weather cleared, and the two adventurers were seen at a +considerable distance from the ship attacking a huge bear. The signal +for them to return was immediately made; Nelsons' comrade called upon +him to obey it, but in vain; his musket had flashed in the pan; their +ammunition was expended; and a chasm in the ice, which divided him from +the bear, probably preserved his life. 'Never mind,' he cried; 'do but +let me get a blow at this devil with the butt-end of my musket, and we +shall have him.' Captain Lutwidge, however, seeing his danger, fired a +gun, which had the desired effect of frightening the beast; and the boy +then returned, somewhat afraid of the consequences of his trespass. The +captain reprimanded him sternly for conduct so unworthy of the office +which he filled, and desired to know what motive he could have for +hunting a bear. 'Sir,' said he,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> pouting his lip, as he was wont to do +when agitated, 'I wished to kill the bear, that I might carry the skin +to my father.'"</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">A Clever Polar Bear.</span></h4> + +<p>Mr Markham,<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> when the ship <i>Assistance</i> was in the Wellington +Channel, observed several bears prowling about in search of seals. "On +one occasion," he writes, "I saw a bear swimming across a lane of water, +and pushing a large piece of ice before him. Landing on the floe, he +advanced stealthily towards a couple of seals, which were basking in the +sun at some little distance, still holding the ice in front to hide his +black muzzle; but this most sagacious of bears was for once outwitted, +for the seals dived into a pool of water before he could get within +reach. On another occasion, a female Bruin having been shot from the +deck of the <i>Intrepid</i>, her affectionate cub, an animal about the size +of a large Newfoundland dog, remained resolutely by the side of its +mother, and on the approach of the commander of the <i>Intrepid</i> with part +of his crew, a sort of tournament ensued, in which the youthful bear, +although belaboured most savagely, showed a gallant resistance, and at +length rushing between the legs of the corporal of marines, laid him +prostrate on the ice, floored another man, who had seized hold of his +tail, and effected his escape.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>"</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Captain Ommaney and the Polar Bear.</span></h4> + +<p>Captain Ommaney,<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> who led one of the travelling parties in 1851 sent +out from the ships under Austin in search of Franklin on the 12th of +June, the day before he arrived at the ships, met with a laughable +accident, although it might have had a serious termination. They had all +of them but just got into their blanket bags, when a peculiar noise, as +if something was rubbing up the snow, was heard outside. The gallant +captain instantly divined its cause, seized, loaded, and cocked his gun, +and ordered the tent door to be opened, upon which a huge bear was seen +outside. Captain Ommaney fired at the animal, but, whether from the +benumbed state of his limbs, or the dim glimmering light, he +unfortunately missed him, and shot away the rope that supported the tent +instead. The enraged monster then poked his head against the poles, and +the tent fell upon its terrified inmates, and embraced them in its +folds. Their confusion and dismay can more easily be imagined than +described, but at length one man, with more self-possession than the +rest, slipped out of his bag, scrambled from under the prostrate tent, +and ran to the sledge for another gun; and it was well that he did so, +for no sooner had he vacated his sleeping sack than Bruin seized it +between his teeth, and shook it violently, with the evident intention of +wreaking his vengeance on its inmate. He was, however, speedily +despatched by a well-aimed shot from the man, the tent was repitched, +and tranquillity restored.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="RACCOON" id="RACCOON"></a>RACCOON.</h2> + + +<p>A strikingly pretty, well-clad, and pleasingly coloured North American +quadruped, of which many zoological anecdotes might be given. Linnæus +named it <i>Ursu lotor</i>, or the Washer, from its curious habit of putting +any food offered to it, at least when in confinement, into water, before +attempting to eat it.</p> + + +<p class="center">"<span class="smcap">A Gone Coon.</span>"</p> + +<p>An American phrase for "the last extremity," or, "it's all up." They say +that a Major, or Colonel, or General Scott "down South" was notorious as +a dead shot. Once on a time, when out with his gun, he espied a raccoon +on a lofty tree. The poor raccoon, noticing the gun pointed at him, +cried to the dead shot, "Air <i>you</i> General Scott?"—"I air."—"Then +wait, I air a comin' down, for I air <i>a gone coon</i>."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="BADGER" id="BADGER"></a>BADGER.</h2> + + +<p>The badger, or brock, as it is called in Scotland, is yearly becoming +more and more rare. In a few years, this curious and powerful member of +the <i>feræ</i>, will figure, like the bear and beaver, as among the extinct +quadrupeds of these islands. Naturalists will be recording that in the +days of Robert Burns it must have been not at all uncommon, and not rare +in those of Hugh Miller, since low dram-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>shops kept them for the +entertainment of their guests. The Ayrshire bard makes the Newfoundland +dog, Cæsar, say to his comrade Luath, the collie, when, speaking of most +of the gentry of his day—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"They gang as saucy by poor folk</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">As I wad by a stinking brock."<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The author of "Old Red Sandstone" and "My Schools and Schoolmasters," +has recorded in the latter work the history of his employment as a hewer +of great stones under the branching foliage of the elm and chestnut +trees of Niddry Park, near Edinburgh, and how, in the course of a strike +among the masons, he marched into town with several of them to a meeting +on the Links, where, conspicuous from the deep red hue of their clothes +and aprons, they were cheered as a reinforcement from a distance. On +adjourning, Hugh Miller, in his racy style, gives the following account +of a badger-baiting more than forty years ago:—</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Hugh Miller and the Badger-Baiting in the Canongate.</span></h4> + +<p>"My comrades proposed that we should pass the time until the hour of +meeting in a public-house, and, desirous of securing a glimpse of the +sort of enjoyment for which they sacrificed so much, I accompanied them. +Passing not a few more inviting-looking places, we entered a low tavern +in the upper part of the Canongate, kept in an old half-ruinous +building, which has since disappeared. We passed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> on through a narrow +passage to a low-roofed room in the centre of the erection, into which +the light of day never penetrated, and in which the gas was burning +dimly in a close, sluggish atmosphere, rendered still more stifling by +tobacco-smoke, and a strong smell of ardent spirits. In the middle of +the crazy floor there was a trap-door, which lay open at the time; and a +wild combination of sounds, in which the yelping of a dog, and a few +gruff voices that seemed cheering him on, were most noticeable, rose +from the apartment below. It was customary at this time for dram-shops +to keep badgers housed in long narrow boxes, and for working men to keep +dogs; and it was part of the ordinary sport of such places to set the +dogs to unhouse the badgers. The wild sport which Scott describes in his +'Guy Mannering,' as pursued by Dandy Dinmont and his associates among +the Cheviots, was extensively practised twenty-nine years ago amid the +dingier haunts of the High Street and Canongate. Our party, like most +others, had its dog,—a repulsive-looking brute, with an earth-directed +eye; as if he carried about with him an evil conscience; and my +companions were desirous of getting his earthing ability tested upon the +badger of the establishment; but on summoning the tavern-keeper, we were +told that the party below had got the start of us. Their dog was, as we +might hear, 'just drawing the badger; and before our dog could be +permitted to draw him, the poor brute would require to get an hour's +rest.' I need scarce say, that the hour was spent in hard drinking in +that stagnant atmosphere; and we then all descended through the +trap-door, by means of a ladder, into a bare-walled dungeon, dark and +damp, and where the pestiferous air smelt like that of a burial vault.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +The scene which followed was exceedingly repulsive and brutal,—nearly +as much so as some of the scenes furnished by those otter-hunts in which +the aristocracy of the country delight occasionally to indulge. Amid +shouts and yells the badger, with the blood of his recent conflict still +fresh upon him, was again drawn to the box-mouth; and the party +returning satisfied to the apartment above, again betook themselves to +hard drinking. In a short time the liquor began to tell, not first, as +might be supposed, on our younger men, who were mostly tall, vigorous +fellows, in the first flush of their full strength, but on a few of the +middle-aged workmen, whose constitutions seemed undermined by a previous +course of dissipation and debauchery. The conversation became very loud, +very involved, and though highly seasoned with emphatic oaths, very +insipid; and leaving with Cha—who seemed somewhat uneasy that my eye +should be upon their meeting in its hour of weakness—money enough to +clear off my share of the reckoning, I stole out to the King's Park, and +passed an hour to better purpose among the trap rocks than I could +possibly have spent it beside the trap-door of that tavern party. I am +not aware that a single individual, save the writer, is now living; its +very dog did not live out half his days. His owner was alarmed one +morning, shortly after this time, by the intelligence that a dozen of +sheep had been worried during the night on a neighbouring farm, and that +a dog very like his had been seen prowling about the fold; but in order +to determine the point, he would be visited, it was added, in the course +of the day, by the shepherd and a law-officer. The dog meanwhile, +however, conscious of guilt,—for dogs do seem to have consciences<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> in +such matters,—was nowhere to be found, though, after the lapse of +nearly a week, he again appeared at the work; and his master, slipping a +rope round his neck, brought him to a deserted coal-pit half-filled with +water, that opened in an adjacent field, and flinging him in, left the +authorities no clue by which to establish his identity with the robber +and assassin of the fold."<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Laird of Balnamoon and the Brock.</span></h4> + +<p>The laird, so Dean Ramsay had the story sent him, once riding past a +high steep bank, stopped opposite a hole in it, and said, "John, I saw a +brock gang in there."—"Did ye?" said John; "wull ye haud my horse, +sir?"—"Certainly," said the laird, and away rushed John for a spade. +After digging for half an hour, he came back, nigh speechless to the +laird, who had regarded him musingly. "I canna find him, sir," said +John.—"'Deed," said the laird, very coolly, "I wad ha' wondered if ye +had, for it's ten years sin' I saw him gang in there."<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="FERRET" id="FERRET"></a>FERRET.</h2> + + +<p>A truly blood-thirsty member of that slim-bodied but active race, the +weasel tribe. He is certainly an inhabitant of a warmer climate than +this, being very sensitive to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> cold. He is used in killing rats and +<i>ferreting out</i> rabbits, a verb indeed derived from his name. He has +been known to attack sleeping infants.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Collins and the Rat-catchers</span> <i>grip</i> <span class="smcap">of his Ferrets.</span></h4> + +<p>That delightful painter of cottage life, says his son,<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> often found +cottagers who gloried in being painted, and who sat like professional +models, under an erroneous impression that it was for their personal +beauties and perfections that their likenesses were portrayed. The +remarks of these and other good people, who sat to the painter in +perfect ignorance of the use or object of his labours, were often +exquisitely original. He used to quote the criticism of a celebrated +country rat-catcher, on the study he had made from him, with hearty +triumph and delight. When asked whether he thought his portrait like, +the rat-catcher, who—perhaps in virtue of his calling—was a gruff and +unhesitating man, immediately declared that the face was "not a morsel +like," but vowed with a great oath, that nothing could ever be equal to +the correctness of the <i>dirt shine on his old leather breeches</i>, and the +<i>grip</i> that he had of <i>the necks of his ferrets</i>!</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="POLE-CAT" id="POLE-CAT"></a>POLE-CAT.</h2> + + +<p>An equally blood-thirsty member of the weasel family, with the subject +of the preceding paragraph.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Fox and the Pole-Cat.—(Poll-cat.)<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a></span></h4> + +<p>Francis Grose relates the following as having happened during one of the +famous Westminster elections:—"During the poll, a dead cat being thrown +on the hustings, one of Sir Cecil Wray's party observed it stunk worse +than a fox, to which Mr Fox replied, there was nothing extraordinary in +that, considering it was a poll-cat."</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="DOGS" id="DOGS"></a>DOGS.</h2> + + +<p>One who seems to love the race of dogs, and who has written a most +readable book on them,<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> remarks, that the dog "even now is rarely the +companion of a Jew, or the inmate of his house." He quotes various terms +of reproach still common among us, and which seem to have originated +from a similar feeling to that of the Jew. For instance, we say of a +very cheap article, that it is "dog cheap." To call a person "a dog," or +"a cur," or "a hound," means something the very opposite of +complimentary. A surly person is said to have "a dogged disposition." +Any one very much fatigued is said to be "dog weary." A wretched room or +house is often called "a dog hole," or said to be only fit for "a dog." +Very poor verse is "doggerel." It is told of Lady Mary Wortley +Montague,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> that when a young nobleman refused to translate some +inscription over an alcove, because it was in "dog-latin," she observed, +"How strange a puppy shouldn't understand his mother tongue."</p> + +<p>What, too, can be more expressive of a man being on the verge of ruin, +than the common phrase, that "such a one is going to the dogs." Of +modern describers of the very life and feelings of dogs, who can surpass +Dr John Brown of Edinburgh? His "Rab," and his "Our Dogs," are worthy of +the brush of Sir Edwin Landseer. Who has not heard the answer <i>said</i> to +have been given by Sydney Smith to the great painter, when he wanted to +make a portrait of the witty canon, "<i>Is thy servant a dog, that he +should do this thing?</i>"</p> + +<p>There is great diversity of standard in matters of taste. In China, a +well-roasted pup, of any variety of the very variable <i>Canis +familiaris</i>, is a dainty dish. In London the greatest exquisite delights +in the taste of a half-cooked woodcock, but would scruple to eat a +lady's lap-dog, even though descended, by indubitable pedigree, from a +genuine "liver-and-tan" spaniel, that followed King Charles II. in his +strolls through St James's Park; and which was given to her ladyship's +ancestress on a day recorded, perhaps, in the diary of Mr Samuel Pepys. +Again, in the country of the Esquimaux, who has not read in the +intensely interesting narratives of the Moravian missionaries, how the +dogs of the "Innuit"—of "the men," as they call themselves—are, in +winter, indispensable to their very existence? Parry, Lyon, Franklin, +Richardson, Ross, Rae, Penny, Sutherland, Inglefield, and Kane, have +told us what excellent "carriage"-pullers these hardy children<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> of the +snow become from early infancy; and how the more they work, like the +wives of savages in Australia, the more they are kicked. Passing over +the dogs of the Indian tribes of North America and the gaunt race in +Patagonia, the reader may remember that the Roman youth, like the young +Briton, had, in the days of Horace, his outer marks—one was, that he +loved to have a dog, or a whole pack beside him—"<i>gaudet canibus</i>." +This attachment to the dog is given us "from above," and is one of the +many "good gifts" which proceed from Him, who made man and dog +"familiar," as the apt specific name of Linnæus denominates the latter. +One of our greatly-gifted poets, in a cynical mood, could write an +epitaph on a favourite Newfoundlander, and end it with the dismal lines +on his views of "earthly friends"—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"He never knew but one,—and here he lies."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Our genial and home-loving Cowper has made his dog Beau classical. We +must beg our readers to refresh their memories, by looking into the +Olney bard's exquisite story,</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"My spaniel, prettiest of his race,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And high in pedigree,"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>and they will find that <i>that</i> story of "The Dog and the Water-lily" was +"no fable," and that Beau really understood his master's wish when he +fetched him a water-lily out of "Ouse's silent tide." How graceful are +the last two stanzas of that sweet little poem—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"Charm'd with the sight, 'The world,' I cried,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'Shall hear of this thy deed;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">My dog shall mortify the pride</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Of man's superior breed.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">'But chief myself I will enjoin,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Awake at duty's call,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">To show a love as prompt as thine</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">To Him who gives me all.'"<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></span><br /> +</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/illus-080.jpg" width="600" height="417" alt="BEAU." title="" /> +<span class="caption">BEAU.</span> +</div> + +<p>That the world might know the very "mark and figure" of this spaniel, +the late able illustrator of so many topographical works (Mr James +Storer) published in his "Rural Walks of Cowper"<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> a figure of Beau, +from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> stuffed skin in the possession of Cowper's kinsman, the Rev. +Dr Johnson.</p> + +<p>Mr Montague, in a letter to the son and biographer of Sir James +Mackintosh,<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> gives many reminiscences of that eminent man, who was +much attached to the memory of Cowper. He says, "We reached Dereham +about mid-day (it was in 1801), and wrote to Mr Johnson, the clergyman, +who had protected Cowper in the last years of his life, and in whose +house he died. He instantly called upon us, and we accompanied him to +his house. In the hall, we were introduced to a little red and white +spaniel, in a glass case—the little dog Beau, who, seeing the +water-lily which Cowper could not reach, 'plunging, left the shore.'"</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"I saw him with that lily cropp'd,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Impatient swim to meet</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">My quick approach, and soon he dropp'd</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">The treasure at my feet."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>We saw the room where Cowper died, and the bell which he last touched. +We went to his grave, and to Mrs Unwin's, who is buried at some +distance. I lamented this, "Do not live in the visible, but the +invisible," said your father,—"his attainments, his tenderness, his +affections, his sufferings, and his hardships, will live long after both +their graves are no more."</p> + +<p>We could linger over a prized octavo volume, published in Edinburgh in +1787; the first poem of this, "The Twa Dogs, a Tale," occupies some +thirteen pages, written with that "rare felicity" so common to <i>the</i> +Bard of Scotland.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> We mention it, because of the peculiar happiness with +which the collie, or Scottish shepherd-dog, is described in lines that +Sir Edwin Landseer alone has equalled on canvas, or his brother Thomas +with the graver—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"He was a gash an' faithfu' tyke</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">As ever lap a sheugh or dyke.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">His honest, sonsie, bawsn't<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> face,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Aye gat him friends in ilka place.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">His breast was white, his touzie back</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Weel clad wi' coat of glossy black;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">His gaucie tail, wi' upward curl,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hung owre his hurdies wi' a swirl."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p><i>That's</i> the shepherd-dog, as we have heard him described from a +specimen, which was the friend and follower of a valued one, who, when a +boy ('tis many years ago), frisked with the dog, over <i>one</i> of the many +ferny haughs that margin the lovely Tweed above and below Peebles. It is +<i>the</i> collie we have seen, on one of the sheep-farms of Lanarkshire, +obey its young master by a word or two, as unintelligible to us as +Japanese. But to the Culter "Luath," to hear was to obey; and in a +quarter of an hour a flock of sheep, which had been feeding on a +hillSide half a mile off, were brought back, driven by this faithful +"bit doggie." We wonder not that shepherds love their dogs. Why, even +the New Smithfield cattle-drovers, who drive sheep along the streets of +London on a Monday or Friday, never even require to urge their faithful +partners. Well may the gifted authoress of "The Dream" address "the +faithful guardian"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"Oh, tried and trusted! thou whose love</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Ne'er changes nor forsakes,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Thou proof, how perfect God hath stamp'd</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">The meanest thing He makes;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Thou, whom no snare entraps to serve,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">No art is used to tame</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">(Train'd, like ourselves, thy path to know,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">By words of love and blame);</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Friend! who beside the cottage door,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Or in the rich man's hall,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">With steadfast faith still answerest</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">The one familiar call;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Well by poor hearth and lordly home</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Thy couchant form may rest,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And Prince and Peasant trust thee still,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">To guard what they love best."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;"><i>Hon. Mrs Norton, "The Dream," &c.</i>, p. 192.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>No ordinary-sized volume, much less a short article, could give a tithe +of the true anecdotes of members of the dog race. Mere references to +their biography would take up a volume of Bibliography itself, just as +their forms, and character, and "pose," give endless subject to the +painter. Of modern authors, no one loved dogs more truly than Sir Walter +Scott, as the reader of his writings and of his biography is well +aware;<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> but it may not be generally known that, on the only occasion +when the great novelist met the Ayrshire peasant,—</p> + +<p class="center"> +"Virgilium tantum vidi,"— +</p> + +<p>the poem, which had made Burns a wonder to the boy then "unknown," was +that of "The Twa Dogs;" so that, even then, Scott had commenced to show +his attachment to these faithful followers. It was in the house of Sir +Adam Ferguson, when Scott was a mere lad; and the scene was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> described +most vividly to the writer by the late Scottish knight, after whose +battle in South Italy the author of "Marmion" named his pet staghound +Maida, or, as Scott pronounced it, "Myda." It was as the author of "The +Twa Dogs" that young Ferguson and Scott regarded Burns on his entrance +into the room with such wistful attention. The story is told in +Lockhart, and we will not quote it further; but, leaving dogs of our own +days and lands to Mr Jesse, who has given an interesting volume on them, +we will close with a few paragraphs on the dog of the East—a very +differently treated animal to that generally prized and esteemed +"friend" of man in these lands of the West.</p> + +<p>The Holy Scriptures show us that dogs were generally despised. We select +three, out of many instances. "Is thy servant a <i>dog</i> that he should do +this thing?" was the question with which Hazael, ignorant of the +deceitfulness of his own heart, indignantly replied to Elisha, when the +prophet told him of the evil that he would yet do unto the children of +Israel (2 Kings viii. 13). He, "who spake as never man spake," knowing +the faith of the Syrophœnician woman, and giving her an opportunity +of manifesting it "for our example," said, in the Syriac fashion of +thought, "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to +<i>the dogs</i>" (Mark vii. 27). And the apostle John, in that wondrous close +of the prophetical writings, says, "For without," <i>i.e.</i>, outside of the +New Jerusalem, "are <i>dogs</i>" (Rev. xxii. 5). In the East up to the +present day, with but few exceptions, dogs are treated with great +dislike. We might quote passages in proof from almost every Eastern +traveller, and may venture to extract one from the graphic page of the +Rev. W. Graham, who lived five years<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> in Syria, and who has given some +noble word-pictures of men, and streets, and scenes in Damascus and +other Turkish towns. Writing of Damascus,<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> he remarks, "The dogs are +considered unclean, and are never domesticated in the East. They are +thin, lean, fox-like animals, and always at the starving point. They +live, breed, and die in the streets. They are useful as scavengers. They +are neither fondled nor persecuted, but simply tolerated; and no dog has +an owner, or ever follows and accompanies a man as the sheep do. I once +went out in the evening at Beyrout, with my teacher to enjoy the fresh +air and talk Arabic. My little English dog, the gift of a friend, +followed us. We passed through a garden, where a venerable Moslem was +sitting on a stone, silently and solemnly engaged in smoking his pipe. +He observed the dog <i>following</i> us, and was astonished at it, as +something new and extraordinary; and rising, and making out of the way, +he cried out, 'May his father be accursed! Is that a dog or a fox?'" +Again, in Damascus, should a worn-out horse, donkey, or camel die in the +streets, in a few hours the dogs have devoured it; and the powerful rays +of the sun dry up all corrupt matter. Mr Graham tells us that the dogs +of Damascus are brown, blackish, or of an ash colour, and that he saw no +white or spotted specimens. He never saw a case of hydrophobia, nor did +he hear a <i>bark</i>. The dogs "howl, and make noise enough," he continues, +"but the fine, well-defined <i>bow-wow</i> is entirely wanting." With a quiet +humour, he hints at the bark being a mark of the civilised, domesticated +dog, and as denoting, apparently, "the refinement of canine education." +We have been struck with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> the attempts of Penny's Esquimaux dogs, +deposited by the gallant Arctic mariner in the Zoological Gardens, to +<i>get up</i> a bark somewhat like the "well-bred" dogs in the cages near +them. Mr Graham tells us of the Damascus dogs having established a kind +of police among themselves, and, like the rooks, driving all intruders +far from their district.</p> + +<p>Dogs were not always disregarded in the East. Herodotus informs us,<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> +during the Persian occupation the number of Indian dogs kept in the +province of Babylon for the use of the governor was so great, that four +cities were exempted from taxes for maintaining them. In the mountain +parts of India, travellers describe the great dogs of Thibet and +Cashmere as being much prized.</p> + +<p>"The domestic dog of Ladak," says Major Cunningham,<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> "is the +well-known shepherd's dog, or Thibetan mastiff. They have shaggy coats, +generally quite black, or black and tan; but I have seen some of a light +brown colour. They are usually ill-tempered to strangers; but I have +never found one that would face a stick, although they can fight well +when attacked. The only peculiarity that I have noticed about them is, +that the tail is nearly always curled upward on to the back, where the +hair is displaced by the constant rubbing of the tail." And that the +same massive variety was also prized in ancient times we know, by a +singularly fine, small bas-relief in baked clay, found in 1849 in the +Birs-i-Nimrud, Babylon, by Sir Henry Rawlinson, which is preserved in +the British Museum, to which it was presented by the late Prince Albert, +and an outline of which, reduced one-half, will convey a good idea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> to +the reader of its form. We may add that this bas-relief was first +noticed and figured, in 1851, in the third edition of a truly learned +and excellent work on "Nineveh and Persepolis," by Mr Vaux of the +British Museum (p. 183). These dogs, then, were nothing else than big, +"low jowled" Thibetan mastiffs, such as we occasionally see brought over +by some Indian officer; and the use for which they were employed by the +ancient kings and their attendants is strikingly exhibited on some slabs +from a chamber in the north palace of Koujunjik, a part of the great +Nineveh. On some of these slabs, dogs are seen engaged in pulling down +wild asses, deer, and other animals; and they were evidently kept also +to assist in securing nobler game—"the king of beasts;"—the sport of +which animals shows how truly the Assyrian king was named "Nimrod, the +mighty hunter before the Lord."—<i>Adam White, in "Excelsior" (with +additions).</i></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/illus-087.jpg" width="400" height="335" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Bishop Blomfield bitten by a Dog.</span></h4> + +<p>His natural temperament was quick, and he was fond of authority. "A +saying of Sydney Smith's has been preserved, humorously illustrative of +the view which he took of Bishop Blomfield's character. The bishop had +been bitten by a dog in the calf of the leg, and fearing possible +hydrophobia in consequence, he went, with characteristic promptitude, to +have the injured piece of flesh cut out by a surgeon before he returned +home. Two or three on whom he called were not at home; but, at last, the +operation was effected by the eminent surgeon, Mr Keate. The same +evening the bishop was to have dined with a party where Sydney Smith was +a guest. Just before dinner, a note arrived, saying that he was unable +to keep his engagement, a dog having rushed out from the crowd and +bitten him in the leg. When this note was read aloud to the company, +Sydney Smith's comment was, '<i>I should like to hear the dog's account of +the story</i>.'</p> + +<p>"When this accident occurred to him, Bishop Blomfield happened to be +walking with Dr D'Oyly, the rector of Lambeth. A lady of strong +Protestant principles, mistaking Dr D'Oyly for Dr Doyle, said that she +considered it was a judgment upon the bishop for keeping such +company."<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">"Puppies never See till they are Nine Days Old."</span></h4> + +<p>It is related, that when a former Bishop of Bristol held the office of +Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, he one day met a couple +of under-graduates, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> neglected to pay the accustomed compliment of +<i>capping</i>. The bishop inquired the reason of the neglect. The two men +begged his lordship's pardon, observing they were <i>freshmen</i>, and did +not know him. "How long have you been in Cambridge?" asked his lordship. +"Only <i>eight</i> days," was the reply. "Very good," said the bishop; +"<i>puppies</i> never see till they are <i>nine</i> days old."<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Mrs Elizabeth Barrett Browning's dog Flush</span>.</h4> + +<p>Few have written so lovingly on the dog as this gifted poetess. Her dog +Flush is described so well that Landseer could paint the creature almost +to a hair. She has entered into the very feeling created in us by this +favoured pet of our race. The beautiful stanzas<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> I have copied give +also many little touches of her autobiography. This gifted lady was long +an invalid. She could enter with rare sympathy into Cowper's attachments +to animals. Her experience of the friendship of Flush is well told in +the following lines, so different from Lord Byron's misanthropic verses +on his dog:—</p> + + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><span class="smcap"><b>To Flush, my Dog</b></span>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Loving friend, the gift of one</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Who her own true faith has run</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Through her lower nature,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Be my benediction said</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">With my hand upon thy head,</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Gentle fellow-creature!</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Like a lady's ringlets brown</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Flow thy silken ears adown</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Either side demurely</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Of thy silver-suited breast,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Shining out from all the rest</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Of thy body purely.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Darkly brown thy body is,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Till the sunshine, striking this,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Alchemise its dulness,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">When the sleek curls manifold</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Flash all over into gold</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">With a burnish'd fulness.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Underneath my stroking hand,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Startled eyes of hazel bland</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Kindling, growing larger,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Up thou leapest with a spring,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Full of prank and curveting</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Leaping like a charger.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Leap! thy broad tail waves a light;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Leap! thy slender feet are bright,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Canopied in fringes;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Leap! those tassell'd ears of thine</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Flicker strangely, fair and fine,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Down their golden inches.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Yet, my pretty, sporting friend,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Little is 't to such an end</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">That I praise thy rareness;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Other dogs may be thy peers</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Haply in these drooping ears</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And this glossy fairness.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">But of <i>thee</i> it shall be said,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">This dog watch'd beside a bed</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Day and night unweary—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Watch'd within a curtain'd room,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Where no sunbeam brake the gloom,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Round the sick and dreary.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Roses gather'd for a vase</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">In that chamber died apace,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Beam and breeze resigning;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">This dog only waited on,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Knowing that, when light is gone,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Love remains for shining.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Other dogs in thymy dew</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Track'd the hares, and follow'd through</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Sunny moor or meadow;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">This dog only crept and crept</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Next a languid cheek that slept,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Sharing in the shadow.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Other dogs of loyal cheer</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bounded at the whistle clear,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Up the woodside hieing;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">This dog only watch'd in reach</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Of a faintly-utter'd speech,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Or a louder sighing.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And if one or two quick tears</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Dropp'd upon his glossy ears,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Or a sigh came double,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Up he sprang in eager haste,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Fawning, fondling, breathing fast</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">In a tender trouble</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And this dog was satisfied</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">If a pale, thin hand would glide</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Down his dewlaps sloping,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Which he push'd his nose within,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">After—platforming his chin</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">On the palm left open.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">This dog, if a friendly voice</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Call him now to blither choice</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Than such chamber-keeping,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"Come out!" praying from the door,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Presseth backward as before,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Up against me leaping.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Therefore to this dog will I,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Tenderly, not scornfully,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Render praise and favour:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">With my hand upon his head</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Is my benediction said,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Therefore, and for ever.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And because he loved me so,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Better than his kind will do,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Often man or woman,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Give I back more love again</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Than dogs often take of men,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Leaning from my Human.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Blessings on thee, dog of mine,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Pretty collars make thee fine,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Sugar'd milk make fat thee!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Pleasures wag on in thy tail,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hands of gentle motion fail</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Nevermore to pat thee!</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Downy pillow take thy head,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Silken coverlet bestead,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Sunshine help thy sleeping!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">No fly's buzzing wake thee up,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">No man break thy purple cup</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Set for drinking deep in.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Whisker'd cats arointed flee,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Sturdy stoppers keep from thee</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Cologne distillations;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Nuts lie in thy path for stones,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And thy feast-day macaroons</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Turn to daily rations!</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Mock I thee in wishing weal?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Tears are in my eyes to feel</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Thou art made so straightly;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Blessing needs must straighten too;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Little canst thou joy or do,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Thou who lovest <i>greatly</i>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Yet be blessèd to the height</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Of all good and all delight</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Pervious to thy nature;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Only <i>loved</i> beyond that line,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">With a love that answers thine,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Loving fellow-creature!</span><br /> +</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart., and his dog "Speaker."</span></h4> + +<p>Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton was very fond of dogs; his son<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> tells an +anecdote of the singular manner in which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> one of his pets came into his +possession. "He was standing at the door of the House of Commons talking +to a friend, when a beautiful black and tan terrier rushed between them, +and immediately began barking furiously at Mr Joseph Pease, who was +speaking. All the members jumped up, shouting and laughing, while the +officers of the house chased the dog round and round, till at last he +took refuge with Mr Buxton, who, as he could find no traces of an owner, +carried him home. He proved to be quite an original. One of his whims +was, that he would never go into the kitchen nor yet into a poor man's +cottage; but he formed a habit of visiting by himself at the country +houses in the neighbourhood of Cromer, and his refined manners and +intelligence made 'Speaker' a welcome guest wherever he pleased to go."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Lord Byron and his dog Boatswain.</span></h4> + +<p>In November 1808 Lord Byron lost his favourite dog Boatswain; the poor +animal having been seized with a fit of madness, at the commencement of +which so little aware was Byron of the nature of the malady, that he +more than once, with his bare hand, wiped away the slaver from the dog's +lips during the paroxysms. In a letter to his friend Mr Hodson, he thus +announces this event:—"Boatswain is dead! he expired in a state of +madness on the 18th, after suffering much, yet retaining all the +gentleness of his nature to the last, never attempting to do the least +injury to any one near him. I have now lost everything except old +Murray."</p> + +<p>The monument raised by him to this dog—the most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> memorable tribute of +the kind since the dog's grave, of old, at Salamis—is still a +conspicuous ornament of the gardens of Newstead. The misanthropic verses +engraved upon it may be found among his poems, and the following is the +inscription by which they are introduced:—</p> + + +<p class="center"> +"Near this spot Are deposited the remains of one Who<br /> +possessed beauty without vanity, Strength without insolence, Courage<br /> +without ferocity, And all the virtues of man without his vices. This<br /> +praise, which would be unmeaning flattery If inscribed over human ashes,<br /> +Is but a just tribute to the memory of <span class="smcap">Boatswain</span>, a dog, Who was born at<br /> +Newfoundland, May 1803, And died at Newstead Abbey, November 18, 1805." +</p> + +<p>The poet Pope, when about the same age as the writer of this +inscription, passed a similar eulogy on his dog, at the expense of human +nature; adding that "histories are more full of examples of the fidelity +of dogs than of friends." In a still sadder and bitterer spirit, Lord +Byron writes of his favourite:—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"To mark a friend's remains these stones arise;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">I never knew but <i>one</i>, and <i>here</i> he lies."<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Moore relates a story of this dog, indicative, not only of intelligence, +but of a generosity of spirit, which might well win for him the +affections of such a master as Byron. A fox-terrier of his mother's, +called Gilpin, was an object of dislike to Boatswain, who worried him +nearly to the death. Gilpin was sent off and Boatswain was missed for a +day.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> To the surprise of the servants, towards evening Gilpin and +Boatswain were in company, the former led by the latter, who led him to +the kitchen fire, licked him and lavished on him every possible +demonstration of joy. He had been away to fetch him, and ever after +caressed him, and defended him from the attacks of other dogs. (P. 44.)</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">"Perchance"—a Lady's</span> <i>reason</i> <span class="smcap">for so naming her Dog.</span></h4> + +<p>A lady had a favourite lap-dog, which she called Perchance. "A singular +name," said somebody, "for a beautiful pet, madam; where did you find +it?"—"Oh," drawled she, "it was named from Byron's dog. You remember +where he says, '<i>Perchance</i> my dog will howl.'"<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Collins the Artist and his dog "Prinny"—a model of</span> "<i>a model</i>."</h4> + +<p>William Wilkie Collins, after a most graphic account of the companions +of his artist-father's home,<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> notices "one who was ever as ready to +offer his small aid and humble obedience as were any of his superiors, +to confer the benefit of their penetrating advice." I refer to Mr +Collins's dog "Prinny" (Prince). This docile and affectionate animal had +been trained by his master to sit in any attitude, which the +introduction of a dog in his picture (a frequent occurrence) might +happen to demand. So strict was "Prinny's" sense of duty, that he never +ventured to move from his set position until his master's signal gave +him permission to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> approach his chair, when he was generally rewarded +with a lump of sugar, placed, not between his teeth, but on his nose, +where he continued to balance it, until he was desired to throw it into +the air and catch it in his mouth, a feat which he very seldom failed to +perform. On one occasion his extraordinary integrity in the performance +of his duties was thus pleasantly exemplified:—"My father had placed +him on the backs of two chairs, his fore-legs on the rails of one, and +his hind-legs on the rails of the other; and in this rather arduous +position had painted from him for a considerable time, when a friend was +announced as waiting for him in another apartment. Particularly desirous +of seeing this visitor immediately, the painter hurried from the room, +entirely forgetting to tell 'Prinny' to get down, and remained in +conversation with his friend for full half an hour. On returning to his +study the first object that greeted him was poor 'Prinny,' standing on +his 'bad eminence' exactly in the position in which he had been left, +trembling with fatigue, and occasionally vending his anguish and +distress in a low piteous moan, but not moving a limb, or venturing even +to turn his head. Not having received the usual signal he had never once +attempted to get down, but had remained disconsolate in his position +'sitting' hard, with nobody to paint him, during the long half hour that +had delayed his master's return."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Soldier and the Mastiff</span>.</h4> + +<p>A soldier passing through a meadow, a large mastiff ran at him, and he +stabbed the dog with a bayonet. The master of the dog asked him why he +had not rather struck<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> the dog with the butt-end of his weapon? "So I +should," said the soldier, "if he had run at me with his tail!"<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Bark and Bite.</span></h4> + +<p>Lord Clare, who was much opposed to Curran, one day brought a +Newfoundland dog upon the bench, and during Curran's speech turned +himself aside and caressed the animal. Curran stopped. "Go on, go on, Mr +Curran," said Lord Clare.—"Oh, I beg a thousand pardons," was the +rejoinder. "I really thought your lordship was employed in +<i>consultation</i>."<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Mrs Drew and the Two Dogs.</span></h4> + +<h4>(<span class="smcap">a curiously near approach to moral perception.</span>)</h4> + +<p>In the biography of Samuel Drew, A.M., a great name among the +metaphysical writers of this country, we read a very interesting +anecdote of two dogs.</p> + +<p>His father, a farmer and mail-carrier in Cornwall, had procured a +Newfoundland dog for protection on his journeys, having been attacked by +highwaymen. There was a smaller dog which had been bred in the house. +The son was living at Poplea, in Cornwall, when the following +circumstance occurred, and he witnessed it:<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a>—</p> + +<p>"Our dairy was under a room which was used occasionally as a barn and +apple-chamber, into which the fowls<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> sometimes found their way; and, in +scratching among the chaff, scattered the dust on the pans of milk +below, to the great annoyance of my mother-in-law. In this a favourite +cock of hers was the chief transgressor. One day in harvest she went +into the dairy, followed by the little dog, and finding dust again on +her milk-pans, she exclaimed, 'I wish that cock were dead!' Not long +after, she being with us in the harvest field, we observed the little +dog dragging along the cock, just killed, which, with an air of triumph, +he laid at my mother-in-law's feet. Highly exasperated at the literal +fulfilment of her hastily-uttered wish, she snatched a stick from the +hedge, and attempted to give the dog a beating. The luckless animal, +seeing the reception he was likely to meet with, where he expected marks +of approbation, left the bird and ran off, she brandishing her stick, +and saying, in a loud angry tone, 'I'll pay thee for this by and by.' In +the evening, when about to put her threat into execution, she found the +little dog established in a corner of the room, and the large one +standing before it. Endeavouring to fulfil her intention by first +driving off the large dog, he gave her plainly to understand that he was +not at all disposed to relinquish his post. She then sought to get at +the small dog behind the other, but the threatening gesture, and fiercer +growl of the large one, sufficiently indicated that the attempt would be +not a little perilous. The result was that she was obliged to abandon +her design. In killing the cock I can scarcely think that the dog +understood the precise import of my stepmother's wish, as his immediate +execution of it would seem to imply. The cock was a more recent +favourite, and had received some attentions which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> had previously been +bestowed upon himself. This, I think, had led him to entertain a feeling +of hostility to the bird, which he did not presume to indulge, until my +mother's tone and manner indicated that the cock was no longer under her +protection. In the power of communicating with each other, which these +dogs evidently possess, and which, in some instances, has been displayed +by other species of animals, a faculty seems to be developed of which we +know very little. On the whole, I never remember to have met with a case +in which to human appearance there was a nearer approach to moral +perception than in that of my father's two dogs."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Difference of Exchange.—"Dog-cheap."</span></h4> + +<p>Dining at a nobleman's table, where the company were praising the +claret, his lordship told them that he had received that hogshead of +wine in return for a couple of hounds, which he sometime before +presented to Count Lauragais. "Why, then, my lord," cried Foote, "I not +only think your wine excellent, but <i>dog-cheap</i>."<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Gainsborough and his Wife and their Dogs</span>.</h4> + +<p>Thomas Gainsborough, the rival of Sir Joshua in portraiture, wanted that +evenness of temper which the President of the Royal Academy so +abundantly possessed. He was easily angered, but as soon appeased, and +says his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> biographer,<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> "If he was the first to offend, he was the +first to atone. Whenever he spoke crossly to his wife, a remarkably +sweet-tempered woman, he would write a note of repentance, sign it with +the name of his favourite dog 'Fox,' and address it to his Margaret's +pet spaniel, 'Tristram.' Fox would take the note in his mouth, and duly +deliver it to Tristram. Margaret would then answer—'My own dear Fox, +you are always loving and good, and I am a naughty little female ever to +worry you, as I too often do, so we will kiss and say no more about it; +your own affectionate Tris.'" The writers of such a correspondence could +not have led what is called "a cat and dog life." Husbands and wives +might derive a hint from this anecdote; for we know, from the old +ballad, that they will be sulky and quarrel at times even about getting</p> + +<p class="center"> +"Up to bar the door, O!" +</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Sir William Gell's Dog.</span></h4> + +<p>The reviewer<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> of Sir Thomas Browne's works says—"We ourselves have +witnessed an example of the curious and credulous exaggeration which has +construed certain articulations in animals into rational speech. Some +time since, in travelling through Italy, we heard, in grave earnest, +from several Italians, of the prodigy of a Pomeranian dog that had been +taught to speak most intelligibly by Sir William Gell. Afterwards, in +visiting that accomplished and lamented gentleman at Naples, we +requested to hear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> an animal possessed of so unusual a gift. And, as the +friends of the urban scholar can bear witness, the dog undoubtedly could +utter a howl, which, assisted by the hand of the master in closing the +jaw at certain inflections, might be intelligibly construed into two +words not to be repeated. Such a dog, with such an anathema in his +vocabulary, would have hanged any witch in England three centuries ago."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Elizabeth, the last Duchess of Gordon, and the Wolf-dog Kaiser.</span></h4> + +<p>The Rev. A. Moody Stuart, in his "Life of the last Duchess of +Gordon,"<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> that truly Christian lady, refers to some old pets of the +duke's and her own, which, on her becoming a widow, she took with her +from Gordon Castle to Huntly Lodge, a bullfinch, an immense Talbot +mastiff named Sall, and others. He adds—"To a stranger, the most +remarkable of the duke's old favourites was Kaiser, an Hungarian +wolf-dog, with a snow-white fleece, and most sheep-like aspect in the +distance, but at whose appearance out of doors, man, woman, and child +fled as from a wolf. The duchess called him 'The wolf in sheep's +clothing.' Her husband's tastes having brought her much into contact +with all sorts of dogs, she had learned to pat them confidently at their +first introduction, when a large space between their eyes betokened a +kindly temper. This open breadth of forehead was strongly marked in +Sall, a fine old mastiff that used at this time to walk round the +dining<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>-room after breakfast, with her noble head reaching the level of +the table. But the duke had chosen Kaiser for other qualities. Two of +those wolf-dogs had been brought to him for sale when travelling on the +Continent; the other was the larger and handsomer animal; but Kaiser's +eyes, sunk deep in the head, and all but meeting under his shaggy hair, +at once fixed his choice on him as 'likest his work.' That work was to +defend the sheep from the wolves, and one mode of defence was by laying +a strange trap for the enemy. The dog was remarkably like a sheep, his +hair white without a dark speck, and he carried a great load of it, long +and fleecy like wool. In the Hungarian steppes four or five of those +dogs would lay themselves down on the grass in the evening, sleeping +there like so many harmless lambs, with their faces inward for the heat +of each other's breath. The keen eye of the wolf was soon attracted by +the white fleeces, with no shepherd near to guard them. Eager for blood, +he careered swiftly over the plain, and sprang unsuspecting into the +midst of the flock, only to find himself clenched in the relentless jaws +of Kaiser and his comrades, wolves more terrible than himself under the +clothing of timid sheep. A conversation once took place at the Lodge on +the character ascribed to dogs in Scripture. It slightly vexed the good +duchess that they were so often mentioned in the Bible, but only as +emblems of what is foul and fierce, except in a single instance, and +that not of commendation, but neutrality. This exception, she said, +occurred in the Book of Proverbs, where the greyhound is named, along +with the lion and the goat, as 'comely in going,' yet merely in praise +of his external beauty. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> her difficulty was relieved by the reply, +that in Isaiah lvi. 10, the "dog" is really used in a good sense as +applied to the spiritual watchmen of the Lord's flock. For the +unfaithful shepherds, being there likened to dumb dogs that cannot bark, +were not censured under the simple image of watch-dogs, but because, as +such, they were faithless and useless; implying that the good watch-dog +is an honourable emblem of the true pastor, watching for the souls +committed to his care, and solemnly warning them of approaching danger."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Frederick the Great and his Italian Greyhounds</span>.</h4> + +<p>Dr John Moore, when travelling with the Duke of Hamilton, saw and heard +a good deal of Frederick the Great, and has given in his second volume +of "A View of Society and Manners in France," &c., many interesting +particulars of his private and public life. Among these, he alludes to +his using "a very large gold snuff-box, the lid ornamented with +diamonds," and his taking "an immoderate quantity of Spanish snuff, the +marks of which very often appear on his waistcoat and breeches. These +are also liable to be soiled by the paws of two or three Italian +greyhounds, which he often caresses" (vol. ii. p. 236).</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Dog and the French Murderers. (an occurrence in the spring of 1837.)</span></h4> + +<p>Thomas Raikes,<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> in his Journal 8th March 1837, records:—"Eight years +ago, a labouring man in the depart<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>ment of the Loire was found murdered +in a wood near his house, and his dog sitting near the body. No clue +could be gained to the perpetrators of the crime, and his widow +continued to live in the same cottage, accompanied always by the +faithful animal. Last week two men, apparently travellers, stopped at +the house, requesting shelter from the storm, which was granted; but no +sooner had the dog perceived them, than he flew at them with fury, and +could not be pacified. As they were quitting the house, one of them said +to the other, 'That rascally dog has not forgotten us.' This raised the +suspicion of the widow, who overheard it, and applying to the gendarmes +in the neighbourhood, they followed and arrested them. The result has +been that, after a long examination, one of them has confessed the +crime, and impeached his associate."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Hannah More wrote an ode addressed to Garrick's famous house-dog Dragon. +A copy of this she gave to Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1777, while still +unprinted, under an oath neither to take nor give a copy of it, which +oath Sir Joshua had observed (she says) like a true knight, only reading +it to his visitors till some of them learned it by heart. The "charming +bagatelle" was afterwards printed, that posterity might be enabled to +wonder what a small expenditure of wit in metre sufficed to purchase a +large modicum of fame among the blues of that day.<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Robert Hall and the Dog</span>.</h4> + +<p>The eloquent Robert Hall and Dr Leifchild were often in each other's +company when at Bristol, travelling and preaching together at +anniversaries and ordinations. The son and biographer of the latter +says:<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a>—"I rode with them from Bristol to Wells, and can now, in +imagination, see Mr Hall smoking and reclining on one seat of the +carriage, while my father sat on the other. I can see Mr Hall descending +at a blacksmith's shop to re-light his pipe, making his way directly to +the forge, and jumping aside with unwonted agility, when a huge dog +growled at him. I can recall his look, when rallied on his agility, +after his return to the carriage. 'You seemed afraid of the dog, sir,' +said my father. 'Apostolic advice, sir—Beware of dogs,' rejoined Mr +Hall." Dr Leifchild, in another part of the memoir (p. 360), relates +that some housekeeper would exclaim to him, as he was about to enter the +house of friend or stranger, "Don't be afraid of the dog, sir, he never +bites."—"Are you quite sure he never bites?" was his prompt +question.—"Quite sure, sir," rejoined the servant.—"Then," rejoined +the good-humoured doctor, "if he never <i>bites</i>, how does he live?"</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">A Queen and her Lap-dog</span>.</h4> + +<p>Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I., on her return to Burlington Bay +with assistance for her husband, was attacked in the house where she +slept by the cannonade of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> five ships of war belonging to the +Parliament. She left the house amid the whistling of balls, one of which +killed one of her servants. When on her way to the shelter of a ditch, +she remembered that an aged lap-dog, called "Mitte," was left behind. +She was much attached to this old favourite, and returned to the house +she had left. Rushing up-stairs into her chamber, she caught up her old +pet, which was reposing on her bed, and carried her off in safety. +Having done this, the queen and her ladies gained the ditch, and +crouched down in it, while the cannon played furiously over their +heads.<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Clever Dog that belonged to the Hunters of Polmood</span>.</h4> + +<p>The estate of Polmood, in Peeblesshire, was the subject of extraordinary +litigation, and a volume of considerable bulk is devoted to its history. +This work contains much curious evidence from aged country folks in the +western parts of the country. Mr Chambers<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> tells us that in the +history "reminiscences concerning a wonderfully clever dog are put +forward as links in the line of propinquity." The deponent has heard his +father say that Robert Hunter had a remarkable dog called "Algiers;" and +that, when Robert lived at Woodend, he used to tie a napkin round the +dog's neck with money in it, and send him for snuff to Lammington, which +is about three miles from Woodend, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> that the dog executed his +message faithfully, and prevented everybody from laying hold of or +stopping him. Another venerable deponent, aged eighty-nine, had heard +his mother tell many stories about a dog belonging to Uncle Robert, +which went by the name of "Algiers;" that they used to cut a fleece off +him every year sufficient to make a pair of stockings; and that Uncle +Robert used to tie a purse round his neck, with money in it, and the dog +then swam the Tweed, and brought back tobacco from the Crook! And a +third declares that "Algiers" could be sent to Edinburgh with a letter, +and bring back a letter to his master.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Irish Clergyman and the Dogs.</span></h4> + +<p>Mr Fitzpatrick, in his anecdotal memoirs of Archbishop Whately, tells a +story of an eccentric Irish parson. This person, when preaching, was +interrupted in his homily by two dogs, which began to fight in church. +He descended the pulpit, and endeavoured to separate them. On returning +to his place, the clergyman, who was rather an absent man, asked the +clerk, "Where was I a while ago?"—"Wasn't yer Riverence appaising the +dogs?" responded the other.<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Washington Irving and the Dog.</span></h4> + +<p>Patrick Fraser Tytler, author of "The History of Scotland," in a letter +to his wife in 1830, says—"At Lady Morton's, one evening, I met with +Washington Irving. I had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> heard him described as a very silent man, who +was always observing others, but seldom opened his lips. Instead of +which, his tongue never lay still; and he gets out more wee wordies in a +minute than any ordinary converser does in five. But I found him a very +intelligent and agreeable man. I put him in mind of his travelling with +our dear Tommy. He had at first no recollection; but I brought it back +to his memory by the incident of the little black dog, who always went +before the horses in pulling up hill, and pretended to assist them. I +put him in mind of his own wit, 'that he wondered if the doggie mistook +himself for a horse;' at which he laughed, and added, 'Yes, and thought +it very hard that he was not rubbed down at the end of the +journey.'"<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Douglas Jerrold and his Dog.</span></h4> + +<p>Jerrold had a favourite dog that followed him everywhere. One day in the +country, a lady, who was passing, turned round and said audibly, "What +an ugly little brute!" Whereupon Jerrold, addressing the lady, replied, +"Oh, madam! I wonder what he thinks <i>about us</i> at this moment."<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Sheridan and the Dog.</span></h4> + +<p>After witnessing the first representation of a dog-piece by Reynolds, +called the "Caravan," Sheridan suddenly came into the green-room, on +purpose, it was imagined, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> wish the author joy. "Where is he?" was +the first question; "where is my guardian angel?"—"Here I am," answered +Reynolds.—"Pooh!" replied Sheridan, "I don't mean <i>you</i>, I mean <i>the +dog</i>."<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Charles Lamb and his Dog.</span></h4> + +<p>Thomas Hood had a dog called "Dash." This dog he gave to Charles Lamb. +The ready-witted Elia often took the creature out with him when walking +at Enfield. On one occasion, the dog dashed off to chase some young +sheep. The owner of the muttons came out quite indignant at the owner, +to expostulate with him on the assault of Lamb's dog on his sheep. Elia, +with his quiet ready wit, replied, "Hunt <i>Lambs</i>, sir?—why, he never +hunted <i>me</i>."<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">French Dogs, time of Louis XI.—History of his dog "Relais" by Louis +XII.</span></h4> + +<p>Horace Walpole, in one of his gossiping letters to the Countess of +Ossory in 1781, writes, "You must not be surprised if I should send you +a collection of Tonton's <i>bons-mots</i>. I have found a precedent for such +a work. A grave author wrote a book on the 'Hunt of the Grand Senechal +of Normandy,' and of <i>les <span class="smcap">Dits</span> du bon chien Souillard, qui fut au Roi +Loy de France onzieme du nom</i>. Louis XII., the reverse of the +predecessor of the same name, did not leave to his historian to +celebrate his dog<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> "Relais," but did him the honour of being his +biographer himself; and for a reason that was becoming so excellent a +king. It was <i>pour animer les descendans d'un si brave chien à se rendre +aussi bons que lui, et encore meilleurs</i>. It was great pity the Cardinal +d'Amboise had no bastard puppies, or, to be sure, his Majesty would have +written his Prime Minister's life too, for a model to his +successors."<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Martin Luther observes a Dog at Lintz.</span></h4> + +<p>In the "Table Talk" of Martin Luther, it is recorded:—"I saw a dog at +Lintz, in Austria, that was taught to go with a hand-basket to the +butchers' shambles for meat. When other dogs came about him, and sought +to take the meat out of the basket, he set it down and fought lustily +with them; but when he saw they were too strong for him, he himself +would snatch out the first piece of meat, lest he should lose all. Even +so does now our Emperor Charles; who, after having long protected +spiritual benefices, seeing that every prince takes possession of +monasteries, himself takes possession of bishoprics, as just now he has +seized upon those of Utrecht and Liège."<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Poor Dog at the Grotta del Cane.</span></h4> + +<p>Henry Matthews,<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> like other visitors of Naples, went to the +celebrated <i>Grotta del Cane</i>, or Dog Grotto, on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> borders of Lake +Agnano, so called from the vapour in the cave, destructive to animal +life, being shown by means of a dog. In his diary, of March 3, 1818, he +records:—"Travellers have made a great display of sensibility in their +strictures upon the spectacle exhibited here; but to all appearance the +dog did not care much about it. It may be said, with truth of him, that +he is <i>used</i> to it; for he dies many times a day, and he went to the +place of execution wagging his tail. He became insensible in two +minutes; but upon being laid on the grass, he revived from his trance in +a few seconds, without the process of immersion in the lake, which is +generally mentioned as necessary to his recovery. From the voracity with +which he bolted down a loaf of bread which I bought for him, the vapour +does not seem to injure the animal functions. Addison seems to have been +very particular in his experiments upon the vapour of this cavern. He +found that a pistol would not take fire in it; but upon laying a train +of gunpowder, and igniting it beyond the sphere of the vapour, he found +that it could not intercept the train of fire when it had once begun +flashing, nor hinder it from running to the very end. He subjected a dog +to a second trial in order to ascertain whether he was longer in +expiring the first than the second time; and he found there was no +sensible difference. A viper bore it <i>nine minutes</i> the first time he +put it in, and <i>ten minutes</i> the second; and he attributes the prolonged +duration of the second trial to the large provision of air that the +viper laid in after his first death, upon which stock he supposes it to +have existed a minute longer the second time."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Dog, a Postman and Carrier.</span></h4> + +<p>Robert Southey says, that "near Moffat a dog used for many years to meet +the mail and receive the letters for a little post-town near."<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a></p> + +<p>How often may you see a dog carrying a basket or a parcel. No +enticement, even of a dog-friend or of a great bone, will induce this +faithful servant to abandon his charge. Every one must have observed +this.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Dog-matic.</span></h4> + +<p>In the great dispute between South and Sherlock, the latter, who was a +great courtier, said—"His adversary reasoned well, but he barked like a +cur." To which the other replied, "That <i>fawning</i> was the property of a +cur as well as barking."<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">General Moreau and his Greyhound.</span></h4> + +<p>"The day after the battle of Dresden (27th Aug. 1812), a greyhound was +brought to the King of Saxony, the ally of Napoleon. The dog was moaning +piteously. On the collar were engraved the words, 'I belong to the +General Moreau.' Where was the dog's master? By the side of the Emperor +Alexander. Moreau had been mortally wounded. The dog had remained with +his master until his death. While Moreau was conversing with the Emperor +Alexander a cannon-shot nearly carried off both<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> his legs. It is said +that throughout the five days during which he lingered he uttered not a +murmur of pain."<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>At the battle of Solferino, where rifled cannon were first brought to +bear in warfare, a dog excited great attention by its attachment to the +body of its slain master. It became the chief object in a painting of +the circumstance, from which an engraving was executed.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">A Duke of Norfolk and his Spaniels.</span></h4> + +<p>In Southey's "Common-place Book," 4th ser. p. 479, he writes—"Our +Marlborough and King James's spaniels are unrivalled in beauty. The +latter breed (black and tan, with hair almost approaching to silk in +fineness, such as Vandyke loved to introduce into his portraits) were +solely in the possession of the late Duke of Norfolk. He never travelled +without two of his favourites in the carriage. When at Worksop he used +to feed his eagles with the pups; and a stranger to his exclusive pride +in the race, seeing him one day employed in thus destroying a whole +litter, told his grace how much he should be delighted to possess one of +them. The duke's reply was a characteristic one. 'Pray, sir, which of my +estates should you like to have?'"</p> + +<p>There are shepherds who possess collies, such <i>proud</i>, useful servants +and friends, that no bribe would induce them to part with them. But what +old favourite dog or even bird is there that any one would part with? +Man, be he scavenger or duke, is very similar in this species of +attachment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Lord North and the Dog.</span></h4> + +<p>In several of the caricatures published about the year 1783, when Fox +and Burke had joined Lord North, and helped to form what is called the +Coalition Ministry, a dog is represented. This, says Mr Wright,<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> is +said to be an allusion to an occurrence in the House of Commons. During +the last defensive declamation of Lord North, on the eve of his +resignation, a dog, which had concealed itself under the benches, came +out and set up a hideous howling in the midst of his harangue. The house +was thrown into a roar of laughter, which continued until the intruder +was turned out; and then Lord North coolly observed, "As the new member +has ended his argument, I beg to be allowed to continue mine."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Perthes derives Hints From his Dog.</span></h4> + +<p>In a letter, written when he first came to Gotha, Perthes, the +publisher, says—"Do not laugh if I tell you that my dog has given me +many a hint upon human nature. I never before had a dog constantly with +me, and I now ask myself whether the poodle be not a man, and men +poodles. I am not led to this thought by the animal propensities which +we have in common, such as eating, drinking, &c., but by those of a more +refined character. He too is cheerful and dejected, excited and supine, +playful and morose, gentle and bold, caressing and snappish, patient<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +and refractory; just like us men in all things, even in his dreams! This +likeness is not to me at all discouraging; on the contrary, it suggests +a pleasing hope that this flesh and blood which plagues and fetters us, +is not the real man, but merely the earthly clothing which will be cast +off when he no longer belongs to earth, provided he has not sinfully +chosen to identify himself with the merely material. The devil's chief +seat is not in matter but in the mind, where he fosters pride, +selfishness, and hatred, and by their means destroys not what is +transitory but what is eternal in man."<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Peter the Great and his favourite dog Lisette.</span></h4> + +<p>Mr Stœhlin<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> relates the following anecdote of the Czar Peter, on +the authority of Miss Anne Cramer, the chambermaid to the empress. In +the cabinet of natural history of the academy at St Petersburg, is +preserved, among a number of uncommon animals, Lisette, the favourite +dog of the Russian monarch. She was a small, dun-coloured Italian +greyhound, and very fond of her master, whom she never quitted but when +he went out, and then she laid herself down on his couch. At his return +she showed her fondness by a thousand caresses, followed him wherever he +went, and during his afternoon nap lay always at his feet.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p> + +<p>A person belonging to the court, having excited the anger of the czar—I +do not know by what means—was confined in the fort, and there was +reason to suppose that he would receive the punishment of the knout on +the first market-day. The whole court, and the empress herself, thought +him innocent, and considered the anger of the czar as excessive and +unjust. Every means was tried to save him, and the first opportunity +taken to intercede in his favour. But, so far from succeeding, it served +only to irritate the emperor the more, who forbade all persons, even the +empress, to speak for the prisoner, and, above all, to present any +petition on the subject, under the pain of incurring his highest +displeasure.</p> + +<p>It was supposed that no resource remained to save the culprit. However, +those who in concert with the czarina interested themselves in his +favour, devised the means of urging their suit without incurring the +penalty of the prohibition.</p> + +<p>They composed a short but pathetic petition, in the name of Lisette. +After having set forth her uncommon fidelity to her master, she adduced +the strongest proofs of innocence of the prisoner, entreated the czar to +take the matter into consideration, and to be propitious to her prayer, +by granting him his liberty.</p> + +<p>This petition was tied to her collar, in such a manner as to be easily +visible.</p> + +<p>On the czar's return from the Admiralty and Senate, Lisette, as usual, +came leaping about him; and he perceived the paper, folded in the form +of a petition. He took, and read it—"What!" said he; "Lisette, do you +also present me petitions? Well, as it is the first time, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> grant your +prayer." He immediately sent a denthtchick<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> to the fort, with orders +to set the prisoner at liberty.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Light Company's Poodle and Sir F. Ponsonby.</span></h4> + +<p>Captain Gronow, in his gossiping book,<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> says—"Every regiment has a +pet of some sort or another. One distinguished Highland regiment +possesses a deer; the Welsh Fusiliers a goat, which is the object of +their peculiar affection, and which generally marches with the band. The +light company of my battalion of the 1st Guards in 1813 rejoiced in a +very handsome poodle, which, if I mistake not, had been made prisoner at +Vittoria. At the commencement of the battle of the 9th of December 1813, +near the mayor's house, not far from Bidart, we observed the gallant +Frederick Ponsonby well in front with the skirmishers, and by the side +of his horse the soldiers' poodle. The colonel was encouraging our men +to advance, and the poodle, in great glee, was jumping and barking at +the bullets, as they flew round him like hail. On a sudden we observed +Ponsonby struggling with a French mounted officer, whom he had already +disarmed, and was endeavouring to lead off to our lines; when the French +skirmishers, whose numbers had increased, fired several shots, and +wounded Ponsonby, forcing him to relinquish his prisoner, and to retire. +At the same time, a bullet broke one of the poor dog's legs. For his +gallant conduct in this affair, the poodle became, if possible, a still +greater<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> favourite than he was before; and his friends, the men of the +light company, took him to England, where I saw my three-legged friend +for several years afterwards, the most prosperous of poodles, and the +happiest of the canine race."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Admiral Rodney and his dog Loup.</span></h4> + +<p>Earl Stanhope, in his History,<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> remarks—"To those who love to trace +the lesser lights and shades of human character, I shall owe no apology +if I venture to record of the conqueror of De Grasse, that even in his +busiest hours he could turn some kindly thoughts not only to his family +and friends, but to his dog in England. That dog, named Loup, was of the +French fox-breed, and so attached to his master, that when the admiral +left home to take the command of his fleet, the faithful animal remained +for three days in his chamber, watching his coat, and refusing food. The +affection was warmly returned. On many more than one occasion we find +Rodney wrote much as follows to his wife—'Remember me to my dear girls +and my faithful friend Loup; I know you will kiss him for me.'"<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Ruddiman and his dog Rascal.</span></h4> + +<p>George Chalmers, in his Life of the learned Thomas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> Ruddiman,<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> tells +us that "young Ruddiman was initiated in grammar at the parish-school of +Boyndie, in Banffshire, which was distant a mile from his father's +dwelling; and which was then taught by George Morison, whom his pupil +always praised for his attention and his skill. To this school the boy +walked every morning, carrying his daily provisions with him. He is said +to have been daily accompanied by a dog, which, when he had proceeded to +the top of Tooting-hillock, the halfway resting-place, always returned +home after partaking of his victuals. This story is still (1794) +remembered, as if there were in it something supernatural. We may +suppose, however, that the excursion was equally agreeable to both +parties; and when it was once known that the dog was to eat at a +particular place at a stated hour, an appropriate allowance was +constantly made for him. Whether Ruddiman had a natural fondness for +dogs, or whether a particular attachment began, when impressions are +easily made, which are long remembered, cannot now be ascertained. He +certainly, throughout a long life, had a succession of dogs, which were +invariably called <i>Rascal</i>; and which, being springing spaniels, ever +accompanied him in all his walks. He used, with affectionate +recollection, to entertain his friends with stories of dogs, which all +tended to show the fidelity of that useful animal to man."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mrs Schimmelpenninck, authoress of "Select Memoirs of Port Royal," died +in 1856. Her interesting Autobio<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>graphy and Life were published in 1858 +by her relation, Christiana C. Hankin. In p. 467 it is remarked that +"her love of animals formed quite a feature in her daily habits. Like St +Francis, she delighted to attract the little birds, by tempting them +with dainty food upon her verandah; and it was a positive pleasure to +her to watch their feast. She had a bag made, which was always filled +with oats, to regale any stray horse or ass; and she has been seen +surrounded by four goats, each standing on its hind legs, with its +uplifted front feet resting on her, and all eagerly claiming the salt +she had prepared for them. But her great delight was in dogs. She never +forgot those sad hours in childhood, when, unable to mix in the sports +of children from illness (perhaps, too, from her want of sympathy in the +usual pleasures of that age), the beautiful dogs at Barr were her +companions and friends.</p> + +<p>"It is no figure of speech to say that she had a large acquaintance +amongst the dogs at Clifton. She always carried a pocketful of biscuit +to feed them; and she had a canine friend who for years was in the daily +habit of waiting at her door to accompany her morning walk, after which +he received his little portion of biscuit, and returned to his home. +Timid as Mrs Schimmelpenninck was by nature and by habit, she had no +idea of personal fear of animals, and especially of dogs. I have seen +her go up without hesitation to some splendid specimen of the race, of +which everybody else was afraid, to stroke him, or offer food; when the +noble creature, with that fine perception often so remarkably manifested +by dogs and children, would look up in her face, and then return her +caress, and crouch down at her feet in love and confidence. Her own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> two +beautiful little spaniels were her constant companions in her walks; +their happy gambols were always a source of pleasure."<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Sir Walter Scott loved dogs dearly. In his novels and poetical works his +knowledge of them and his regard often appear. He loved them, from the +stately deerhound to the wiry terrier. He was quite up to the ways of +their education. Dandie Dinmont, in "Guy Mannering," speaking of his +terriers, says, "I had them a' regularly entered, first wi' rottens, +then wi' stots and weasels, and then wi' the tods and brocks, and now +they fear naething that ever comes wi' a hairy skin on't." Then, again, +read Washington Irving's description of his visit to Abbotsford, and +how, on Scott taking him out for a walk, a host of his dogs attended, +evidently as a matter of course. He often spoke to them during the walk. +The American author was struck with the stately gravity of the noble +staghound Maida, while the younger dogs gambolled about him, and tried +to get him to gambol. Maida would occasionally turn round suddenly, and +give one of the playful creatures a tumble, and look at Scott and +Irving, as much as to say, "You see, gentlemen, I cannot help giving way +to this nonsense;" when on he would go as grave as ever. "I make no +doubt," said Scott to his companion, "when Maida is alone with these +young dogs, he throws gravity aside, and plays the boy as much as any of +them; but he is ashamed to do so in our company, and seems to say, "Ha' +done with your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> nonsense, youngsters; what will the laird and that other +gentleman think of me if I give way to such foolery?" A little volume +might almost be made on Sir Walter Scott and his dogs. Wilkie, Allan, +and especially Sir Edwin Landseer, have handed down to us the portraits +of many of them. His works, and biography by Lockhart, and the writings +of his many visitors, would afford many an interesting extract.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Sheridan on the Dog-Tax.</span></h4> + +<p>In 1796, a tax, which caused great discontent and ridicule, was laid for +the first time upon dogs. Mr Wright, in his "England under the House of +Hanover," says—"The debates on this tax in the House of Commons appear +to have been extremely amusing. In opposing the motion to go into +committee, Sheridan objected that the bill was most curiously worded, as +it was, in the first instance, entitled, 'A bill for the protection of +his Majesty's subjects against dogs.' 'From these words,' he said, 'one +would imagine that dogs had been guilty of burglary, though he believed +they were a better protection to their masters' property than watchmen.' +After having entertained the House with some stories about mad dogs, and +giving a discourse upon dogs in general, he asked, 'Since there was an +exception in favour of puppies, at what age they were to be taxed, and +how the exact age was to be ascertained?' The Secretary at War, who +spoke against the bill, said, 'It would be wrong to destroy in the poor +that <i>virtuous feeling</i> which they had for their dog.' In committee, Mr +Lechmere called the attention of the House<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> to ladies' 'lap-dogs.' He +knew a lady who had <i>sixteen</i> lap-dogs, and who allowed them a roast +shoulder of veal every day for dinner, while many poor persons were +starving; was it not, therefore, right to tax lap-dogs very high? He +knew another lady who kept one favourite dog, when well, on Savoy +biscuits soaked in Burgundy, and when ailing (by the advice of a doctor) +on minced chicken and sweetbread! Among the caricatures on this subject, +one by Gillray (of which there were imitations) represented Fox and his +friends, hanged upon a gallows, as 'dogs not worth a tax;' while the +supporters of Government, among whom is Burke, with 'G. R.' on his +collar, are ranged as well-fed dogs 'paid for.'"<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Sydney Smith dislikes Dogs.</span></h4> + +<h4><span class="smcap">an ingenious way of getting rid of them.</span></h4> + +<p>Lady Holland tells us<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> that her father, the witty canon of St Paul's, +disliked dogs. "During one of his visits to London, at a dinner at +Spencer House, the conversation turned upon dogs. 'Oh,' said my father, +'one of the greatest difficulties I have had with my parishioners has +been on the subject of dogs.'—'How so?' said Lord Spencer.—'Why, when +I first went down into Yorkshire, there had not been a resident +clergyman in my parish for a hundred and fifty years. Each farmer kept a +huge mastiff dog ranging at large, and ready to make his morning meal on +clergy or laity, as best suited his particular taste. I never could +approach a cottage in pursuit of my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> calling but I rushed into the jaws +of one of these shaggy monsters. I scolded, preached, and prayed without +avail; so I determined to try what fear for their pockets might do. +Forthwith appeared in the county papers a minute account of the trial of +a farmer, at the Northampton Sessions, for keeping dogs unconfined; +where said farmer was not only fined five pounds and reprimanded by the +magistrates, but sentenced to three months' imprisonment. The effect was +wonderful, and the reign of Cerberus ceased in the land.'—'That +accounts,' said Lord Spencer, 'for what has puzzled me and Althorp for +many years. We never failed to attend the sessions at Northampton, and +we never could find out how we had missed this remarkable dog case.'"</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Sydney Smith on Dogs.</span><a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a></h4> + +<p>"No, I don't like dogs; I always expect them to go mad. A lady asked me +once for a motto for her dog Spot. I proposed, 'Out, damned Spot!' But +she did not think it sentimental enough. You remember the story of the +French marquise, who, when her pet lap-dog bit a piece out of her +footman's leg, exclaimed, 'Ah, poor little beast! I hope it won't make +him sick.' I called one day on Mrs ——, and her lap-dog flew at my leg +and bit it. After pitying her dog, like the French marquise, she did all +she could to comfort me by assuring me the dog was a Dissenter, and +hated the Church, and was brought up in a Tory family. But whether the +bite came from madness or Dissent, I knew myself too well to neglect it, +and went on the instant to a surgeon, and had it cut out, making a mem. +on the way to enter that house no more."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Sydney Smith's "Newfoundland Dog that breakfasted on Parish Boys."</span></h4> + +<p>The Rev. Sydney Smith used to be much amused when he observed the utter +want of perception of a joke in some minds. One instance we may cite +from his "Memoirs:"<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a> "Miss ——, the other day, walking round the +grounds at Combe Florey, exclaimed, 'Oh, why do you chain up that fine +Newfoundland dog, Mr Smith?'—'Because it has a passion for breakfasting +on parish boys.'—'Parish boys!' she exclaimed; 'does he really eat +boys, Mr Smith?'—'Yes, he devours them, buttons and all.' Her face of +horror made me die of laughing."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Southey on Dogs.</span></h4> + +<p>Southey was likewise not a little attached to the memory at least of +dogs, as may be inferred by the following passage in a letter to Mr +Bedford, Jan. 27, 1823. Snivel was a dog belonging to Mr B. in early +days. "We had an adventure this morning, which, if poor Snivel had been +living, would have set up her bristles in great style. A foumart was +caught in the back kitchen; you may perhaps know it better by the name +of polecat. It is the first I ever saw or smelt; and certainly it was in +high odour. Poor Snivel! I still have the hairs which we cut from her +tail thirty years ago; and if it were the fashion for men to wear +lockets, in a locket they should be worn, for I never had a greater +respect for any creature upon four legs than for poor Sni. See how +naturally men fall into relic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> worship; when I have preserved the +memorials of that momentary whim so many years, and through so many +removals."<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Dog, a Good Judge of Elocution.</span></h4> + +<p>When Dr Leifchild, of Craven Chapel, London, was a student at Hoxton +Academy, there was a good lecturer on elocution there of the name of +True. In the Memoir, published in 1863, are some pleasing reminiscences +by Dr Leifchild of this excellent teacher, who seems to have taken great +pains with the students, and to have awakened in their breasts a desire +to become proficients in the art of speaking. The doctor himself was an +admirable example of the proficiency thus attained under good Mr True. +He records<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> a ludicrous circumstance which occurred one day. "In +reciting Satan's address to the evil spirits from 'Paradise Lost,' a +stout student was enjoined to pronounce the three words, 'Princes, +potentates, warriors,' in successively louder tones, and to speak out +boldly. He hardly needed this advice, for the first word came out like +distant thunder, the second like approaching thunder, and the third like +a terribly near and loud clap. At this last the large housedog, +Pompey, who had been asleep under the teacher's chair, started up and +jumped out of the window into the garden. 'The dog is a good judge, +sir,' mildly remarked Mr True."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Cowper's dog Beau and the Water-Lily.</span></h4> + +<h4><span class="smcap">illustrated by the story of as intelligent a dog.</span></h4> + +<p>In <i>Blackwood's Magazine</i> for 1818 there is an address, in blank verse, +by Mr Patrick Fraser Tytler, "To my Dog." Mr Tytler's brother-in-law, Mr +Hog,<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a> recorded the fact on which this address was founded in his +diary at the time. "Peter tells a delightful anecdote of Cossack, an +Isle of Skye terrier, which belonged originally to his brother at +Aldourie. It was amazingly fond of his children, one of which, having +fallen on the gravel and hurt itself, began to cry out. Cossack tried in +vain to comfort it by leaping upon it and licking its face. Finding all +his efforts to pacify the child fruitless, he ran off to a mountain-ash +tree, and leaping up, pulled a branch of red <i>rowan</i> berries and carried +it in his mouth to the child."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Horace Walpole's pet dog Rosette.</span></h4> + +<p>Horace Walpole, writing to Lord Nuneham in November 1773,<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> +says:—"The rest of my time has been employed in nursing Rosette—alas! +to no purpose. After suffering dreadfully for a fortnight from the time +she was seized at Nuneham, she has only languished till about ten days +ago. As I have nothing to fill my letter, I will send you her epitaph; +it has no merit, for it is an imitation, but in coming from the heart if +ever epitaph did, and therefore your dogmanity will not dislike it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">'Sweetest roses of the year,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Strew around my Rose's bier,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Calmly may the dust repose</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Of my pretty, faithful Rose!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And if yon cloud-topp'd hill<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a> behind</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">This frame dissolved, this breath resign'd,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Some happier isle, some humbler heaven,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Be to my trembling wishes given;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Admitted to that equal sky,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">May sweet Rose bear me company!'"</span><br /> +</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Arrival of Tonton, a pet dog, to Walpole.—Tonton does not understand +English.</span></h4> + +<p>Horace Walpole, in May 1781,<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> had announced Tonton's arrival to his +correspondent, the Hon. H. S. Conway. He says:—"I brought him this +morning to take possession of his new villa, but his inauguration has +not been at all pacific. As he has already found out that he may be as +despotic as at St Joseph's, he began with exiling my beautiful little +cat, upon which, however, we shall not quite agree. He then flew at one +of my dogs, who returned it by biting his foot till it bled, but was +severely beaten for it. I immediately rung for Margaret (his +housekeeper) to dress his foot; but in the midst of my tribulation could +not keep my countenance, for she cried, 'Poor little thing; he does not +understand my language!' I hope she will not recollect, too, that he is +a Papist!" In a postscript he tells the general that Tonton "is a +cavalier, and a little of the <i>mousquetaire</i> still; but if I do not +correct his vivacities,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> at least I shall not encourage them, like my +dear old friend."</p> + +<p>In a letter of about the same date to Mason the poet, he again alludes +to his fondness of Tonton, but adds—"I have no occasion to brag of my +dogmanity."<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a></p> + +<p>Horace Walpole, in 1774, thus refers to Margaret, in a letter to Lady +Ossory:—"Who is to have the care of the dear mouse in your absence? I +wish I could spare Margaret, who loves all creatures so well that she +would have been happy in the ark, and sorry when the deluge ceased; +unless people had come to see Noah's old house, which she would have +liked still better than cramming his menagerie."<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a> A sly allusion to +the numerous fees Margaret got from visitors. Horace, in another of his +letters, alludes to this, and, in a joke, proposes to marry Margaret to +enrich himself.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Horace Walpole.—Death of his dog Tonton.</span></h4> + +<p>Horace Walpole, writing to the Countess of Ossory, Feb. 24, 1789,<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> +says:—"I delayed telling you that Tonton is dead, and that I comfort +myself. He was grown stone deaf, and very nearly equally blind, and so +weak that the two last days he could not walk up-stairs. Happily he had +not suffered, and died close by my side without a pang or a groan. I +have had the satisfaction, for my dear old friend's sake and his own, of +having nursed him up, by constant attention, to the age of sixteen, yet +always afraid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> of his surviving me, as it was scarcely possible he could +meet a third person who would study his happiness equally. I sent him to +Strawberry, and went thither on Sunday to see him buried behind the +chapel near Rosette. I shall miss him greatly, and must not have another +dog; I am too old, and should only breed it up to be unhappy when I am +gone. My resource is in two marble kittens that Mrs Damer has given me, +of her own work, and which are so much alive that I talk to them, as I +did to poor Tonton! If this is being superannuated, no matter; when +dotage can amuse itself it ceases to be an evil. I fear my marble +playfellows are better adapted to me, than I am to being your ladyship's +correspondent." Poor Tonton was left to Walpole by "poor dear Madame de +Deffand." In a letter to the Rev. Mr Cole, in 1781, he announces its +arrival, and how "she made me promise to take care of it the last time I +saw her. That I will most religiously, and make it as happy as is +possible."<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Archbishop Whately and his Dogs.</span></h4> + +<p>"In these rambles he was generally attended by three +uncompromising-looking dogs, the heads of which, if it were possible to +draw them together in shamrock form, would forcibly suggest Cerberus. +Richard Whately found, or thought he found, in the society of these dogs +far brighter intelligence, and infinitely more fidelity, than in many of +the Oxford men, who had been fulsomely praised for both.</p> + +<p>"In devotion to his dogs, Dr Whately continued true to the end of his +life, and during the winter season might be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> daily seen in St Stephen's +Green, Dublin, playing at 'tig' or 'hide and seek' with his canine +attendants. Sometimes the old archbishop might be seen clambering up a +tree, secreting his handkerchief or pocket-knife in some cunning nook, +then resuming his walk, and, after a while, suddenly affecting to have +lost these articles, which the dogs never failed immediately to regain.</p> + +<p>"That he was a close observer of the habits of dogs and other quadrupeds +we have evidence in his able lecture on 'Animal Instinct.' Dr Whately, +when referring to another subject, once said not irrelevantly, 'The +power of duly appreciating <i>little</i> things belongs to a great mind: a +narrow-minded man has it not, for to him they are <i>great</i> things.' Dr +Whately was of opinion that some brutes were as capable of exercising +reason as instinct. In his 'Lectures and Reviews' (p. 64) he tells of a +dog which, being left on the bank of a river by his master, who had gone +up the river in a boat, attempted to join him. He plunged into the +water, but not making allowance for the strength of the stream, which +carried him considerably below the boat, he could not beat up against +it. He landed, and made allowance for the current of the river by +leaping in at a place higher up. The combined action of the stream and +his swimming carried him in an oblique direction, and he thus reached +the boat. Dr Whately adopts the following conclusion—'It appears, then, +that we can neither deny reason universally and altogether to brutes, +nor instinct to man; but that each possesses a share of both, though in +very different proportions.'"<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Sir David Wilkie could not see a Pun.—"A Dog-Rose."</span></h4> + +<p>The son and biographer of William Collins, the Royal Academician,<a name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> +quotes from a manuscript collection of anecdotes, written by that +charming painter of country life and landscape, the following on Sir +David Wilkie:—"Wilkie was not quick in perceiving a joke, although he +was always anxious to do so, and to recollect humorous stories, of which +he was exceedingly fond. As instances, I recollect once when we were +staying at Mr Wells's, at Redleaf, one morning at breakfast a very small +puppy was running about under the table. 'Dear me,' said a lady, 'how +this creature teases me!' I took it up and put it into my breast-pocket. +Mr Wells said, 'That is a pretty nosegay.'—'Yes,' said I, 'it is a +dog-rose.' Wilkie's attention, sitting opposite, was called to his +friend's pun, but all in vain. He could not be persuaded to see anything +in it. I recollect trying once to explain to him, with the same want of +success, Hogarth's joke in putting the sign of the woman without a head +('The Good Woman') under the window from which the quarrelsome wife is +throwing the dinner into the street."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Ulysses and his Dog.</span></h4> + +<p>Richard Payne Knight, in his "Inquiry into the Principles of +Taste,"<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a> when treating of the "sublime and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> pathetic," quotes the +story of Ulysses and his dog, as follows:—"No Dutch painter ever +exhibited an image less imposing, or less calculated to inspire awe and +terror, or any other of Burke's symptoms or sources of the sublime +(unless, indeed, it be a stink), than the celebrated dog of Ulysses +lying upon a dunghill, covered with vermin and in the agonies of death; +yet, when in such circumstances, on hearing the voice of his old master, +who had been absent twenty years, he pricks his ears, wags his tail, and +expires, what heart is not at once melted, elevated, and expanded with +all those glowing feelings which Longinus has so well described as the +genuine effects of the true sublime? That master, too—the patient, +crafty, and obdurate Ulysses, who encounters every danger and bears +every calamity with a constancy unshaken, a spirit undepressed, and a +temper unruffled—when he sees this faithful old servant perishing in +want, misery, and neglect, yet still remembering his long-lost +benefactor, and collecting the last effort of expiring nature to give a +sign of joy and gratulation at his return, hides his face and wipes away +the tear! This is true sublimity of character, which is always mixed +with tenderness—mere sanguinary ferocity being terrible and odious, but +never sublime. Αγαθοι πολυδαχρυτοιανδρες—<i>Men prone to tears +are brave</i>, says the proverbial Greek hemistich; for courage, which does +not arise from mere coarseness of organisation, but from that sense of +dignity and honour which constitutes the generous pride of a high mind, +is founded in sensibility."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="WOLF" id="WOLF"></a>WOLF.</h2> + + +<p>Surely the man should get a monument who is proved to have killed the +last she-wolf in these islands. How closely allied the wolf is to the +dog may be clearly read in the accounts of Polar winterings. Some of the +larger butchers' dogs are singularly wolf-like, and it seems to be +<i>that</i> variety which occasionally, as it were, resumes its wolfish +habits of prowling at night and killing numbers of sheep in certain +districts, as we sometimes read in the country papers of the day. In +Strathearn, we lately heard of a very recent instance of this wolf-like +ferocity breaking out. The dog was traced with great difficulty, and at +last shot. He proved to be of the kind alluded to.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Polson and the last Scottish Wolf.</span></h4> + +<p>Mr Scrope<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id="FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a> describes, from traditions still existing on the east +coast of Sutherland, the destruction of what is supposed to have been +the last Scottish wolf and her cubs. This was between 1690 and 1700. +This wolf had committed many depredations on their flocks, and the +inhabitants had been unsuccessful in their attempts to hunt it down.</p> + +<p>A man named Polson, attended by two herd boys, went in search of it.</p> + +<p>Polson was an old hunter, and had much experience in tracing and +destroying wolves and other predatory<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> animals. Forming his own +conjectures, he proceeded at once to the wild and rugged ground that +surrounds the rocky mountain-gulley which forms the channel of the burn +of Sledale. Here, after a minute investigation, he discovered a narrow +fissure in the midst of a confused mass of large fragments of rock, +which, upon examination, he had reason to think might lead to a larger +opening or cavern below, which the wolf might use as his den. Stones +were now thrown down, and other means resorted to, to rouse any animal +that might be lurking within. Nothing formidable appearing, the two lads +contrived to squeeze themselves through the fissure, that they might +examine the interior, while Polson kept guard on the outside. The boys +descended through the narrow passage into a small cavern, which was +evidently a wolf's den, for the ground was covered with bones and horns +of animals, feathers, and egg-shells; and the dark space was somewhat +enlivened by five or six active wolf cubs. Not a little dubious of the +event, the voices of the poor boys came up hollow and anxious from +below, communicating this intelligence. Polson at once desired them to +do their best, and to destroy the cubs. Soon after, he heard the feeble +howling of the whelps as they were attacked below, and saw almost at the +same time, to his great horror, a full-grown wolf, evidently the dam, +raging furiously at the cries of her young, and now close upon the mouth +of the cavern, which she had approached unobserved, among the rocky +irregularities of the place. She attempted to leap down at one bound +from the spot where she was first seen. In this emergency, Polson +instinctively threw himself forward on the wolf, and succeeded in +catching a firm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> hold of the animal's long and bushy tail, just as the +forepart of the body was within the narrow entrance of the cavern. He +had unluckily placed his gun against a rock, when aiding the boys in +their descent, and could not now reach it. Without apprising the lads +below of their imminent peril, the stout hunter kept firm grip of the +wolf's tail, which he wound round his left arm; and although the +maddened brute scrambled, and twisted, and strove with all her might to +force herself down to the rescue of her cubs, Polson was just able, with +the exertion of all his strength, to keep her from going forward. In the +midst of this singular struggle, which passed in silence—for the wolf +was mute, and the hunter, either from the engrossing nature of his +exertions, or from his unwillingness to alarm the boys, spoke not a word +at the commencement of the conflict—his son within the cave, finding +the light excluded from above, asked in Gaelic, and in an abrupt tone, +"Father, what is keeping the light from us?"—"If the root of the tail +break," replied he, "you will soon know that." Before long, however, the +man contrived to get hold of his hunting-knife, and stabbed the wolf in +the most vital parts he could reach. The enraged animal now attempted to +turn and face her foe, but the hole was too narrow to allow of this; and +when Polson saw his danger, he squeezed her forward, keeping her jammed +in, whilst he repeated his stabs as rapidly as he could, until the +animal, being mortally wounded, was easily dragged back and finished.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A similar story has been given, with the wilds of Canada for the scene. +The young Highlander was said to be dirk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>ing pigs, while the father was +keeping guard. "Phat's keeping out the licht, fayther?" shouts the +son.—"If ta tail preaks, tou 'lt fine tat," were the question and +answer.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="FOX" id="FOX"></a>FOX.</h2> + + +<p>The sharp-faced fox is a very epitome of cunning, and his name is a +by-word for slyness. Farmers know well that no fox, nestling close to +their houses, ever meddles with their poultry. Reynard rambles a good +way from home before he begins to plunder. How admirable is Professor +Wilson's description of fox-hunting, quoted here from the "Noctes." Sir +Walter Scott, in one of his topographical essays, has given a curious +account of the way in which a fox, acquainted with the "ins and outs" of +a certain old castle, outwitted a whole pack of dogs, who had to jump up +singly to get through a small window to which Reynard led them. His +large tail, so bushy and so free, is of great use to Reynard. He often +brushes the eyes of his pursuers with it when sprinkled with water +anything but sweet, and which, by its pungency, for a time blinds them. +The pursuit of the fox is most exciting, and turns out the lord "of high +degree," and the country squire and farmer. It is the most +characteristic sport of the "better classes" in this country.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">An Enthusiastic Fox-Hunting Surgeon.</span><a name="FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a></h4> + +<p>A medical gentleman, named Hansted, residing near<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> Newbury, who was very +fond of fox-hunting, ordered his gardener to set a trap for some vermin +that infested his garden. As ill luck would have it, a fox was found in +the morning with his leg broken, instead of a plant-eating rabbit. The +gardener took Reynard to the doctor, when he exclaimed, "Why did you not +call me up in the night, that I might have set the leg?" Better late +than never: the surgeon set the leg; the fox recovered, and was killed +in due form, after a capital run.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Fox-Hunting.</span></h4> + +<p class="center">(<i>From the "Noctes Ambrosianæ," April 1826.</i>)<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id="FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a></p> + +<p><i>North.</i> It seems fox-hunting, too, is cruel.</p> + +<p><i>Shepherd.</i> To wham? Is't cruel to dowgs, to feed fifty or sixty o' them +on crackers and ither sorts o' food, in a kennel like a Christian house, +wi' a clear burn flowin' through 't, and to gie them, twice a-week or +aftener, during the season, a brattlin rin o' thretty miles after a fox? +Is that cruelty to dowgs?</p> + +<p><i>North.</i> But the fox, James?</p> + +<p><i>Shepherd.</i> We'll come to the fox by and by. Is't cruel to horses, to +buy a hundred o' them for ae hunt, rarely for less than a hundred pounds +each, and aften for five hundred—to feed them on five or sax feeds o' +corn <i>per diem</i>—and to gie them skins as sleek as satin—and to gar +them nicher (<i>neigh</i>) wi' fu'ness o' bluid, sae that every vein in their +bodies starts like sinnies (<i>sinews</i>)—and to gallop them like deevils +in a hurricane, up hill and doun<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> brae, and loup or soom canals and +rivers, and flee ower hedges, and dikes, and palings, like birds, and +drive crashin' through woods, like elephants or rhinoceroses—a' the +while every coorser flingin' fire-flaughts (<i>flakes</i>) frae his een, and +whitening the sweat o' speed wi' the foam o' fury—I say, ca' you that +cruelty to horses, when the hunt charge with all their chivalry, and +plain, mountain, or forest are shook by the quadrupedal thunder?</p> + +<p><i>North.</i> But the fox, James?</p> + +<p><i>Shepherd.</i> We'll come to the fox by and by. Is 't cruel to +men to inspirit wi' a rampagin happiness fivescore o' the flower o' +England or Scotland's youth, a' wi' caps and red coats, and whups in +their hauns—a troop o' lauchin, tearin', tallyhoin' "wild and wayward +humorists," as the doctor ca'd them the tither Sunday?</p> + +<p><i>North.</i> I like the expression, James.</p> + +<p><i>Shepherd.</i> So do I, or I would not have quoted it. But it's just as +applicable to a set o' outrageous ministers, eatin' and drinkin', and +guffawin' at a Presbytery denner.</p> + +<p><i>North.</i> But the fox, James?</p> + +<p><i>Shepherd.</i> We'll come to the fox by and by. Is't cruel to the lambs, +and leverets, and geese, and turkeys, and dyucks, and patricks, and wee +birds, and ither animal eatables, to kill the fox that devoors them, and +keeps them in perpetual het water?</p> + +<p><i>North.</i> But the fox, James?</p> + +<p><i>Shepherd.</i> Deevil take baith you and the fox; I said that we would come +to the fox by and by. Weel, then, wha kens that the fox isna away +snorin' happy afore the houn's? I hae nae doubt he is, for a fox is no +sae complete a coward as to think huntin' cruel; and his haill<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> nature +is then on the alert, which in itsel' is happiness. Huntin' him fa'in +into languor and ennui, and growin' ower fat on how-towdies (<i>barn-door +fowls</i>). He's no killed every time he's hunted.</p> + +<p><i>North.</i> Why, James, you might write for the "Annals of Sporting."</p> + +<p><i>Shepherd.</i> So I do sometimes—and mair o' ye than me, I jalouse; but I +was gaun to ask ye if ye could imagine the delicht o' a fox gettin' into +an undiggable earth, just when the leadin' houn' was at his +hainches?—ae sic moment is aneuch to repay half an hour's draggle +through the dirt; and he can lick himsel' clean at his leisure, far ben +in the cranny o' the rock, and come out a' tosh and tidy by the first +dawn o' licht, to snuff the mornin' air, and visit the distant +farm-house before Partlet has left her perch, or Count Crow lifted his +head from beneath his oxter on his shed-seraglio.</p> + +<p><i>North.</i> Was ye ever in at a death? Is not that cruel?</p> + +<p><i>Shepherd.</i> Do you mean in at the death o' ae fox, or the death o' a +hundred thousand men and sixty thousand horses?—the takin' o' a Brush, +or a Borodino?</p> + +<p><i>North.</i> My dear James, thank ye for your argument. As one Chalmers is +worth a thousand Martins, so is one Hogg worth a thousand Chalmerses.</p> + +<p><i>Shepherd.</i> Ane may weel lose patience, to think o' fules being sorry +for the death o' a fox. When the jowlers tear him to pieces, he shows +fecht, and gangs aff in a snarl. Hoo could he dee mair easier?—and for +a' the gude he has ever dune, or was likely to do, he surely had leeved +lang eneuch.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Arctic Fox</span> (<i>Vulpes lagopus</i>).</h4> + +<p>This inoffensive and pretty little creature is found in all parts of the +Arctic lands. Its fur is peculiarly fine and thick; and as in winter +this is closer and more mixed with wool than it is in summer, the +intense cold of these regions is easily resisted. When sleeping rolled +up into a ball, with the black muzzle buried in the long hairs of the +tail, there is not a portion of the body but what is protected from the +cold, the shaggy hairs of the brush acting as a respirator or boa for +the mouth and a muff for the paws. Our Arctic travellers have remarked, +that it is a peculiarly cleanly animal, and its vigilance is extreme. It +is almost impossible to come on it unawares, for even when appearing to +be soundly asleep, it opens its eyes on the slightest noise being made. +During the day it appears to be listless, but no sooner has the night +set in than it is in motion, and it continues very active until morning. +The young migrate to the southward in the autumn, and sometimes collect +in great numbers on the shores of Hudson's Bay. Mr Graham noticed that +they came there in November and left in April.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/illus-142-f.jpg" width="600" height="358" alt="Arctic Fox. (Canis Lagopus.)" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Arctic Fox. (Canis Lagopus.)</span> +</div> + +<p>Sir James Ross found a fox's burrow on the sandy margin of a lake in the +month of July. It had several passages, each opening into a common cell, +beyond which was an inner nest, in which the young, six in number, were +found. These had the dusky, lead-coloured livery worn by the parents in +summer; and though four of them were kept alive till the following +winter, they never acquired the pure white coats of the old fox, but +retained the dusky colour on the face and sides of the body. The parents +had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> kept a good larder for their progeny, as the outer cell and the +several passages leading to it contained many lemmings and ermines, and +the bones of fish, ducks, and hares, in great quantities. Sir John +Richardson<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id="FNanchor_115_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> observed them to live in villages, twenty or thirty +burrows being constructed close to each other. A pair were kept by Sir +James Ross for the express purpose of watching the changes which take +place in the colour of their fur. He noticed that they threw off their +winter dress during the first week in June, and that this change took +place a few days earlier in the female than in the male. About the end +of September the brown fur of the summer gradually became of an ash +colour, and by the middle of October it was perfectly white. It +continued to increase in thickness until the end of November.<a name="FNanchor_116_116" id="FNanchor_116_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a> A +variety of a blackish-brown colour is occasionally met with, but this is +rare: such specimens, Ross remarks, must have extreme difficulty in +surprising their prey in a country whose surface is of an unvaried +white, and must also be much more exposed to the persecutions of their +enemies. The food of this fox is various, but seems to consist +principally of lemmings and of birds and their eggs. He eats, too, the +berries of the <i>Empetrum nigrum</i>, a plant common on our own hills, and +goes to the shore for mussels and other shell-fish. Otho Fabricius<a name="FNanchor_117_117" id="FNanchor_117_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> +says he catches the Arctic salmon as that fish approaches the shore to +spawn, and that he seizes too the haddock, having enticed it near by +beating the water. Crantz, in his "History of Greenland," evidently +alludes to this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> cunning habit when he observes, "They plash with their +feet in the water, to excite the curiosity of some kinds of fishes to +come and see what is going forward, and then they snap them up; and <i>the +Greenland women have learnt this piece of art from them</i>." Captain Lyon +noticed a fox prowling on a hill-side, and heard him for some hours +afterwards in the neighbourhood imitating the cry of the brent-goose. In +another part of his Journal he mentions that the bark is so modulated as +to give an idea that it proceeds from a distance, though at the time the +fox lies at your feet. It struck him that the creature was gifted "with +this kind of ventriloquism in order to deceive its prey as to the +distance it is from them." It sometimes catches the ptarmigan; and +though it cannot swim, it manages occasionally to get hold of oceanic +birds; in fact, nothing alive which it can master seems to come amiss, +and failing to make a meal from something it has caught and killed, the +Arctic fox is glad, like foxes in more favoured lands, to feed on +carrion.</p> + +<p>Captain M'Clintock, who commanded the yacht <i>Fox</i> on the Franklin Arctic +search in 1857 and 1858, wintered in the ice pack of Baffin's Bay. One +of the party shot an Arctic fox when they were 140 miles from the land. +He records in a letter to his brother,<a name="FNanchor_118_118" id="FNanchor_118_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_118_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> that this wanderer from the +shore "was very fat, living upon such few dovekies as were silly enough +to spend their winter in the pack."</p> + +<p>Martens, in his "Spitzbergen," says, that some of the ship's crew +informed him, that the fox when he is hungry "lies down as if he was +dead, until the birds fly to him to eat him, which by that trick he +catches and eats." Our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> author believed it a fable, but it may +nevertheless be one of the many expedients used by a species of a group +whose name is proverbial for craftiness and cunning.</p> + +<p>The flesh of the fox is occasionally eaten by the Esquimaux: Captain +Lyon, in his "Private Journal," says that at first all of his party were +horrified at the idea of eating foxes—"But very many soon got the +better of their fastidiousness and found them good eating; not being +myself very nice, I soon made the experiment, and found the flesh much +resembling that of kid, and afterwards frequently had a supper of it."</p> + +<p>Sir James Clarke Ross, during his five years' imprisonment in Boothia +Felix and the adjoining seas, had ample means of judging of its flavour; +he tells us that some of his party, who were the first to taste them, +named them "lambs," from their resemblance in flavour to very young +lamb. He adds, that the flesh of the old fox is by no means so +palatable. During that disastrous expedition the flesh of this fox +formed one of the principal luxuries of their table, and it was always +"reserved for holidays and great occasions. We ate them boiled, or, more +frequently after being parboiled, <i>roasted</i>, in a pitch kettle."</p> + +<p>When the Arctic Expedition in search of Franklin wintered in Leopold +Harbour in 1848-49, the commander, Sir J. C. Ross, made use of the +Arctic fox as a messenger. Having caught some of these animals in traps, +a collar with information for the missing parties was put round the neck +of each before liberation, as the fox is known to travel great distances +in search of food. On Captain Austin's subsequent expedition in 1850-51 +the same plan was carried out, but it was found to be equally without +result.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> Commander Osborn thus facetiously describes the +circumstance.<a name="FNanchor_119_119" id="FNanchor_119_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_119_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a> "Several animals thus intrusted with despatches or +records were liberated by different ships; but, as the truth must be +told, I fear in many cases the next night saw the poor 'postman,' as +Jack termed him, in another trap, out of which he would be taken, +killed, the skin taken off, and packed away to ornament at some future +day the neck of some fair Dulcinea. As a 'sub,' I was admitted into this +secret mystery, or, otherwise, I with others might have accounted for +the disappearance of the collared foxes by believing them busy on their +honourable mission. In order that the crime of killing 'the postmen' may +be recognised in its true light, it is but fair that I should say, that +the brutes, having partaken once of the good cheer on board or around +the ships, seldom seemed satisfied with the mere empty honours of a +copper collar, and returned to be caught over and over again. Strict +laws were laid down for their safety, such as that no fox taken alive in +a trap was to be killed: of course no fox was after this taken alive; +they were all unaccountably dead, unless it was some fortunate wight +whose brush and coat were worthless; in such case he lived either to +drag about a quantity of information in a copper collar for the rest of +his days, or else to die a slow death, as being intended for Lord +Derby's menagerie. The departure of 'a postman' was a scene of no small +merriment; all hands, from the captain to the cook, were out to chase +the fox, who, half frightened out of its wits, seemed to doubt which way +to run, whilst loud shouts and roars of laughter, breaking the cold, +frosty air, were heard from ship to ship, as the fox<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>hunters, swelled in +numbers from all sides, and those that could not run mounted some +neighbouring hummock of ice and gave a loud halloo, which said far more +for robust health than for tuneful melody."</p> + +<p>The Arctic fox as a captive has often amused our Arctic voyagers, and +accounts of it are to be met with in most of their narratives. Captain +Lyon made a pet of one he captured, and confined it on deck in a small +kennel with a piece of chain. The little creature astonished the party +very much by his extraordinary sagacity, for, on the very first day, +having been repeatedly drawn out by his chain, he at length drew his +chain in after him whenever he retreated to his hut, and took it in with +his mouth so completely, that no one who valued his fingers would +venture afterwards to take hold of the end attached to the staple.</p> + +<p>Sir J. C. Ross observed in Boothia Felix a good deal of difference in +the disposition of specimens, some being easily tamed, whilst others +would remain savage and untractable even with the kindest treatment. He +found the females much more vicious than the males. A dog-fox which his +party captured lived several months with them, and became so tame in a +short time that he regularly attended the dinner-table like a dog, and +was always allowed to go at large about the cabin. When newly caught +their rage is quite ungovernable, and yet when two are put together they +very seldom quarrel. They soon get reconciled to confinement. Captain +Lyon<a name="FNanchor_120_120" id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_120_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a> notices that their first impulse on getting food is to hide it +as soon as possible, and this, he observed, they did, even when hungry +and by themselves; when there was snow on the ground they piled it over +their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> stores, and pressed it down forcibly with their nose. When no +snow was to be obtained, he noticed his pet fox gather the chain into +his mouth, and then carefully coil it so as to cover the meat. Having +gone through this process, and drawn away his chain after him on moving +away, he has sometimes repeated his useless labours five or six times, +until disgusted, apparently, at the inability of making the morsel a +greater luxury by previous concealment, he has been forced to eat it. +These creatures use snow as a substitute for water, and it is pleasing +to see them break a large lump with their feet, and roll on the pieces +with evident delight. When the snow lay lightly scattered on the decks, +they did not lick it up as dogs do, but by pressing it repeatedly with +their nose, collected a small lump which they drew into their mouth.</p> + +<p>It may be added that the specific name <i>lagopus</i>, or "hare-foot," was +given to this fox from the soles of its feet being densely covered with +woolly hair, which gives them some resemblance to the feet of a hare. +Cuvier remarks that other foxes acquire this hair on the soles when +taken to northern lands.</p> + +<p>The specimens, figured so admirably by Mr Wolf, were drawn from some +brought alive to the Zoological Gardens by one of the late Arctic +expeditions.—<i>A. White, in "Excelsior" (with additions).</i></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="JACKAL" id="JACKAL"></a>JACKAL.</h2> + + +<p>The boy who used to read, long ago, "The Three Hundred Animals," was +ever familiar with "<i>the Lion's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> Provider</i>," as the menagerie showmen, +even now, somewhat pompously style this hungry howler of the desert.</p> + +<p>The jackal is a social kind of dog, and a pack of hungry or excited +jackals can howl in notes fit to pierce the ears of the deafest. He is a +mean, starved-looking creature in ordinary circumstances, seeming as if +his social life prevented his getting what is called <i>a lion's</i> share on +any occasion.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Jackal and Tiger.</span></h4> + +<p>As Burke was declaiming with great animation against Hastings, he was +interrupted by little Major Scott. "Am I," said he, indignantly, "to be +teased by the barking of this <i>jackal</i>, while I am attacking the royal +<i>tiger</i> of Bengal?"<a name="FNanchor_121_121" id="FNanchor_121_121"></a><a href="#Footnote_121_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CATS" id="CATS"></a>CATS.</h2> + + +<p>Another fertile subject for anecdote. Who has not some faithful black +Topsy, Tortoise-shell, or Tabby, or rather succession of them, whose +biographies would afford many a curious story? Professor Bell<a name="FNanchor_122_122" id="FNanchor_122_122"></a><a href="#Footnote_122_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a> has +well defended the general character of poor pussy from the oft-repeated +calumnies spread about it. Cats certainly get much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> attached to +individuals, as well as to houses and articles in them. They want the +lovableness and demonstrativeness of dogs; but their habits are very +different, and they are strictly organised to adapt them to watch and to +pounce on their prey.</p> + +<p>As we have elsewhere remarked, and the remark was founded on observation +of our eldest daughter when a very young child, "Your little baby loves +the pussy, and pussy sheathes her claws most carefully, but should baby +draw back her arm suddenly, and pussy accidentally scratch that tender +skin, how the little girl cries! It is, perhaps, her first lesson that +sweets and bitters, pleasures and pains, meekness and ferocity, are +mingled in this world."<a name="FNanchor_123_123" id="FNanchor_123_123"></a><a href="#Footnote_123_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Jeremy Bentham and his pet Cat "Sir John Langborn."</span></h4> + +<p>Dr, afterwards Sir John, Bowring, in the life of that diligent eccentric +"codificator," Jeremy Bentham,<a name="FNanchor_124_124" id="FNanchor_124_124"></a><a href="#Footnote_124_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a> thus alludes to some of his +pets:—"Bentham was very fond of animals, particularly '<i>pussies</i>,' as +he called them, 'when they had domestic virtues;' but he had no +particular affection for the common race of <i>cats</i>. He had one, however, +of which he used to boast that he had 'made a man of him,' and whom he +was wont to invite to eat maccaroni at his own table. This puss got +knighted, and rejoiced in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> the name of Sir John Langborn. In his early +days, he was a frisky, inconsiderate, and, to say the truth, somewhat +profligate gentleman; and had, according to the report of his patron, +the habit of seducing light and giddy young ladies of his own race into +the garden of Queen's Square Place; but tired at last, like Solomon, of +pleasures and vanities, he became sedate and thoughtful—took to the +church, laid down his knightly title, and was installed as the Reverend +John Langborn. He gradually obtained a great reputation for sanctity and +learning, and a doctor's degree was conferred upon him. When I knew him, +in his declining days, he bore no other name than the Reverend Doctor +John Langborn; and he was alike conspicuous for his gravity and +philosophy. Great respect was invariably shown his reverence; and it was +supposed he was not far off from a mitre, when old age interfered with +his hopes and honours. He departed amidst the regrets of his many +friends, and was gathered to his fathers, and to eternal rest, in a +cemetery in Milton's Garden.<a name="FNanchor_125_125" id="FNanchor_125_125"></a><a href="#Footnote_125_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a></p> + +<p>"'I had a cat,' he said, 'at Hendon, which used to follow me about even +in the street. George Wilson was very fond of animals too. I remember a +cat following him as far as Staines. There was a beautiful pig at +Hendon, which I used to rub with my stick. He loved to come and lie down +to be rubbed, and took to following me like a dog. I had a remarkably +intellectual cat, who never failed to attend one of us when we went +round the garden. He grew quite a tyrant, insisting on being fed and on +being noticed. He interrupted my labours. Once<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> he came with a most +hideous yell, insisting on the door being opened. He tormented Jack +(Colls) so much, that Jack threw him out of the window. He was so +clamorous that it could not be borne, and means were found to send him +to another world. His moral qualities were most despotic—his +intellectual extraordinary; but he was a universal nuisance."</p> + +<p>"'From my youth I was fond of cats, as I am still. I was once playing +with one in my grandmother's room. I had heard the story of cats having +nine lives, and being sure of falling on their legs; and I threw the cat +out of the window on the grass-plot. When it fell it turned towards me, +looked in my face and mewed. "Poor thing!" I said, "thou art reproaching +me with my unkindness." I have a distinct recollection of all these +things. Cowper's story of his hares had the highest interest for me when +young; for I always enjoyed the society of tame animals. Wilson had the +same taste—so had Romilly, who kept a noble puss, before he came into +great business. I never failed to pay it my respects. I remember +accusing Romilly of violating the commandment in the matter of cats. My +fondness for animals exposed me to many jokes.'"</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Bisset and his Musical Cats.</span></h4> + +<p>S. Bisset, to whom we referred before, was a Scotchman, born at Perth. +He went to London as a shoemaker; but afterwards turned a broker. About +1739 he turned his attention to the teaching of animals. He was very +successful, and among the subjects of his experiments were three young +cats. Wilson, in his "Eccentric Mirror,"<a name="FNanchor_126_126" id="FNanchor_126_126"></a><a href="#Footnote_126_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a> has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> recorded that "he +taught these domestic tigers to strike their paws in such directions on +the dulcimer, as to produce several tunes, having music-books before +them, and squalling at the same time in different keys or tones, first, +second, and third, by way of concert. In such a city as London these +feats could not fail of making some noise. His house was every day +crowded, and great interruption given to his business. Among the rest, +he was visited by an exhibitor of wonders. Pinchbeck advised him to a +public exhibition of his animals at the Haymarket, and even promised, on +receiving a moiety, to be concerned in the exhibition. Bisset agreed, +but the day before the performance, Pinchbeck declined, and the other +was left to act for himself. The well-known <i>Cats' Opera</i> was advertised +in the Haymarket; the horse, the dog, the monkeys, and the cats went +through their several parts with uncommon applause, to crowded houses, +and in a few days Bisset found himself possessed of nearly a thousand +pounds to reward his ingenuity."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Constant, Chateaubriand, and the Cat.</span></h4> + +<p>"Benjamin Constant was accustomed to write in a closet on the third +story. Beside him sat his estimable wife, and on his knee his favourite +cat; this feline affection he entertained in common with Count de +Chateaubriand."<a name="FNanchor_127_127" id="FNanchor_127_127"></a><a href="#Footnote_127_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Liston the Surgeon and his Cat.</span></h4> + +<p>Robert Liston, the great surgeon, was, it seems, very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> fond of a cat. Dr +Forbes Winslow asks, "Who has not seen Liston's favourite cat Tom? This +animal is considered to be a unique specimen of the feline tribe; and so +one would think, to see the passionate fondness which he manifests for +it. This cat is always perched on Liston's shoulder, at breakfast, +dinner, and tea, in his carriage, and out of his carriage. It is quite +ludicrous to witness the devotion which the great operator exhibits +towards his favourite."<a name="FNanchor_128_128" id="FNanchor_128_128"></a><a href="#Footnote_128_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a></p> + +<p>Liston was a curious man. He often called on his friends as early as six +o'clock in the morning. In most cases, such calls must have been visits +of formality or quiet jokes at the lazy manners of most men of the +present age. We know one person whom he called on usually at this early +hour. It would be more healthy for the young, if they would imitate this +talented surgeon. We may here say that he used to allow one particular +nail to grow long. It was a nail he used to guide his knife when +operating. When at college in 1833 or 1834, we heard a student, who knew +this clever operator well, happily apply the <i>double-entendre</i>, "<i>homo +ad unguem factus</i>," a phrase, Dr Carson, our noble rector at the High +School, taught us to translate "<i>an accomplished man</i>."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Banker Mitchell's Antipathy to Kittens.</span></h4> + +<p>Mr J. T. Smith, once Keeper of the Prints in the British Museum, author +of the "Life and Times of Nollekens, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> Royal Academician,"<a name="FNanchor_129_129" id="FNanchor_129_129"></a><a href="#Footnote_129_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a> tells +a story of Mr Matthew Mitchell, a banker, who collected prints.</p> + +<p>"Mr Mitchell had a most serious antipathy to a kitten. He could sit in a +room without experiencing the least emotion from a cat; but directly he +perceived a kitten, his flesh shook on his bones, like a snail in +vinegar. I once relieved him from one of these paroxysms by taking a +kitten out of the room; on my return he thanked me, and declared his +feelings to be insupportable upon such an occasion. Long subsequently, I +asked him whether he could in any way account for this agitation. He +said he could not, adding that he experienced no such sensations upon +seeing a full-grown cat; but that a kitten, after he had looked at it +for a minute or two, in his imagination grew to the size of an +overpowering elephant."</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">James Montgomery and his Cats.</span><a name="FNanchor_130_130" id="FNanchor_130_130"></a><a href="#Footnote_130_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a></p> + +<p>The poet Montgomery was very fond of cats. His biographers say—"We +never recollect the time when some familiar 'Tabby' or audacious 'Tom' +did not claim to share the poet's attention during our familiar +interviews with him in his own parlour. We well recollect one fine +brindled fellow, called 'Nero,' who, during his kittenhood, 'purred' the +following epistle to a little girl who had been his playmate:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>—</p> + +<blockquote><p class="author"> +"<span class="smcap">Hartshead, near the Hole-in-the-Wall</span>,<br /> +"<i>July 23, 1825</i>. +</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"<i>Harrrrrrr</i>,</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"<i>Mew, wew, auw, mauw, hee, wee, miaw, waw, wurr, whirr, ghurr, wew, +mew, whew, isssss, tz, tz, tz, purrurrurrur.</i>"</p> + + +<h4>DONE INTO ENGLISH.</h4> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Harriet</span>,</p> + +<p>"This comes to tell you that I am very well, and I hope you are so too. +I am growing a great cat; pray how do you come on? I wish you were here +to carry me about as you used to do, and I would scratch you to some +purpose, for I can do this much better than I could while you were here. +I have not run away yet, but I believe I shall soon, for I find my feet +are too many for my head, and often carry me into mischief. Love to +Sheffelina, though I was always fit to pull her cap when I saw you +petting her. My cross old mother sends her love to you—she shows me +very little now-a-days, I assure you, so I do not care what she does +with the rest. She has brought me a mouse or two, and I caught one +myself last night; but it was in my dream, and I awoke as hungry as a +hunter, and fell to biting at my tail, which I believe I should have +eaten up; but it would not let me catch it. So no more at present from</p> + +<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Tiny</span>.</p> + +<p>"<i>P.S.</i>—They call me Tiny yet, you see; but I intend to take the name +of Nero, after the lion fight at Warwick next week, if the lion +conquers, not else.</p> + +<p>"<i>2d P.S.</i>—I forgot to tell you that I can beg, but I like better to +steal,—it's more natural, you know.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 2em;">"Harriet</span>, at Ockbrook."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p> +</blockquote> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Sir Walter Scott's Visit to the Black Dwarf.—David Ritchie's Cat.</span></h4> + +<p>David Ritchie, the prototype of the "Black Dwarf," inhabited a small +cottage on the farm of Woodhouse, parish of Manor, Peeblesshire. In the +year 1797, Walter Scott, then a young advocate, was taken by the +Fergusons to see "Bowed Davie," as the poor misanthropic man was +generally called.</p> + +<p>Mr William Chambers,<a name="FNanchor_131_131" id="FNanchor_131_131"></a><a href="#Footnote_131_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a> the historian of his native county, describes +the visit at greater length than Scott has done in the introduction to +his novel. He says—"At the first sight of Scott, the misanthrope seemed +oppressed with a sentiment of extraordinary interest, which was either +owing to the lameness of the stranger—a circumstance throwing a +narrower gulf between this person and himself than what existed between +him and most other men—or to some perception of an extraordinary mental +character in this limping youth, which was then hid from other eyes. +After grinning upon him for a moment with a smile less bitter than his +wont, the dwarf passed to the door, double-locked it, and then coming up +to the stranger, seized him by the wrist with one of his iron hands, and +said, 'Man, hae ye ony poo'er?' By this he meant magical power, to which +he had himself some vague pretensions, or which, at least, he had +studied and reflected upon till it had become with him a kind of +monomania. Scott disavowed the possession of any gifts of that kind, +evidently to the great disappointment of the inquirer, who then turned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +round and gave a signal to a huge black cat, hitherto unobserved, which +immediately jumped up to a shelf, where it perched itself, and seemed to +the excited senses of the visitors as if it had really been the familiar +spirit of the mansion. 'He has poo'er,' said the dwarf in a voice which +made the flesh of the hearers thrill, and Scott, in particular, looked +as if he conceived himself to have actually got into the den of one of +those magicians with whom his studies had rendered him familiar. 'Ay, +<i>he</i> has poo'er,' repeated the recluse; and then, going to his usual +seat, he sat for some minutes grinning horribly, as if enjoying the +impression he had made, while not a word escaped from any of the party. +Mr Ferguson at length plucked up his spirits, and called to David to +open the door, as they must now be going. The dwarf slowly obeyed, and +when they had got out, Mr Ferguson observed that his friend was as pale +as ashes, while his person was agitated in every limb. Under such +striking circumstances was this extraordinary being first presented to +the <i>real</i> magician, who was afterwards to give him such a deathless +celebrity."</p> + +<p>Mr Chambers doubtless received the particulars of this visit from Sir +Adam Ferguson, Scott's friend and companion.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Robert Southey, like Jeremy Bentham, with whom the Quarterly Reviewer +would have grudged to have been classified, loved cats. His son, in his +"Life and Correspondence," vol. vi. p. 210, says—"My father's fondness +for cats has been occasionally shown by allusion in his letters,<a name="FNanchor_132_132" id="FNanchor_132_132"></a><a href="#Footnote_132_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a> +and in 'The Doctor' is inserted an amusing me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>morial of the various cats +which at different times were inmates of Greta Hall. He rejoiced in +bestowing upon them the strangest appellations, and it was not a little +amusing to see a kitten answer to the name of some Italian singer or +Indian chief, or hero of a German fairy tale, and often names and titles +were heaped one upon another, till the possessor, unconscious of the +honour conveyed, used to 'set up his eyes and look' in wonderment. Mr +Bedford had an equal liking for the feline race, and occasional notices +of their favourites therefore passed between them, of which the +following records the death of one of the greatest:—</p> + +<p class="center"> +"'<i>To Grosvenor C. Bedford, Esq.</i></p> +<p class="author"> +"'<span class="smcap">Keswick</span>, <i>May 18, 1833</i>. +</p> + +<p>"'My Dear G—— ... —Alas! Grosvenor, this day poor old Rumpel was found +dead, after as long and happy a life as cat could wish for, if cats form +wishes on that subject. His full titles were:—"The Most Noble the +Archduke Rumpelstiltzchen, Marquis M'Bum, Earl Tomlemagne, Baron +Raticide, Waowhler, and Skaratch." There should be a court mourning in +Catland, and if the Dragon<a name="FNanchor_133_133" id="FNanchor_133_133"></a><a href="#Footnote_133_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a> wear a black ribbon round his neck, or a +band of crape <i>à la militaire</i> round one of the fore paws, it will be +but a becoming mark of respect.</p> + +<p>"'As we have no catacombs here, he is to be decently interred in the +orchard, and cat-mint planted on his grave. Poor creature, it is well +that he has thus come to his end after he had become an object of pity, +I believe we are,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> each and all, servants included, more sorry for his +loss, or rather more affected by it, than any one of us would like to +confess.</p> + +<p>"'I should not have written to you at present, had it not been to notify +this event.</p> + +<p class="author"> +R. S.'" +</p> + +<p>In a letter from Leyden to his son Cuthbert, then in his seventh year, +he says—"I hope Rumpelstiltzchen has recovered his health, and that +Miss Cat is well; and I should like to know whether Miss Fitzrumpel has +been given away, and if there is another kitten. The Dutch cats do not +speak exactly the same language as the English ones. I will tell you how +they talk when I come home."<a name="FNanchor_134_134" id="FNanchor_134_134"></a><a href="#Footnote_134_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Archbishop Whately's Anecdote of the Cat that used to Ring the Bell.</span></h4> + +<p>Archbishop Whately<a name="FNanchor_135_135" id="FNanchor_135_135"></a><a href="#Footnote_135_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a> records a case of an act done by a cat, which, +if done by a man, would be called reason. He says—"This cat lived many +years in my mother's family, and its feats of sagacity were witnessed by +her, my sisters, and myself. It was known, not merely once or twice, but +habitually, to ring the parlour bell whenever it wished the door to be +opened. Some alarm was excited on the first occasion that it turned +bell-ringer. The family had retired to rest, and in the middle of the +night the parlour-bell was rung violently; the sleepers were startled +from their repose, and proceeded down-stairs, with pokers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> and tongs, to +interrupt, as they thought, the predatory movement of some burglar; but +they were agreeably surprised to discover that the bell had been rung by +pussy; who frequently repeated the act whenever she wanted to get out of +the parlour."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A friend (D. D., Esq., Edinburgh) tells me of a cat his family had in +the country, that used regularly to "<i>tirl at the pin</i>" of the back door +when it wished to get in to the house.</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="TIGER_AND_LION" id="TIGER_AND_LION"></a>TIGER AND LION.</h2> + + +<p>These most ferocious of the Carnivora have afforded interesting subjects +to many a traveller. An extensive volume of truly sensational adventure +might be compiled about them, adding a chapter for the jaguar and the +leopard, two extremely dangerous spotted cats, that can do what neither +tigers nor lions are able to do—namely, climb trees. Having once asked +a friend, who was at the death of many a wild beast, which was the most +savage animal he had ever seen, he replied, "A wounded leopard." It was +to such an animal that Jacob referred when he saw Joseph's clothes, and +said—"Some evil beast hath devoured him." Colonel Campbell's work, from +which the first paragraph is derived, contains much about the pursuit of +the tiger. Dr Livingstone's travels and Gordon Cumming's books on South +Africa, neither of which we have quoted, have thrilling pages about the +lordly presence of "the king of beasts." Mr Joseph Wolf and Mr Lewis are +perhaps the best draughtsmen of the lion among recent artists. The +public<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> admire much Sir Edwin Landseer's striking bronze lions on the +pedestal of the Nelson Monument. That artist excels in his pictures of +the lion. On the Assyrian monuments in the British Museum are many +wonderfully executed lion hunts, as perfectly preserved as if they had +been chiselled in our day. Parts of these bas-reliefs were certainly +designed from actual sketches made from the lions and dogs, which took +the chief part in the amusements of some "Nimrod, a mighty hunter before +the Lord." Even our Scottish kings kept a lion or lions as ornaments of +their court. At Stirling Castle and Palace, a room which we saw in 1865, +still bears the name of the "Lion's Den." The British lion is an old +emblem of both Scotland and England, and it is not twenty-five years ago +since we, in common with every visitor to the Tower, were glad to see +"the Royal Lion." Dr Livingstone's experience, we have not the slightest +wish to prove its accuracy, shows that the lion has a soothing, or +rather paralysing power over his prey, when he has knocked it down or +bitten it.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Bussapa, the Tiger-slayer, and the Tiger.</span></h4> + +<p>The following striking anecdote recounts the extraordinary presence of +mind and determined courage of a celebrated Mahratta hunter named +Bussapa. This man acquired the name of the "Tiger-slayer," and wore on +his breast several silver medals granted by the Indian Government for +feats of courage in destroying tigers. Colonel Campbell met him, and in +"My Indian Journal" (pp. 142, 143), published in 1864, has recorded from +his brother's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> diary the following anecdote:—"Bussapa, a hunter of +'Lingyat' caste, with whom I am well acquainted, was sent for by the +headman of a village, to destroy a tiger which had carried off a number +of cattle. He came, and having ascertained the brute's usual haunts, +fastened a bullock near the edge of a ravine which he frequented, and +quietly seated himself beside it, protected only by a small bush. Soon +after sunset the tiger appeared, killed the bullock, and was glutting +himself with blood, when Bussapa, thrusting his long matchlock through +the bush, fired, and wounded him severely. The tiger half rose, but +being unable to see his assailant on account of the intervening bush, +dropped again on his prey with a sudden growl. Bussapa was kneeling +within three paces of him, completely defenceless; he did not even dare +to reload, for he well knew that the slightest movement on his part +would be the signal for his immediate destruction; his bare knees were +pressed upon gravel, but he dared not venture to shift his uneasy +position. Ever and anon, the tiger, as he lay with his glaring eyes +fixed upon the bush, uttered his hoarse growl of anger; his hot breath +absolutely blew upon the cheek of the wretched man, yet still he moved +not. The pain of his cramped position increased every moment—suspense +became almost intolerable; but the motion of a limb, the rustling of a +leaf, would have been death. Thus they remained, the man and the tiger, +watching each other's motions; but even in this fearful situation, his +presence of mind never for a moment forsook the noble fellow. He heard +the gong of the village strike each hour of that fearful night, that +seemed to him 'eternity,' and yet he lived; the tormenting mosquitoes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +swarmed round his face, but he dared not brush them off. That fiend-like +eye met his whenever he ventured a glance towards the horrid spell that +bound him; and a hoarse growl grated on the stillness of the night, as a +passing breeze stirred the leaves that sheltered him. Hours rolled on, +and his powers of endurance were well-nigh exhausted, when, at length, +the welcome streaks of light shot up from the eastern horizon. On the +approach of day, the tiger rose, and stalked away with a sulky pace, to +a thicket at some distance, and then the stiff and wearied Bussapa felt +that he was safe.</p> + +<p>"One would have thought that, after such a night of suffering, he would +have been too thankful for his escape, to venture on any further risk. +But the valiant Bussapa was not so easily diverted from his purpose; as +soon as he had stretched his cramped limbs, and restored the checked +circulation, he reloaded his matchlock, and coolly proceeded to finish +his work. With his match lighted, he advanced close to the tiger, lying +ready to receive him, and shot him dead by a ball in the forehead, while +in the act of charging."</p> + +<p>Colonel Campbell relates, that most of Bussapa's family have fallen +victims to tigers. But the firm belief of the "tiger-slayer" in +predestination, makes him blind to all danger.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">John Hunter and the Dead Tiger.</span></h4> + +<p>The greatest comparative anatomist our country has produced, John +Hunter, obtained the refusal of all animals which happened to die in the +Tower or in the travelling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> menageries. In this way he often obtained +rare subjects for his researches. Dr Forbes Winslow<a name="FNanchor_136_136" id="FNanchor_136_136"></a><a href="#Footnote_136_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a> alludes to a +well-known fact, that all the money Hunter could spare, was devoted to +procuring curiosities of this sort, and Sir Everard Home used to state, +that as soon as he had accumulated fees to the amount of ten guineas, he +always purchased some addition to his collection. Indeed, he was not +unfrequently obliged to borrow of his friends, when his own funds were +at a low ebb, and the temptation was strong. "Pray, George," said he one +day to Mr G. Nicol, the bookseller to the king, with whom he was very +intimate, "have you got any money in your pocket?" Mr N. replied in the +affirmative. "Have you got five guineas? Because, if you have, and will +lend it me, you shall go halves."—"Halves in what?" inquired his +friend.—"Why, halves in a magnificent tiger, which is now dying in +Castle Street." Mr Nicol lent the money, and Hunter purchased the tiger.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Tigers.</span></h4> + +<p>Mrs Colin Mackenzie<a name="FNanchor_137_137" id="FNanchor_137_137"></a><a href="#Footnote_137_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a> records the death of a man from the wounds of a +tiger. "The tiger," she says, "was brought in on the second day. He died +from the wound he had received. I gave the body to the Dhers in our +service, who ate it. The claws and whiskers are greatly prized by the +natives as charms. The latter are supposed to give the possessor a +certain malignant power over his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> enemies, for which reason I always +take possession of them to prevent our people getting them. The tiger is +very commonly worshipped all over India. The women often prostrate +themselves before a dead tiger, when sportsmen are bringing it home in +triumph; and in a village, near Nagpur, Mr Hislop found a number of rude +images, almost like four-legged stools, which, on inquiry, proved to be +meant for tigers, who were worshipped as the tutelary deities of the +place. I believe a fresh image is added for every tiger that is slain."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Lion and Tiger</span>.</h4> + + +<p>A jolly jack-tar, having strayed into Atkin's show at Bartholomew Fair, +to have a look at the wild beasts, was much struck with the sight of a +lion and a tiger in the same den. "Why, Jack," said he to a messmate, +who was chewing a quid in silent amazement, "I shouldn't wonder if next +year they were to carry about <i>a sailor and a marine living peaceably +together</i>!"—"Ay," said his married companion, "<i>or a man and +wife</i>."<a name="FNanchor_138_138" id="FNanchor_138_138"></a><a href="#Footnote_138_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a></p> + +<p>We may add that we have long regarded it as a vile calumny to two +animals to say of a man and wife who quarrel, that they live "a cat and +dog life." No two animals are better agreed when kept together. Each +knows his own place and keeps it. Hence they live at peace—speaking +"generally," as "Mr Artemus Ward" would say of "such an observation."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Androcles and the Lion.</span></h4> + +<p>Addison,<a name="FNanchor_139_139" id="FNanchor_139_139"></a><a href="#Footnote_139_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a> in the 139th <i>Guardian</i>, has given us the story of +Androcles and the Lion. He prefaces it by saying that he has no regard +"to what Æsop has said upon the subject, whom," says he, "I look upon to +have been a republican, by the unworthy treatment which he often gives +to the king of beasts, and whom, if I had time, I could convict of +falsehood and forgery in almost every matter of fact which he has +related of this generous animal."</p> + +<p>Better observation of it, however, from the time of Burchell to that of +Livingstone, shows that Æsop's account is on the whole to be relied on, +and that the lion is a thorough cat, treacherous, cruel, and, for the +most part, with a good deal of the coward in him.</p> + +<p>The story of Androcles was related by Aulus Gellius, who extracted it +from Dion Cassius. Although likely to be embellished, there is every +likelihood of the foundation of the story being true. Addison relates +this, "for the sake of my learned reader, who needs go no further in it, +if he has read it already:—Androcles was the slave of a noble Roman who +was proconsul of Afric. He had been guilty of a fault, for which his +master would have put him to death, had not he found an opportunity to +escape out of his hands, and fled into the deserts of Numidia. As he was +wandering among the barren sands, and almost dead with heat and hunger, +he saw a cave in the side of a rock. He went into it, and finding at the +farther end of it a place to sit down upon, rested there for some time. +At length,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> to his great surprise, a huge overgrown lion entered at the +mouth of the cave, and seeing a man at the upper end of it, immediately +made towards him. Androcles gave himself up for gone;<a name="FNanchor_140_140" id="FNanchor_140_140"></a><a href="#Footnote_140_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a> but the lion, +instead of treating him as he expected, laid his paw upon his lap, and +with a complaining kind of voice, fell a licking his hand. Androcles, +after having recovered himself a little from the fright he was in, +observed the lion's paw to be exceedingly swelled by a large thorn that +stuck in it. He immediately pulled it out, and by squeezing the paw very +gently made a great deal of corrupt matter run out of it, which, +probably freed the lion from the great anguish he had felt some time +before. The lion left him upon receiving this good office from him, and +soon after returned with a fawn which he had just killed. This he laid +down at the feet of his benefactor, and went off again in pursuit of his +prey. Androcles, after having sodden the flesh of it by the sun, +subsisted upon it until the lion had supplied him with another. He lived +many days in this frightful solitude, the lion catering for him with +great assiduity. Being tired at length with this savage society, he was +resolved to deliver himself up into his master's hands, and suffer the +worst effects of his displeasure, rather than be thus driven out from +mankind. His master, as was customary for the proconsuls of Africa, was +at that time getting together a present of all the largest lions that +could be found in the country, in order to send them to Rome, that they +might furnish out a show to the Roman people. Upon his poor slave +surrendering himself into his hands, he ordered him to be carried away +to Rome as soon as the lions were in readiness to be sent,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> and that for +his crime he should be exposed to fight with one of the lions in the +amphitheatre, as usual, for the diversion of the people. This was all +performed accordingly. Androcles, after such a strange run of fortune, +was now in the area of the theatre, amidst thousands of spectators, +expecting every moment when his antagonist would come out upon him. At +length a huge monstrous lion leaped out from the place where he had been +kept hungry for the show. He advanced with great rage towards the man, +but on a sudden, after having regarded him a little wistfully, fell to +the ground, and crept towards his feet with all the signs of +blandishment and caress. Androcles, after a short pause, discovered that +it was his old Numidian friend, and immediately renewed his acquaintance +with him. Their mutual congratulations were very surprising to the +beholders, who, upon hearing an account of the whole matter from +Androcles, ordered him to be pardoned, and the lion to be given up into +his possession. Androcles returned at Rome the civilities which he had +received from him in the deserts of Afric. Dion Cassius says, that he +himself saw the man leading the lion about the streets of Rome, the +people everywhere gathering about them, and repeating to one another, +'<i>Hic est leo hospes hominis; hic est homo medicus leonis</i>.' 'This is +the lion who was the man's host; this is the man who was the lion's +physician.'"</p> + +<p>We are glad to repeat this anecdote, although some may call it "stale +and old." The last time we were at the Zoological Gardens, in the +Regents Park, London, we saw a lion very kindly come and rub itself +against the rails of its den, on seeing a turbaned visitor come up, who +addressed it. The man had been kind to it on its passage home.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> It was +by no means a tame lion, nor one that its keeper would have ventured to +touch.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Sir George Davis and the Lion</span></h4> + +<p>Steele, in the 146th <i>Guardian</i>,<a name="FNanchor_141_141" id="FNanchor_141_141"></a><a href="#Footnote_141_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a> has followed up a paper by +Addison, on the subject of lions, and gives an anecdote sent him, he +says, by "a worthy merchant and a friend of mine," who had it in the +year 1700 from the gentleman to whom it happened.</p> + +<p>"About sixty years ago, when the plague raged at Naples, Sir George +Davis, consul there for the English nation, retired to Florence. It +happened one day he went out of curiosity to see the great duke's lions. +At the farther end, in one of the dens, lay a lion, which the keepers in +three years' time could not tame, with all the art and gentle usage +imaginable. Sir George no sooner appeared at the grates of the den, but +the lion ran to him with all the marks of joy and transport he was +capable of expressing. He reared himself up, and licked his hand, which +this gentleman put in through the grates. The keeper affrighted, took +him by the arm and pulled him away, begging him not to hazard his life +by going so near the fiercest creature of that kind that ever entered +those dens. However, nothing would satisfy Sir George, notwithstanding +all that could be said to dissuade him, but he must go into the den to +him. The very instant he entered, the lion threw his paws upon his +shoulders, and licked his face, and ran to and fro in the den, fawning +and full of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> joy, like a dog at the sight of his master. After several +embraces and salutations exchanged on both sides, they parted very good +friends. The rumour of this interview between the lion and the stranger +rung immediately through the whole city, and Sir George was very near +passing for a saint among the people. The great duke, when he heard of +it, sent for Sir George, who waited upon his highness, to the den, and +to satisfy his curiosity, gave him the following account of what seemed +so strange to the duke and his followers:—</p> + +<p>"'A captain of a ship from Barbary gave me this lion when he was a young +whelp. I brought him up tame, but when I thought him too large to be +suffered to run about the house, I built a den for him in my courtyard; +from that time he was never permitted to go loose, except when I brought +him within doors to show him to my friends. When he was five years old, +in his gamesome tricks, he did some mischief by pawing and playing with +people. Having griped a man one day a little too hard, I ordered him to +be shot, for fear of incurring the guilt of what might happen; upon this +a friend who was then at dinner with me begged him: how he came here I +know not.'</p> + +<p>Here Sir George Davis ended, and thereupon the Duke of Tuscany assured +him that he had the lion from that very friend of his."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Canova's Lions and the Child.</span></h4> + +<p>The mausoleum of Pope Clement XII., whose name was Rezzonico, is one of +the greatest works of Antonio Canova,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> the celebrated Italian sculptor. +It is in St Peter's, at Rome, and was erected in 1792. It is only +mentioned here on account of two lions, which were faithfully studied +from nature.</p> + +<p>His biographer, Mr Memes,<a name="FNanchor_142_142" id="FNanchor_142_142"></a><a href="#Footnote_142_142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a> tells us that these lions were formed +"after long and repeated observation on the habits and forms of the +living animals. Wherever they were to be seen Canova constantly visited +them, at all hours, and under every variety of circumstances, that he +might mark their natural expression in different states of action and of +repose, of ferocity or gentleness. One of the keepers was even paid to +bring information, lest any favourable opportunity should pass +unimproved."</p> + +<p>One of these lions is sleeping, while the other, which is under the +figure of the personification of religion, couches—but is awake, in +attitude of guarding inviolate the approach to the sepulchre, and ready +with a tremendous roar to spring upon the intruder.</p> + +<p>Canova himself was much pleased with these lions. Mr Memes illustrates +their wonderful force and truth by a little anecdote.</p> + +<p>"One day, while the author (a frequent employment) stood at some +distance admiring from different points of view the tomb of Rezzonico, a +woman with a child in her arms advanced to the lion, which appears to be +watching. The terrified infant began to scream violently, clinging to +the nurse's bosom, and exclaiming, '<i>Mordera, mamma, mordera!</i>' (It will +bite, mamma; it will bite.) The mother turned to the opposite one, which +seems asleep;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> her charge was instantly pacified; and smiling through +tears, extended its little arm to stroke the shaggy head, whispering in +subdued accents, as if afraid to awake the monster, '<i>O come placido! +non mordero quello, mamma.</i>' (How gentle! this one will not bite, +mother.")</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Admiral Napier and the Lion in the Tower.</span></h4> + +<p>Admiral Sir Charles Napier, K.C.B., when a boy in his fourteenth year, +visited London on his way to join his first ship at Spithead, the +<i>Renown</i>. His biographer tells us he was staying at the house of a +relative, who, "after showing the youngster all the London sights, took +him to see the lions at the Tower. Amongst them was one which the keeper +represented as being so very tame that, said he, 'you might put your +hand into his mouth.' Taking him at his word, the young middy, to the +horror of the spectators, thrust his hand into the jaws of the animal, +who, no doubt, was taken as much by surprise as the lookers-on. It was a +daring feat; but providentially he did not suffer for his +temerity."<a name="FNanchor_143_143" id="FNanchor_143_143"></a><a href="#Footnote_143_143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a> This reminds the biographer of Nelson's feat with the +polar bear, and of Charles Napier's (the soldier) bold adventure with an +eagle in his boyhood, as related by Sir William Napier in the history of +his gallant brother's life.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Old Lady and the Beasts on the Mound.</span></h4> + +<p>When the houses were cleared from the head of the Mound in Edinburgh, a +travelling menagerie had set up its caravans on that great earthen +bridge, just at the time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> when George Ferguson, the celebrated Scotch +advocate, better known by his justiciary title of Lord Hermand, came up, +full of Pittite triumph that the ministry of "all the talents" had +fallen. "They are out! they are all out! every mother's son of them!" he +shouted. A lady, who heard the words, and perceived his excited +condition, imagined that he referred to the wild beasts; and seizing the +judge by his arm, exclaimed, "Gude heaven! we shall a' be +devoored!"<a name="FNanchor_144_144" id="FNanchor_144_144"></a><a href="#Footnote_144_144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="SEALS" id="SEALS"></a>SEALS.</h2> + + +<p>A most intelligent group of creatures, some of which the compiler has +watched in Yell Sound, close to Mossbank. He has even seen them once or +twice in the Forth, close to the end of the pier. In the Zoological +Gardens a specimen of the common seal proved for months a great source +of attraction by its mild nature, and its singular form and activity. It +soon died, and, had a coroner's jury returned a verdict, it would have +been "Death from the hooks swallowed with the fish" daily provided. We +have heard seal-fishers describe the great rapidity of the growth of +seals in the Arctic seas. They seem in about a fortnight after their +birth to attain nearly the size of their mothers. The same has been +recorded of the whale order. Both seals and whales have powers of +assimilating food and making fat that are unparalleled even by pigs. The +intelligence of seals is marvellous. Many who visited the Zoological<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +Gardens in the Regent's Park in May and June 1866 witnessed instances of +this in a seal from the South Seas, recently exhibited in London. +Persons on the sea-side might readily domesticate these interesting and +truly affectionate creatures. Hooker's sea-bear, the species exhibited +in London, was at first, so the kind Frenchman told us, very fierce, but +soon got reconciled to him, and, when I saw it, great was the mutual +attachment. It was a strangely interesting sight to see the great +creature walk on its fin-like legs, and clamber up and kiss the +genial-bearded French sailor.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Dr Adam Clarke on Shetland Seals.</span></h4> + +<p>In Shetland, Dr Adam Clarke tells us the popular belief is that the +seals, or, as they call them, <i>selkies</i>, are fallen spirits, and that it +is dangerous to kill any of them, as evil will assuredly happen to him +who does. They think that when the blood of a seal touches the water, +the sea begins to rise and swell. Those who shoot them notice that gulls +appear to watch carefully over them; and Mr Edmonston assured him that +he has known a gull scratch, a seal to warn it of his approach. Dr +Clarke, in the second of his voyages to Shetland, had a seal on board, +which was caught on the Island of Papa. He says:—"It refuses all +nourishment; it is very young, and about three feet long; it roars +nearly like a calf, but not so loud, and continually crawls about the +deck, seeking to get again to sea. As I cannot bear its cries, I intend +to return it to the giver. Several of them have been tamed by the +Shetlanders, and these will attend their owners to the place where the +cows<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> are milked, in order to get a drink. This was the case with one Mr +Henry of Burrastow brought up. When it thought proper it would go to sea +and forage there, but was sure to return to land, and to its owner. They +tell me that it is a creature of considerable sagacity. The young seal +mentioned above made his escape over the gangway, and got to sea. I am +glad of it; for its plaintive lowing was painful to me. We saw it +afterwards making its way to the ocean."<a name="FNanchor_145_145" id="FNanchor_145_145"></a><a href="#Footnote_145_145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Dr Edmonston on Shetland Seals.</span></h4> + +<p>Every one familiar with seals is struck with their plaintive, +intelligent faces, and any one who has seen the seals from time to time +living in the Zoological Gardens must have been pleased with the marks +of attention paid by them to their keepers. Dr Edmonston of Balta Sound +has published in the "Memoirs of the Wernerian Society"<a name="FNanchor_146_146" id="FNanchor_146_146"></a><a href="#Footnote_146_146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a> a graphic +and valuable paper on the distinctions, history, and hunting of seals in +the Shetland Isles. As that gentleman is a native of Unst, and had, when +he wrote the Memoir, been for more than twenty years actively engaged in +their pursuit, both as an amusement and as a study, we may extract two +or three interesting passages.</p> + +<p>He remarks (p. 29) on the singular circumstance that so few additions +have been made to the list of domestic animals bequeathed to us from +remote antiquity, and mentions the practicability of an attempt being +made to tame seals; and also says that it is yet to be learned whether<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +they would breed in captivity and remain reclaimed from the wild state. +The few instances recorded in books of natural history of tame seals +refer to the species called <i>Phoca vitulina</i>, but of the processes of +rearing and education we have no details. "The trials," continues Dr +Edmonston, "I have made on these points have been equally numerous on +the great as on the common seal. By far the most interesting one I ever +had was a young male of the <i>barbata</i> species: he was taken by myself +from a cave when only a few hours old, and in a day or two became as +attached as a dog to me. The varied movements and sounds by which he +expressed delight at my presence and regret at my absence were most +affecting; these sounds were as like as possible to the inarticulate +tones of the human voice. I know no animal capable of displaying more +affection than he did, and his temper was the gentlest imaginable. I +kept him for four or five weeks, feeding him entirely on warm milk from +the cow; in my temporary absence butter-milk was given to him, and he +died soon after.</p> + +<p>"Another was a female, also of the great seal species, which we captured +in a cave when about six weeks old, in October 1830. This individual +would never allow herself to be handled but by the person who chiefly +had the charge of her, yet even she soon became comparatively familiar.</p> + +<p>"It was amusing to see how readily she ascended the stairs, which she +often did, intent, as it seemed, on examining every room in the house; +on showing towards her signs of displeasure and correction, she +descended more rapidly and safely than her awkwardness seemed to +promise.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p> + +<p>"She was fed from the first on fresh fish alone, and grew and fattened +considerably. We had her carried down daily in a hand-barrow to the +sea-side, where an old excavation admitting the salt water was +abundantly roomy and deep for her recreation and our observation. After +sporting and diving for some time she would come ashore, and seemed +perfectly to understand the use of the barrow. Often she tried to waddle +from the house to the water, or from the latter to her apartment, but +finding this fatiguing, and seeing preparations by her chairman, she +would of her own accord mount her palanquin, and thus be carried as +composedly as any Hindoo princess. By degrees we ventured to let her go +fairly into the sea, and she regularly returned after a short interval; +but one day during a thick fall of snow she was imprudently let off as +usual, and, being decoyed some distance out of sight of the shore by +some wild ones which happened to be in the bay at the time, she either +could not find her way back or voluntarily decamped.</p> + +<p>"She was, we understood, killed very shortly after in a neighbouring +inlet. We had kept her about six months, and every moment she was +becoming more familiar; we had dubbed her Finna, and she seemed to know +her name. Every one that saw her was struck with her appearance.</p> + +<p>"The smooth face without external ears—the nose slightly aquiline—the +large, dark, and beautiful eye which stood the sternest human gaze, gave +to the expression of her countenance such dignity and variety that we +all agreed that it really was <i>super</i>-animal. The Scandinavian Scald, +with such a mermaid before him, would find in her eye a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> metaphor so +emphatic that he would have no reason to borrow the favourite oriental +image of the gazelles from his Caucasian ancestors.</p> + +<p>"This remarkable expressiveness and dignity of aspect of the +<i>Haff-fish</i>, so superior to all other animals with which the fishermen +of Shetland were acquainted, and the human character of his voice, may +have procured for him that peculiar respect with which he was regarded +by those who lived nearest his domains, and were admitted to most +frequent intercourse with him. He was the favourite animal of +superstition, and a few tales of him are still current. These, however, +are not of much interest or variety, the leading ideas in them being +these: That the great seal is a human soul, or a fallen angel in +metempsychosis, and that to him who is remarkable for hostility to the +phocal race some fatal retribution will ensue. I can easily conceive the +feeling of awe with which a fisherman would be impressed when, in the +sombre magnificence of some rocky solitude, a great seal suddenly +presented himself, for an interview of this kind once occurred to +myself.</p> + +<p>"I was lying one calm summer day on a rock a little elevated above the +water, watching the approach of seals, in a small creek formed by +frowning precipices several hundred feet high, near the north point of +the Shetland Islands.</p> + +<p>"I had patiently waited for two hours, and the scene and the sunshine +had thrown me into a kind of reverie, when my companion, who was more +awake, arrested my attention. A full-sized female haff-fish was swimming +slowly past, within eight yards of my feet, her head askance, and her +eyes fixed upon me; the gun, charged with two balls,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> was immediately +pointed. I followed her with the aim for some distance, when she dived +without my firing.</p> + +<p>"I resolved that this omission should not recur, if she afforded me +another opportunity of a shot, which I hardly hoped for, but which +actually in a few moments took place. Still I did not fire, until, when +at a considerable distance, she was on the eve of diving, and she eluded +the shot by springing to a side. Here was really a species of +fascination. The wild scene, the near presence and commanding aspect of +the splendid animal before me, produced a spellbound impression which, +in my sporting experience, I never felt before.</p> + +<p>"On reflection, I was delighted that she escaped.</p> + +<p>"The younger seals are the more easy to tame, but the more difficult to +rear; under a month old they must be fed, and, especially the <i>barbata</i>, +almost entirely on milk, and that of the cow seems hardly to agree with +them.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps their being suckled by a cow fed chiefly on fish, the giving +them occasionally a little salt water, and then by degrees inducing them +to eat fish, might be the best mode until they attained the age of being +sustained on fish alone. In the <i>barbata</i>, to insure rapid taming, it +appears to be necessary to capture them before the period of casting the +fœtal hair, analogous to what I have observed in the case of the +young of water-birds before getting up their first feathers, and when +they are entirely covered with the egg down.</p> + +<p>"These changes seem connected with a great development of the wild +habits, and attachment to, and knowledge of, the localities where they +have first seen the light. As the <i>barbata</i> is until this period in +reality a land animal, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> chief difficulty we have to surmount with it +is in the quality of the milk to be given it. The <i>vitulina</i> is +essentially an inhabitant of the water from its birth, yet the care of +the mother is perhaps for weeks necessary to judge how long and how +often it should be on land, and this we can hardly expect to imitate. In +the young of this species a few days old, which we have tried to rear, a +want of knowledge of this kind of management may have led to failure. I +have not attempted to rear them at a greater age.</p> + +<p>"The Greenland seal is, I have been informed, occasionally kept for a +month or two on board the whalers, and thrives sufficiently well on the +flesh of sea-birds. This species appears to bring forth in January, and +therefore it is subjected to captivity.</p> + +<p>"I know but comparatively little of its capability of being easily +tamed; but this quality, of itself, is no evidence of superior +intelligence.</p> + +<p>"Might it not be easy to induce Greenland shipmasters to bring some of +these animals to England, where they would be accessible to the +observation of zoologists.</p> + +<p>"One mode of attempting to tame them might be to take half-grown animals +in a net, or surprise them on land, and then keep them in salt-water +ponds in a semi-domestic state: if any of them were pregnant when +caught, or could be got to breed, the main difficulty would be +overcome."</p> + +<p>Long as these extracts are, they possess great interest as being derived +from observations on living animals made by one who was a friend of the +Duke of Wellington, and was always welcomed by him. His northern Island +of Unst is a fine field for studying marine animals. The sweeping +currents of the Arctic oceans bring creatures to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> the quiet voes and +sounds. Shetland in spring, summer, and autumn is a favoured locality +for the naturalist and painter.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Walrus.</span></h4> + +<p>There was some likelihood, a few years ago, that a most attractive +animal would be added to the collection of the Zoological Society. But, +unfortunately for the public gratification, as well as the remuneration +of the spirited captain who brought the creature, it reached the gardens +in a dying state, and only survived a few days. But it is not the first +of its family which has travelled so far to the southward. Nearly 250 +years ago a specimen was brought alive by some of the Arctic +adventurers, and excited no little surprise, as old Purchas tells us. It +was in the year 1608, when "the king and many honourable personages +beheld it with admiration, for the strangeness of the same, the like +whereof had never before beene seene alive in England. Not long after it +fell sicke and died. As the beast in shape is very strange, so is it of +strange docilitie, and apt to be taught, as by good experience we often +proved."</p> + +<p>The figure which accompanies this paper was drawn from our late lamented +visitor by Mr Wolf, who sketched it before its removal to the Zoological +Gardens. Captain Henry caught it during a whaling expedition, and sent +it to London. Though quite young, it was nearly four feet in length; and +when the person who used to feed it came into the room, it would give +him an affectionate greeting, in a voice somewhat resembling the cry of +a calf, but considerably louder. It walked about, but, owing to its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> +weakness, soon grew tired, and lay down. Unlike the seals, to which it +is closely allied, the walrus has considerable power with its limbs when +out of the water, and can support its bulky body quite clear of the +ground. Its mode of progression, however, is awkward when compared with +ordinary quadrupeds; its hind-limbs shuffling along, as if inclosed in a +sack. In some future season, when a lively specimen reaches the Gardens, +and is accommodated with an extensive tank of water, there is no reason +why the walrus should not thrive as well as the seal, or his close, +though not kind, neighbour of the North, the Polar bear.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/illus-182-f.jpg" width="600" height="354" alt="The Walrus." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The Walrus.</span> +</div> + +<p>The walrus, <i>morse</i>, or <i>sea-horse</i> (<i>Trichechus rosmarus</i>, Linn.<a name="FNanchor_147_147" id="FNanchor_147_147"></a><a href="#Footnote_147_147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a>), +is one of the most characteristic inhabitants of the Arctic regions. +There it is widely distributed, and thence it seldom wanders. One or two +specimens were killed on the shores of the northern Scottish islands in +1817 and 1825; but these instances seem hardly to admit of its +introduction into our <i>fauna</i>, any more than West Indian beans, brought +by the currents, are admissible into our <i>flora</i>. It is mentioned by +some old Scottish writers<a name="FNanchor_148_148" id="FNanchor_148_148"></a><a href="#Footnote_148_148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a> among our native animals, and at one time +may have been carried to our coasts on some of the bergs, which are +occasionally seen in the German Ocean after the periodical disruptions +of the Arctic ice. Like the Polar bear, however, the walrus has +evidently been formed by its Creator for a life among icy seas, and +there it is now found often in large herds. Captain Beechey and other +voyagers to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> the seas around Spitzbergen, describe them as being +particularly abundant on the western coast of that inclement island. The +captain says that in fine weather they resort to large pieces of ice at +the edge of the main body, where herds of them may be seen of sometimes +more than a hundred individuals each. "In these situations they appear +greatly to enjoy themselves, rolling and sporting about, and frequently +making the air resound with their bellowing, which bears some +resemblance to that of a bull. These diversions generally end in sleep, +during which these wary animals appear always to take the precaution of +having a sentinel to warn them of any danger." The only warning, +however, which the sentinel gives, is by seeking his own safety; in +effecting which, as the herd lie huddled on one another like swine, the +motion of one is speedily communicated to the whole, and they instantly +tumble, one over the other, into the sea, head-foremost, if possible; +but failing that, anyhow.</p> + +<p>Scoresby remarks that the front part of the head of the young walrus, +without tusks, when seen at a distance, is not unlike the human face. It +has the habit of raising its head above the water to look at ships and +other passing objects; and when seen in such a position, it may have +given rise to some of the stories of mermaids.</p> + +<p>There is still a considerable uncertainty as to the food of the walrus. +Cook found no traces of aliment in the stomachs of those shot by his +party. Crantz says that in Greenland shell-fish and sea-weeds seem to be +its only subsistence. Scoresby found shrimps, a kind of craw-fish, and +the remains of young seals, in the stomachs of those which he examined. +Becchey mentions, that in the inside<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> of several specimens he found +numerous granite pebbles larger than walnuts. These may be taken for the +same purpose that some birds, especially of the gallinaceous order, +swallow bits of gravel. Dr Von Baer concludes, from an analysis of all +the published accounts, that the walrus is omnivorous.<a name="FNanchor_149_149" id="FNanchor_149_149"></a><a href="#Footnote_149_149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a> A specimen +that died at St Petersburg was fed on oatmeal mixed with turnips or +other vegetables; and the little fellow, who lately died in the Regent's +Park, seems to have been fed by the sailors on oatmeal porridge.</p> + +<p>One of the chief characteristics of the walrus is the presence of two +elongated tusks (the canine teeth) in the upper jaw. According to +Crantz, it uses these to scrape mussels and other shell-fish from the +rocks and out of the sand, and also to grapple and get along with, for +they enable it to raise itself on the ice. They are also powerful +weapons of defence against the Polar bear and its other enemies.</p> + +<p>The walrus attains a great size. Twelve feet is the length of a fine +specimen in the British Museum. Beechey's party found some of them +fourteen feet in length and nine feet in girth, and of such prodigious +weight that they could scarcely turn them over.</p> + +<p>Gratifying accounts are given of the attachment of the female to its +young, and the male occasionally assists in their defence when exposed +to danger, or at least in revenging the attack. Lord Nelson, when a lad, +was cox<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>wain to one of the ships of Phipps's expedition to the Arctic +seas, and commanded a boat, which was the means of saving a party +belonging to the other ship from imminent danger. "Some of the officers +had fired at and wounded a walrus. As no other animal," says Southey, +"has so human-like an expression in its countenance, so also is there +none that seems to possess more of the passions of humanity. The wounded +animal dived immediately, and brought up a number of its companions; and +they all joined in an attack upon the boat. They wrested an oar from one +of the men; and it was with the utmost difficulty that the crew could +prevent them from staving or upsetting her, till the <i>Carcass's</i> boat +(commanded by young Horatio Nelson) came up: and the walruses, finding +their enemies thus reinforced, dispersed." And Captain Beechey gives the +following pleasing picture of maternal affection which he witnessed in +the seas around Spitzbergen: "We were greatly amused by the singular and +affectionate conduct of a walrus towards its young. In the vast sheet of +ice which surrounded the ships, there were occasionally many pools; and +when the weather was clear and warm, animals of various kinds would +frequently rise and sport about in them, or crawl from thence upon the +ice to bask in the warmth of the sun. A walrus rose in one of these +pools close to the ship, and, finding everything quiet, dived down and +brought up its young, which it held to its breast by pressing it with +its flipper. In this manner it moved about the pool, keeping in an erect +posture, and always directing the face of the young towards the vessel. +On the slightest movement on board, the mother released her flipper, and +pushed the young one under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> water; but, when everything was again quiet, +brought it up as before, and for a length of time continued to play +about in the pool, to the great amusement of the seamen, who gave her +credit for abilities in tuition, which, though possessed of considerable +sagacity, she hardly merited."</p> + +<p>The walrus has two great enemies in its icy home—the Polar bear and the +Esquimaux. Captain Beechey thus graphically describes the manœuvres +of that king of the Bruin race, which must often be attended with +success. The bears, when hungry, are always on the watch for animals +sleeping upon the ice, and try to come on them unawares, as their prey +darts through holes in the ice. "One sunshiny day a walrus, of nine or +ten feet length, rose in a pool of water not very far from us; and after +looking around, drew his greasy carcase upon the ice, where he rolled +about for a time, and at length laid himself down to sleep. A bear, +which had probably been observing his movements, crawled carefully upon +the ice on the opposite side of the pool, and began to roll about also, +but apparently more with design than amusement, as he progressively +lessened the distance that intervened between him and his prey. The +walrus, suspicious of his advances, drew himself up preparatory to a +precipitate retreat into the water in case of a nearer acquaintance with +his playful but treacherous visitor; on which the bear was instantly +motionless, as if in the act of sleep; but after a time began to lick +his paws, and clean himself, occasionally encroaching a little more upon +his intended prey. But even this artifice did not succeed; the wary +walrus was far too cunning to allow himself to be entrapped, and +suddenly plunged into the pool; which the bear no sooner observed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> than +he threw off all disguise, rushed towards the spot, and followed him in +an instant into the water, where, I fear, he was as much disappointed in +his meal, as we were of the pleasure of witnessing a very interesting +encounter."</p> + +<p>The meat of the walrus is not despised by Europeans, and its heart is +reckoned a delicacy. To the Esquimaux there is no greater treat than a +kettle well filled with walrus-blubber; and to the natives along +Behring's Straits this quadruped is as valuable as is the palm to the +sons of the desert. Their canoes are covered with its skin; their +weapons and sledge-runners, and many useful articles, are formed from +its tusks; their lamps are filled with its oil; and they themselves are +fed with its fat and its fibre. So thick is the skin, that a bayonet is +almost the only weapon which can pierce it. Cut into shreds, it makes +excellent cordage, being especially adapted for wheel-ropes. The tusks +bear a high commercial value, and are extensively employed by dentists +in the manufacture of artificial teeth. The fat of a good-sized specimen +yields thirty gallons of oil.—<i>A. White, from "Excelsior."</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="KANGAROOS" id="KANGAROOS"></a>KANGAROOS.</h2> + + +<p>What dissertation on the strange outward form, or stranger mode of +reproduction to which this famed member of the <i>Marsupialia</i> belongs, +could contain as much in little space as Charles Lamb's happy +description in his letter to Baron Field, his "distant correspondent" in +New South Wales? When that was written, and for long after, it may be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> +necessary to tell some, Australia was chiefly known as the land of the +convict.</p> + +<p>"Tell me," writes Elia, "what your Sidneyites do? Are they th-v-ng all +day long? Merciful heaven! what property can stand against such a +depredation? The kangaroos—your aborigines—do they keep their +primitive simplicity un-Europe-tainted, with those little short +forepuds, looking like a lesson framed by nature to the pickpocket! +Marry, for diving into fobs they are rather lamely provided <i>a priori</i>; +but if the hue and cry were once up, they would show as fair a pair of +hind-shifters as the expertest locomotor in the colony."<a name="FNanchor_150_150" id="FNanchor_150_150"></a><a href="#Footnote_150_150" class="fnanchor">[150]</a></p> + +<p>In one of his letters to another of his favoured correspondents he +alludes to his friend Field having gone to a country where there are so +many thieves that even the kangaroos have to wear their pockets in +front, lest they be picked!</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Kangaroo Cooke.</span></h4> + +<p>Major-General Henry Frederick Cooke, C.B. and K.C.H., commonly called +Kang-Cooke, was a captain in the Coldstream Guards, and aide-de-camp to +the Duke of York. He was called the kangaroo by his intimate associates. +It is said that this arose from his once having let loose a cageful of +these animals at Pidcock's Menagerie, or from his answer to the Duke of +York, who, inquiring how he fared in the Peninsula, replied that he +"could get nothing to eat but kangaroo."<a name="FNanchor_151_151" id="FNanchor_151_151"></a><a href="#Footnote_151_151" class="fnanchor">[151]</a> Moore, in his Diary,<a name="FNanchor_152_152" id="FNanchor_152_152"></a><a href="#Footnote_152_152" class="fnanchor">[152]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> +December 13, 1820, records that he dined with him and others at Lord +Granard's. Cooke told of Admiral Cotton once (at Lisbon, I think) saying +during dinner, "Make signals for the <i>Kangaroo</i> to get under way;" and +Cooke, who had just been expressing his anxiety to leave Lisbon, thought +the speech alluded to his nickname, and considered it an extraordinary +liberty for one who knew so little of him as Admiral Cotton to take. He +found out afterwards, however, that his namesake was a sloop-of-war.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_TIGER-WOLF" id="THE_TIGER-WOLF"></a>THE TIGER-WOLF.</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>Thylacinus cynocephalus.</i>)</p> + + +<p>The great order, or rather division, of mammalia, the +<i>Marsupialia</i>,<a name="FNanchor_153_153" id="FNanchor_153_153"></a><a href="#Footnote_153_153" class="fnanchor">[153]</a> is furnished with a pouch, into which the young are +received and nourished at a very early period of their existence. The +first species of the group, known to voyagers and naturalists, was the +celebrated opossum of North America, whose instinctive care to defend +itself from danger causes it to feign the appearance of death. As the +great continent of Australia became known, it was found that the great +mass of its mammalia, from the gigantic kangaroo to the pigmy, +mouse-like potoroo, belonged to this singular order. The order contains +a most anomalous set of animals, some being exclusively carnivorous, +some chiefly subsisting on insects, while others browse on grass; and +many live on fruits and leaves, which they climb trees to procure; a +smaller portion sub<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>sisting on roots, for which they burrow in the +ground. The gentle and deer-faced kangaroo belongs to this order; the +curious bandicoots, the tree-frequenting phalangers and petauri, the +savage "native devil,"<a name="FNanchor_154_154" id="FNanchor_154_154"></a><a href="#Footnote_154_154" class="fnanchor">[154]</a> and the voracious subject of this notice.</p> + +<p>The "tiger-wolf" is a native of Van Diemen's Land, and is strictly +confined to that island. It was first described in the ninth volume of +the "Linnean Transactions," under the name of <i>Didelphis cynocephalus</i>, +or "dog-headed opossum," the English name being an exact translation of +its Latin one. Its non-prehensile tail, peculiar feet, and different +arrangement of teeth, pointed out to naturalists that it entered into a +genus distinct from the American opossums; and to this genus the name of +<i>Thylacinus</i><a name="FNanchor_155_155" id="FNanchor_155_155"></a><a href="#Footnote_155_155" class="fnanchor">[155]</a> has been applied; its specific name <i>cynocephalus</i> +being still retained in conformity with zoological nomenclature, +although M. Temminck, the founder of the genus, honoured the species +with the name of its first describer, and called it <i>Thylacinus +Harrisii</i>.</p> + +<p>Mr Gould has given a short account of this quadruped in his great work, +"The Mammals of Australia," accompanied with two plates, one showing the +head of the male, of the natural size, in such a point of view as to +exhibit the applicability of one of the names applied to it by the +colonists, that of "zebra-wolf." He justly remarks that it must be +regarded as by far the most formidable of all the marsupial animals, as +it certainly is the most savage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> indigenous quadruped belonging to the +Australian continent. Although it is too feeble to make a successful +attack on man, it commits great havoc among the smaller quadrupeds of +the country; and to the settler it is a great object of dread, as his +poultry and other domestic animals are never safe from its attacks. His +sheep are, especially, an object of the colonist's anxious care, as he +can house his poultry, and thus secure them from the prowler; but his +flocks, wandering about over the country, are liable to be attacked at +night by the tiger-wolf, whose habits are strictly nocturnal. Mr Gunn +has seen some so large and powerful that a number of dogs would not face +one of them. It has become an object with the settler to destroy every +specimen he can fall in with, so that it is much rarer than it was at +the time Mr Harris, its first describer, wrote its history, at least in +the cultivated districts. Much, however, of Van Diemen's Land is still +in a state of nature, and as large tracts of forest-land remain yet +uncleared, there is abundance of covert for it still in the more remote +parts of the colony, and it is even now often seen at Woolnoth and among +the Hampshire hills. In such places it feeds on the smaller species of +kangaroos and other marsupials,—bandicoots, and kangaroo-rats, while +even the prickle-covered echidna—a much more formidable mouthful than +any hedgehog—supplies the tiger-wolf with a portion of its sustenance. +The specimen described by Mr Harris was caught in a trap baited with the +flesh of the kangaroo. When opened, the remains of a half-digested +echidna<a name="FNanchor_156_156" id="FNanchor_156_156"></a><a href="#Footnote_156_156" class="fnanchor">[156]</a> were found in its stomach.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p> + +<p>The tiger-wolf has a certain amount of daintiness in its appetite when +in a state of nature. From the observations of Mr Gunn it would seem +that nothing will induce it to prey on the wombat,<a name="FNanchor_157_157" id="FNanchor_157_157"></a><a href="#Footnote_157_157" class="fnanchor">[157]</a> a fat, sluggish, +marsupial quadruped, abundant in the districts which it frequents, and +whose flesh would seem to be very edible, seeing that it lives on fruits +and roots. No sooner, however, was the sheep introduced than the +tiger-wolf began to attack the flocks, and has ever since shown a most +unmistakable appetite for mutton, preferring the flesh of that most +useful and easily-mastered quadruped to that of any kangaroo however +venison-like, or bandicoot however savoury. The colonists of Van +Diemen's land have applied various names to this animal, according as +its resemblance to other ferocious quadrupeds of different climates +struck their fancy. The names of "tiger," "hyena," and "zebra-wolf," are +partly acquired from its ferocity, somewhat corresponding with that of +these well-known carnivorous denizens of other lands, and partly from +the black bands which commence behind the shoulders, and which extend in +length on the haunches, and resemble in some faint measure those on the +barred tyrant of the Indian jungles, and the other somewhat similarly +ornamented mammalia implied in the names. These bars are well relieved +by the general grayish-brown colour of the fur, which is somewhat woolly +in its texture, from each of the hairs of which it is composed being +waved.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p> + +<p>The specimens in the Zoological Gardens are very shy and restless; when +alarmed they dash and leap about their dens and utter a short guttural +cry somewhat resembling a bark. This shyness is partly to be attributed +to their imperfect vision by day, and partly to their resemblance in +character to the wolf, whose treachery and suspicious manners in +confinement must have struck every one who has gazed on this "gaunt +savage" in his den in the Regent's Park. The specimens exhibited are the +first living members of the species first brought to Europe. The male +was taken in November 1849, and the female at an earlier period in the +same year, on the upper part of St Patrick's River, about thirty miles +north-east of Launceston. After being gradually accustomed to +confinement by Mr Gunn, they were shipped for this country, and reached +the Gardens in the spring of 1850. It is very seldom, indeed, that they +are caught alive; and when so caught they are generally at once killed, +so that it was with some difficulty and by offering a considerable +pecuniary inducement to the shepherds, that they were at last secured +for the Zoological Society.<a name="FNanchor_158_158" id="FNanchor_158_158"></a><a href="#Footnote_158_158" class="fnanchor">[158]</a> In their den they show great activity, +and can bound upwards nearly to the roof of the place where they are +confined.—<i>A. White, from "Excelsior."</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="SQUIRREL_ARCTIC_LEMMING" id="SQUIRREL_ARCTIC_LEMMING"></a>SQUIRREL: ARCTIC LEMMING.</h2> + + +<p>The one with its long plume-like tail, organised for a life among trees, +the other with its home in the arctic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> regions, belong to an order not +generally distinguished for intelligence, although, the beaver, once +reputed a miracle of mind, belongs to it. The glirine or rodent animals +are generally of small or moderate size, though some, like the +water-loving capybara, are of considerable dimensions.</p> + +<p>The squirrel is a fine subject for a painter. There is a picture by Sir +Edwin Landseer, of a squirrel and bullfinch. On an engraving of it, +published in 1865, is inscribed "a pair of nut-crackers,"—a happy +title, and very apposite.</p> + +<p>Jekyll saw in Colman's chambers a squirrel in the usual round cage. "Ah! +poor devil," said Jekyll, "he's going the <i>home circuit</i>."<a name="FNanchor_159_159" id="FNanchor_159_159"></a><a href="#Footnote_159_159" class="fnanchor">[159]</a></p> + +<p>If you come upon a squirrel on the ground, he is not long in getting to +the topmost branch of the highest tree, so perfectly is he adapted for +"rising" at a "bar"!</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Pets of some of the Revolutionary Butchers. A Squirrel</span>.</h4> + +<p>Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart., in his novel, "Zanoni,"<a name="FNanchor_160_160" id="FNanchor_160_160"></a><a href="#Footnote_160_160" class="fnanchor">[160]</a> pictures +Citizen Couthon fondling a little spaniel "that he invariably carried in +his bosom, even to the Convention, as a vent for the exuberant +sensibilities which overflowed his affectionate heart."</p> + +<p>In a note the novelist remarks—</p> + +<p>"This tenderness for some pet animal was by no means peculiar to +Couthon; it seems rather a common fashion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> with the gentle butchers of +the Revolution. M. George Duval informs us ('Souvenirs de la Terreur,' +iii. p. 183), that Chaumette had an aviary, to which he devoted his +harmless leisure; the murderous Fournier carried, on his shoulders, a +pretty little squirrel attached by a silver chain; Panis bestowed the +superfluity of his affections upon two gold pheasants; and Marat, who +would not abate one of the three hundred thousand heads he demanded, +<i>reared doves</i>! Apropos of the spaniel of Couthon, Duval gives us a +characteristic anecdote of Sergent, not one of the least relentless +agents of the massacre of September. A lady came to implore his +protection for one of her relations confined in the Abbaye. He scarcely +deigned to speak to her. As she retired in despair, she trod by accident +on the paw of his favourite spaniel. Sergent, turning round, enraged and +furious, exclaimed, '<i>Madam, have you no humanity?</i>'"</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Arctic Voyager and the Lemming.</span></h4> + +<p>Captain Back, on his arctic land expedition, when returning in September +1835, encountered a severe gale, which forced them to land their boat, +and as the water rose they had three times to haul it higher on the +bank. He introduces an affecting little incident: "So completely cold +and drenched was everything outside, that a poor little lemming, unable +to contend with the floods, which had driven it successively from all +its retreats, crept silently under the tent, and snuggled away in +precarious security within a few paces of a sleeping terrier. +Unconscious of its danger, it licked its fur coat, and darted its bright +eyes from object to object, as if pleased and surprised with its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> new +quarters; but soon the pricked ears of the awakened dog announced its +fate, and in another instant the poor little stranger was quivering in +his jaws!"<a name="FNanchor_161_161" id="FNanchor_161_161"></a><a href="#Footnote_161_161" class="fnanchor">[161]</a></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mr M<sup>c</sup>Dougall?]<a name="FNanchor_162_162" id="FNanchor_162_162"></a><a href="#Footnote_162_162" class="fnanchor">[162]</a> records several amusing anecdotes of the little +arctic lemming, named <i>Arctomys Spermophilus Parryi</i>, after the great +arctic voyager. He says,—"My own experience of those industrious little +warriors tended to prove that they possessed a strange combination of +sociality and combativeness. Industrious they most certainly are, as is +shown by the complicated excavation of their subterranean cities; +besides which, every feather and hair of bird and animal found in the +vicinity of their dwellings, is made to contribute its iota of warmth +and comfort to the interior of their winter quarters.</p> + +<p>"I had," continues the master of the <i>Resolute</i>, "many opportunities of +watching their movements during my detention at Winter Harbour. My tent +happened to be pitched immediately over one of their large towns, +causing its inhabitants to issue forth from its thousand gates to catch +a view of the strangers. Frequently on waking we have found the little +animals, rolled up in a ball, snugly ensconced within the folds of our +blanket-bags; nor would they be expelled from such a warm and desirable +position without showing fight. On several occasions I observed Naps, +the dog, fast asleep with one or two lemmings huddled away between its +legs, like so many pups."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p> + +<p>He says that Lieutenant Mecham noticed an Esquimaux dog, named Buffer, +trudging along, nose to the ground, quite unconscious of danger, when a +lemming, suddenly starting from its cavern, seized poor Buffer by the +nose, inflicting a severe wound. The dog, astounded at such an +unsuspected assault, gave a dismal howl, and at length shook the enemy +off, after which he became the attacking party, and in less than a +minute the presumptuous assailant disappeared between the jaws of the +Tartar he had attempted to catch.</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="RATS_AND_MICE" id="RATS_AND_MICE"></a>RATS AND MICE.</h2> + + +<p>Why should we not, like Grainger, begin this section as the writer of +"The Sugar-Cane" does one of his paragraphs—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"Come muse! let's sing of rats."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The "restless rottens" and mice need little introduction. They are a +most fertile race, and some species of them seem only to be in human +habitations. They are terrible nuisances, and yet rat-skins are said to +be manufactured in Paris into gloves.</p> + +<p>Sydney Smith's comparison of some one dying like a poisoned rat in a +ditch is a powerful one. The same writer, in hunting down an unworthy +man, with his cutting criticism, says, that he did it not on account of +his power, but to put down what might prove noisome if not settled, much +as a Dutch burgomaster might hunt a rat, not for its value, but because +by its boring it might cause<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> the water to break through his dikes, and +thus flood his native land.</p> + +<p>Robert Browning, in one of his poems, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin," has +powerfully described an incursion of rats. A few lines may be quoted:—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"Almost five hundred years ago,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">To see the townsfolk suffer so</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">From vermin, was a pity.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Rats!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">They fought the dogs and killed the cats,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And bit the babies in their cradles,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And ate the cheeses out of the vats,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And licked the soup from the cook's own ladles,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Split open the kegs of salted sprats,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And even spoiled the women's chats,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">By drowning their speaking</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">With shrieking and squeaking</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">In fifty different sharps and flats.</span><br /> +</p> +<hr class="short" /> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"And ere three shrill notes the pipes had uttered,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">You heard as if an army muttered;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And the muttering grew to a grumbling;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And out of the houses the rats came tumbling—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Brown rats, black rats, grey rats, tawny rats;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Grave old plodders, gay young friskers,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Cocking tails, and pricking whiskers,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Families by tens and dozens,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Followed the Piper for their lives.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">From street to street he piped, advancing,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And step for step they followed dancing,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Until they came to the river Weser</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Wherein all plunged and perished,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Save one."</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Duke of Wellington and the Musk-rat.</span></h4> + +<p>Mr Taylor, in his notes to the artist Haydon's Autobiography, tells us +that a favourite expression of the Duke of Wellington, when people tried +to coax him to do what he had resolved not to do, was, "The rat has got +into the bottle." This not very intelligible expression may refer to an +anecdote I have heard of the Duke's once telling, in his later days, how +the musk-rats in India got into bottles, which ever after retained the +odour of musk. "Either the rats must be very small," said a lady who +heard him, "or the bottles very large." "On the contrary, madam," was +the Duke's reply, "very small bottles and very large rats." "That is the +style of logic we have to deal with at the Horse Guards," whispered Lord +——.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Lady Eglintoun and the Rats.</span></h4> + +<p>Mr Robert Chambers, in his "Traditions of Edinburgh" (p. 191), gives an +interesting account of the elegant Susanna, Countess of Eglintoun, who +was in her eighty-fifth year when Johnson and Boswell visited her. She +died in 1780, at the age of ninety-one, having preserved to the last her +stately mien and fine complexion. She is said to have washed her face +periodically with sow's milk.</p> + +<p>"This venerable woman amused herself latterly in taming and patronising +rats. She kept a vast number of these animals in her pay at Auchans, and +they succeeded in her affections the poets and artists she had loved in +early life. It does not reflect much credit upon the latter, that her +ladyship used to complain of never having met with true<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> gratitude +except from four-footed animals. She had a panel in the oak wainscot of +her dining-room, which she tapped upon and opened at meal times, when +ten or twelve jolly rats came tripping forth, and joined her at table. +At the word of command or a signal from her ladyship, they retired again +to their native obscurity—a trait of good sense in the character and +habits of the animals which, it is hardly necessary to remark, patrons +do not always find in two-legged <i>protégés</i>."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">General Douglas and the Rats.</span></h4> + +<p>The biographer of this highly-distinguished military engineer-officer +relates an anecdote of him when a lieutenant at Tynemouth. The future +author of well-known works on Gunnery and Military Bridges, early began +to show ability in mechanics. "Lieutenant Douglas occupied a room barely +habitable, and had to contest the tenancy with rats, which asserted +their claim with such tenacity, that he went to sleep at the risk of +being devoured. Their incursions compelled him to furnish himself with +loaded pistols and a tinder-box, and he kept watch one night, remaining +quiet till there was an irruption, when he started up and struck a +light. But his vigilance proved of no avail, for the clink of the flint +and steel caused a stampede, and not a rat remained by the time he had +kindled the tinder. Their flight suggested to him another device. He +looked out all the holes, and covered them with slides, connected with +each other by wires, and these he fastened to a string, which enabled +him to draw them all with one pull, and thus close the outlets. The +con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>trivance claims to be mentioned as his first success in mechanics, +foreshadowing his future expertness. It came into use the same night: he +pulled the string without rising from bed, then struck a light, while +the rats flew off to the holes to find them blocked, and he shot them at +leisure. Two or three such massacres cleared off the intruders, and left +him undisturbed in his quarters."<a name="FNanchor_163_163" id="FNanchor_163_163"></a><a href="#Footnote_163_163" class="fnanchor">[163]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Hanover Rats.</span></h4> + +<p>How amusingly does Mr Waterton show his attachment to the extinct +Stuarts in his essays. Go where he may, "a Hanover rat" pops up before +him. In his charming autobiography appended to the three series of his +graphic essays, whether he be in Rome or Cologne, in York or London, at +a farm-house, or on board a steamer on the Rhine, "a Hanover rat" is +sure to be encountered. We could cite many amusing illustrations.</p> + +<p>Earl Stanhope<a name="FNanchor_164_164" id="FNanchor_164_164"></a><a href="#Footnote_164_164" class="fnanchor">[164]</a> speaks of the Jacobites after the death of Anne +reviling all adherents of the court as "a parcel of Roundheads and +Hanover rats." This is the phrase used by Squire Western in Fielding's +novel of "Tom Jones." He tells us that the former of these titles was +the by-word first applied to the Calvinistic preachers in the civil +wars, from the close cropped hair which they affected as distinguished +from the flowing curls of the cavaliers. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> second phrase was of far +more recent origin. It so chanced that not long after the accession of +the House of Hanover, some of the brown, that is, the German or Norway +rats, were first brought over to this country in some timber, as is +said; and being much stronger than the black, or till then, the common +rats, they in many places quite extirpated the latter. The word, both +the noun and the verb "to rat," was first levelled at the converts to +the government of George the First, but has by degrees obtained a wider +meaning, and come to be applied to any sudden and mercenary change in +politics. The ravages of rats might form the subject of a curious +volume. They are not at all literary in their tastes, though they are +known to eat through bales of books, should they be placed in the way of +their runs. The booksellers in the Row always leave room between the +wall and the books in their cellars, to allow room for this predacious +vermin.</p> + +<p>Mr Cole, when examined before the Committee of the House on the +condition of the depositories of the Records some time ago, stated that +"six or seven perfect skeletons of rats were found imbedded (in the +Rolls); bones of these vermin were generally distributed throughout the +mass, and a dog was employed in hunting the live ones."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Irishman Employed Shooting Rats.</span></h4> + +<p>Luttrell visited Sydney Smith at his parsonage in Somersetshire. The +London wit told some amusing Irish stories, and his manner of telling +them was so good. "One: 'Is your master at home, Paddy?' '<i>No</i>, your +honour.' 'Why, I saw him go in five minutes ago.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> 'Faith, your honour, +he's not exactly at home; he's only there in the back yard a-shooting +rats with cannon, your honour, for his <i>devarsion</i>.'"<a name="FNanchor_165_165" id="FNanchor_165_165"></a><a href="#Footnote_165_165" class="fnanchor">[165]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">James Watt and the Rat's Whiskers.</span></h4> + +<p>Mrs Schimmelpenninck in her youth lived at Birmingham, where she often +met James Watt. In her autobiography (p. 34), she says, "Everybody +practically knew the infinite variety of his talents and stores of +knowledge. When Mr Watt entered a room, men of letters, men of science, +nay, military men, artists, ladies, even little children thronged round +him. I remember a celebrated Swedish artist having been instructed by +him that rats' whiskers made the most pliant and elastic painting-brush; +ladies would appeal to him on the best means of devising grates, curing +smoky chimneys, warming their houses, and obtaining fast colours. I can +speak from experience of his teaching me how to make a dulcimer, and +improve a Jew's harp."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Poet Gray compares the Poet-Laureate to a Rat-catcher.</span></h4> + +<p>The poet Gray very much despised such offices as that of the +poet-laureate, or that held by Elkanah Settle, the last of the city +poets whose name is held up to ridicule by Pope in the "Dunciad." In a +letter to the Rev. Wm. Mason,<a name="FNanchor_166_166" id="FNanchor_166_166"></a><a href="#Footnote_166_166" class="fnanchor">[166]</a> he puts this very strikingly:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"Though I very well know the bland emolient saponaceous qualities both +of sack and silver, yet if any great man would say to me, 'I make you +rat-catcher to his Majesty, with a salary of £300 a year, and two butts +of the best Malaga; and though it has been usual to catch a mouse or +two, for form's sake, in public once a year, yet to you, sir, we shall +not stand upon these things,' I cannot say I should jump at it; nay, if +they would drop the very name of the office, and call me Sinecure to the +King's Majesty, I should still feel a little awkward, and think +everybody I saw smelt a rat about me: but I do not pretend to blame any +one else that has not the same sensations. For my part, I would rather +be serjeant-trumpeter or pinmaker to the palace."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Jeremy Bentham and the Mice.</span></h4> + +<p>The biographer of Jeremy Bentham<a name="FNanchor_167_167" id="FNanchor_167_167"></a><a href="#Footnote_167_167" class="fnanchor">[167]</a> tells us that among the animals he +was fond of were mice. They were encouraged "to play" about in his +workshop. I remember, when one got among his papers, that he exclaimed, +"Ho! ho! here's a mouse at work; why won't he come into my lap?—but +then I ought to be writing legislation, and that would not do."</p> + +<p>One day, while we were at dinner, mice had got, as they frequently did, +into the drawers of the dinner-table, and were making no small noise. "O +you rascals," exclaimed Bentham, "there's an uproar among you. I'll tell +puss of you;" and then added, "I became once very intimate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> with a +colony of mice. They used to run up my legs, and eat crumbs from my lap. +I love everything that has four legs; so did George Wilson. We were fond +of mice, and fond of cats; but it was difficult to reconcile the two +affections."</p> + +<p>Jeremy Bentham records: "George Wilson had a disorder which kept him two +months to his couch. The <i>mouses</i> used to run up his back and eat the +powder and pomatum from his hair. They used also to run up my knees when +I went to see him. I remember they did so to Lord Glenbervie, who +thought it odd."<a name="FNanchor_168_168" id="FNanchor_168_168"></a><a href="#Footnote_168_168" class="fnanchor">[168]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Burns and the Field Mouse.</span></h4> + +<p>The history of the origin of this well-known piece of the Scottish poet +is thus given by Mr Chambers in that edition of the Life and Works of +Robert Burns,<a name="FNanchor_169_169" id="FNanchor_169_169"></a><a href="#Footnote_169_169" class="fnanchor">[169]</a> which will ever be regarded, by Scotchmen at least, +as the most complete and carefully-edited of the numerous editions of +that most popular poet.</p> + +<p>"We have the testimony of Gilbert Burns that this beautiful poem was +composed while the author was following the plough. Burns ploughed with +four horses, being twice the amount of power now required on most of the +soils of Scotland. He required an assistant, called a <i>gaudsman</i>, to +drive the horses, his own duty being to hold and guide the plough. John +Blane, who had acted as gaudsman to Burns, and who lived sixty years +afterwards, had a distinct recollection of the turning-up of the mouse.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> +Like a thoughtless youth as he was, he ran after the creature to kill +it, but was checked and recalled by his master, who, he observed, became +thereafter thoughtful and abstracted. Burns, who treated his servants +with the familiarity of fellow-labourers, soon after read the poem to +Blane.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">TO A MOUSE, ON TURNING UP HER NEST WITH THE PLOUGH, NOVEMBER 1785.</span></h4> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Oh, what a panic's in thy breastie!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Thou needna start awa sae hasty</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">Wi' bickering brattle!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">I wad be laith to rin and chase thee</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">Wi' murd'ring pattle.<a name="FNanchor_170_170" id="FNanchor_170_170"></a><a href="#Footnote_170_170" class="fnanchor">[170]</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"I'm truly sorry man's dominion</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Has broken nature's social union,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And justifies that ill opinion,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">Which makes thee startle</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">At me, thy poor earth-born companion,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">And fellow-mortal!</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"I doubt na whyles, but thou may thieve;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">A daimen icker in a thrave<a name="FNanchor_171_171" id="FNanchor_171_171"></a><a href="#Footnote_171_171" class="fnanchor">[171]</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">'S a sma' request:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">I'll get a blessin' wi' the laive,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">And never miss't.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Its silly wa's the win's are strewin"!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And naething now to big a new ane</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">O, foggage green,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And bleak December's winds ensuin'</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">Baith snell and keen!</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"Thou saw the fields laid bare and waste,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And weary winter coming fast,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And cozie here, beneath the blast,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">Thou thought to dwell,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Till crash! the cruel coulter passed</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">Out through thy cell.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"That wee bit heap o' leaves and stibble,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Now thou's turned out for a' thy trouble,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">But house or hald,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">To thole the winter's sleety dribble,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">And cranreuch cauld!</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"But, mousie, thou art no thy lane;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Improving foresight may be vain;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The best-laid schemes o' mice and men</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">Gang aft a-gley,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And lea'e us nought but grief and pain</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">For promised joy.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"Still thou art blest, compared wi' me!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The present only toucheth thee;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">But, och! I backward cast my e'e,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">On prospects drear!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And forward, though I canna see,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">I guess and fear."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>It was on the farm of Mossgiel, in the parish of Mauchline, where he +resided nearly nine years, that the occurrence took place so +pathetically recorded and gloriously commented on in this piece.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Destructive Field Mice.</span></h4> + +<p>Thomas Fuller, in "The Farewell" to his description of the "Worthies of +Essex," says, "I wish the sad casualties may never return which lately +have happened in this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> county; the one, 1581, in the Hundred of Dengy, +the other, 1648, in the Hundred of Rochford and Isle of Foulness (rented +in part by two of my credible parishioners, who attested it, having paid +dear for the truth thereof); when an army of mice, nesting in ant-hills, +as conies in burrows, shaved off the grass at the bare roots, which, +withering to dung, was infectious to cattle. The March following, +numberless flocks of owls from all parts flew thither, and destroyed +them, which otherwise had ruined the country, if continuing another +year. Thus, though great the distance betwixt a man and a mouse, the +meanest may become formidable to the mightiest creature by their +multitudes; and this may render the punishment of the Philistines more +clearly to our apprehensions, at the same time pestered with mice in +their barns and pained with emerods in their bodies."<a name="FNanchor_172_172" id="FNanchor_172_172"></a><a href="#Footnote_172_172" class="fnanchor">[172]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Baron Von Trenck and the Tame Mouse in Prison.</span></h4> + +<p>The unfortunate Baron Von Trenck was a Prussian officer, whose +adventures, imprisonments, and escape form the subject of memoirs which +he wrote in Hungary. He at last settled in France, and there, in 1794, +perished by the guillotine.</p> + +<p>Before he obtained his liberty, he lost a companion which had for two +years helped to beguile the solitude of his captivity. This was a mouse, +which he had tamed so perfectly, that the little creature was +continually playing with him, and would eat out of his mouth. "One night +it skipped about so much that the sentinels heard a noise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> and reported +it to the officer of the guard. As the garrison had been changed at the +peace (between Austria and Prussia), and as Trenck had not been able to +form at once so close a connexion with the officers of the regular +troops as he had done with those of the militia, one of the former, +after ascertaining the truth of the report with his own ears, sent to +inform the commandant that something extraordinary was going on in the +prison. The town-major arrived in consequence early in the morning, +accompanied by locksmiths and masons. The floor, the walls, the baron's +chains, his body, everything in short, were strictly examined. Finding +all in order, they asked the cause of the last evening's bustle. Trenck +had heard the mouse, and told them frankly by what it had been +occasioned. They desired him to call his little favourite; he whistled, +and the mouse immediately leaped upon his shoulder. He solicited that +its life might be spared; but the officer of the guard took it into his +possession, promising, however, on his word of honour, to give it to a +lady who would take great care of it. Turning it afterwards loose in his +chamber, the mouse, who knew nobody but Trenck, soon disappeared, and +hid himself in a hole. At the usual hour of visiting his prison, when +the officers were just going away, the poor little animal darted in, +climbed up his legs, seated itself on his shoulder, and played a +thousand tricks to express the joy it felt on seeing him again. Every +one was astonished, and wished to have it. The major, to terminate the +dispute, carried it away, gave it to his wife, who had a light cage made +for it; but the mouse refused to eat, and a few days after was found +dead."<a name="FNanchor_173_173" id="FNanchor_173_173"></a><a href="#Footnote_173_173" class="fnanchor">[173]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Alexander Wilson and the Mouse.</span></h4> + +<p>About the time when Alexander Wilson formed the design of drawing the +American birds, and writing those descriptions which, when published, +gave him that name which has clung to him, "<i>the American +Ornithologist</i>" he had a school within a few miles of Philadelphia. He +was then a keen student of the animal life around him. In 1802 he wrote +to his friend Bertram, and tells him of his having had "live crows, +hawks, and owls; opossums, squirrels, snakes, lizards," &c. He tells him +that his room sometimes reminded him of Noah's ark, and comically adds, +"but Noah had a wife in one corner of it, and in this particular our +parallel does not altogether tally. I receive every subject of natural +history that is brought to me; and, though they do not march into my ark +from all quarters, as they did into that of our great ancestor, yet I +find means, by the distribution of a few fivepenny <i>bits</i>, to make them +find the way fast enough. A boy, not long ago, brought me a large +basketful of crows. I expect his next load will be bull-frogs, if I +don't soon issue orders to the contrary. One of my boys caught a mouse +in school a few days ago, and directly marched up to me with his +prisoner. I set about drawing it the same evening, and all the while the +pantings of its little heart showed it to be in the most extreme agonies +of fear. I had intended to kill it, in order to fix it in the claws of a +stuffed owl; but, happening to spill a few drops of water near where it +was tied, it lapped it up with such eagerness, and looked in my face +with such an eye of supplicating terror, as perfectly overcame me. I +immediately restored it to life and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> liberty. The agonies of a prisoner +at the stake, while the fire and instruments of torture are preparing, +could not be more severe than the sufferings of that poor mouse; and, +insignificant as the object was, I felt at that moment the sweet +sensation that mercy leaves in the mind when she triumphs over +cruelty."<a name="FNanchor_174_174" id="FNanchor_174_174"></a><a href="#Footnote_174_174" class="fnanchor">[174]</a></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="HARES_RABBITS_GUINEA-PIG" id="HARES_RABBITS_GUINEA-PIG"></a>HARES, RABBITS, GUINEA-PIG.</h2> + + +<p>All gnawing creatures, belonging to the Glirine or Rodentia order. +Charles Lamb has written on the hare, in one view of that +finely-flavoured beast, as only Elia could write. But the poet Cowper +has made the hare's history peculiarly pleasing and familiar. How often +in his letters he alludes to his hares! Mrs E. B. Browning, in her +exquisitely delicate and pathetic poem, "Cowper's Grave," thus alludes +to Cowper's pets—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"Wild, timid hares were drawn from woods to share his home caresses,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Uplooking to his human eyes with sylvan tendernesses;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The very world, by God's constraint, from falsehood's ways removing,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Its women and its men became, beside him, true and loving."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Not many years ago the compiler saw traces of the holes the poet had cut +in the skirting-boards of the room for their ingress and egress, that +they might have ampler room for wandering. His epitaphs on two of them +are often quoted. Rabbits are peculiarly the pets of boys,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> and though, +when wild, often great vermin, from their destructive habits and their +mining operations, are yet said to contribute much to the revenue of one +European monarch.</p> + +<p>How Mr Malthus ought to have hated guinea-pigs, those fertile little +lumps of blotched fur! Few creatures can be more productive.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">William Cowper on his Hares.</span></h4> + +<p>What a model description of the habits of an animal we have in the +gentle Cowper's account of his hares! Would that he had made pets of +other animals, and written descriptions of them, like that which +follows, and which is here copied from the original place to which he +contributed it.<a name="FNanchor_175_175" id="FNanchor_175_175"></a><a href="#Footnote_175_175" class="fnanchor">[175]</a></p> + +<p class="author"> +"<i>May</i> 28. +</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Mr Urban</span>,—Convinced that you despise no communications that may +gratify curiosity, amuse rationally, or add, though but a little, to the +stock of public knowledge, I send you a circumstantial account of an +animal, which, though its general properties are pretty well known, is +for the most part such a stranger to man, that we are but little aware +of its peculiarities. We know indeed that the hare is good to hunt and +good to eat; but in all other respects poor Puss is a neglected subject. +In the year 1774, being much indisposed, both in mind and body, +incapable of diverting myself either with company or books, and yet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> in +a condition that made some diversion necessary, I was glad of anything +that would engage my attention without fatiguing it. The children of a +neighbour of mine had a leveret given them for a plaything; it was at +that time about three months old. Understanding better how to tease the +poor creature than to feed it, and soon becoming weary of their charge, +they readily consented that their father, who saw it pining and growing +leaner every day, should offer it to my acceptance. I was willing enough +to take the prisoner under my protection, perceiving that in the +management of such an animal, and in the attempt to tame it, I should +find just that sort of employment which my case required. It was soon +known among the neighbours that I was pleased with the present; and the +consequence was, that in a short time, I had as many leverets offered to +me as would have stocked a paddock. I undertook the care of three, which +it is necessary that I should here distinguish by the names I gave +them—Puss, Tiney, and Bess. Notwithstanding the two feminine +appellatives, I must inform you that they were all males. Immediately +commencing carpenter, I built them houses to sleep in. Each had a +separate apartment, so contrived that their ordure would pass through +the bottom of it; an earthen pan placed under each received whatsoever +fell, which being duly emptied and washed, they were thus kept perfectly +sweet and clean. In the daytime they had the range of a hall, and at +night retired each to his own bed, never intruding into that of another.</p> + +<p>"Puss grew presently familiar, would leap into my lap, raise himself +upon his hinder feet, and bite the hair from my temples. He would suffer +me to take him up, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> to carry him about in my arms, and has more than +once fallen fast asleep upon my knee. He was ill three days, during +which time I nursed him, kept him apart from his fellows that they might +not molest him (for, like many other wild animals, they persecute one of +their own species that is sick), and by constant care, and trying him +with a variety of herbs, restored him to perfect health. No creature +could be more grateful than my patient after his recovery,—a sentiment +which he most significantly expressed by licking my hand, first the back +of it, then the palm, then every finger separately; then between all the +fingers, as if anxious to leave no part of it unsaluted,—a ceremony +which he never performed but once again upon a similar occasion. Finding +him extremely tractable, I made it my custom to carry him always after +breakfast into the garden, where he hid himself generally under the +leaves of a cucumber vine, sleeping or chewing the cud till evening; in +the leaves also of that vine he found a favourite repast. I had not long +habituated him to this taste of liberty, before he began to be impatient +for the return of the time when he might enjoy it. He would invite me to +the garden by drumming upon my knee, and by a look of such expression as +it was not possible to misinterpret. If this rhetoric did not +immediately succeed, he would take the skirt of my coat between his +teeth, and pull at it with all his force. Thus Puss might be said to be +perfectly tamed; the shyness of his nature was done away, and on the +whole it was visible, by many symptoms which I have not room to +enumerate, that he was happier in human society than when shut up with +his natural companions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Not so Tiney. Upon him the kindest treatment had not the least effect. +He, too, was sick, and in his sickness, had an equal share of my +attention; but if, after his recovery, I took the liberty to stroke him, +he would grunt, strike with his fore-feet, spring forward, and bite. He +was, however, very entertaining in his way, even his surliness was +matter of mirth, and in his play he preserved such an air of gravity, +and performed his feats with such a solemnity of manner, that in him, +too, I had an agreeable companion.</p> + +<p>"Bess, who died soon after he was full grown, and whose death was +occasioned by his being turned into his box, which had been washed, +while it was yet damp, was a hare of great humour and drollery. Puss was +tamed by gentle usage; Tiney was not to be tamed at all; and Bess had a +courage and confidence that made him tame from the beginning. I always +admitted them into the parlour after supper, where the carpet affording +their feet a firm hold, they would frisk, and bound, and play a thousand +gambols, in which Bess, being remarkably strong and fearless, was always +superior to the rest, and proved himself the Vestris of the party. One +evening, the cat, being in the room, had the hardiness to pat Bess upon +the cheek, an indignity which he resented by drumming upon her back with +such violence, that the cat was happy to escape from under his paws and +hide herself.</p> + +<p>"You observe, sir, that I describe these animals as having each a +character of his own. Such they were in fact, and their countenances +were so expressive of that character, that, when I looked only on the +face of either, I immediately knew which it was. It is said that a +shepherd,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> however numerous his flock, soon becomes so familiar with +their features, that he can by that indication only distinguish each +from all the rest, and yet to a common observer the difference is hardly +perceptible. I doubt not that the same discrimination in the cast of +countenances would be discoverable in hares, and am persuaded that among +a thousand of them no two could be found exactly similar; a circumstance +little suspected by those who have not had opportunity to observe it. +These creatures have a singular sagacity in discovering the minutest +alteration that is made in the place to which they are accustomed, and +instantly apply their nose to the examination of a new object. A small +hole being burnt in the carpet, it was mended with a patch, and that +patch in a moment underwent the strictest scrutiny. They seem, too, to +be very much directed by the smell in the choice of their favourites; to +some persons, though they saw them daily, they could never be +reconciled, and would even scream when they attempted to touch them; but +a miller coming in, engaged their affections at once—his powdered coat +had charms that were irresistible. You will not wonder, sir, that my +intimate acquaintance with these specimens of the kind has taught me to +hold the sportsman's amusement in abhorrence. He little knows what +amiable creatures he persecutes, of what gratitude they are capable, how +cheerful they are in their spirits, what enjoyment they have of life, +and that, impressed as they seem with a peculiar dread of man, it is +only because man gives them peculiar cause for it.</p> + +<p>"That I may not be tedious, I will just give you a short summary of +those articles of diet that suit them best, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> then retire to make +room for some more important correspondent.</p> + +<p>"I take it to be a general opinion that they graze, but it is an +erroneous one, at least grass is not their staple; they seem rather to +use it medicinally, soon quitting it for leaves of almost any kind. +Sowthistle, dent-de-lion, and lettuce are their favourite vegetables, +especially the last. I discovered, by accident, that fine white sand is +in great estimation with them, I suppose as a digestive. It happened +that I was cleaning a bird cage while the hares were with me; I placed a +pot filled with such sand upon the floor, to which being at once +directed by a strong instinct, they devoured it voraciously; since that +time I have generally taken care to see them well supplied with it. They +account green corn a delicacy, both blade and stalk, but the ear they +seldom eat; straw of any kind, especially wheat-straw, is another of +their dainties; they will feed greedily upon oats, but if furnished with +clean straw, never want them; it serves them also for a bed, and, if +shaken up daily, will be kept sweet and dry for a considerable time. +They do not indeed require aromatic herbs, but will eat a small quantity +of them with great relish, and are particularly fond of the plant called +musk; they seem to resemble sheep in this, that if their pastures be too +succulent, they are very subject to the rot; to prevent which, I always +made bread their principal nourishment; and, filling a pan with it cut +into small squares, placed it every evening in their chambers, for they +feed only at evening and in the night; during the winter, when +vegetables are not to be got, I mingled this mess of bread with shreds +of carrot, adding to it the rind of apples cut extremely thin; for,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +though they are fond of the paring, the apple itself disgusts them. +These, however, not being a sufficient substitute for the juice of +summer herbs, they must at this time be supplied with water; but so +placed that they cannot overset it into their beds. I must not omit, +that occasionally they are much pleased with twigs of hawthorn and of +the common briar, eating even the very wood when it is of considerable +thickness.</p> + +<p>"Bess, I have said, died young; Tiney lived to be nine years old, and +died at last, I have reason to think, of some hurt in his loins by a +fall. Puss is still living, and has just completed his tenth year, +discovering no signs of decay nor even of age, except that he is grown +more discreet and less frolicsome than he was. I cannot conclude, sir, +without informing you that I have lately introduced a dog to his +acquaintance, a spaniel that had never seen a hare, to a hare that had +never seen a spaniel. I did it with great caution, but there was no real +need of it. Puss discovered no token of fear, nor Marquis the least +symptom of hostility. There is, therefore, it should seem, no natural +antipathy between dog and hare, but the pursuit of the one occasions the +flight of the other, and the dog pursues because he is trained to it; +they eat bread at the same time out of the same hand, and are in all +respects sociable and friendly.—Yours &c.,</p> + +<p class="author"> +W. C. +</p> + +<p>"<i>P.S.</i>—I should not do complete justice to my subject, did I not add, +that they have no ill scent belonging to them, that they are +indefatigably nice in keeping themselves clean, for which purpose nature +has furnished them with a brush under each foot; and that they are never +infested by any vermin."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p> + +<p>Our readers know his fine verses or epitaphs on his hares. We may quote +from the biographer to whom Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington +left all their papers and memoirs, a sentence or two on Cowper's hares, +and on the other pets of that lovable man. Earl Stanhope<a name="FNanchor_176_176" id="FNanchor_176_176"></a><a href="#Footnote_176_176" class="fnanchor">[176]</a> says of +this poet and "best letter-writer in the English language—"Such, +indeed, were his powers of description and felicity of language, that +even the most trivial objects drew life and colour from his touch. In +his pages, the training of three tame hares, or the building of a frame +for cucumbers, excite a warmer interest than many accounts compiled by +other writers, of great battles deciding the fate of empires. In his +pages, the sluggish waters of the Ouse,—the floating lilies which he +stooped to gather from them,—the poplars, in whose shade he sat, and +over whose fall he mourned, rise before us as though we had known and +loved them too. As Cowper himself declares, 'My descriptions are all +from nature, not one of them second-handed; my delineations of the heart +are from my own experience, not one of them borrowed from books.'"</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Hairs or Hares!</span></h4> + +<p>A gentleman on circuit, narrating to Lord Norbury some extravagant feat +in sporting, mentioned that he had lately shot thirty-three hares before +breakfast. "Thirty-three <i>hairs</i>!" exclaimed Lord Norbury; "zounds, sir! +then you must have been firing at a <i>wig</i>."<a name="FNanchor_177_177" id="FNanchor_177_177"></a><a href="#Footnote_177_177" class="fnanchor">[177]</a></p> + +<p>Sportsmen are very apt to exaggerate. They did so at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> least in Horace's +days. We have heard of a man of rank, who actually made a gamekeeper, +who was a first-rate marksman, fire whenever he discharged his piece. +The story goes, that <i>that</i> man was regarded as having shot everything +that fell.</p> + +<p>The Duke of L.'s reply, when it was observed to him that the gentlemen +bordering on his estates were continually hunting upon them, and that he +ought not to suffer it, is worthy of imitation. "I had much rather," +said he, "have <i>friends</i> than hares."<a name="FNanchor_178_178" id="FNanchor_178_178"></a><a href="#Footnote_178_178" class="fnanchor">[178]</a></p> + +<p>The time must be coming, when every farmer or peasant will be allowed to +shoot hares. It is surely cruel to imprison or fine a man for shooting +and shouldering a hare. Having lately traversed a goodly part of the +Perthshire Highlands, we were struck with the numbers of Arctic hares +that scudded away out of our path. What a fine help one of them would be +to a poor family.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">S. Bisset and his trained Hare and Turtle.</span></h4> + +<p>S. Bisset, whose training of other animals is elsewhere recorded, like +the poet Cowper, procured a leveret, and reared it to beat several +marches on the drum with its hind legs, until it became a good stout +hare. This creature, which is always set down as the most timid, he +declared to be as mischievous and bold an animal, to the extent of its +power, as any with which he was acquainted. He taught canary-birds, +linnets, and sparrows, to spell the name of any person in company, to +distinguish the hour and minute of time, and play many other surprising +tricks. He trained six turkey-cocks to go through a regular country<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> +dance; but in doing this he confessed he adopted the eastern method, by +which camels are made to dance, by heating the floor. In the course of +six months' teaching, he made a turtle fetch and carry like a dog; and +having chalked the floor, and blackened its claws, could direct it to +trace out any given name of the company.<a name="FNanchor_179_179" id="FNanchor_179_179"></a><a href="#Footnote_179_179" class="fnanchor">[179]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">A Family of Rabbits all Blind of one Eye.</span></h4> + +<p>Lady Anne Barnard, in her Cape Journal,<a name="FNanchor_180_180" id="FNanchor_180_180"></a><a href="#Footnote_180_180" class="fnanchor">[180]</a> referring to Dessin or +Rabbit Island at the Cape of Good Hope, says that it is "dreadfully +exposed to the south-east winds. A gentleman told me of a natural +phenomenon he had met with when shooting there; his dog pointed at a +rabbit's hole, where the company within were placed so near the opening +that he could see Mynheer, Madame, and the whole rabbit family. Pompey, +encouraged, brought out the old coney, his wife, and seven young +ones,—all, like the callenders in the 'Arabian Nights' Entertainments,' +blind of one eye, and that the same eye. The question was, on which side +of the island was the rabbit's hole? With a very little reasoning and +comparing, it was found that from its position, the keen blast must have +produced this effect. The oddest part of this story is, that it is true, +but I do not expect you to believe it."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Thomas Fuller on Norfolk Rabbits.</span></h4> + +<p>"These are an army of natural pioneers whence men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> have learned +<i>cuniculos agere</i>, the art of undermining. They thrive best on barren +ground, and grow fattest in the hardest frosts. Their flesh is fine and +wholesome. If Scottish men tax our language as improper, and smile at +our wing of a rabbit, let us laugh at their shoulder of a capon.</p> + +<p>Their skins were formerly much used, when furs were in fashion; till of +late our citizens, of Romans are turned Grecians, have laid down their +grave gowns and taken up their light cloaks; men generally disliking all +habits, though emblems of honour, if also badges of age.</p> + +<p>Their rich or silver-hair skins, formerly so dear, are now levelled in +prices with other colours; yea, are lower than black in estimation, +because their wool is most used in making of hats, commonly (for the +more credit) called half-beavers, though many of them hardly amount to +the proportion of semi-demi castors."<a name="FNanchor_181_181" id="FNanchor_181_181"></a><a href="#Footnote_181_181" class="fnanchor">[181]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Dr Chalmers and the Guinea-Pig.</span></h4> + +<p>Mr Aitken alludes in a pleasing manner to an instance of Dr Chalmers's +fondness for animals. He had just been appointed the head-master of one +of the Glasgow parish schools (St John's). "Early in the week following +my appointment, I received my first private call. One circumstance +occurred during the visit which I still remember most vividly. One of my +children had been presented with a pair of guinea-pigs. These had found +their way into the apartment where we were sitting, and ran about in all +directions. I could have wished to turn them out,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> but had not the power +to rise from my chair. He soon observed them, followed them with his eye +as they now retreated under his chair and again ventured out into his +presence—he even changed the position of his feet to give them scope. +That same kindly eye, one glance of which we all loved so much to catch +in after-life, beamed only the more warmly as the creatures frisked in +greater confidence around him. It was to me an omen for good. He who +could enjoy thus the innocent gamble of these guinea-pigs could not fail +to be accessible for good when occasion required. It was the first flush +of that largeness of heart which afterwards appeared in all I ever heard +him say or saw him do."<a name="FNanchor_182_182" id="FNanchor_182_182"></a><a href="#Footnote_182_182" class="fnanchor">[182]</a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="SLOTH" id="SLOTH"></a>SLOTH.</h2> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Reverend Sydney Smith on the Sloth.</span></h4> + +<p>Few anecdotes can be published of this curious creature, though Waterton +and Burchell, or Dr Buckland, for him and his friend Bates, have +recorded much that is interesting of its habits. The following bit is +peculiarly happy: "The sloth, in its wild state, spends its life in +trees, and never leaves them but from force or accident. The eagle to +the sky, the mole to the ground, the sloth to the tree; but what is most +extraordinary, he lives not <i>upon</i> the branches, but <i>under</i> them. He +moves suspended, rests<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> suspended, sleeps suspended, and passes his +life in suspense—like a young clergyman distantly related to a +bishop."<a name="FNanchor_183_183" id="FNanchor_183_183"></a><a href="#Footnote_183_183" class="fnanchor">[183]</a></p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_GREAT_ANT-EATER" id="THE_GREAT_ANT-EATER"></a>THE GREAT ANT-EATER.</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>Myrmecophaga jubata</i>, L.)<a name="FNanchor_184_184" id="FNanchor_184_184"></a><a href="#Footnote_184_184" class="fnanchor">[184]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/illus-224-f.jpg" width="600" height="368" alt="The Great Ant-Eater. (Myrmecophaga jabata)." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The Great Ant-Eater. (Myrmecophaga jabata).</span> +</div> + +<p>A few months ago a handbill was distributed in the neighbourhood of +Seven Dials, inviting the public to visit a "wonderful animal fed with +ants, and possessing strength to kill the lion, tiger, or any other +animal under its claws." We entered the miserable apartment where it was +exhibited, and any spectator must at once have been struck with the +creature's want of resemblance to any other he had ever seen. Its head +so small, so long and slender; the straight, wiry, dry hair with which +it was covered, and its singularly large and bushy tail, first attracted +notice. A second glance showed its enormously thick fore-legs, and the +claws of its feet turned in, so that it walked on the sides of its +soles. Oken and St Hilaire would have said that it was "all extremity." +A cup, with the contents of one or two eggs, was brought, and it sucked +them with great avidity, every now and then darting from its small mouth +a very long tongue, which looked like a great, black worm, whisking +about in the custard. One of its showmen told us that it had attacked +the woman of the house the preceding day, and had scratched her arm. +Whether this was true or grossly exaggerated, we know not; but if so, we +suspect that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> woman herself must have been in fault, and not the +inoffensive stranger.</p> + +<p>On the payment of a handsome consideration to her owners, the poor +captive was transferred from her unwholesome lodging in St Giles's, to +the Gardens of the Zoological Society in the Regent's Park. And within +the last few weeks her solitude has been cheered by the arrival of a +companion from her native forests. The new-comer is in beautiful +condition, though not nearly so large. He has a head decidedly shorter +and stronger, and is probably not yet fully grown.</p> + +<p>The great ant-eater seems to be scattered over a wide extent of South +America—Guiana, Brazil, and Paraguay, being its places of abode. It is +a stout animal, measuring from the end of the snout to the tip of the +long tail six or seven feet, of which the tail takes nearly the half; so +that the actual size of its body is much reduced. In Paraguay it is +named <i>Nurumi</i> or <i>Yogui</i>. The former name is altered from the native +word for <i>small mouth</i>, and indicates a striking peculiarity in its +structure. The Portuguese call it <i>Tamandua</i>; the Spaniards, <i>Osa +hormiguero</i> (<i>i.e.</i>, ant-hill bear). In Paraguay it prefers sides of +lakes where ants, at least termites or white ants, are abundant; but it +also frequents woods. In Guiana, Mr Waterton found it chiefly "in the +inmost recesses of the forest," where it "seems partial to the low and +swampy parts near creeks, where the troely tree grows."<a name="FNanchor_185_185" id="FNanchor_185_185"></a><a href="#Footnote_185_185" class="fnanchor">[185]</a> It sleeps a +great deal, reclining on its side, as the visitor to the Gardens may +frequently see it do, with its head between its fore-legs, joining its +fore and hind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>feet, and spreading the tail so as to cover the whole +body. Huddled up under this thatch, it might almost be taken for a +bundle of coarse and badly dried hay. The tail is thickly covered with +long hairs, placed vertically, the hairs draggling on the ground. When +the creature is irritated, the tail is shaken straight and elevated. The +natives of Paraguay, like other persecutors of harmlessness, kill every +specimen they meet, so that the ant-eater gets rare, and so rare is it +on the Amazon that Mr Wallace, who travelled there from 1848 to 1852, +honestly tells us he never saw one. He heard, however, that during rain +it turns its bushy tail over its head and stands still. The Indians, +knowing this habit, when they meet an ant-eater, make a rustling noise +among the leaves. The creature instantly turns up its tail, and is +easily killed by the stroke of a stick on its little head.<a name="FNanchor_186_186" id="FNanchor_186_186"></a><a href="#Footnote_186_186" class="fnanchor">[186]</a></p> + +<p>The ant-eater is slow in its movements—never attempting to escape. When +hard pressed it stops, and, seated on its hind-legs, waits for the +aggressor. Its object is to receive him between its fore-legs; and one +has only to look at its arms and claws in order to fancy what a +frightful squeeze it would give. Nothing but death, they say, will make +the creature relax its grasp. It is asserted that the jaguar—the tiger +of South America, and the most formidable beast of the New World—dares +not attack it. This Azara, with good reason, doubts. A single bite from +a jaguar, or the stroke of his paw, would fracture an ant-eater's skull +before it had time to turn round; for the movements of this edentate +quadruped are as sluggish as those of the toothed carnivorous tyrant are +rapid.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span></p> + +<p>As seen in its handsome and roomy cage, the ant-eater gives us an +impression of dulness and stupidity; and always smelling and listening +and looking at the door where its keeper introduces its food, its mind, +when awake, appears to be constantly occupied about "creature comforts." +In the course of the day it laps up with its darting tongue, and sucks +in through its long taper snout a dozen eggs, and almost the whole of a +rabbit, chopped into a fine mince-meat. With such dainty fare, and with +the anxious attention which it receives from its sagacious curators, it +is scarcely surprising that it thrives; and when the warm weather comes, +it will be a fine sight to see these animals enjoying the range of a +paddock, which will doubtless be provided for their use, and exercising +their brawny forelimbs and powerful claws in pulling down conical +mounds, which may remind them of departed joys and balmier climes. Nor +will it be the least charm of the spectacle that it will enable us to +compare this living species with other <i>Edentata</i> of South America—such +as the Megatherium, now only found in the fossil state, but so admirably +restored by Mr Hawkins for the Crystal Palace.</p> + +<p>We need not dwell on the admirable adaptation of the ant-eater to its +position and to its few and simple wants. To those who have not studied +"the works of the Lord," it may appear uncouth and unattractive. +Compared with a dog, it is stupid; and alongside of a lion, it is slow. +It has not the symmetry of the horse, nor the beautiful markings of the +zebra and leopard. But its Creator has given it the instincts, the form, +the muscular powers, and the colours which best answer its purpose. And +no one can say that it is plain and ugly, who looks at its legs so +pret<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>tily variegated with white and black, and its noble black collar.</p> + +<p>Those of our readers who wish further information will find it in the +<i>Literary Gazette</i> for October 8, 1853. In that article it is easy to +recognise the Roman hand of the <i>facile princeps</i> among living +comparative anatomists. Long may it be before either of our new +acquaintances in the Garden afford him a subject for dissection; but +when that day arrives, we hope that he will not delay to publish the +memoir.<a name="FNanchor_187_187" id="FNanchor_187_187"></a><a href="#Footnote_187_187" class="fnanchor">[187]</a>—<i>A. White, in "Excelsior" (with additions).</i></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="RHINOCEROS_AND_ELEPHANT" id="RHINOCEROS_AND_ELEPHANT"></a>RHINOCEROS AND ELEPHANT.</h2> + + +<p>Two genera of the bulkiest among terrestrial beasts. Just imagine the +great rhinoceros at the Zoological Gardens taking it into its head, with +that little eye, target hide, and bulky bones, and other items about it, +to fondle its keeper!—he was nearly crushed to death. How the great +thick-skinned creature enjoys a bath!</p> + +<p>As for the elephant, he is a mountain of matter as well as of animal +intelligence. Sir Emerson Tennant in his "Ceylon," but especially in his +"Natural History," volumes, has given some truly readable chapters on +the Asiatic elephant. We could have extracted many an anecdote, even +from recent works, of the intelligent sagacity of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> Indian as well as +the African elephants. The account of the shooting of Mr Cross's +well-known elephant <i>Chunie</i>, at Exeter Change, has been very curiously +and fully detailed by Hone in his "Every-Day Book." A skull of an +elephant in the British Museum, shows how wonderfully an elephant is at +times able to defend itself from attack. Many a shot that "rogue +elephant" had received, years before the three or four Indian sportsmen, +who presented its skull as a trophy, succeeded in planting a shot in its +brain, or in its heart. Think of the feelings of Lord Clive's relations, +at the prospect of his sending home an elephant for a pet. The good +folks, not without some motive, as the great Indian ruler conceived, +other than mere love for him, had been sending him presents. Samuel +Rogers, who wrote the neatest of hands, records that Clive wrote the +worst and certainly the most illegible of scrawls. Instead of +"elephant," as they read it, their liberal relative had written +"equivalent!"</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Lord Keeper Guilford and his Visit to the Rhinoceros in the City of +London.</span><a name="FNanchor_188_188" id="FNanchor_188_188"></a><a href="#Footnote_188_188" class="fnanchor">[188]</a></h4> + +<p>It is strange to read in the life of the Lord Keeper Guilford, that his +lordship's court enemies, "hard put to it to find, or invent, something +tending to the diminution of his character," took advantage of his going +to see a rhinoceros, to circulate a foolish story of him, which much +annoyed him. It was in the reign of James II. his biographer thus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> +records it. The rhinoceros, referred to, was the first ever brought to +England. Evelyn, in his "Memoirs," says, that it was sold for £2000, a +most enormous sum in those days (1685).</p> + +<p>Roger North relates the story:—"It fell out thus—a merchant of Sir +Dudley North's acquaintance had brought over an enormous rhinoceros, to +be sold to showmen for profit. It is a noble beast, wonderfully armed by +nature for offence, but more for defence, being covered with +impenetrable shields, which no weapon would make any impression upon, +and a rarity so great that few men, in our country, have in their whole +lives the opportunity of seeing so singular an animal. This merchant +told Sir Dudley North that if he, with a friend or two, had a mind to +see it, they might take the opportunity at his house before it was sold. +Hereupon Sir Dudley North proposed to his brother, the Lord Keeper, to +go with him upon this exhibition, which he did, and came away +exceedingly satisfied with the curiosity he had seen. But whether he was +dogged to find out where he and his brother housed in the city, or +flying fame carried an account of the voyage to court, I know not; but +it is certain that the very next morning a bruit went from thence all +over the town, and (as factious reports used to run) in a very short +time, viz., that his lordship rode upon the rhinoceros, than which a +more infantine exploit could not have been fastened upon him. And most +people were struck with amazement at it, and divers ran here and there +to find out whether it was true or no. And soon after dinner some lords +and others came to his lordship to know the truth from himself, for the +setters of the lie affirmed it positively as of their own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> knowledge. +That did not give his lordship much disturbance, for he expected no +better from his adversaries. But that his friends, intelligent persons, +who must know him to be far from guilty of any childish levity, should +believe it, was what roiled him extremely, and much more when they had +the face to come to him to know if it were true. I never saw him in such +a rage, and to lay about him with affronts (which he keenly bestowed +upon the minor courtiers that came on that errand) as then; for he sent +them away with fleas in their ear. And he was seriously angry with his +own brother, Sir Dudley North, because he did not contradict the lie in +sudden and direct terms, but laughed as taking the question put to him +for a banter, till, by iteration, he was brought to it. For some lords +came, and because they seemed to attribute somewhat to the avowed +positiveness of the reporters, he rather chose to send for his brother +to attest than to impose his bare denial, and so it passed; and the +noble earl (of Sunderland), with Jeffries, and others of that crew, made +merry, and never blushed at the lie of their own making, but valued +themselves upon it as a very good jest."</p> + +<p>And so it passed. What a sensation would have been caused by the sudden +apparition in that age of a few numbers of <i>Punch</i>. What a subject for a +cartoon, some John Leech of 1685 would have made of the stately Lord +Keeper on the back of a rhinoceros, and the infamous Judge Jeffries +leering at him from a window.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Elephant and his Trunk.</span></h4> + +<p>Canning and another gentleman were looking at a picture of the deluge; +the ark was seen in the middle dis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>tance, while in the fore-sea an +elephant was struggling with his fate. "I wonder," said the gentleman, +"that the elephant did not secure <i>an inside</i> place!"—"He was too late, +my friend," replied Canning; "he was detained <i>packing up his +trunk</i>."<a name="FNanchor_189_189" id="FNanchor_189_189"></a><a href="#Footnote_189_189" class="fnanchor">[189]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Sir Richard Phillips and Jelly made of Ivory Dust.—A Vegetarian taken +in.</span></h4> + +<p>The biographers of James Montgomery<a name="FNanchor_190_190" id="FNanchor_190_190"></a><a href="#Footnote_190_190" class="fnanchor">[190]</a> relate an amusing anecdote of +Sir Richard Phillips, the eccentric London bookseller and author. He +visited Sheffield in October 1828. "He had lived too long amidst the +bustle and business of the great world, and was too little conscious of +any feeling at all like diffidence, to allow him to hesitate about +calling upon any person, whether of rank, genius, or eccentricity, when +the success of his project was likely to be thereby promoted. The time +selected by the free and easy knight for his unannounced visitation of +Montgomery was <i>Sunday at dinner time</i>. He was at once asked to sit down +and partake of the chickens and bacon which had just been placed on the +table, but here was a dilemma; Sir Richard, although neither a Brahmin +nor a Jew, avowed himself a staunch Pythagorean—he could eat no flesh! +Luckily there was a plentiful supply of carrots and turnips, and—jelly. +But was the latter made from calves' feet? Montgomery assured his guest +that it was <i>not</i>; but, added he, with a conscientious regard for his +visitor's scruples, from <i>ivory dust</i>. We believe the poet fancied the +hypothesis of an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> animal origin of this viand could not be very obscure; +it was, however, swallowed; the clever bibliopole perhaps believing, +with some of the Sheffield ivory-cutters, that elephants, instead of +being hunted and killed for their tusks, <i>shed them</i> when fully grown, +as bucks do their antlers!"</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">J. T. Smith and the Elephant.</span></h4> + +<p>That gossiping man, J. T. Smith, once Keeper of the Prints in the +British Museum, and author of "Nollekens and his Times," relates, that +when he and a friend were returning late from a club, and were +approaching Temple Bar, "about one o'clock, a most unaccountable +appearance claimed our attention,—it was no less than an elephant, +whose keepers were coaxing it to pass through the gateway. He had been +accompanied with several persons from the Tower wharf with tall poles, +but was principally guided by two men with ropes, each walking on either +side of the street, to keep him as much as possible in the middle, on +his way to the menagerie, Exeter Change, to which destination, after +passing St Clement's Church, he steadily trudged on, with strict +obedience to the command of his keepers.<a name="FNanchor_191_191" id="FNanchor_191_191"></a><a href="#Footnote_191_191" class="fnanchor">[191]</a></p> + +<p>"I had the honour afterwards of partaking of a pot of Barclay's entire +with this same elephant, which high mark of his condescension was +bestowed when I accompanied my friend, the late Sir James Wintel Lake, +Bart., to view the rare animals in Exeter Change,—that gentleman being +assured by the elephant's keeper that, if he would offer the beast a +shilling, he would see the noble animal nod his head and drink a pot of +porter. The elephant had no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> sooner taken the shilling, which he did in +the mildest manner from the palm of Sir James's hand, than he gave it to +the keeper, and eagerly watched his return with the beer. The elephant +then, after placing his proboscis to the top of the tankard, drew up +nearly the whole of the beverage. The keeper observed, 'You will hardly +believe, gentlemen, but the little he has left is quite warm;' upon this +we were tempted to taste it, and it really was so. This animal was +afterwards disposed of for the sum of one thousand guineas."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Elephant and the Tailor.</span></h4> + +<p>This old story has been often told, but never so well as by Sydney Smith +in one of his lectures at the Royal Institution. "Every one knows the +old story of the tailor and the elephant, which, if it be not true, at +least shows the opinion the Orientals, who know the animal well, +entertain of his sagacity. An eastern tailor to the Court was making a +magnificent doublet for a bashaw of nine tails, and covering it, after +the manner of eastern doublets, with gold, silver, and every species of +metallic magnificence. As he was busying himself on this momentous +occasion, there passed by, to the pools of water, one of the royal +elephants, about the size of a broad-wheeled waggon, rich in ivory +teeth, and shaking, with its ponderous tread, the tailor's shop to its +remotest thimble. As he passed near the window, the elephant happened to +look in; the tailor lifted up his eyes, perceived the proboscis of the +elephant near him, and, being seized with a fit of facetiousness, +pricked the animal with his needle; the mass of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> matter immediately +retired, stalked away to the pool, filled his trunk full of muddy water, +and, returning to the shop, overwhelmed the artisan and his doublet with +the dirty effects of his vengeance."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Dr Johnson alluded to as "an Elephant."</span></h4> + +<p>"If an elephant could write a book, perhaps one that had read a great +deal would say, that an Arabian horse is a very clumsy, ungraceful +animal." This was written by Horace Walpole to Miss Berry, in 1791, in +allusion to Dr Johnson's depreciation of Thomas Gray the poet.<a name="FNanchor_192_192" id="FNanchor_192_192"></a><a href="#Footnote_192_192" class="fnanchor">[192]</a> It +is an acute observation, well worth being wrought out. There is a +grandeur and even a grace about this bulky beast and its motions well +deserving the study of any one who has the opportunity. Elephants in our +streets are not now so rare as they used to be. We saw three in one +procession in the streets of Edinburgh in 1865.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Elephant's Skin.</span></h4> + +<p>"Did any of you ever see an elephant's skin?" asked the master of an +infant school in a fast neighbourhood. "I have!" shouted a six-year-old +at the foot of the class. "Where?" inquired the master, amused by his +earnestness. "<i>On the elephant!</i>" was the reply.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="FOSSIL_PACHYDERMATA" id="FOSSIL_PACHYDERMATA"></a>FOSSIL PACHYDERMATA.</h2> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Cuvier and the Fossil.</span></h4> + +<p>George Cuvier was perhaps the first man who, by his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> admirable works and +researches, gave zoology its true place among the sciences.</p> + +<p>His discoveries of the structure of molluscous and other animals of the +obscurer orders are perhaps eclipsed by his researches in osteology. He +has enabled the comparative anatomist to tell from a small portion of +bone not only the class, but the order, genus, and even the species to +which animal that bone belonged.</p> + +<p>Mrs Lee,<a name="FNanchor_193_193" id="FNanchor_193_193"></a><a href="#Footnote_193_193" class="fnanchor">[193]</a> in her Life of the Baron, gives an example of his +enthusiasm in his researches.</p> + +<p>M. Laurillard was afterwards his secretary and the draftsman who +executed nearly all the drawings in his "Ossemens fossiles." At the time +of this story he had not particularly attracted Cuvier's notice.</p> + +<p>"One day Cuvier came to his brother Frederic to ask him to disengage a +fossil from its surrounding mass, an office he had frequently performed. +M. Laurillard was applied to in the absence of F. Cuvier. Little aware +of the value of the specimen confided to his care, he cheerfully set to +work, and succeeded in getting the bone entire from its position. M. +Cuvier, after a short time, returned for his treasure, and when he saw +how perfect it was, his ecstasies became incontrollable; he danced, he +shook his hands, he uttered expressions of delight, till M. Laurillard, +in his ignorance both of the importance of what he had done, and of the +ardent character of M. Cuvier, thought he was mad. Taking, however, his +fossil foot in one hand, and dragging Laurillard's arm with the other, +he led him up-stairs to present him to his wife and sister-in-law, +saying, 'I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> have got my foot, and M. Laurillard found it for me.' It +seems that this skilful operation confirmed all M. Cuvier's previous +conjecture concerning a foot, the existence and form of which he had +already guessed, but for which he had long and vainly sought. So +occupied had he been by it, that, when he appeared to be particularly +absent, his family were wont to accuse him of seeking his fore-foot. The +next morning the able operator and draftsman was engaged as secretary."</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="SOW" id="SOW"></a>SOW.</h2> + + +<p>A very gross but useful animal, which can, by feeding, be stuffed into +such a state of fatness as only one who has seen a Christmas cattle show +in England could believe it possible for beast to acquire. Dean Ramsay, +in a happy anecdote, refers to a good quality of the sow as food. He +tells, that a Scottish minister had been persuaded to keep a pig, and +that the good wife had been duly instructed in the mysteries of +black-puddings, pork-chops, pig's-head, and other modes of turning poor +piggy to account. The minister remarked to a friend, "Nae doubt there's +a hantle o' miscellaneous eating aboot a pig." The author of "A Ramble," +published by Edmonstone and Douglas in 1865, has devoted some most +amusing pages of his work to an account of "Pig-sticking in Chicago," as +witnessed by him during the late American war. The wholesale and +scientific off-hand way in which living pigs enter into one part of a +machine, and come out prepared pork, could only have been devised by a +Yankee.</p> + +<p>The essay of Charles Lamb on Roast Pig, and his his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>tory of how the +Chinaman discovered it, is a most characteristic bit of the productions +of Elia. We have cut from a recent paper, what seems an authentic story, +of one of this race having obtained a kind of mausoleum. We hope it is +not a hoax, but that it is as genuine as all that is in one of "Murray's +Handbooks:"—</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/illus-239-f.jpg" width="600" height="365" alt="The Wild Boar of Syria and Egypt. (Sus Scrofa.)" title="" /> +<span class="caption">The Wild Boar of Syria and Egypt. (Sus Scrofa.)</span> +</div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Monument to a Pig.</span>—"Up to the present time," says the <i>Europe</i> of +Frankfort, "no monument that we are aware of had ever been erected to +the memory of a <i>pig</i>. The town of Luneburg, in Hanover, has wished to +fill up that blank; and at the Hotel de Ville, in that town, there is to +be seen a kind of mausoleum to the memory of a member of the swinish +race. In the interior of that commemorative structure is to be seen a +glass case, inclosing a ham still in good preservation. A slab of black +marble attracts the eye of visitors, who find thereon the following +inscription in Latin, engraved in letters of gold—'Passer-by, +contemplate here the mortal remains of the pig which acquired for itself +imperishable glory by the discovery of the salt springs of Luneburg.'"</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Wild Boar</span> (<i>Sus scrofa</i>).</h4> + +<p>We have a specimen of the family of swine in that well-known and useful +animal, with whose portrait Sir Charles Bell furnishes the reader, as an +example of a head as remote as possible from the head of him who +designed and executed the Elgin marbles. Although the learned anatomist +brought forward the profile of this animal as the type of a +"non-intellectual" being, yet there are instances enough on record to +show that pigs are not devoid of in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>telligence, and are even, when +trained, capable of considerable docility. "Learned pigs," however, such +as are exhibited at country fairs, are a rare occurrence, and the family +to which they belong is essentially one "gross" in character, and far +from gainly in appearance. The most handsome of the race is one from +West Africa, recently added to the Zoological Gardens, and described by +Dr Gray under the name of <i>Potamochærus penicillatus</i>. The wild swine of +Africa are, with this bright exception, anything but handsome, either in +shape or colour; and the large excrescences on their cheeks and face +give the "warthogs" a ferocious look, which corresponds with their +habits. In the East there are several species of wild swine. One of the +most celebrated is the <i>Babyrusa</i> of the Malay peninsula, distinguished +by its long recurved teeth, with which it was once fancied that they +suspended themselves from trees, or rather supported themselves when +asleep. Mrs M'Dougall<a name="FNanchor_194_194" id="FNanchor_194_194"></a><a href="#Footnote_194_194" class="fnanchor">[194]</a> refers to the wild hogs of Borneo, which seem +to be dainty in their diet, as they think nothing of a swim of four +miles from their jungle home to places on the river where they know +there are trees laden with ripe fruit. These Borneo swine are active +creatures too, as they can leap fences nearly six feet high. In South +America the sow family is represented by the Peccaries (<i>Dicotyles</i>), of +which there are two species, one of which is very abundant in the woods, +and forms a most important article in the diet of the poor Indians. +They, too, can swim across rivers, and although their legs are short, +they can run very fast.</p> + +<p>It is chiefly in the warmer parts of the world that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> species of this +family are found. They are all distinguished by the middle toes of each +foot being larger than the others, and armed with hoofs,<a name="FNanchor_195_195" id="FNanchor_195_195"></a><a href="#Footnote_195_195" class="fnanchor">[195]</a> the side +toe or toes being shorter, and scarcely reaching the ground. The nose +terminates in a truncated, tough, grissly disk, which is singularly well +adapted for the purpose of the animals, which all grub in the ground for +their food. In some parts of France it is said that they are trained to +search for truffles.</p> + +<p>Having briefly alluded to different species "<i>de grege porci</i>," we now +limit ourselves to our immediate subject.</p> + +<p>The wild boar, at no very remote period, was found in the extensive +woods which covered great portions of this island. The family of Baird +derives its heraldic crest of a wild boar's head from a grant of David +I., King of Scotland. This monarch was hunting in Aberdeenshire, and +when separated from his attendants, the infuriated pig turned upon him; +one of his people came up and killed it, and in memory of his feat +received from the grateful king the device still borne by the family. +The name of a Scottish parish, and of one of the oldest baronial +families in Scotland—Swinton of Swinton, in Berwickshire—is derived +also from this animal, the first of the Swintons having cleared that +part of the country from the wild swine which then infested it. It is +curious to know that some large fields in the neighbourhood of Swinton +still carry in their names traces of these early occupants. Dr Baird +informed the writer that there are four of these fields so +distinguished:—"Sow-causeway," and "Pike<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>rigg," where the wild swine +used to feed ("pick their food"); "Stab's Cross," where Sir Alan Swinton +with his spear pierced some monarch of the race; and "Alan's Cairn," +where a heap of stones was raised as a monument of his hardihood. In the +southern part of our island only the nobility and gentry were allowed to +hunt this animal; and in the reign of William the Conqueror any one +convicted of killing a wild boar in any of the royal demesnes was +punished with the loss of his eyes.</p> + +<p>In many parts of the Continent the wild boar is still far from rare, and +affords, to those who are fond of excitement, that peculiar kind of +"pleasure" which involves a certain amount of danger. Scenes somewhat +similar to those depicted by Snyders may still be witnessed in some +parts of Germany; and in the sketches of Mr Wolf, the able artist whose +designs illustrate these papers, we have seen animated studies of this +truly hazardous sport.</p> + +<p>The nose of the wild boar is very acute in the sense of smell. A zealous +sportsman tells us, "I have often been surprised, when stealing upon one +in the woods, to observe how soon he has become aware of my +neighbourhood. Lifting his head, he would sniff the air inquiringly, +then, uttering a short grunt, make off as fast as he could."<a name="FNanchor_196_196" id="FNanchor_196_196"></a><a href="#Footnote_196_196" class="fnanchor">[196]</a> The +same writer has also sometimes noticed in a family of wild boars one, +generally a weakling, who was buffeted and ill-treated by the rest. "Do +what he would, nothing was right; sometimes the mother, uttering a +disapproving grunt, would give him a nudge to make him move more +quickly, and that would be a sign for all the rest of his relations to +begin showing their contempt for him too.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> One would push him, and then +another; for, go where he might, he was sure to be in the way." In the +extensive woods frequented by this animal in Europe, abundant supplies +of food are met with in the roots of various plants which it grubs up, +in the beech-mast, acorns, and other tree productions, which, during two +or three months of the year, it finds on the ground. Although well able +to defend itself, it is a harmless animal, and being shy, retires to +those parts of the forests most remote from the presence of man. A site +in the neighbourhood of water is preferred to any other.</p> + +<p>Travellers in the East frequently refer to this animal and to its +ravages when it gets into a rice-field or a vineyard; for although its +natural food be wild roots and wild fruits, if cultivated grounds be in +the neighbourhood, its ravages are very annoying to the husbandmen, who +can fully and feelingly understand the words of the Psalmist, "The boar +out of the wood doth waste it" (Ps. lxxx. 13).</p> + +<p>Messrs Irby and Mangles,<a name="FNanchor_197_197" id="FNanchor_197_197"></a><a href="#Footnote_197_197" class="fnanchor">[197]</a> as they approached the Jordan, saw a herd +of nine wild pigs, and they found the trees on the banks of a stream +near that river all marked with mud, left by the wild swine in rubbing +themselves. A valley which they passed was grubbed up in all directions +with furrows made by these animals, so that the soil had all the +appearance of having been ploughed up.</p> + +<p>Burckhardt mentions the occurrence of the wild boar and panther +together, or the <i>ounce</i>, as he calls it, on the mountain of Rieha, and +also in the wooded part of Tabor. He mentions "a common saying and +belief among the Turks, that all the animal kingdom was converted by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> +their prophet to the true faith, except the wild boar and buffalo, which +remained unbelievers; it is on this account that both these animals are +often called Christians. We are not surprised that the boar should be so +denominated; but as the flesh of the buffalo, as well as its Leben or +sour milk, is much esteemed by the Turks, it is difficult to account for +the disgrace into which that animal has fallen among them; the only +reason I could learn for it is, that the buffalo, like the hog, has a +habit of rolling in the mud, and of plunging into the muddy ponds in the +summer time up to the very nose, which alone remains visible above the +surface."<a name="FNanchor_198_198" id="FNanchor_198_198"></a><a href="#Footnote_198_198" class="fnanchor">[198]</a> Wild boars were frequently fallen in with by this +traveller during his Syrian travels in the neighbourhood of rush-covered +springs, where they could easily return to their "wallowing in the +mire;" he also met with them on all the mountains he visited in his +tour. In the Ghor they are very abundant, and so injurious to the Arabs +of that valley that they are unable to cultivate the common barley on +account of the eagerness with which the wild swine feed on it, and are +obliged to grow a less esteemed kind, with six rows of grains which the +swine will not touch.</p> + +<p>Messrs Hemprich and Ehrenberg tell us that the wild boar is far +from scarce in the marshy districts around Rosetta and Damietta, and +that it does not seem to differ from the European species. The head of a +wild boar which these travellers saw at Bischerre, a village of Lebanon, +closely resembled the European variety, except in being a little longer. +The Maronites there, who ate its flesh in their company, called it +<i>chansir</i>,<a name="FNanchor_199_199" id="FNanchor_199_199"></a><a href="#Footnote_199_199" class="fnanchor">[199]</a> a name evi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>dently identical with the Hebrew word +<i>chasir</i>, which occurs in the Bible. The Turks, according to Ehrenberg, +keep swine in their stables, from a persuasion that all devils who may +enter will be more likely to go into the pigs than the horses, from +their alliance to the former unclean animals.—<i>A. White, in +"Excelsior."</i></p> + + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The River Pig, or Painted Pig of the Camaroon.</span><a name="FNanchor_200_200" id="FNanchor_200_200"></a><a href="#Footnote_200_200" class="fnanchor">[200]</a></h4> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/illus-245-f.jpg" width="600" height="365" alt="The River Pig." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The River Pig.</span> +</div> + +<p>The other day we revisited the Zoological Gardens, and found that two +old friends had got—the one, a companion, the other, a neighbour. The +latter was the bulky hippopotamus, now most bearish, and more and more +unmistakably showing the minute accuracy of those master lines in the +Book of Job, in which Behemoth's portrait, pose, and character are +depicted. The former was the subject of this article—evidently, as far +as colour goes, "the chieftain of the <i>porcine</i> race."</p> + +<p>The poet tells us, however, "Nimium ne crede colori;" and observation, +as well as the Scripture, shows us daily that "fair havens" in summer +are but foul places to "winter in;" that fair speeches, and a flattering +tongue, and the kisses of an enemy, "are deceitful;" and that beneath a +fine spotted or barred coat, the jaguar and the tiger, the cobra and the +hornet, conceal both the power and the propensity for mischief. So with +our old friend Potamochœrus. The pretty creature,—beauty is +relative—the Cameroon pig is the prettiest, the gaudiest of the +race,—the pretty creature, we repeat, is of a fine bay red, made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> to +look more bright from the circumstance of the face, ears, and front of +the legs being black, while the red is relieved, and the black is +defined, by the pencilled lines of white which edge the ears, streak +over and under the eye, and ornament the long whiskers, another long +white line traversing the middle of the back; a very attractive +combination of colour—the painting of "Him who made the world"—and one +which must make the <i>Potamochœrus penicellatus</i> most conspicuous +among the bright green shrubs and dark marshes of the rivers of +equinoctial Africa, on whose banks the race has been planted. The +present largest specimen was taken, when a "piggie," by a trading +captain, as it was swimming across the Cameroon River. He brought it to +Liverpool; Dr Gray, of the British Museum, gave an account of it in the +"Illustrated Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London for +1852"—an excellent work—where its figure, drawn and coloured by the +hand of Wolf, shows the condition of the African sow four years ago. It +was then a round, comfortable, kind-looking creature, which one might +almost have fondled as a pet. The pig now looks rather a dangerous +beast, and its beauty is not increased by its face having grown longer, +and by the bump and hollow on each cheek being larger and deeper; nor is +its mouth so attractive or innocent, now that its tusks—those ivory +daggers and knives of the family of Swine—have grown longer. The +creature, partly it may be from familiarity, jumps up against the iron +palisade which separates the visitor from its walk, but a poor pannage +as a substitute for its African home. We would advise him to read the +notice: "Visitors are requested not to tease the animals;" "not to +touch"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> would be a good reprint—for few, we fancy, would try to tease.</p> + +<p>One, however, especially a lady, likes to know and to feel <i>texture</i>; +and sadly used the fine, mild Edward Cross, of Exeter Change and the +Surrey Zoological Gardens, once the Nestor as well as the King among +keepers of wild beasts—a gentle, gentlemanly, white-haired, venerable +man,—sadly, we say, used Mr Cross to lament that there <i>were</i> parasols, +and that he could not keep them <i>out</i> of his garden. Mr C. told the +writer that he lost many a beast and bird from the pokes of that +insinuating weapon. We dissuade any lady from touching or going near a +zebra's mouth, or the horns of an ibex or an algazel, or the pointed +bill of a heron or stork, or from putting her hand near this fine +painted pig.</p> + +<p>Up jumps Potamochœrus—eye rather vindictive, however—and mark, as +that big specimen is foreshortened before you, the profile of the little +companion pig of the same species, standing within a few feet, but safe +from the poke of any umbrella or parasol; look how innocent and +inviting—how quiet, and sleek, and polished, and painted, and mild it +looks, all but that little suspicious eye, with its wink oblique, and +its malicious twinkle.</p> + +<p>Of the habits of this pig we can find no written record, though in the +journals of the Scottish or Wesleyan Missionaries there may be some +notices of it. We do not know whence the Society procured the second +specimen, but it shows that Africa's wild animals, like its chain of +internal Caspian seas, and its mountain-ranges and rivers, are becoming +gradually known. Old Bosman, who was chief factor for the Dutch on the +Gold Coast 150 years<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> ago, refers to the swine near Fort St George +d'Elmina being not nearly so wild as those of Europe, and adds, "I have +several times eaten of them here, and found them very delicious and very +tender meat, the fat being extraordinarily fine."<a name="FNanchor_201_201" id="FNanchor_201_201"></a><a href="#Footnote_201_201" class="fnanchor">[201]</a> He evidently +refers to some other species.</p> + +<p>Travellers in South Africa have made us familiar with the habits, and +specimens in the Zoological Gardens, in a pannage close to that of the +"painted pig," show us the form and ugliness, of the bush pig and flat +pig (<i>Choiropotamus Africanus</i>) of that southern land, with their long +heads, long legs, upturned tails, and horrid tusks. They have a strange +habit of kneeling on their fore-legs. In South Africa they abound; and +the natives—our excellent friend, the Rev. Henry Methuen, tells +us—often bring their jaws for barter. They are of a dingy, dirty gray; +the boar is two feet and a half high, and his tusks sometimes measure +"eleven inches and a half each from the jawbone," are five inches and a +half in circumference at the base, and are thirteen inches apart at +their extremities.</p> + +<p>No animal is more formidably armed; and his rapidity and lightness of +movement make him a very marked object to the African Nimrod, who, midst +"clumps of bush"—be they Proteacæ, heaths, or Diosmeæ—not unfrequently +comes on a herd of wild pigs "headed by a noble boar," with tail erect. +We could enter largely on the history of this active species, and quote +many a stirring anecdote of travellers' rencontres with this fearless +animal. The lion skulks away from him, but the rhinoceros—at least one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> +species—the buffalo, with his formidable front of horn and bone, and +the bush pig, with his dreaded tusks, show but little fear; and it is +well for the huntsman that he has a sure eye, a steady hand, and a +double-barrelled gun, and not a few Caffir followers to help him, should +his eye be dim, his hand waver, or his gun "flash in the pan." Dogs +avail but little; a deadly gash lays open their ribs, and a side-thrust +of a wild boar will cut into the most muscular leg, and for ever destroy +its tendons. We have done with pigs, and would only recommend a visit—a +frequent visit—to that paradise of animals, the Zoological Gardens, +where, a fortnight ago, we saw wild boars from Hesse Darmstadt; wild +boars from Egypt; bush pigs from Africa; peccaries from South America; +and two painted pigs from West Africa; all "<i>de grege porci</i>," and in +excellent health: to say nothing of two hippopotamuses; four "seraphic" +giraffes; antelopes (we did not number them); brush turkeys from +Australia; an apteryx from New Zealand; the curious white sheathbills +from the South Seas; the refulgent metallic green and purple-tinted +monaul, or Impeyan pheasant, strutting with outspread, light-coloured +tail, just as he courts his plain hen-mate on the Indian mountains; a +family of the funny pelicans—cleanliness, ugliness, and contentment in +one happy combination; a band of flamingoes; eagles and vultures; the +harpy—that Picton of the birds—looking defiance as he stands, with +upraised crest, flashing eye, and clenched talons, over his food; the +wily otter; the amiable seal, which carries us to the seas and rocks of +much-loved Shetland, with their long, winding voes, their +bird-frequented cliffs, and outlying skerries; the Indian thrush, which +reminds one of a "mavis" at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> home; the parrot-house, with its fine +contrasts of colour and its discordant noises; Penny's Esquimaux +dog—poor fellow, a prisoner, unlike to what he was when, with our dear +friends Dr Sutherland and Captain Stewart, this very dog breasted the +blast before a sledge in the Wellington Channel.<a name="FNanchor_202_202" id="FNanchor_202_202"></a><a href="#Footnote_202_202" class="fnanchor">[202]</a> Look at that +wondrous sloth, organised for a life in a Brazilian forest—those two +restless Polar bears; and though last, not least, those wonders of the +great deep, "the sea-anemones," the exquisite red and white "feathery" +tentacles of the long cylindrical-twisted serpulæ, and +marvellously-transparent streaked shrimps, all leg, and feeler, and eye, +and "nose"—in the salt-water tanks in the Vivarium.—<i>A. White, in +"Excelsior."</i></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">S. Bisset and his Learned Pig.</span></h4> + +<p>S. Bisset, formerly referred to, when at Belfast bought a black sucking +pig, and after several experiments succeeded in training a creature, so +obstinate and perverse by nature, to become most tractable and docile. +In August 1783, he took his learned pig to Dublin for exhibition. "It +was not only under full command, but appeared as pliant and good-natured +as a spaniel. He had taught it to spell the names of any one in the +company, to tell the hour, minute, and second, to make his obeisance to +the company, and he occasioned many a laugh by his pointing out the +married and the unmarried. Some one in authority forced him to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> leave +Dublin, and he died broken-hearted shortly after at Chester, on his way +to London, where forty and more years before he had first been induced +to train animals."<a name="FNanchor_203_203" id="FNanchor_203_203"></a><a href="#Footnote_203_203" class="fnanchor">[203]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Quixote Bowles fond of Pigs.</span></h4> + +<p>Southey records of Quixote Bowles that he "had a great love for pigs; he +thought them the happiest of all God's creatures, and would walk twenty +miles to see one that was remarkably fat. This love extended to bacon; +he was an epicure in it; and whenever he went out to dinner, took a +piece of his own curing in his pocket, and requested the cook to dress +it."<a name="FNanchor_204_204" id="FNanchor_204_204"></a><a href="#Footnote_204_204" class="fnanchor">[204]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">On Jekyll nearly thrown down by a very small Pig.</span></h4> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"As Jekyll walk'd out in his gown and his wig,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">He happen'd to tread on a very small pig;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">'Pig of science,' he said, 'or else I'm mistaken,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">For surely thou art an <i>abridgment of Bacon</i>.'"<a name="FNanchor_205_205" id="FNanchor_205_205"></a><a href="#Footnote_205_205" class="fnanchor">[205]</a></span><br /> +</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Good Enough for a Pig.</span></h4> + +<p>An Irish peasant being asked why he permitted his pig to take up its +quarters with his family, made an answer abounding with satirical +<i>naïveté</i>. "Why not? Doesn't the place afford every convenience that <i>a +pig can require</i>?"<a name="FNanchor_206_206" id="FNanchor_206_206"></a><a href="#Footnote_206_206" class="fnanchor">[206]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mrs Fry, in 1827, visited Ireland on one of her Christian and +philanthropic tours. In a letter to her children from Armagh she +says—"Pigs abound; I think they have rather a more elegant appearance +than ours, their hair often rather curled. Perhaps naturalists may +attribute this to their intimate association with their betters!"<a name="FNanchor_207_207" id="FNanchor_207_207"></a><a href="#Footnote_207_207" class="fnanchor">[207]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Countryman's Criticism on the Pigs in Gainsborough's Picture of the +Girl and Pigs.</span></h4> + +<p>Thomas Gainsborough, the great English painter, exhibited, in 1782, +among pictures of noblemen, gentlemen, and ladies, his well-known "Girl +and Pigs."<a name="FNanchor_208_208" id="FNanchor_208_208"></a><a href="#Footnote_208_208" class="fnanchor">[208]</a></p> + +<p>Wolcot, better known as "Peter Pindar," in his first "Ode to the Royal +Academicians," refers to this picture.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"And now, O Muse, with song so big,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Turn round to Gainsborough's Girl and Pig,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Or Pig and Girl, I rather should have said;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">The pig in white, I must allow,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Is really a well painted sow,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">I wish to say the same thing of the maid."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"The expression and truth of nature in the Girl and Pigs," remarks +Northcote, "were never surpassed. Sir Joshua Reynolds was struck with +it, though he thought Gainsborough ought to have made her a beauty." +Reynolds, indeed, became the purchaser of the painting at one hundred +guineas, Gainsborough asking but sixty. During its exhibition, it is +said to have attracted the attention of a countryman, who +remarked—"They be deadly like pigs,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> but nobody ever saw pigs feeding +together but what one on 'em had a foot in the trough."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Hook and the Litter of Pigs.</span></h4> + +<p>Once a gentleman, who had the marvellous gift of shaping a great many +things out of orange-peel, was displaying his abilities at a +dinner-party before Theodore Hook and Mr Thomas Hill, and succeeded in +counterfeiting a pig. Mr Hill tried the same feat; and after destroying +and strewing the table with the peel of a dozen oranges, gave it up, +with the exclamation, "Hang the pig! I <i>can't</i> make him." "Nay, Hill," +exclaimed Hook, glancing at the mess on the table, "you have done more; +instead of one pig, you have made a <i>litter</i>."<a name="FNanchor_209_209" id="FNanchor_209_209"></a><a href="#Footnote_209_209" class="fnanchor">[209]</a></p> + +<p>Hook, we may add, was an original wit. He did not, like most professed +wits, study his sayings before, and arrange with his seeming opponent +for an imaginary war of words. He was an <i>impromptu</i> wit.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Jests about Swine.</span></h4> + +<p>Lord Chancellor Hardwicke's bailiff, having been ordered by his lady to +procure a sow of a particular description, came one day into the +dining-room when full of company, proclaiming with a burst of joy he +could not suppress—"I have been at Royston Fair, my lady, and I have +got a sow exactly of <i>your ladyship's</i> size."<a name="FNanchor_210_210" id="FNanchor_210_210"></a><a href="#Footnote_210_210" class="fnanchor">[210]</a></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>John was thought to be very stupid. He was sent to a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> mill one day, and +the miller said—"John, some people say you are a fool! Now, tell me, +what you do know, and what you don't know."—"Well," replied John, "I +know millers' hogs are fat!"—"Yes, that's well, John; now, what don't +you know?"—"I don't know <i>whose corn</i> fats 'em."<a name="FNanchor_211_211" id="FNanchor_211_211"></a><a href="#Footnote_211_211" class="fnanchor">[211]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Pigs and Silver Spoon.</span></h4> + +<p>The Earl of P—— kept a number of swine at his seat in Wiltshire, and +crossing the yard one day, he was surprised to see the pigs gathered +round one trough, and making a great noise. Curiosity prompted him to +see what was the cause, and on looking into the trough he perceived a +large silver spoon. A servant-maid came out, and began to abuse the pigs +for crying so. "Well they may," said his lordship, "when they have got +but one <i>silver spoon</i> among them all."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>We have heard of one nobleman in Strathearn, who, when a young man, used +to be thus addressed by his mother—"William! how are the children <i>and +your pigs</i>?"<a name="FNanchor_212_212" id="FNanchor_212_212"></a><a href="#Footnote_212_212" class="fnanchor">[212]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Sydney Smith on Beautiful Pigs.</span></h4> + +<h4><span class="smcap">definition of beauty by a utilitarian.</span></h4> + +<p>"Go to the Duke of Bedford's piggery at Woburn, and you will see a breed +of pigs with legs so short, that their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> stomachs trail upon the ground; +a breed of animals entombed in their own fat, overwhelmed with +prosperity, success, and farina. No animal could possibly be so +disgusting, if it were not useful; but a breeder who has accurately +attended to the small quantity of food it requires to swell this pig out +to such extraordinary dimensions,—the extraordinary genius it displays +for obesity,—and the laudable propensity of the flesh to desert the +cheap regions of the body, and to agglomerate on those parts which are +worth ninepence a pound,—such an observer of its utility does not +scruple to call these otherwise hideous quadrupeds a beautiful race of +pigs!"<a name="FNanchor_213_213" id="FNanchor_213_213"></a><a href="#Footnote_213_213" class="fnanchor">[213]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Joseph Sturge, when a boy, and the Pigs.</span></h4> + +<p>When Joseph Sturge, that good Quaker, was in his sixth year, his +biographer, Henry Richard,<a name="FNanchor_214_214" id="FNanchor_214_214"></a><a href="#Footnote_214_214" class="fnanchor">[214]</a> records that he was on a visit to a +friend of his mother's at Frenchay, near Bristol. Sauntering about one +day, he came near the house of an eccentric man, a Quaker, who was much +annoyed by the depredations of his neighbour's pigs. Half in jest, and +half in earnest, he told the lad to drive the pigs into a pond close by. +Joseph, nothing loath, set to work with a will, delighted with the fun. +The woman, to whom the pigs belonged, came out presently, broom in hand, +flourishing it over the young sinner's head. The tempter was standing +by, and sought to cover his share of the transaction by shaking his head +and saying—"Ah,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">'Satan finds some mischief still</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">For idle hands to do.'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The child looked up at him indignantly, and said, 'Thee bee'st Satan +then, for thee told'st me to do it.'"</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="HORSE" id="HORSE"></a>HORSE.</h2> + + +<p>The noblest animal employed by man, and consequently the subject of many +volumes of anecdote,—a study for the painter and sculptor, from the +days of the Greek and Assyrian artists to the present day. Charles +Darwin and Sir Francis Head have given graphic descriptions of the +catching of the wild horse, which swarms on the Pampas of South America.</p> + +<p>How pathetic to see the led horse following the bier of a soldier! It +was, perhaps, the most affecting incident in the long array of the +funeral of the great Duke.</p> + +<p>In the Museum at Brussels, Dr Patrick Neill observed, in 1817, "the +stuffed skin of the horse belonging to one of the Alberts, who governed +the Low Countries in the time of the Spaniards. It was shot under him in +the field, and the holes made in the thorax by the musket bullets are +still very evident."<a name="FNanchor_215_215" id="FNanchor_215_215"></a><a href="#Footnote_215_215" class="fnanchor">[215]</a></p> + +<p>Poor Copenhagen, the Duke's charger at Waterloo, was buried. Many would +have liked his skin or skeleton. The Duke resisted all attempts to give +his old friend up for such a purpose. We hope no resurrectionist +succeeded in getting up his bones, years after his burial at +Strathfieldsaye.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Bell-Rock Horse.</span></h4> + +<p>The Bell-Rock Lighthouse, built on a dangerous range of rocks twelve +miles south by east from Arbroath, was begun by Robert Stevenson on the +17th August 1807, and finished in October 1810. Mr Jervise<a name="FNanchor_216_216" id="FNanchor_216_216"></a><a href="#Footnote_216_216" class="fnanchor">[216]</a> records +that "one horse, the property of James Craw, a labourer in Arbroath, is +believed to have drawn the entire materials of the building. The animal +latterly became a <i>pensioner</i> of the Lighthouse Commissioners, and was +sent by them to graze on the Island of Inchkeith, where it died of old +age in 1813. Dr John Barclay, the celebrated anatomist, had its bones +collected and arranged in his museum, which he bequeathed at his death +to the Royal College of Surgeons, and in their museum at Edinburgh the +skeleton of the <i>Bell-Rock horse</i> may yet be seen."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Burke and the Horse.</span></h4> + +<p>An anecdote of the humanity of the great Edmund Burke in the year 1762 +has been preserved.<a name="FNanchor_217_217" id="FNanchor_217_217"></a><a href="#Footnote_217_217" class="fnanchor">[217]</a> "An Irishman, of the name of Johnson, was +astonishing the town by his horsemanship. All London crowded to see his +feats of agility and his highly-trained steeds. Dr Johnson and Boswell +talked of this man's wonderful ability, and the Doctor thought that he +fully deserved encouragement on philosophical grounds. He proved what +human perseverance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> could do. One who saw him riding on three horses at +once, or dancing upon a wire, might hope, that with the same application +in the profession of his choice, he should attain the same success. +Burke, always ready to encourage his countrymen, and curious in all the +ramifications of ingenuity, went frequently to the circus. The favourite +performance of the evening was that of a handsome black horse, which, at +the sound of Johnson's whip, would leave the stable, stand with much +docility at his side, then gallop about the ring, and on hearing the +crack of the lash again return obediently to its master. On one +unfortunate occasion, the signal was disregarded. The horse-rider flew +into a rage, and by a blow between the ears, struck the noble animal to +the earth. The spectators thought the horse was dying, but they had +little time to reflect on the sight before they were surprised at seeing +a gentleman jump into the ring, rush up to Johnson, and with his eyes +flashing, and every muscle in the face quivering with emotion, shout +out, 'You scoundrel! I have a mind to knock you down.' And Johnson would +certainly have been laid sprawling in the sawdust beside his panting +steed, had not the friends of the gentleman interposed, and prevented +him inflicting such summary chastisement. This incident was long +remembered. When the relater of it, many years afterwards, heard Burke +declaiming, on the floor of the House of Commons, against injustice and +oppression, his mind naturally reverted to the time when he saw the same +hatred of all cruelty displayed by the same individual as he stood over +the prostrate body of the poor black horse, prepared to punish the +miscreant who had felled it to the ground."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">David Garrick and his Horse.</span></h4> + +<p>In 1778 Sir Joshua Reynolds visited Dr Warton at Winchester College. +Here he was particularly noticed by George III. and his queen, who were +then making a tour through the summer encampments. The father of Lord +Palmerston, and David Garrick, the great actor, with others, visited +Warton at the same time.</p> + +<p>Mr Northcote<a name="FNanchor_218_218" id="FNanchor_218_218"></a><a href="#Footnote_218_218" class="fnanchor">[218]</a> relates that a whimsical accident occurred to Garrick +at one of the reviews, which Sir Joshua afterwards recounted with great +humour.</p> + +<p>"At one of those field-days in the vicinity, Garrick found it necessary +to dismount, when his horse escaped from his hold and ran off; throwing +himself immediately into his professional attitude, he cried out, as if +on Bosworth field, 'A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!'"</p> + +<p>This exclamation, and the accompanying attitude, excited great amazement +amongst the surrounding spectators, who knew him not; but it could not +escape his majesty's quick apprehension, for, it being within his +hearing, he immediately said, "Those must be the tones of Garrick! see +if he is not on the ground." The theatrical and dismounted monarch was +immediately brought to his majesty, who not only condoled with him most +good humouredly on his misfortune, but flatteringly added, that his +delivery of Shakspeare could never pass undiscovered.</p> + +<p>This anecdote of Garrick at Winchester is told in the Rev. John Wool's +"Life of Warton." Mr Taylor says—"One can't help suspecting Roscius +took care to make his speech when he knew the king was within earshot—a +little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> bit of that 'artifice' of his which has left such an impression +in the theatre, that the phrase, 'As deep as Garrick,' is still current +stage slang."<a name="FNanchor_219_219" id="FNanchor_219_219"></a><a href="#Footnote_219_219" class="fnanchor">[219]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Bernard Gilpin's Horses Stolen and Recovered.</span><a name="FNanchor_220_220" id="FNanchor_220_220"></a><a href="#Footnote_220_220" class="fnanchor">[220]</a></h4> + +<p>The biographer of the saintly Bernard Gilpin, the apostle of the +northern counties of England in the days of Edward VI., and Queens Mary +and Elizabeth, relates that, by the carelessness of his servant, his +horses were one day stolen. The news was quickly propagated, and every +one expressed the highest indignation. The thief was rejoicing over his +prize, when, by the report of the country, he found whose horses he had +taken. Terrified at what he had done, he instantly came trembling back, +confessed the fact, returned the horses, and declared he believed the +devil would have seized him directly had he carried them off, knowing +them to have been Mr Gilpin's. The biographer gives an instance of his +benevolent temper. "One day returning home, he saw in a field several +people crowding together; and judging that something more than ordinary +had happened, he rode up to them, and found that one of the horses in a +team had suddenly dropped down, which they were endeavouring to raise; +but in vain, for the horse was dead. The owner of it seeming much +dejected with his misfortune, and declaring how grievous a loss it was +to him, Mr Gilpin bade him not be disheartened; "I'll let you have, +honest man, that horse of mine," and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> pointed to his servant's. "Ah! +master," replied the countryman, "my pocket will not reach such a beast +as that." "Come, come," says Mr Gilpin, "take him, take him; and when I +demand my money, then thou shalt pay me."<a name="FNanchor_221_221" id="FNanchor_221_221"></a><a href="#Footnote_221_221" class="fnanchor">[221]</a></p> + +<p>No wonder that the horses of the apostolic rector of Houghton-le-Spring +were safe, even in those horse-stealing times, and in that Border +county.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Herald and George III.'s Horse.</span></h4> + +<p>One day, when Sir Isaac Heard was in company with George III., it was +announced that his majesty's horse was ready for hunting. "Sir Isaac," +said the king, "are you a judge of horses?"—"In my younger days, please +your majesty, I was a great deal among them," was the reply.—"What do +you think of this, then?" said the king, who was by this time preparing +to mount his favourite; and, without waiting for an answer, added, "We +call him <i>Perfection</i>."—"A most appropriate name," replied the courtly +herald, bowing as his majesty reached the saddle, "for he <i>bears</i> the +best of characters."<a name="FNanchor_222_222" id="FNanchor_222_222"></a><a href="#Footnote_222_222" class="fnanchor">[222]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Rowland Hill and his Horse at Dunbar.</span></h4> + +<p>Many stories of the excellent but eccentric Rowland Hill are told, but +often with considerable exaggeration. The following may be depended on +for its accuracy, as it was told by Robert Haldane.<a name="FNanchor_223_223" id="FNanchor_223_223"></a><a href="#Footnote_223_223" class="fnanchor">[223]</a> It occurred at +Dunbar, in September 1797, during an evangelistic tour Hill and Haldane +were making in Scotland. They were sleeping<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> at Mr Cunningham's, when, +in the morning, intending to proceed southward, on Mr Hill's carriage +being brought to the door, his horse was found to be dead lame. A +farrier was sent for, who, after careful examination, reported that the +seat of the mischief was in the shoulder, that the disease was +incurable, and that they might shoot the poor animal as soon as they +pleased. To this proposal Mr Hill was by no means prepared to accede. +Indeed, it seemed to Mr Haldane as precipitate as the conduct of an +Irish sailor on board the <i>Monarch</i>, who, on seeing another knocked down +senseless by a splinter, and supposing his companion to be dead, went up +to Captain Duncan, on the quarter-deck, in the midst of the action with +Languara, off St Vincent, and exclaimed, "Shall we jerk him overboard, +sir?" On that occasion the sailor revived in a short time, and was even +able to work at his gun. In the present instance the horse, too, +recovered, and was able to carry his master on many a future errand of +mercy. Meanwhile, however, the travellers availed themselves of Mr +Cunningham's hospitality, and remained for two days more at his place, +near Dunbar. In the evening Mr Hill conducted family worship, and after +the supplications for the family, domestics, and friends, added a +fervent prayer for the restoration of the valuable animal which had +carried him so many thousands of miles, preaching the everlasting gospel +to his fellow-sinners. Mr Cunningham, who was remarkable for the staid +and orderly, if not stiff, demeanour, which characterised the +anti-burghers, was not only surprised but grieved, and even scandalised, +at what he deemed so great an impropriety. He remonstrated with his +guest. But Mr Hill stoutly defended his conduct by an appeal to +Scripture, and the superintending watchfulness of Him without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> whom a +sparrow falls not to the ground. He persisted in his prayer during the +two days he continued at Dunbar, and, although he left the horse, in a +hopeless state, to follow in charge of his servant by easy stages, he +continued his prayer, night and morning, till one day, at an inn in +Yorkshire, while the two travellers were sitting at breakfast, they +heard a horse and chaise trot briskly into the yard, and, looking out, +saw that Mr Hill's servant had arrived, bringing up the horse perfectly +restored. Mr Hill did not fail to return thanks, and begged his +fellow-traveller to consider whether the minuteness of his prayers had +deserved the censure which had been directed against them.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">A Saying of Rowland Hill's.</span></h4> + +<p>Rowland Hill rode a great deal, and exercise preserved him in vigorous +health. On one occasion, when asked by a medical friend, who was +commenting on his invariably good health, what physician and apothecary +he employed, he replied, "My physician has always been a <i>horse</i>, and my +apothecary an <i>ass</i>!"<a name="FNanchor_224_224" id="FNanchor_224_224"></a><a href="#Footnote_224_224" class="fnanchor">[224]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Holcroft on the Horse.</span></h4> + +<p>Thomas Holcroft, the novelist and play-writer, when a lad, was a stable +boy to a trainer of running horses. In his memoirs he has written a good +deal about the habits of the race-horse. He says of them:—"I soon +learned that the safehold for sitting steady was to keep the knee and +the calf of the leg strongly pressed against the sides of the animal +that endeavours to unhorse you; and as little accidents afford frequent +occasions to remind the boys of this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> rule, it becomes so rooted in the +memory of the intelligent, that their danger is comparatively trifling. +Of the temperaments and habits of blood-horses there are great +varieties, and those very strongly contrasted. The majority of them are +playful, but their gambols are dangerous to the timid or unskilful. They +are all easily and suddenly alarmed, when anything they do not +understand forcibly catches their attention, and they are then to be +feared by the bad horseman, and carefully guarded against by the good. +Very serious accidents have happened to the best. But, besides their +general disposition to playfulness, there is a great propensity in them +to become what the jockeys call vicious. High bred, hot in blood, +exercised, fed and dressed so as to bring that heat to perfection, their +tender skins at all times subject to a sharp curry-comb, hard brushing, +and when they take sweats, to scraping with wooden instruments, it +cannot be but that they are frequently and exceedingly irritated. +Intending to make themselves felt and feared, they will watch their +opportunity to bite, stamp, or kick; I mean those among them that are +vicious. Tom, the brother of Jack Clarke, after sweating a gray horse +that belonged to Lord March, with whom he lived, while he was either +scraping or dressing him, was seized by the animal by the shoulder, +lifted from the ground, and carried two or three hundred yards before +the horse loosened his hold. Old Forrester, a horse that belonged to +Captain Vernon, all the while that I remained at Newmarket, was obliged +to be kept apart, and being foundered, to live at grass, where he was +confined to a close paddock. Except Tom Watson, he would suffer no lad +to come near him; if in his paddock, he would run<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> furiously at the +first person that approached, and if in the stable, would kick and +assault every one within his reach. Horses of this kind seem always to +select their favourite boy. Tom Watson, indeed, had attained to man's +estate, and in his brother's absence, which was rare, acted as +superintendent. Horses, commonly speaking, are of a friendly and +generous nature; but there are anecdotes of the malignant and savage +ferocity of some, that are scarcely to be credited; at least many such +are traditional at Newmarket.</p> + +<p>Of their friendly disposition towards their keepers, there is a trait +known to every boy that has the care of any one of them, which ought not +to be omitted. The custom is to rise very early, even between two and +three in the morning, when the days lengthen. In the course of the day, +horses and boys have much to do. About half after eight, perhaps, in the +evening, the horse has his last feed of oats, which he generally stands +to enjoy in the centre of his smooth, carefully made bed of clean long +straw, and by the side of him the weary boy will often lie down; it +being held as a maxim, a rule without exception, that were he to lie +even till morning, the horse would never lie down himself, but stand +still, careful to do his keeper no harm.<a name="FNanchor_225_225" id="FNanchor_225_225"></a><a href="#Footnote_225_225" class="fnanchor">[225]</a></p> + +<p>In one of Thomas Holcroft's novels, "Alwyn; or, The Gentleman Comedian," +founded on his own adventures when a travelling actor, he gives the +character of an enthusiast who had conceived the idea of establishing a +humane asylum for animals, the consequences of which he describes. "I am +pestered, plagued, teased, tormented to death. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> believe all the cats +in Christendom are assembled in Oxfordshire. I am obliged to hire a +clerk to pay the people; and the village where I live is become a +constant fair. A fellow has set up the sign of the Three Blind Kittens, +and has the impudence to tell the neighbours, that if my whims and my +money only hold out for one twelvemonth, he shall not care a fig for the +king. I thought to prevent this inundation, by buying up all the old +cats and secluding them in convents and monasteries of my own, but the +value of the breeders is increased to such a degree, that I do not +believe my whole fortune is capable of the purchase. Besides I am made +an ass of. A rascal, who is a known sharper in these parts, hearing of +the aversion I had to cruelty, bought an old one-eyed horse, that was +going to the dogs, for five shillings; then taking a hammer in his hand, +watched an opportunity of finding me alone, and addressed me in the +following manner: 'Look you, master, I know that you don't love to see +any dumb creature abused, and so, if you don't give me ten pounds, why, +I shall scoop out this old rip's odd eye with the sharp end of this here +hammer, now, before your face.' Ay, and the villain would have done it +too, if I had not instantly complied; but what was worse, the abominable +scoundrel had the audacity to tell me, when I wanted him to deliver the +horse first, for fear he should extort a further sum from me, that he +had more honour than to break his word. A whelp of a boy had yesterday +caught a young hedgehog, and perceiving me, threw it into the water to +make it extend its legs; then with the rough side of a knotty stick +sawed upon them till the creature cried like a child; and when I ordered +him to desist, told me he would not,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> till I had given him sixpence. +There is something worse than all this. The avaricious rascals, when +they can find nothing that they think will excite my pity, disable the +first animal which is not dignified with the title of Christian, and +then bring it to me as an object worthy of commiseration; so that, in +fact, instead of protecting, I destroy. The women have entertained a +notion that I hate two-legged animals; and one of them called after me +the other day, to tell me I was an old rogue, and that I had better give +my money to the poor, than keep a parcel of dogs and cats that eat up +the village. I perceive it is in vain to attempt carrying on the scheme +much longer, and then my poor invalids will be worse off than they were +before."<a name="FNanchor_226_226" id="FNanchor_226_226"></a><a href="#Footnote_226_226" class="fnanchor">[226]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">A Joke of Lord Mansfield's about a Horse.</span></h4> + +<p>Lord Campbell<a name="FNanchor_227_227" id="FNanchor_227_227"></a><a href="#Footnote_227_227" class="fnanchor">[227]</a> tells an anecdote of George Wood, a celebrated +special pleader at the time when Lord Mansfield was Chief-Justice. +Though a subtle pleader, George was very ignorant of <i>horse-flesh</i>, and +had been cruelly cheated in the purchase of a horse on which he had +intended to ride the circuit. He brought an action on the warranty that +the horse was "a good roadster, and free from vice." At the trial before +Lord Mansfield, it appeared that when the plaintiff mounted at the +stables in London, with the intention of proceeding to Barnet, nothing +could induce the animal to move forward a single step. On hearing this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> +evidence, the Chief-Justice with much gravity exclaimed, "Who would have +supposed that Mr Wood's horse would have <i>demurred</i> when he ought to +have <i>gone to the country</i>." Any attempt, adds Lord Campbell, to explain +this excellent joke to <i>lay gents</i> would be vain, and to <i>lawyers</i> would +be superfluous.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">General Sir John Moore and his Horse at the Battle of Corunna.</span></h4> + +<p>Charles Napier served in Lord William Bentinck's brigade during the +retreat of the truly great and ill-used Moore at the battle of Corunna; +he was covered with wounds, and was carried off a prisoner. In his +"Biography" General Sir William Napier<a name="FNanchor_228_228" id="FNanchor_228_228"></a><a href="#Footnote_228_228" class="fnanchor">[228]</a> has published a most +interesting description of the part his brother took in that battle, and +written in his own words. I extract a few vivid lines in which Moore and +his horse are brought before you. A heavy French column was descending +rapidly on the British line at the part where Napier was. "Suddenly I +heard the gallop of horses, and turning saw Moore. He came at speed, and +pulled up so sharp and close he seemed to have alighted from the air; +man and horse looking at the approaching foe with an intenseness that +seemed to concentrate all feeling in their eyes. The sudden stop of the +animal, a cream-coloured one, with black tail and mane, had cast the +latter streaming forward, its ears were pushed out like horns, while its +eyes flashed fire, and it snorted loudly with expanded nostrils, +expressing terror, astonishment, and muscular exertion. My first thought +was, it will be away like the wind; but then I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> looked at the rider, and +the horse was forgotten. Thrown on its haunches the animal came, sliding +and dashing the dirt up with its fore-feet, thus bending the general +forward almost to its neck; but his head was thrown back, and his look +more keenly piercing than I ever before saw it. He glanced to the right +and left, and then fixed his eyes intently on the enemy's advancing +column, at the same time grasping the reins with both his hands, and +pressing the horse firmly with his knees; his body thus seemed to deal +with the animal, while his mind was intent on the enemy, and his aspect +was one of searching intenseness, beyond the power of words to describe; +for a while he looked, and then galloped to the left, without uttering a +word."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Neither Horses nor Children can explain their Complaints.</span></h4> + +<p>Dr Mounsey, the Chelsea doctor, an eccentric physician, who was a great +friend of David Garrick, related to Taylor that he was once in company +with another physician and an eminent farrier. The physician stated that +among the difficulties of his profession, was that of discovering the +maladies of children, because they could not explain the symptoms of +their disorder. "Well," said the farrier, "your difficulties are not +greater than mine, for my patients, the horses, are equally unable to +explain their complaints."—"Ah!" rejoined the physician, "my brother +doctor must conquer me, as he has brought his cavalry against my +infantry!"<a name="FNanchor_229_229" id="FNanchor_229_229"></a><a href="#Footnote_229_229" class="fnanchor">[229]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Horses with Names.</span></h4> + +<p>In this country most horses have a name, but in Germany this custom must +be unusual. Perthes, when on his way from Hamburg to Frankfort, remarked +at Böhmte—"It is a pleasing custom they have here of giving proper +names to horses. The horse is a noble and intelligent animal, and quite +as deserving of such a distinction as the dog; and when it has a name, +it has made some advance towards personality."<a name="FNanchor_230_230" id="FNanchor_230_230"></a><a href="#Footnote_230_230" class="fnanchor">[230]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">"Old Jack" of Waterloo Bridge.</span></h4> + +<p>In building Waterloo Bridge, the finest of Rennie's bridges, the whole +of the stone required was hewn in some fields on the Surrey side. Nearly +the whole of this material was drawn by one horse called "Old Jack," a +most sensible animal. Mr Smiles, in his "Life of John Rennie,"<a name="FNanchor_231_231" id="FNanchor_231_231"></a><a href="#Footnote_231_231" class="fnanchor">[231]</a> thus +speaks of this favourite old horse—"His driver was, generally speaking, +a steady and trustworthy man; though rather too fond of his dram before +breakfast. As the railway along which the stone was drawn passed in +front of the public-house door, the horse and truck were usually pulled +up, while Tom entered for his 'morning.' On one occasion the driver +stayed so long that 'Old Jack,' becoming impatient, poked his head into +the open door, and taking his master's coat collar between his teeth, +though in a gentle sort of manner, pulled him out from the midst of his +companions, and thus forced him to resume the day's work."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Sydney Smith and his Horses.</span></h4> + +<p>Sydney Smith, when rector of Foston-le-Clay, in Yorkshire, a living +which he got from Lord Chancellor Erskine in 1806, was in the habit of +riding a good deal. His daughter says that, "either from the badness of +his horses, or the badness of his riding, or perhaps from both (in spite +of his various ingenious contrivances to keep himself in the saddle), he +had several falls, and kept us in continual anxiety."<a name="FNanchor_232_232" id="FNanchor_232_232"></a><a href="#Footnote_232_232" class="fnanchor">[232]</a> He writes in +a letter—"I used to think a fall from a horse dangerous, but much +experience has convinced me to the contrary. I have had six falls in two +years, and just behaved like the three per cents. when they fall. I got +up again, and am not a bit the worse for it any more than the stock in +question." In speaking of this he says, "I left off riding for the good +of my parish and the peace of my family; for, somehow or other, my horse +and I had a habit of parting company. On one occasion I found myself +suddenly prostrate in the streets of York, much to the delight of the +Dissenters. Another time my horse Calamity flung me over his head into a +neighbouring parish, as if I had been a shuttlecock, and I felt grateful +it was not into a neighbouring planet; but as no harm came of it, I +might have persevered perhaps, if, on a certain day, a Quaker tailor +from a neighbouring village to which I had said I was going to ride, had +not taken it into his head to call, soon after my departure, and request +to see Mrs Sydney. She instantly, conceiving I was thrown, if not +killed, rushed down to the man, exclaiming, 'Where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> is he?—where is +your master?—is he hurt?' The astonished and quaking snip stood silent +from surprise. Still more agitated by his silence, she exclaimed, 'Is he +hurt? I insist upon knowing the worst!'—'Why, please, ma'am, it is only +thy little bill, a very small account, I wanted thee to settle,' replied +he, in much surprise.</p> + +<p>"After this, you may suppose, I sold my horse; however, it is some +comfort to know that my friend, Sir George, is one fall ahead of me, and +is certainly a worse rider. It is a great proof, too, of the liberality +of this county, where everybody can ride as soon as they are born, that +they tolerate me at all.</p> + +<p>"The horse 'Calamity,' whose name has been thus introduced, was the +first-born of several young horses bred on the farm, who turned out very +fine creatures, and gained him great glory, even amongst the knowing +farmers of Yorkshire; but this first production was certainly not +encouraging. To his dismay a huge, lank, large-boned foal appeared, of +chestnut colour, and with four white legs. It grew apace, but its bones +became more and more conspicuous; its appetite was unbounded—grass, +hay, corn, beans, food moist and dry, were all supplied in vain, and +vanished down his throat with incredible rapidity. He stood, a large +living skeleton, with famine written in his face, and my father +christened him 'Calamity.' As Calamity grew to maturity, he was found to +be as sluggish in disposition as his master was impetuous; so my father +was driven to invent his patent Tantalus, which consisted of a small +sieve of corn, suspended on a semicircular bar of iron, from the ends of +the shafts, just beyond the horse's nose. The corn, rattling as the +vehicle proceeded, stimu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>lated Calamity to unwonted exertions; and under +the hope of overtaking this imaginary feed, he did more work than all +the previous provender which had been poured down his throat had been +able to obtain from him."</p> + +<p>He was very fond of his young horses, and they all came running to meet +him when he entered the field. He began their education from their +birth; he taught them to wear a girth, a bridle, a saddle; to meet +flags, music; to bear the firing of a pistol at their heads from their +earliest years; and he maintained that no horses were so well broken as +his! At p. 388 she records, "At ten we always went down-stairs to +prayers in the library. Immediately after, if we were alone, appeared +the 'farmer' at the door, lantern in hand. 'David, bring me my coat and +stick,' and off he set with him, summer and winter, to visit his horses, +and see that they were all well fed, and comfortable in their regions +for the night. He kept up this custom all his life!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Sydney Smith, when at Foston, used to exercise his skill in medicine on +the poor, and often did much good; his daughter gives some instances of +his practice as a farrier.</p> + +<p>"On one occasion, wishing to administer a ball to Peter the Cruel,<a name="FNanchor_233_233" id="FNanchor_233_233"></a><a href="#Footnote_233_233" class="fnanchor">[233]</a> +the groom, by mistake, gave him two boxes of opium pills in his bran +mash, which Peter composedly munched, boxes and all. My father, in +dismay, when he heard what had happened, went to look, as he thought, +for the last time on his beloved Peter; but soon found, to his great +relief, that neither boxes nor pills had produced any visible effects on +him. Another time he found all his pigs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> intoxicated; and, as he +declared, 'grunting "God save the King" about the stye,' from having +eaten some fermented grains which he had ordered for them. Once he +administered castor-oil to the red cow, in quantities sufficient to have +killed a regiment of Christians; but the red cow laughed alike at his +skill and his oil, and went on her way rejoicing."<a name="FNanchor_234_234" id="FNanchor_234_234"></a><a href="#Footnote_234_234" class="fnanchor">[234]</a></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Sydney Smith tells a story, or made one, of a clergyman who was rather +absent. "I heard of a clergyman who went jogging along the road till he +came to a turnpike. 'What is to pay?'—'Pay, sir, for what?' asked the +turnpike man.—'Why, for my horse, to be sure.'—'Your horse, sir? what +horse? here is no horse, sir.'—'No horse? God bless me!' said he, +suddenly, looking down between his legs, 'I thought I was on +horseback.'"<a name="FNanchor_235_235" id="FNanchor_235_235"></a><a href="#Footnote_235_235" class="fnanchor">[235]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Judge Story and the Names he gave his Horses.</span></h4> + +<p>The son and biographer of the eminent American judge, Joseph Story, +relates of him<a name="FNanchor_236_236" id="FNanchor_236_236"></a><a href="#Footnote_236_236" class="fnanchor">[236]</a>—"To dumb creatures he was kind and considerate, and +indignant at any ill usage of them. His sportive nature showed itself in +the nicknames which, in parody of the American fondness of titles, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> +gave to his horses and dogs, as, 'The Right Honourable Mr Mouse,' or +'Colonel Roy.'"</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Wordsworth on Cruelty to Horses in Ireland.</span></h4> + +<p>The Rev. Cæsar Otway,<a name="FNanchor_237_237" id="FNanchor_237_237"></a><a href="#Footnote_237_237" class="fnanchor">[237]</a> in a lecture full of interesting anecdotes, +records:—"I remember an observation made to me by one of the most +gifted of the human race—one of the stars of this generation—the poet +of nature and of feeling—the good and the great Mr Wordsworth. Having +the honour of a conversation with him, after he had made a tour through +Ireland, I, in the course of it, asked what was the thing that most +struck his observation here, as making us differ from the English; and +he, without hesitation, said it was the ill treatment of our horses; +that his soul was often, too often, sick within him at the way in which +he saw these creatures of God abused."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Use of Tail.—Short-Tailed and Long-Tailed Horses.</span></h4> + +<p>In an Irish paper was an advertisement for horses to stand at livery on +the following terms:—"Long-tailed horses at 3s. 6d. per week; +short-tailed horses at 3s. per week." On inquiry into the cause of the +difference, it was answered, that the horses with long tails could brush +the flies off their backs while eating, whereas the short-tailed horses +were obliged to take their heads <i>from the manger</i>, and so ate +less.<a name="FNanchor_238_238" id="FNanchor_238_238"></a><a href="#Footnote_238_238" class="fnanchor">[238]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ASS_AND_ZEBRA" id="ASS_AND_ZEBRA"></a>ASS AND ZEBRA.</h2> + + +<p>It is strange that one of the most sagacious of animals should have +supplied us with a by-word for "a fool." Coleridge was conscious of this +when, in writing his address to a young ass's foal,<a name="FNanchor_239_239" id="FNanchor_239_239"></a><a href="#Footnote_239_239" class="fnanchor">[239]</a> he exclaimed—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"I hail thee, brother, spite of the fool's scorn."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>How well has he expressed his love for "the languid patience" of its +face.</p> + +<p>In warmer climes the ass attains a size and condition not seen here, +though when cared for in this rougher climate, the donkey assumes +somewhat of the size and elegance he has in the East. But who can bear +his voice? Surely Coleridge was very fanciful when, in any condition of +asshood, he could write—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"Yea, and more musically sweet to me</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Thy dissonant, harsh bray of joy would be,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Than warbled melodies that soothe to rest</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The aching of pale Fashion's vacant breast."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The wild ass, as it roams over the plains of Asia, or is seen in the +Zoological gardens along with the gracefully-shaped and prettily-striped +zebra, must be admired by every one.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Collins and the Old Donkey of Odell, Cowper's Messenger at Olney.</span></h4> + +<p>In July 1823, William Collins, R.A., visited Turvey, in Bedfordshire. +His son remarks—"Besides the attractions presented to the pencil by the +natural beauties of this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> neighbourhood, its vicinity to Olney, the +favourite residence of the poet Cowper, gave it, to all lovers of +poetry, a local and peculiar charm. Conspicuous among its inhabitants at +the time when my father visited it was 'old Odell,' frequently mentioned +by Cowper as the favourite messenger who carried his letters and +parcels. The extreme picturesqueness and genuine rustic dignity of the +old man's appearance made him an admirable subject for pictorial study. +Portraits of him, in water-colours and oils, were accordingly made by my +father, who introduced him into three of his pictures. The donkey on +which he had for years ridden to and fro with letters, was as carefully +depicted by the painter as his rider. On visiting 'old Odell' a year or +two afterwards, Mr Collins observed a strange-looking object hanging +against his kitchen wall, and inquired what it was. 'Oh, sir,' replied +the old man, sorrowfully, 'that is the skin of my poor donkey. He died +of old age, and I did not like to part with him altogether, so I had his +skin dried, and hung up there.' Tears came into his eyes as he spoke of +the old companion of all his village pilgrimages. The incident might +have formed a continuation of Sterne's exquisite episode in the +'Sentimental Journey.'"<a name="FNanchor_240_240" id="FNanchor_240_240"></a><a href="#Footnote_240_240" class="fnanchor">[240]</a></p> + +<p>In his picture of "The Cherry-Seller," painted for Mr Higgins of Turvey +House, old Odell and his donkey are chief figures.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Gainsborough kept an Ass.</span></h4> + +<p>The Rev. William Gilpin, in his "Forest Scenery,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> refers to the +picturesque beauty of the ass in a landscape Berghem often introduced +it; "and a late excellent landscape-painter (Mr Gainsborough), I have +heard, generally kept this animal by him, that he might have it always +at hand to introduce in various attitudes into his pictures. I have +heard also that a plaster cast of an ass, modelled by him, is sold in +the shops in London."<a name="FNanchor_241_241" id="FNanchor_241_241"></a><a href="#Footnote_241_241" class="fnanchor">[241]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Irishman on the Ramsgate Donkeys.</span></h4> + +<p>In former times, when excise officers were not so sharp, there was a +good deal of smuggling carried on at Ramsgate. Sir Thomas Dick +Lauder<a name="FNanchor_242_242" id="FNanchor_242_242"></a><a href="#Footnote_242_242" class="fnanchor">[242]</a> tells an anecdote of an Irishman there, who being asked to +name the hardest wrought creature in existence, replied, "Och! a +Ramsgate donkey, to be sure; for, faith, afthur carrying angels all day, +be the powers he is forced to carry speerits all night."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Ass's Foal.</span></h4> + +<p>Douglas Jerrold and a company of literary friends were out in the +country. In the course of their walk they stopped to notice the gambols +of an ass's foal. A very sentimental poet present vowed that he should +like to send the little thing as a present to his mother. "Do," replied +Jerrold, "and tie a piece of paper round its neck, bearing this motto, +'When this you see, remember me.'"<a name="FNanchor_243_243" id="FNanchor_243_243"></a><a href="#Footnote_243_243" class="fnanchor">[243]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Ass.</span></h4> + +<p>A judge, joking a young barrister, said—"If you and I were turned into +a horse and an ass, which would you prefer to be?"—"The ass, to be +sure," replied the barrister. "I've heard of an ass being made a judge, +but a horse never."<a name="FNanchor_244_244" id="FNanchor_244_244"></a><a href="#Footnote_244_244" class="fnanchor">[244]</a></p> + +<p>Ammonianus, the grammarian, had an ass which, as it is said, when he +attended the lectures upon poetry, often neglected his food when laid +before him, though at the same time he was hungry, so much was the ass +taken with the love of poetry.<a name="FNanchor_245_245" id="FNanchor_245_245"></a><a href="#Footnote_245_245" class="fnanchor">[245]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Warren Hastings and the Refractory Donkey.</span></h4> + +<p>The fondness of the first Governor-General of India for horse exercise, +and indeed for the horse itself, was quite oriental, as his biographer +relates.<a name="FNanchor_246_246" id="FNanchor_246_246"></a><a href="#Footnote_246_246" class="fnanchor">[246]</a> He was a fine rider, and piqued himself on his abilities +in this way.</p> + +<p>"Nothing pleased him," continues Mr Gleig, "more than to undertake some +animal which nobody else could control, and to reduce it, as he +invariably did, to a state of perfect docility. The following anecdote, +which I have from my friend Mr Impey, himself an actor in the little +drama, may suffice to show the extent to which this passion was carried. +It happened once upon a time, when Mr Impey<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> was, with some other boys, +on a visit at Daylesford, that Mr Hastings, returning from a ride, saw +his young friends striving in vain to manage an ass which they had found +grazing in the paddock, and which one after another they chose to mount. +The ass, it appears, had no objection to receive the candidates for +equestrian renown successively on his back, but budge a foot he would +not; and there being neither saddle nor bridle, wherewith to restrain +his natural movements, he never failed, so soon as a difference of +opinion arose, to get the better of his rider. Each in his turn, the +boys were repeatedly thrown, till at last Mr Hastings, who watched the +proceedings with great interest, approached.</p> + +<p>"Why, boys," said he, "how is it that none of you can ride?"</p> + +<p>"Not ride!" cried the little aspirants; "we could ride well enough, if +we had a saddle and a bridle; but he's such an obstinate brute, that we +don't think even you, sir, could sit him bare-backed."</p> + +<p>"Let's try," exclaimed the Governor-General.</p> + +<p>Whereupon he dismounted, and gave his horse to one of the children to +hold, and mounted the donkey. The beast began to kick up his heels, and +lower his head as heretofore; but this time the trick would not answer. +The Governor-General sat firm, and finally prevailed, whether by fair +means or foul, I am not instructed, in getting the quadruped to move +wheresoever he chose. He himself laughed heartily as he resigned the +conquered thistle-eater to his first friends; and the story when told, +as told it was, with consummate humour, at the dinner-table, afforded +great amusement to a large circle of guests.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Northcote, the Royal Academician, an Angel at an Ass.</span></h4> + +<p>Fuseli, the artist, was a most outspoken man. His biographer<a name="FNanchor_247_247" id="FNanchor_247_247"></a><a href="#Footnote_247_247" class="fnanchor">[247]</a> says +that he never concealed his sentiments with regard to men, even to their +faces.</p> + +<p>"Every one knows," writes Mr Knowles, "who is acquainted with art, the +powers which Northcote displays when he paints animals of the brute +creation. When his picture of 'Balaam and the Ass' was exhibited at the +Macklin Gallery, Northcote asked Fuseli's opinion of its merits, who +instantly said, 'My friend, you are an angel at an ass, but an ass at an +angel.'"</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Sydney Smith's accomplished Donkey, with Francis Jeffrey on his Back.</span></h4> + +<p>Lady Holland<a name="FNanchor_248_248" id="FNanchor_248_248"></a><a href="#Footnote_248_248" class="fnanchor">[248]</a> gives the following picture of her father's pet +donkey:—</p> + +<p>"Amongst our rural delights at Heslington was the possession of a young +donkey which had been given up to our tender mercies from the time of +its birth, and in whose education we employed a large portion of our +spare time; and a most accomplished donkey it became under our tuition. +It would walk up-stairs, pick pockets, follow us in our walks like a +huge Newfoundland dog, and at the most distant sight of us in the field, +with ears down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> and tail erect, it set off in full bray to meet us. +These demonstrations on Bitty's part were met with not less affection on +ours, and Bitty was almost considered a member of the family.</p> + +<p>"One day, when my elder brother and myself were training our beloved +Bitty with a pocket-handkerchief for a bridle, and his head crowned with +flowers, to run round our garden, who should arrive in the midst of our +sport but Mr Jeffrey. Finding my father out, he, with his usual kindness +towards young people, immediately joined in our sport, and to our +infinite delight, mounted our donkey. He was proceeding in triumph, +amidst our shouts of laughter, when my father and mother, in company, I +believe, with Mr Horner and Mr Murray, returned from their walk, and +beheld this scene from the garden-door. Though years and years have +passed away since, I still remember the joy-inspiring laughter that +burst from my father at this unexpected sight, as, advancing towards his +old friend, with a face beaming with delight, and with extended hands, +he broke forth in the following impromptu:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">'Witty as Horatius Flaccus,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">As great a Jacobin as Gracchus;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Short, though not as fat as Bacchus,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Riding on a little jackass.'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"These lines were afterwards repeated by some one to Mr —— at Holland +House, just before he was introduced for the first time to Mr Jeffrey, +and they caught his fancy to such a degree that he could not get them +out of his head, but kept repeating them in a low voice all the time Mr +Jeffrey was conversing with him.</p> + +<p>"I must end Bitty's history, as he has been introduced,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> by saying that +he followed us to Foston; and after serving us faithfully for thirteen +years, on our leaving Yorkshire, was permitted by our kind friend, Lord +Carlisle, to spend the rest of his days in idleness and plenty, in his +beautiful park, with an unbounded command of thistles."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Sydney Smith on the Sagacity of the Ass; a Lady scarcely so wise as one.</span></h4> + +<blockquote><p>The Rev. Sydney Smith<a name="FNanchor_249_249" id="FNanchor_249_249"></a><a href="#Footnote_249_249" class="fnanchor">[249]</a> writes to Colonel Fox in October 1836:—</p> +</blockquote> +<p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Charles</span>,—If you have ever paid any attention to the habits of +animals, you will know that donkeys are remarkably cunning in opening +gates. The way to stop them is to have two latches instead of one. A +human being has two hands, and lifts up both latches at once; a donkey +has only one nose, and latch <i>a</i> drops, as he quits it to lift up latch +<i>b</i>. Bobus and I had the grand luck to see little Aunty engaged +intensely with this problem. She was taking a walk, and was arrested by +a gate with this formidable difficulty: the donkeys were looking on to +await the issue. Aunty lifted up the first latch with the most perfect +success, but found herself opposed by a second; flushed with victory, +she quitted the first latch, and rushed at the second; her success was +equal, till in the meantime the first dropped. She tried this two or +three times, and, to her utter astonishment, with the same results; the +donkeys brayed, and Aunty was walking away in great dejection, till +Bobus and I recalled her with loud laughter, showed her that she had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> +two hands, and roused her to vindicate her superiority over the donkeys. +I mention this to you to request that you will make no allusion to this +animal, as she is remarkably touchy on this subject, and also that you +will not mention it to Lady Mary!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Lady Holland relates a practical joke of her father's, which the witty +canon carried out at his rectory of Combe Florey. "Opposite was a +beautiful bank, with a hanging wood of fine old beech and oak, on the +summit of which presented themselves, to our astonished eyes, two +donkeys with deers' antlers fastened on their heads, which ever and anon +they shook, much wondering at their horned honours; whilst the attendant +donkey boy, in Sunday garb, stood grinning and blushing at their side. +'There, Lady ——! you said the only thing this place wanted to make it +perfect was deer; what do you say now? I have, you see, ordered my game +gamekeeper to drive my deer into the most picturesque point of view. +Excuse their long ears, a little peculiarity belonging to parsonic deer. +Their voices, too, are singular; but we do our best for you, and you are +too true a friend of the Church to mention our defects.' All this, of +course, amidst shouts of laughter, whilst his own merry laugh might be +heard above us all, ringing through the valley, and making the very +echoes laugh in chorus."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Asses' Duty Free!</span></h4> + +<p>During the debate on Sir Robert Peel's tariff, the admission of asses' +duty free caused much merriment. Lord T., who had just read "Vestiges of +the Natural History of Creation," remarked that the House had, he +supposed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> passed the donkey clause out of respect to its +ancestors.—"It is a wise measure," said a popular novelist, "especially +as it affects the importation of food; for, should a scarcity come, we +should otherwise have to fall back on the food of our +forefathers."—"And, pray, what is that?" asked an +archæologist.—"Thistles," replied Lord T.<a name="FNanchor_250_250" id="FNanchor_250_250"></a><a href="#Footnote_250_250" class="fnanchor">[250]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Thackeray and the Egyptian Donkey.</span></h4> + +<p>When the English author landed at Alexandria, there were many scenes and +sounds to dispel all romantic notions; among these "a yelling chorus of +donkey boys shrieking, 'Ride, sir!—donkey, sir!—I say, sir!' in +excellent English. The placid sphinxes, brooding o'er the Nile, +disappeared with that wild shriek of the donkey boys. You might be as +well impressed with Wapping as with your first step on Egyptian soil.</p> + +<p>"The riding of a donkey is, after all, not a dignified occupation. A man +resists the offer first, somehow as an indignity. How is that poor +little, red-saddled, long-eared creature to carry you? Is there to be +one for you and another for your legs? Natives and Europeans, of all +sizes, passed by, it is true, mounted upon the same contrivance. I +waited until I got into a very private spot, where nobody could see me, +and then ascended—why not say descended at once?—on the poor little +animal. Instead of being crushed at once, as perhaps the writer +expected, it darted forward, quite briskly and cheerfully, at six or +seven miles an hour; requiring no spur or admonitive to haste, except<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> +the shrieking of the little Egyptian <i>gamin</i>, who ran along by asinus's +side."<a name="FNanchor_251_251" id="FNanchor_251_251"></a><a href="#Footnote_251_251" class="fnanchor">[251]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Best to let Mules have their own Way.</span></h4> + +<p>Dr John Moore, in crossing the Alps, found they had nothing but the +sagacity of their mules to trust to. "For my own part," he says, "I was +very soon convinced that it was much safer on all dubious occasions to +depend on theirs than on my own. For as often as I was presented with a +choice of difficulties, and the mule and I were of different opinions, +if, becoming more obstinate than he, I insisted on his taking my track, +I never failed to repent it, and often was obliged to return to the +place where the controversy had begun, and follow the path to which he +had pointed at first.</p> + +<p>"It is entertaining to observe the prudence of these animals in making +their way down such dangerous rocks. They sometimes put their heads over +the edge of the precipice, and examine with anxious circumspection every +possible way by which they can descend, and at length are sure to fix on +that which, upon the whole, is the best. Having observed this in several +instances, I laid the bridle on the neck of my mule, and allowed him to +take his own way, without presuming to control him in the smallest +degree. This is doubtless the best method, and what I recommend to all +my friends in their journey through life, when they have mules for their +companions."<a name="FNanchor_252_252" id="FNanchor_252_252"></a><a href="#Footnote_252_252" class="fnanchor">[252]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Zebra.</span>—"<i>Un âne rayée.</i>"</h4> + +<h4><span class="smcap">a frenchman's "double-entendre."</span></h4> + +<p>When, in 1805, Patrick Lattin, an officer of the Irish Brigade, was +residing in Paris, a M. de Montmorency, whose Christian name was Anne, +made his appearance, announcing that he was enabled to return to France, +in consequence of the First Consul having scratched his name on the list +of <i>émigrés</i>. "<i>A present donc</i>," observed Lattin, "<i>mon cher Anne, tu +es un Zèbre—un âne rayée.</i>"<a name="FNanchor_253_253" id="FNanchor_253_253"></a><a href="#Footnote_253_253" class="fnanchor">[253]</a></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CAMEL" id="CAMEL"></a>CAMEL.</h2> + + +<p>Truly the Ship of the Desert, and one that by Lewis and Henry Warren has +afforded the subject of many a pleasing picture. The camel has a most +patriarchal look about him.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Captain William Peel, R.N. Remarks on Camels.</span></h4> + +<p>Captain William Peel, in his "Ride through the Nubian Desert" (p. 89), +writes—"We met once at a hollow, where some water still remained from +the rains, 2000 camels, all together admirably organised into troops, +and attended by only a few Arabs. On another occasion, we passed some +camels grazing at such a distance from the Nile, that I asked the Arab +attending where they went to drink? He said, he marches them all down +together to the Nile, and they drink every eleventh day. It is now the +cool season,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> and the heat is tempered by fresh northerly breezes. The +Arab, of course, brings water skins for his own supply. All these camels +were breeding stock. They live on thorns and the top shoots of the +gum-arabic tree, although it is armed with the most frightful spikes. +But very little comes amiss to the camel; he will eat dry wood to keep +up digestion, if in want of a substitute. Instinct or experience has +taught him to avoid the only two tempting-looking plants that grow in +the desert,—the green eusha bush, which is full of milk-coloured juice, +and a creeper, that grows in the sand where nothing else will grow, and +which has a bitter fruit like a melon. I was surprised to learn that the +leopard does not dare to attack the camel, whose tall and narrow flanks +would seem to be fatally exposed to such a supple enemy. Nature, +however, has given him a means of defence in his iron jaw and long +powerful neck, which are a full equivalent for his want of agility. He +can also strike heavily with his feet, and his roar would intimidate +many foes. I never felt tired of admiring this noble creature, and +through the monotony of the desert would watch for hours his ceaseless +tread and unerring path. Carrying his head low, forward, and surveying +everything with his black brilliant eye, he marches resolutely forward, +and quickens his pace at the slightest cheer of the rider. He is too +intelligent and docile for a bridle; besides, he lives on the march, and +with a sudden sweep of the neck will seize, without stopping, the +smallest straw. When the day's march is over, he passes the night in +looking for food, with scarcely an hour to repose his limbs, and less +than that for sleep. He closes the eye fitfully, the smallest noise will +awake him. When lying down for rest,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> every part of the body is +supported; his neck and head lie lightly along the sand, a broad plate +of bone under the breast takes the weight off his deep chest, and his +long legs lay folded under him, supporting his sides like a ship in a +cradle."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">A Captain in the Royal Navy Measures the Progress of "the Ship of the +Desert."</span></h4> + +<p>The dromedary has long and deservedly been called "the Ship of the +Desert." A very gallant captain in the Royal Navy, the late Captain +William Peel, son of the Prime Minister, calculated its rate of motion +much after the manner in which he might have measured the path of his +ship. He writes<a name="FNanchor_254_254" id="FNanchor_254_254"></a><a href="#Footnote_254_254" class="fnanchor">[254]</a>—"In crossing the Nubian Desert I paid constant +attention to the march of the camels, hoping it may be of some service +hereafter in determining our position. The number of strides in a minute +with the same foot varied very little, only from 37 to 39, and 38 was +the average; but the length of the stride was more uncertain, varying +from 6 feet 6 to 7 feet 6. As we were always urging the camels, who +seemed, like ourselves, to know the necessity of pushing on across that +fearful tract, I took 7 feet as the average. These figures give a speed +of 2.62 geographical miles per hour, or exactly three English miles, +which may be considered as the highest speed that camels lightly loaded +can keep up on a journey. In general, it will not be more than two and a +half English miles. My dromedary was one of the tallest, and the seat of +the saddle was 6 feet 6 above the ground."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Lord Metcalfe on a Camel when a Boy.</span></h4> + +<p>Charles Metcalfe, "first and last Lord Metcalfe," to whose care were +successively intrusted the three greatest dependencies of the British +crown, India, Jamaica, and Canada, and who died in 1846, was sent to +Eton when eleven years old. His biographer relates,<a name="FNanchor_255_255" id="FNanchor_255_255"></a><a href="#Footnote_255_255" class="fnanchor">[255]</a> that "it is on +record, and on very sufficient authority, that he was once seen riding +on a camel. 'I heard the boys shouting,' said Dr Goodall, many years +afterwards, 'and went out and saw young Metcalfe riding on a camel; so +you see he was always orientally inclined.'" This anecdote will serve as +a comrade to that told by Mr Foss, in his "Lives of the Justices of +England," of Chief-Baron Pollock. When a lad, one of his schoolmasters, +fretted by the boyish energy and exuberant spirits of his scholar, said +petulantly, "You will live to be <i>hanged</i>." The old gentleman lived to +see his pupil Lord Chief-Baron, and, not a little proud of his great +scholar, said, "I always said he would occupy an <i>elevated</i> position."</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="STAGS_AND_GIRAFFE" id="STAGS_AND_GIRAFFE"></a>STAGS AND GIRAFFE.</h2> + + +<p>The deer family is rather numerous, and found in many different parts of +the world. Reindeers abound in some parts even of Spitzbergen, and with +musk oxen can find their food even under the winter snows of the Parry +Islands.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> The wapiti and heavy large-headed elk or moose, retreat before +the advancing civilisation of North America. The Indian mountains and +plains have noble races of deer. No species, however, is more celebrated +than our red deer. The giraffe is closely allied to the stag family. The +Arabs name it the seraph, and indeed, that is the origin of its now +best-known English name. Visitors should beware of going too near the +male, for we have seen the dent made by one of the giraffe's bony knobs +on a pannel close to its stall. We have heard of a young lady, who +entered the garden one of those summer days when straw bonnets had great +bunches of ripe barley mingled with artificial poppies as an ornament, +and, going too near the lofty pallisade, found to her confusion and +terror that the long lithe tongue of the giraffe had whisked off her +Leghorn, flowers and all, and had begun leisurely to munch it with +somewhat of the same gusto with which it would have eaten the branch of +a graceful mimosa.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Earl of Dalhousie and the ferocious Stag.</span></h4> + +<p>Mr Scrope relates an instance of unprovoked ferocity in a red deer at +Taymouth, in which the present Earl of Dalhousie might have been +seriously injured.</p> + +<p>"In October 1836, the Hon. Mr and Mrs Fox Maule had left Taymouth with +the intention of proceeding towards Dalguise; and in driving through +that part of the grounds where the red deer were kept, they suddenly at +a turn of the road came upon the lord of the demesne standing in the +centre of the passage, as if prepared to dispute it against all comers. +Mr Maule being aware<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> that it might be dangerous to trifle with him, or +to endeavour to drive him away (for it was the rutting season), +cautioned the postilion to go slowly, and give the animal an opportunity +of moving off. This was done, and the stag retired to a small hollow by +the side of the road. On the carriage passing, however, he took offence +at its too near approach, and emerged at a slow and stately pace, till +he arrived nearly parallel with it. Mr Maule then desired the lad to +increase his pace, being apprehensive of a charge in the broadside.</p> + +<p>"The deer, however, had other intentions; for as soon as the carriage +moved quicker, he increased his pace also, and came on the road about +twelve yards ahead of it, for the purpose of crossing, as it was +thought, to a lower range of the parks; but to the astonishment and no +little alarm of the occupants of the carriage, he charged the offside +horse, plunging his long brow antler into his chest, and otherwise +cutting him.</p> + +<p>"The horse that was wounded made two violent kicks, and is supposed to +have struck the stag, and then the pair instantly ran off the road; and +it was owing solely to the admirable presence of mind and sense of the +postilion, that the carriage was not precipitated over the neighbouring +bank. The horses were not allowed to stop till they reached the gate, +although the blood was pouring from the wounded animal in a stream as +thick as a man's finger. He was then taken out of the carriage, and only +survived two or three hours. The stag was shortly afterwards +killed."<a name="FNanchor_256_256" id="FNanchor_256_256"></a><a href="#Footnote_256_256" class="fnanchor">[256]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The French Count and the Stag.</span></h4> + +<p>Mr Scrope, in his "Deer-Stalking," describes a grand deer-drive to +Glen-Tilt, headed by the Duke of Athole. Many an incident of this and +subsequent drives was watched by "Lightfoot," who was present, and whose +pictures, under his name of Sir Edwin Landseer, have rendered the life +of the red deer familiar to us, in mist, amid snow, swimming in the +rapid of a Highland current, pursued and at rest, fighting and feeding, +alive and dead, in every attitude, and at every age.</p> + +<p>In this encounter, the Duke killed three first-rate harts, Lightfoot +two, and other rifles were all more or less successful. A French count, +whose tongue it was difficult to restrain,—and silence is essential to +success in the pursuit,—at last fired into a dense herd of deer.</p> + +<p>Mr Scrope adds,<a name="FNanchor_257_257" id="FNanchor_257_257"></a><a href="#Footnote_257_257" class="fnanchor">[257]</a> "Everything was propitious—circumstance, +situation, and effect; for he was descending the mountain in full view +of our whole assemblage of sportsmen. A fine stag in the midst of the +herd fell to the crack of his rifle. 'Hallo, hallo!' forward ran the +count, and sat upon the prostrate deer triumphing. '<i>Hé bien, mon ami, +vous êtes mort, donc! Moi, je fais toujours des coups sûrs. Ah! pauvre +enfant!</i>' He then patted the sides of the animal in pure wantonness, and +looked east, west, north, and south, for applause, the happiest of the +happy; finally he extracted a mosaic snuff-box from his pocket, and with +an air which nature has denied to all save the French nation, he held a +pinch to the deer's nose—'<i>Prends, mon ami, prends donc!</i>' This +operation had scarcely been performed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> when the hart, who had only been +stunned, or perhaps shot through the loins, sprang up suddenly, +overturned the count, ran fairly away, and was never seen again. +'<i>Arrêtes, toi traître! Arrêtes, mon enfant! Ah! c'est un enfant, perdu! +Allez donc à tous les diables!</i>'"</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Venison Fat.—Reynolds and the Gourmand.</span></h4> + +<p>Northcote<a name="FNanchor_258_258" id="FNanchor_258_258"></a><a href="#Footnote_258_258" class="fnanchor">[258]</a> says—"I have heard Sir Joshua Reynolds relate an +anecdote of a venison feast, at which were assembled many who much +enjoyed the repast.</p> + +<p>"On this occasion, Reynolds addressed his conversation to one of the +company who sat next to him, but to his great surprise could not get a +single word in answer, until at length his silent neighbour, turning to +him, said, 'Mr Reynolds, whenever you are at a venison feast, I advise +you not to speak during dinner-time, as in endeavouring to answer your +questions, I have just swallowed a fine piece of the fat, entire, +without tasting its flavour.'"</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Stag-trench at Frankfort-on-the-Maine.</span></h4> + +<p>Goethe was born at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, August 28th, 1749. In his +autobiography<a name="FNanchor_259_259" id="FNanchor_259_259"></a><a href="#Footnote_259_259" class="fnanchor">[259]</a> he says—"The street in which our house was situated +passed by the name of the Stag-trench; but as neither stags nor trenches +were to be seen, we naturally wished to have the expression explained. +They told us that our house stood on a spot that was once<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> outside the +town, and that where the street now ran had formerly been a trench in +which a number of stags were kept. The stags were preserved and fatted +here, because the Senate every year, according to an ancient custom, +feasted publicly on a stag which was always at hand in the trench for +such a festival, in case princes or knights interfered with the city's +right of chase outside, or the walls were encompassed and besieged by an +enemy. This pleased us, and we wished that such a lair for tame wild +animals could have been seen in our times. Where is there a boy or girl +who could not join in the wish of this man, who has been called the +first European poet and literary man of the nineteenth century?"</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Giraffe.</span></h4> + +<p>"Fancy," said Sydney Smith to some ladies, when he was told that one of +the giraffes at the Zoological Gardens had caught a cold,—"fancy a +giraffe with two yards of sore throat."</p> + +<p>In one of the numbers of <i>Punch</i>, published in 1864, the quiz of an +artist has made the giraffes twist their necks into a loose knot by way +of a comforter to keep them from catching a cold, or having a sore +throat. He has very audaciously caused to be printed under his cut, "<span class="smcap">A +Fact</span>."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="SHEEP_AND_GOATS" id="SHEEP_AND_GOATS"></a>SHEEP AND GOATS.</h2> + + +<p>These are animals, at least the former, which seem to have been created +in a domestic state. They are repre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span>sented on the most ancient +monuments. A head of a Lybian ram of very large size, in the British +Museum, has great resemblance to nature, and there is one slab at least +among the Assyrian monuments where sheep and goats, as part of the spoil +of a city, are rendered with great skill. In the writings of the Ettrick +Shepherd, many curious anecdotes of Scottish sheep are given.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">How many Legs has a Sheep?</span></h4> + +<p>When the Earl of Bradford was brought before the Lord Chancellor to be +examined upon application for a statute of lunacy against him, the +Chancellor asked him, "How many legs has a sheep?"—"Does your lordship +mean," answered Lord Bradford, "a live sheep or a dead sheep?"—"Is it +not the same thing?" said the Chancellor.—"No, my lord," said Lord +Bradford, "there is much difference: a live sheep may have four legs, a +dead sheep has only two; the two fore-legs are shoulders; there are only +<i>two legs of mutton</i>."<a name="FNanchor_260_260" id="FNanchor_260_260"></a><a href="#Footnote_260_260" class="fnanchor">[260]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Goethe on Roos's Etchings of Sheep.</span></h4> + +<p>In the "Conversations of Goethe with Eckerman and Soret"<a name="FNanchor_261_261" id="FNanchor_261_261"></a><a href="#Footnote_261_261" class="fnanchor">[261]</a> in 1824, +he handed me some etchings by Roos, the famous painter of animals; they +were all of sheep, in every posture and position. The simplicity of +their countenances, the ugliness and shagginess of the fleece—all was +represented with the utmost fidelity, as if it were nature itself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I always feel uneasy," said Goethe, "when I look at these beasts. Their +state—so limited, dull, gaping, and dreaming—excites in me such +sympathy, that I fear I shall become a sheep, and almost think the +artist must have been one. At all events, it is most wonderful how Roos +has been able to think and feel himself into the very soul of these +creatures, so as to make the internal character peer with such force +through the outward covering. Here you see what a great talent can do +when it keeps steady to subjects which are congenial with its nature."</p> + +<p>"Has not, then," said I, "this artist also painted dogs, cats, and +beasts of prey with similar truth; nay, with this great gift of assuming +a mental state foreign to himself, has he not been able to delineate +human character with equal fidelity?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Goethe; "all that lay out of his sphere, but the gentle, +grass-eating animals—sheep, goats, cows, and the like—he was never +weary of repeating; this was the peculiar province of his talent, which +he did not quit during the whole course of his life. And in this he did +well. A sympathy with these animals was born with him, a knowledge of +their psychological condition was given him, and thus he had so fine an +eye for their bodily structure. Other creatures were perhaps not so +transparent to him, and therefore he felt neither calling nor impulse to +paint them."<a name="FNanchor_262_262" id="FNanchor_262_262"></a><a href="#Footnote_262_262" class="fnanchor">[262]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Lord Cockburn and the Sheep.</span></h4> + +<p>Lord Cockburn, the proprietor of Bonaly, that pretty place on the slopes +of the Pentlands, was sitting on the hill-side with the shepherd, and, +observing the sheep reposing in the coldest situation, he observed to +him, "John, if I were a sheep, I would lie on the other side of the +hill." The shepherd answered, "Ay, my lord, but if ye had been a +<i>sheep</i>, ye would hae had mair sense."<a name="FNanchor_263_263" id="FNanchor_263_263"></a><a href="#Footnote_263_263" class="fnanchor">[263]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Woolsack.</span></h4> + +<p>Colman and Banister, dining one day with Lord Erskine, the +ex-chancellor, amongst other things, observed that he had then about +three thousand head of sheep. "I perceive," interrupted Colman, "your +lordship has still an eye to the woolsack."<a name="FNanchor_264_264" id="FNanchor_264_264"></a><a href="#Footnote_264_264" class="fnanchor">[264]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Sandy Wood and his Pets, a Sheep and a Raven.</span></h4> + +<p>Alexander Wood, a kind-hearted surgeon, who died in his native town of +Edinburgh in May 1807, aged eighty-two, is alluded to by Sir Walter +Scott in a prophecy put into the mouth of Meg Merrilees in "Guy +Mannering"—"They shall beset his goat; they shall profane his raven," +&c.</p> + +<p>The editor of "Kaye's Edinburgh Portraits"<a name="FNanchor_265_265" id="FNanchor_265_265"></a><a href="#Footnote_265_265" class="fnanchor">[265]</a> says that,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> besides his +kindness of disposition to his fellow-creatures, "he was almost equally +remarkable for his love of animals. His pets were numerous, and of all +kinds. Not to mention dogs and cats, there were two others that +<i>individually</i> were better known to the citizens of Edinburgh—a sheep +and a raven, the latter of which is alluded to by Scott in 'Guy +Mannering.' Willy, the sheep, pastured in the ground adjoining to the +Excise Office, now the Royal Bank, and might be daily seen standing at +the railings, watching Mr Wood's passing to or from his house in York +Place, when Willy used to poke his head into his coat-pocket, which was +always filled with supplies for his favourite, and would then trot along +after him through the town, and sometimes might be found in the houses +of the doctor's patients. The raven was domesticated at an ale and +porter shop in North Castle Street, which is still, or very lately was, +marked by a tree growing from the area against the wall. It also kept +upon the watch for Mr Wood, and would recognise him even as he passed at +some distance along George Street, and, taking a low flight towards him, +was frequently his companion during some part of his forenoon walks; for +Mr Wood never entered his carriage when he could possibly avoid it, +declaring that unless a vehicle could be found that would carry him down +the closes and up the turnpike stairs, they produced nothing but trouble +and inconvenience."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">General Carnac and his She-goat.</span></h4> + +<p>It is pleasant to see, and not rare to find in men of warlike habits, a +love for animals. The goat or deer that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> used often to march before a +regiment with the band as they proceeded to a review in Bruntsfield +Links, when the writer and his friends were boys, about 1826 to 1832, he +well remembers. Nor is Edinburgh garrison singular.</p> + +<p>General Carnac, in 1770, communicated to Dr William Hunter some +observations on the keenness of smell and its exquisite sensibility. He +says—"I have frequently observed of tame deer, to whom bread is often +given, and which they are in general fond of, that if you present them a +piece that has been bitten, they will not touch it. I have made the same +observation of a remarkably fine she-goat, which accompanied me in most +of my campaigns in India, and supplied me with milk, and which, in +gratitude for her services, I brought from abroad with me."<a name="FNanchor_266_266" id="FNanchor_266_266"></a><a href="#Footnote_266_266" class="fnanchor">[266]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">John Hunter and the Shawl-Goat.</span></h4> + +<h4><span class="smcap">hunter's method of introducing strange animals peacefully to others in +his menagerie.</span></h4> + +<p>It is pleasant to meet with a notice of the pursuits of the great +anatomist, John Hunter, in a rather out-of-the-way book.<a name="FNanchor_267_267" id="FNanchor_267_267"></a><a href="#Footnote_267_267" class="fnanchor">[267]</a> The +ingenious way in which he introduced strange animals into his menagerie +is worthy of notice.</p> + +<p>"The variety of birds and beasts to be met with at Earl's Court (the +villa of the celebrated and much-lamented Mr John Hunter) is matter of +great entertainment. In the same ground you are surprised to find so +many living<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> animals in one herd, from the most opposite parts of the +habitable globe. Buffaloes, rams, and sheep from Turkey, and a +shawl-goat from the East Indies, are among the most remarkable of those +that meet the eye; and as they feed together in the greatest harmony, it +is natural to inquire, what means are taken to make them so familiar, +and well acquainted with each other. Mr Hunter told me, that when he has +a stranger to introduce, he does it by ordering the whole herd to be +taken to a strange place, either a field, an empty stable, or any other +large out-house, with which they are all alike unaccustomed. The +strangeness of the place so totally engages their attention, as to +prevent them from running at, and fighting with, the new-comer, as they +most probably would do in their own fields (in regard to which they +entertain very high notions of their exclusive right of property), and +here they are confined for some hours, till they appear reconciled to +the stranger, who is then turned out with his new friends, and is +generally afterwards well-treated. The shawl-goat was not, however, so +easily reconciled to his future companions; he attacked them, instead of +waiting to be attacked; fought several battles, and at present appears +master of the field.</p> + +<p>"It is from the <i>down</i> that grows under the coarse hair of this species +of goat, that the fine India shawls are manufactured.<a name="FNanchor_268_268" id="FNanchor_268_268"></a><a href="#Footnote_268_268" class="fnanchor">[268]</a> This +beautiful as well as useful animal was brought over only last June from +Bombay, in the <i>Duke of Montrose</i> Indiaman, Captain Dorin. The female, +unfortunately, died. It was very obligingly presented by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> directors +to Sir John Sinclair, the President of the British Wool Society. It is +proposed, under Mr Hunter's care, to try some experiment with it in +England, by crossing it with other breeds of the goat species, before it +is sent to the north."</p> + +<p>As anything that met with Mr Hunter's approval must have been a +judicious arrangement, I may quote from the same source the passage +about the buildings for his cattle at Earl's Court.</p> + +<p>"Mr Hunter has built his stables half under ground; also vaults, in +which he keeps his cows, buffaloes, and hogs. Such buildings, more +especially the arched byres, or cow-houses, retain a more equal +temperature at all times, in regard both to heat and cold, and +consequently are cooler in summer and warmer in winter; and in +situations where ground is so valuable as in the neighbourhood of +London, are an excellent contrivance. Mr Hunter has his hay-yard over +his buffaloes' stables. The expense of vaulting does not exceed that of +building and roofing common cow-houses; and the vaults have this +essential advantage or preference, that they require no repairs." He +then gives an account of some buffaloes which Mr Hunter had trained to +work in a cart, and which became so steady and tractable, that they were +often driven through London streets in the loaded cart, much, no doubt, +to the astonishment of passers-by. With a glimpse of a very beautiful +little cow at Earl's Court, from a buffalo and an Alderney, which was +always plump and fat, and gave very good milk, we must take leave of +John Hunter's menagerie.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Commodore Keppel "beards" the Dey of Algiers.—A Goat.</span></h4> + +<p>Sir Joshua Reynolds, when twenty-five, sailed to the Mediterranean in +1749 with the Hon. Augustus Keppel, then a captain in the navy, and +afterwards Viscount Keppel. In 1750, Commodore Keppel returned to +Algiers to remonstrate with the dey on the renewed depredations of the +Corsairs. The dey, surprised at his boldness, for he anchored close to +the palace, and attended by his captain and a barge's crew, went boldly +into the presence of the Algerine monarch to demand satisfaction, +exclaimed, that he wondered at the insolence of the King of Great +Britain sending him a beardless boy.</p> + +<p>Keppel was only twenty-four, but he is said to have answered, "that had +his Majesty, the King of Great Britain, estimated the degree of wisdom +by the length of the beard, he would have sent him <i>a goat</i> as an +ambassador." Northcote is in doubt of the truth of this speech having +been made, but says, that it is certain Keppel answered with great +boldness.<a name="FNanchor_269_269" id="FNanchor_269_269"></a><a href="#Footnote_269_269" class="fnanchor">[269]</a> The tyrant is said to have actually ordered his mutes to +advance with the bow-string, telling the commodore that his life should +answer for his audacity. Keppel quietly pointed out to the dey the +squadron at anchor, and told him, that if it was his pleasure to put him +to death, there were Englishmen enough on board to make a funeral pile +of his capital. The dey cooled a little, allowed the commodore to +depart, and made satisfaction for the damage done, and promised to +abstain from violence in future.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CALVES_AND_KINE" id="CALVES_AND_KINE"></a>CALVES AND KINE.</h2> + + +<p>The little anecdote of Gilpin and the three cows illustrates one elegant +use of the subjects of the following paragraphs. What home landscape +like that painted by Alfred Tennyson would be perfect without its cows? +Many anecdotes of them could be collected. The Irish are celebrated for +their "bulls," one of them is not the worse for having "Bulls" for its +subject. Patrick was telling, so the story goes, that there were four +"Bull Inns" in a certain English town. "There are but three," said a +native of the place, who knew them well; "the Black Bull, the White +Bull, and the Red Bull,—where is the fourth?"—"Sure and do you not +know, the Dun Cow—the best of them all?" replied the unconscious +Milesian.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">A Great Calf.</span></h4> + +<p>Sir William B——, being at a parish meeting, made some proposals, which +were objected to by a farmer. Highly enraged, "Sir," says he to the +farmer, "do you know, sir, that I have been at the two universities, and +at two colleges in each university?"—"Well, sir," said the farmer, +"what of that? I had a calf that sucked two cows, and the observation I +made was, the more he sucked, the greater <i>calf</i> he grew."<a name="FNanchor_270_270" id="FNanchor_270_270"></a><a href="#Footnote_270_270" class="fnanchor">[270]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Rather too much of a Good Thing.—Veal</span> <i>ad nauseam</i>.</h4> + +<p>At the table of Lord Polkemmet, when the covers were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> removed, the +dinner was seen to consist of veal broth, a roast fillet of veal, veal +cutlets, a florentine (an excellent Scotch dish, composed of veal), a +calf's head, calf's foot jelly. The worthy judge observing an expression +of surprise among his guests, who, even in Shetland in early spring +would have had the veal varied with fish, broke out in explanation, "Ou, +ay, it's a cauf! when we kill a beast, we just eat up one side, and down +the tither."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Boswell, the friend and biographer of Johnson, when a young man, went to +the pit of Covent Garden Theatre, in company with Dr Blair, and in a +frolic imitated the lowing of a cow; and the universal cry in the +gallery was, "Encore the cow! encore the cow!" This was complied with, +and in the pride of success, Boswell attempted to imitate some other +animals, but with less success. Dr Blair, anxious for the fame of his +friend, addressed him thus, "My dear sir, I would confine myself to <i>the +cow</i>."<a name="FNanchor_271_271" id="FNanchor_271_271"></a><a href="#Footnote_271_271" class="fnanchor">[271]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Adam Clarke and his Bullock Pat.</span></h4> + +<p>The Rev. Adam Clarke, LL.D., after one of his evangelical visits to +Ireland, returned to his home at Millbrook. In writing to his sons he +says—"Not only your mother, sisters, and brother, were glad to see me, +but also my poor animals in the field, for I lost no time in going to +visit them. I found the donkey lame, and her son looking much like a +philosopher; it was strange that even the <i>bullock</i>, whom we call <i>Pat</i>, +came to me in the field, and held out his most honest face for me to +stroke it. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> next time I went to him he came running up, and actually +placed his two fore-feet upon my shoulders, with all the affection of a +spaniel; but it was a load of kindness I could ill bear, for the animal +is nearly three years old; I soon got his feet displaced; strange and +uncouth as this manifestation of affectionate gratitude was, yet with it +the master and his <i>steer Pat</i> were equally well pleased; so here is a +literal comment on 'The ox knoweth his owner;' and you see I am in +league with even the beasts of the field."<a name="FNanchor_272_272" id="FNanchor_272_272"></a><a href="#Footnote_272_272" class="fnanchor">[272]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Samuel Foote and the Cows Pulling the Bell of Worcester College Chapel.</span></h4> + +<p>Samuel Foote was a student at Worcester College, Oxford, and when there +he practised many tricks, and soon found out what was ridiculous in any +man's character.</p> + +<p>His biographer<a name="FNanchor_273_273" id="FNanchor_273_273"></a><a href="#Footnote_273_273" class="fnanchor">[273]</a> records one of these tricks which he played off on +Dr Gower, the provost of the college. "The church belonging to the +college fronted the side of a lane where cattle were sometimes turned +out to graze during the night, and from the steeple hung the bell rope, +very low in the middle of the outside porch. Foote saw in this an object +likely to produce some fun, and immediately set about to accomplish his +purpose. He accordingly one night slyly tied a wisp of hay to the rope, +as a bait for the cows in their peregrination to the grazing ground. +The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> scheme succeeded to his wish. One of the cows soon after smelling +the hay as she passed by the church door, instantly seized on it, and, +by tugging at the rope, made the bell ring, to the astonishment of the +sexton and the whole parish.</p> + +<p>"This happened several nights successively, and the incident gave rise +to various reports, such as not only that the church was haunted by evil +spirits, but that several spectres were seen walking about the +churchyard in all those hideous and frightful shapes which fear, +ignorance, and fancy usually suggest on such occasions.</p> + +<p>"An event of this kind, however, was to be explored, for the honour of +philosophy, as well as for the quiet of the parish. Accordingly the +doctor and the sexton agreed to sit up one night, and on the first alarm +to run out and drag the culprit to condign punishment. Their plan being +arranged, they waited with the utmost impatience for the appointed +signal; at last the bell began to sound its usual alarm, and they both +sallied out in the dark, determined on making a discovery. The sexton +was the first in the attack. He seized the cow by the tail, and cried +out, 'It was a gentleman commoner, as he had him by the tail of his +gown;' while the doctor, who had caught the cow by the horns at the same +time, immediately replied, 'No, no, you blockhead, 'tis the postman, and +here I have hold of the rascal by his blowing-horn.' Lights, however, +were immediately brought, when the character of the real offender was +discovered, and the laugh of the whole town was turned upon the +doctor."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The General's Cow.</span></h4> + +<p>At Plymouth there is, or was, a small green opposite the Government +House, over which no one was permitted to pass. Not a creature was +allowed to approach save the general's cow. One day old Lady D—— +having called at the general's, in order to make a short cut, bent her +steps across the lawn, when she was arrested by the sentry calling out +and desiring her to return. "But," said Lady D——, with a stately air, +"do you know who I am?"—"I don't know who you be, ma'am," replied the +immovable sentry, "but I knows you b'aint—you b'aint the <i>general's +cow</i>." So Lady D—— wisely gave up the argument and went the other +way.<a name="FNanchor_274_274" id="FNanchor_274_274"></a><a href="#Footnote_274_274" class="fnanchor">[274]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Gilpin's Love of the Picturesque carried out.—A Reason for keeping +Three Cows.</span></h4> + +<p>Lord Sidmouth told the Rev. C. Smith Bird that he was partly educated at +Cheam, by Mr Gilpin, the author of many volumes on "Picturesque +Scenery." He was but a poor scholar, but seems to have been loved by his +pupils. He <i>carried out</i> his regard for the picturesque, as would appear +by the following anecdote<a name="FNanchor_275_275" id="FNanchor_275_275"></a><a href="#Footnote_275_275" class="fnanchor">[275]</a>—</p> + +<p>"In visiting the Rev. Mr Gilpin at his house in the New Forest on one +occasion, his lordship observed three cows feeding in a small paddock, +which he knew to be all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> that Mr Gilpin had to feed them in. He asked Mr +Gilpin how he came to have so many cows when he had so little land? 'The +truth is,' said he, 'I found one cow would not do—she went +dry.'—'Well,' said Lord Sidmouth, 'but why not be content with another? +Two, by good management, might be made to supply you constantly with +milk.'—'Oh, yes,' said the old gentleman, '<i>but two would not group</i>.'"</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">King James on a Cow getting over the Border.</span></h4> + +<p>In the "Life of Bernard Gilpin," his biographer refers to the +inhabitants of the Borders being such great adepts in the art of +thieving, that they could twist a cow's horn, or mark a horse, so as its +owners could not know it, and so subtle that no vigilance could watch +against them. A person telling King James a surprising story of a cow +that had been driven from the north of Scotland into the south of +England, and escaping from the herd had found her way home; "The most +surprising part of the story," the king replied, "you lay least stress +on—that she passed unstolen through the debateable land."<a name="FNanchor_276_276" id="FNanchor_276_276"></a><a href="#Footnote_276_276" class="fnanchor">[276]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Duke of Montague and his Hospital for old Cows and Horses.</span></h4> + +<p>The Rev. Joseph Spence<a name="FNanchor_277_277" id="FNanchor_277_277"></a><a href="#Footnote_277_277" class="fnanchor">[277]</a> records that "the Duke of Montague has an +hospital for old cows and horses; none<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> of his tenants near Boughton +dare kill a broken-winded horse; they must bring them all to the +<i>reservoir</i>. The duke keeps a lap-dog, the ugliest creature he could +meet with; he is always fond of the most hideous, and says he was at +first kind to them, because nobody else would be."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Philip IV. of Spain in the Bull-ring.</span></h4> + +<p>This king, whose form and features are so well known from the pictures +of Velasquez, was entertained magnificently by his great favourite +Olivares, in 1631. At this festival, which was in honour of the birthday +of the heir apparent, the sports of ancient Rome were renewed in the +bull-ring of Spain. In his life by Mr Stirling,<a name="FNanchor_278_278" id="FNanchor_278_278"></a><a href="#Footnote_278_278" class="fnanchor">[278]</a> it is recorded that +"a lion, a tiger, a bear, a camel—in fact, a specimen of every +procurable wild animal, or, as Quevedo expressed it in a poetical +account of the spectacle, 'the whole ark of Noah, and all the fables of +Æsop,' were turned loose into the spacious Plaza del Parque, to fight +for the mastery of the arena. To the great delight of his Castilian +countrymen, a bull of Xarama vanquished all his antagonists. The 'bull +of Marathon, which ravaged the country of Tetrapolis,' says the +historian of the day, 'was not more valiant; nor did Theseus, who slew +and sacrificed him, gain greater glory than did our most potent +sovereign. Unwilling that a beast which had behaved so bravely should go +unrewarded, his majesty determined to do him the greatest favour that +the animal himself could have possibly desired, had he been gifted with +reason—to wit, to slay him with his own royal hand! Calling for his +fowl<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>ing-piece, he brought it instantly to his shoulder, and the flash +and report were scarcely seen and heard ere the mighty monster lay a +bleeding corpse before the transported lieges. Yet not a moment,' +continues the chronicler, 'did his majesty lose his wonted serenity, his +composure of countenance, and becoming gravity of aspect; and but for +the presence of so great a concourse of witnesses, it was difficult to +believe that he had really fired the noble and successful shot.'"</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Sydney Smith and his Cattle.—His "Universal Scratcher."</span></h4> + +<p>The Rev. Sydney Smith, when at Foston, used to call for his hat and +stick immediately after dinner, and sallied forth for his evening +stroll. His daughter,<a name="FNanchor_279_279" id="FNanchor_279_279"></a><a href="#Footnote_279_279" class="fnanchor">[279]</a> who often accompanied him, remarks—"Each cow +and calf, and horse and pig, were in turn visited, and fed, and patted, +and all seemed to welcome him; he cared for their comforts as he cared +for the comforts of every living being around him. He used to say, 'I am +all for cheap luxuries, even for animals; now all animals have a passion +for scratching their back bones. They break down your gates and palings +to effect this. Look! there is my universal scratcher, a sharp-edged +pole, resting on a high and a low post, adapted to every height, from a +horse to a lamb. Even the Edinburgh Reviewer can take his turn. You have +no idea how popular it is. I have not had a gate broken since I put it +up. I have it in all my fields.'"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Rev. Augustus Toplady on the Future State of Animals.</span></h4> + +<p>The Rev. Josiah Bull, in the "Memorials of the Rev. William Bull of +Newport, Pagnel,"<a name="FNanchor_280_280" id="FNanchor_280_280"></a><a href="#Footnote_280_280" class="fnanchor">[280]</a> the friend of Cowper, the poet, and the Rev. John +Newton, tells the following anecdote, in which a favourite theory of the +author of that exquisite hymn, "Rock of Ages Cleft for Me," is alluded +to, and somewhat comically illustrated by the author of the "Olney +Hymns:"—</p> + +<p>"Mr Newton had been dining with Mr Bull, and they were quietly sitting +together, following after 'the things whereby they might edify one +another,' and that search aided by 'interposing puffs' of the fragrant +weed. It was in that old study I so well remember, ere it was renovated +to meet the demands of modern taste. A room some eighteen feet square, +with an arched roof, entirely surrounded with many a precious volume, +with large, old casement windows, and immense square chairs of fine +Spanish mahogany. There these good men were quietly enjoying their +<i>tête-à-tête</i>, when they were startled by a thundering knock at the +door; and in came Mr Ryland of Northampton, abruptly exclaiming, 'If you +wish to see Mr Toplady, you must go immediately with me to the "Swan." +He is on his way to London, and will not live long.' They all proceeded +to the inn, and there found the good man, emaciated with disease, and +evidently fast hastening to the grave. As they were talking together, +they were attracted by a great noise in the street, occasioned, as they +found<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> on looking out, by a bull-baiting which was going on before the +house. Mr Toplady was touched by the cruelty of the scene, and +exclaimed, 'Who could bear to see that sight, if there were not to be +some compensation for these poor suffering animals in a future +state?'—'I certainly hope,' said my grandfather, 'that all the bulls +will go to heaven; but do you think this will be the case with all the +animal creation?'—'Yes, certainly,' replied Mr Toplady, with great +emphasis, 'all, all!'—'What!' rejoined Mr Newton, with some sarcasm in +his tone, 'do you suppose, sir, there will be fleas in heaven? for I +have a special aversion to them.' Mr Toplady said nothing, but was +evidently hurt; and as they separated, Mr Newton said, 'How happy he +should be to see him at Olney, if God spared his life, and he were to +come that way again.' The reply Mr Toplady made was not very courteous; +but the good man was perhaps suffering from the irritation of disease, +and possibly annoyed by the ridicule cast upon a favourite theory."</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Right Honourable William Windham, M.P., on the Feelings of a Baited +Bull.</span></h4> + +<p>That great parliamentary orator, the Right Honourable William Windham, +lived before the days when humanity to animals was deemed a fit subject +for legislation.</p> + +<p>In his speech against "the bill for preventing the practice of +bull-baiting" (April 18, 1800),<a name="FNanchor_281_281" id="FNanchor_281_281"></a><a href="#Footnote_281_281" class="fnanchor">[281]</a> he refers to the introduction of +such a measure as follows—"In turning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> from the great interests of this +country, and of Europe, to discuss with equal solemnity such measures as +that which is now before us, the House appears to me to resemble Mr +Smirk, the auctioneer, in the play, who could hold forth just as +eloquently upon a ribbon as upon a Raphael." He speaks of bull-baiting +as being, "it must be confessed, at the expense of an animal which is +not by any means a party to the amusement; but then," he adds, "it +serves to cultivate the qualities of a certain species of dogs, which +affords as much pleasure to their owners as greyhounds do to others. It +is no small recommendation to bull-dogs that they are so much in repute +with the populace." In a second speech, May 24, 1802, he said that he +believed "the bull felt a satisfaction in the contest, not less so than +the hound did when he heard the sound of the horn that summoned him to +the chase. True it was that young bulls, or those which were never +baited before, showed reluctance to be tied to the stake; but those +bulls which, according to the language of the sport, were called <i>game +bulls</i>, who were used to baiting, approached the stake, and stood there +while preparing for the contest, with the utmost composure. If the bull +felt no pleasure, and was cruelly dealt with, surely the dogs had also +some claim to compassion; but the fact was that both seemed equally +arduous in the conflict; and the bull, like every other animal, while it +had the better side, did not dislike his situation—it would be +ridiculous to say he felt no pain—yet, when on such occasions he +exhibited no signs of terror, it was a demonstrable proof that he felt +some pleasure."</p> + +<p>The "sober loyal men" of Stamford, it would seem, had petitioned for the +continuance of their annual sport, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> had been continued for a +period of five or six hundred years, and who were displeased with their +landlord, the Marquis of Exeter, for his endeavours to put down their +cruel sport. Windham refers to "the antiquity of the thing being +deserving of respect, for respect for antiquity was the best +preservation of the Church and State!!"</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="WHALES" id="WHALES"></a>WHALES.</h2> + + +<p>Last and greatest of the mammalia are the whales. The adventures of +hardy seamen, like Scoresby, in the pursuit of the Greenland whale, or +Beale in the more dangerous chase of the spermaceti, in southern waters, +form the subjects of more than one readable volume. But here we give no +such extracts, but content ourselves with four short skits, having the +cetacea for their subject.</p> + +<p>In these days of zoological gardens, they have succeeded in bringing one +of the smallest of the order, a porpoise, to the Zoological Gardens. His +speedy dissolution showed that even the bath of a hippopotamus or an +elephant was too limited for the dwelling of this pre-eminently marine +creature. But he had begun to show an intelligence, they say, which, +independently of all zoological and anatomical considerations, showed +that he had nothing in common with a fish, but a somewhat similar form, +and an equal necessity for abundance of the pure liquid element.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Whalebone.</span></h4> + +<p>A thin old man, with a rag-bag in his hand, was picking up a number of +small pieces of whalebone, which lay on the street. The deposit was of +such a singular nature, that we asked the quaint-looking gatherer how he +supposed they came there? "Don't know," he replied, in a squeaking +voice; "but I s'pect some unfortunate female was <i>wrecked</i> hereabout +somewhere."<a name="FNanchor_282_282" id="FNanchor_282_282"></a><a href="#Footnote_282_282" class="fnanchor">[282]</a></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A Scotch lady, who was discomposed by the introduction of gas, asked +with much earnestness, "What's to become o' the <i>puir whales</i>?' deeming +their interests materially affected by this superseding of their +oil."<a name="FNanchor_283_283" id="FNanchor_283_283"></a><a href="#Footnote_283_283" class="fnanchor">[283]</a></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Very like a Whale.</span></h4> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The first of all the royal infant males</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Should take the title of the Prince of <i>Wales</i>:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Because, 'tis clear to seamen and to lubber,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Babies and <i>whales</i> are both inclined to <i>blubber</i>.<a name="FNanchor_284_284" id="FNanchor_284_284"></a><a href="#Footnote_284_284" class="fnanchor">[284]</a></span><br /> +</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Christopher North on the Whale.</span></h4> + +<p><i>Tickler.</i> What fish, James, would you incline to be, if put into +scales?</p> + +<p><i>Shepherd.</i> A dolphin: for they hae the speed o' lichtnin. They'll dart +past and roun' about a ship in full sail before the wind, just as if she +was at anchor. Then the dolphin is a fish o' peace,—he saved the life +o' a poet of auld, Arion, wi' his harp,—and oh! they say the cretur's +beautifu' in death. Byron, ye ken, comparin' his hues to those o' the +sun settin' ahint the Grecian isles. I sud like to be a dolphin.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span></p><hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><i>Shepherd.</i> Let me see—I sud hae nae great objections to be a whale in +the Polar Seas. Gran' fun to fling a boatfu' o' harpooners into the +air—or, wi' ae thud o' your tail, to drive in the stern posts o' a +Greenlandman.</p> + +<p><i>Tickler.</i> Grander fun still, James, to feel the inextricable harpoon in +your blubber, and to go snoving away beneath an ice-floe with four miles +of line connecting you with your distant enemies.</p> + +<p><i>Shepherd.</i> But, then, whales marry but ae wife, and are passionately +attached to their offspring. There they and I are congenial speerits. +Nae fish that swims enjoys so large a share of domestic happiness.</p> + +<p><i>Tickler.</i> A whale, James, is not a fish.</p> + +<p><i>Shepherd.</i> Isna he? Let him alane for that. He's ca'd a fish in the +Bible, and that's better authority than Buffon. Oh that I were a +whale!<a name="FNanchor_285_285" id="FNanchor_285_285"></a><a href="#Footnote_285_285" class="fnanchor">[285]</a></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>With these sentences, we conclude this book, as well as our selections +on the whale. In the Museum at Edinburgh may be seen one of the finest, +if not the most perfect, skeleton of a whale exhibited in this kingdom. +Our young readers there can soon see, by examining it from the gallery, +that the whale is no "fish."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX.</h2> + + +<ul class="none"><li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Addison and Steele on the peculiarities of the natural history collectors, <a href='#Page_5'><b>5</b></a>-<a href='#Page_8'><b>8</b></a></span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Albert's horse at Brussels, <a href='#Page_256'><b>256</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Ammonianus and his ass, <a href='#Page_279'><b>279</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Androcles and the lion, <a href='#Page_167'><b>167</b></a>-<a href='#Page_169'><b>169</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Ant-eater, the great, <a href='#Page_225'><b>225</b></a>-<a href='#Page_229'><b>229</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Arctic fox, <a href='#Page_142'><b>142</b></a>-<a href='#Page_148'><b>148</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Ass, Sydney Smith on sagacity of, <a href='#Page_283'><b>283</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Ass and zebra, <a href='#Page_276'><b>276</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Ass's foal, <a href='#Page_278'><b>278</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Asses with deers' antlers fastened on heads, <a href='#Page_284'><b>284</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">duty free, <a href='#Page_284'><b>284</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Asylum for animals, <a href='#Page_265'><b>265</b></a>, <a href='#Page_266'><b>266</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Austrian general and a bear, <a href='#Page_58'><b>58</b></a>, <a href='#Page_59'><b>59</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Aye-aye, its singular structure and habits, <a href='#Page_36'><b>36</b></a>-<a href='#Page_38'><b>38</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Baboons, Lady Anne Barnard on, <a href='#Page_24'><b>24</b></a>, <a href='#Page_25'><b>25</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Babylon, bas-relief of dog found at, <a href='#Page_86'><b>86</b></a>, <a href='#Page_87'><b>87</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Babyrusa, <a href='#Page_240'><b>240</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Back, Sir George, anecdote of Arctic lemming, <a href='#Page_196'><b>196</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Badger, <a href='#Page_71'><b>71</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">anecdotes of, <a href='#Page_72'><b>72</b></a>-<a href='#Page_75'><b>75</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Baird, origin of name, <a href='#Page_241'><b>241</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Barrentz on white or Polar bear, <a href='#Page_64'><b>64</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Barnard, Lady Anne, pleads for the baboons, <a href='#Page_24'><b>24</b></a>, <a href='#Page_25'><b>25</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">on some rabbits, <a href='#Page_222'><b>222</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bats, fantastic faces of, <a href='#Page_38'><b>38</b></a>, <a href='#Page_39'><b>39</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bearable pun, <a href='#Page_61'><b>61</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bears, <a href='#Page_56'><b>56</b></a>, <a href='#Page_57'><b>57</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">anecdotes of, <a href='#Page_58'><b>58</b></a>-<a href='#Page_70'><b>70</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Beechey, Captain, on Polar bear, <a href='#Page_63'><b>63</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">on the walrus, <a href='#Page_184'><b>184</b></a>-<a href='#Page_186'><b>186</b></a>, <a href='#Page_187'><b>187</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bell, Professor, on cats, <a href='#Page_149'><b>149</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bell, Sir Charles, on the head of a pig, <a href='#Page_239'><b>239</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bell-Rock horse, <a href='#Page_257'><b>257</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bentham, Jeremy, and his pet cat, <a href='#Page_150'><b>150</b></a>-<a href='#Page_152'><b>152</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">and the mice, <a href='#Page_205'><b>205</b></a>, <a href='#Page_206'><b>206</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Berwickshire, names of places in, derived from swine, <a href='#Page_241'><b>241</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bess, a pet hare of the poet Cowper's, <a href='#Page_216'><b>216</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bisset and his trained monkeys, <a href='#Page_25'><b>25</b></a>, <a href='#Page_26'><b>26</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">musical cats, <a href='#Page_152'><b>152</b></a>, <a href='#Page_153'><b>153</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">trained hares and turtle, <a href='#Page_221'><b>221</b></a>, <a href='#Page_222'><b>222</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">learned pig, <a href='#Page_250'><b>250</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Black Dwarf's cat, <a href='#Page_157'><b>157</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Blomfield, Bishop, bitten by a dog, <a href='#Page_88'><b>88</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Boar, wild, <a href='#Page_239'><b>239</b></a>-<a href='#Page_245'><b>245</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Border, cow getting across, <a href='#Page_309'><b>309</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Borneo, the home of the orang, <a href='#Page_11'><b>11</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Boswell imitates the lowing of a cow, <a href='#Page_305'><b>305</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bradford, Earl of, on the number of legs of a sheep, <a href='#Page_296'><b>296</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bristol, Bishop of, comparing Cambridge freshmen to puppies, <a href='#Page_89'><b>89</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Brock, or badger, <a href='#Page_72'><b>72</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Brown, Dr John, "Rab" and "Our Dogs," <a href='#Page_78'><b>78</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Browning, Mrs Elizabeth Barrett, lines on her dog Flush, <a href='#Page_89'><b>89</b></a>-<a href='#Page_93'><b>93</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Browning's, Robert, description of rats, <a href='#Page_199'><b>199</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bull, an Irish, <a href='#Page_304'><b>304</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bull, Rev. Wm., Newton, and Toplady, anecdote of, <a href='#Page_312'><b>312</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bull-baiting at Olney, <a href='#Page_313'><b>313</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Windham on, <a href='#Page_314'><b>314</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bull-ring, Philip IV. in, <a href='#Page_310'><b>310</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bullock and Dr Adam Clarke, <a href='#Page_305'><b>305</b></a>, <a href='#Page_306'><b>306</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Burke, Edmund, question when interrupted, <a href='#Page_149'><b>149</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">anecdote of his humanity, <a href='#Page_257'><b>257</b></a>, <a href='#Page_258'><b>258</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Burns' "Twa Dogs," <a href='#Page_81'><b>81</b></a>, <a href='#Page_82'><b>82</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">the field-mouse, <a href='#Page_206'><b>206</b></a>-<a href='#Page_208'><b>208</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bush-pig, <a href='#Page_148'><b>148</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bussapa, the tiger-slayer, <a href='#Page_162'><b>162</b></a>-<a href='#Page_164'><b>164</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Buxton, Sir Thomas Fowell, Bart., and his dog Speaker, <a href='#Page_93'><b>93</b></a>, <a href='#Page_94'><b>94</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Byron on his dog, <a href='#Page_79'><b>79</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">on Boatswain, a Newfoundland dog, <a href='#Page_94'><b>94</b></a>, <a href='#Page_95'><b>95</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">pets, <a href='#Page_26'><b>26</b></a>, <a href='#Page_27'><b>27</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">bear at Cambridge, <a href='#Page_59'><b>59</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"Calamity," a horse of Sydney Smith's, <a href='#Page_272'><b>272</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Calf, a great, <a href='#Page_304'><b>304</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Calves and kine, <a href='#Page_304'><b>304</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Camel, Captain Wm. Peel on, <a href='#Page_287'><b>287</b></a>-<a href='#Page_289'><b>289</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Campbell, Colonel, account of Bussapa and the tiger, <a href='#Page_162'><b>162</b></a>-<a href='#Page_164'><b>164</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Canova's sculptured lions and the child, <a href='#Page_171'><b>171</b></a>-<a href='#Page_173'><b>173</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Carnac and the she-goat, <a href='#Page_299'><b>299</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Cats, <a href='#Page_149'><b>149</b></a>-<a href='#Page_161'><b>161</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Cat's letter, by Montgomery, <a href='#Page_156'><b>156</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Cattle of Sydney Smith, and their universal scratcher, <a href='#Page_311'><b>311</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Chalmers, Dr, and the guinea-pig, <a href='#Page_223'><b>223</b></a>, <a href='#Page_224'><b>224</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Cheiroptera</i>, the order which contains the bats, <a href='#Page_38'><b>38</b></a>, <a href='#Page_39'><b>39</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Children and horses cannot explain their complaints, <a href='#Page_269'><b>269</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Chimpanzee, Mr Mitchell on the habits of a young one, <a href='#Page_22'><b>22</b></a>-<a href='#Page_42'><b>42</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">China, roasted pups eaten in, <a href='#Page_78'><b>78</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Chiromys Madagascariensis</i>, its habits, <a href='#Page_36'><b>36</b></a>-<a href='#Page_38'><b>38</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Choiropotamus Africanus</i>, <a href='#Page_140'><b>140</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Choiseul, Madame de, and her pet monkey and parrot, <a href='#Page_33'><b>33</b></a>, <a href='#Page_34'><b>34</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Chunie, the elephant, <a href='#Page_230'><b>230</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Clare's dog and Curran, <a href='#Page_98'><b>98</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Clarke, Dr Adam, on Shetland seals, <a href='#Page_175'><b>175</b></a>, <a href='#Page_176'><b>176</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">his bullock Pat, <a href='#Page_305'><b>305</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Clive's, Lord, handwriting misunderstood, <a href='#Page_230'><b>230</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Cockburn, Lord, and the sheep at Bonaly, <a href='#Page_298'><b>298</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Collie at Cultershaw, <a href='#Page_82'><b>82</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Collins, Wm., R.A., and Sir David Wilkie, <a href='#Page_3'><b>3</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">the rat-catcher with the ferret, <a href='#Page_76'><b>76</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">his dog Prinny, <a href='#Page_96'><b>96</b></a>, <a href='#Page_97'><b>97</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">paints Odell's old donkey, <a href='#Page_277'><b>277</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Collins, W. Wilkie, Sir David Wilkie's first remark on him, <a href='#Page_3'><b>3</b></a>, <a href='#Page_4'><b>4</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Constant and his cat, <a href='#Page_153'><b>153</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Cook's sailor, who took a fox-bat for the devil, <a href='#Page_40'><b>40</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Cooke, Major-General, <a href='#Page_189'><b>189</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Coon, a gone, <a href='#Page_71'><b>71</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Couthon and the spaniel, <a href='#Page_195'><b>195</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Cowper's narrative of his pet hares, <a href='#Page_213'><b>213</b></a>-<a href='#Page_219'><b>219</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">dog Beau and the water-lily, <a href='#Page_79'><b>79</b></a>-<a href='#Page_81'><b>81</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Cows, anecdotes of, <a href='#Page_306'><b>306</b></a>-<a href='#Page_311'><b>311</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Cross, Edward, of Exeter Change and Walworth, <a href='#Page_33'><b>33</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Cruelty to horses in Ireland, <a href='#Page_275'><b>275</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Cunningham, Major, on Ladak dog, <a href='#Page_86'><b>86</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Curran on Lord Clare's dog, <a href='#Page_98'><b>98</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Cuvier and the fossil, <a href='#Page_236'><b>236</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Cynocephali</i>, or African baboons, <a href='#Page_9'><b>9</b></a>, <a href='#Page_24'><b>24</b></a>, <a href='#Page_25'><b>25</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Dalhousie, Earl of, and the ferocious red-deer, <a href='#Page_291'><b>291</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Dandie Dinmont educates his terriers, <a href='#Page_122'><b>122</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Davis, Sir George, and the lion, <a href='#Page_170'><b>170</b></a>, <a href='#Page_171'><b>171</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Deer family, <a href='#Page_290'><b>290</b></a>, <a href='#Page_291'><b>291</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">their sensibility of smell, <a href='#Page_300'><b>300</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Dessin Island, rabbits on, blind of one eye, <a href='#Page_222'><b>222</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Dickens on sellers of bears' grease, <a href='#Page_59'><b>59</b></a>, <a href='#Page_60'><b>60</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Dog and the French murderers, <a href='#Page_104'><b>104</b></a>, <a href='#Page_105'><b>105</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Dog-cheap, <a href='#Page_100'><b>100</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Dog-matic, <a href='#Page_113'><b>113</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Dog-rose, <a href='#Page_133'><b>133</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Dogs, <a href='#Page_77'><b>77</b></a>-<a href='#Page_87'><b>87</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Douglas, General, and the rats, <a href='#Page_201'><b>201</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Dragon-fly exhibited at a show, <a href='#Page_61'><b>61</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Dresden, Battle of, General Moreau killed at, <a href='#Page_113'><b>113</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Drew on the instinct of dogs, <a href='#Page_98'><b>98</b></a>-<a href='#Page_100'><b>100</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Dromedary, Capt. Peel on its rate of motion, <a href='#Page_289'><b>289</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Dunbar, Rev. Rowland Hill at, <a href='#Page_261'><b>261</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Durian, an eastern fruit, <a href='#Page_14'><b>14</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Earl's Court, Hunter's menagerie at, <a href='#Page_300'><b>300</b></a>-<a href='#Page_302'><b>302</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Eastern dogs, <a href='#Page_84'><b>84</b></a>, <a href='#Page_85'><b>85</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Echidna aculeata</i>, <a href='#Page_192'><b>192</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Edentata</i>, <a href='#Page_228'><b>228</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Edmonstone, Dr, on Shetland seals, <a href='#Page_176'><b>176</b></a>-<a href='#Page_182'><b>182</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Eglintoun, Countess of, her fondness for rats, <a href='#Page_200'><b>200</b></a>, <a href='#Page_201'><b>201</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Elephant and his trunk, <a href='#Page_232'><b>232</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">anecdotes of, <a href='#Page_234'><b>234</b></a>-<a href='#Page_236'><b>236</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Epomophorus</i>, a genus of tropical bats alluded to by the poet-laureate, <a href='#Page_39'><b>39</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Erskine's sheep and the woolsack, <a href='#Page_298'><b>298</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Esquimaux dogs, <a href='#Page_78'><b>78</b></a>, <a href='#Page_86'><b>86</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Ettrick Shepherd's monkey, <a href='#Page_27'><b>27</b></a>, <a href='#Page_28'><b>28</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">on fox-hunting, <a href='#Page_139'><b>139</b></a>-<a href='#Page_141'><b>141</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">on whales, <a href='#Page_316'><b>316</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Fabricius on Arctic fox, <a href='#Page_143'><b>143</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Ferret, <a href='#Page_75'><b>75</b></a>, <a href='#Page_76'><b>76</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Field mouse turned up by Robert Burns, <a href='#Page_206'><b>206</b></a>-<a href='#Page_208'><b>208</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Findhorn fisherman and monkey, <a href='#Page_29'><b>29</b></a>, <a href='#Page_30'><b>30</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Flush, lines to her dog, by Mrs Browning, <a href='#Page_89'><b>89</b></a>-<a href='#Page_93'><b>93</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Foote, Samuel, makes cows pull bell at Oxford, <a href='#Page_306'><b>306</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Forster, Dr, on the fox-bats of the Friendly Islands, <a href='#Page_42'><b>42</b></a>, <a href='#Page_43'><b>43</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Fournier on the squirrel, <a href='#Page_196'><b>196</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Fowler the tailor and Gainsborough the artist, <a href='#Page_2'><b>2</b></a>, <a href='#Page_3'><b>3</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Fox, Charles James, on the poll-cat, <a href='#Page_77'><b>77</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Fox, <a href='#Page_138'><b>138</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Fox-hunting, from the "Noctes," <a href='#Page_139'><b>139</b></a>-<a href='#Page_141'><b>141</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Fox-bats, particulars of their history, <a href='#Page_41'><b>41</b></a>-<a href='#Page_47'><b>47</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Frederick the Great and his Italian greyhounds, <a href='#Page_104'><b>104</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">French count at deer-stalking, <a href='#Page_293'><b>293</b></a>, <a href='#Page_294'><b>294</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">dogs, time of Louis XI., <a href='#Page_110'><b>110</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">marquis and his monkey, <a href='#Page_30'><b>30</b></a>, <a href='#Page_31'><b>31</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Fry, Mrs, on Irish pigs, <a href='#Page_252'><b>252</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Fuller, Thomas, on destructive fieldmice, <a href='#Page_208'><b>208</b></a>, <a href='#Page_209'><b>209</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Fuller on Norfolk rabbits, <a href='#Page_223'><b>223</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Fuseli on Northcote's picture of Balaam and the Ass, <a href='#Page_281'><b>281</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Future state of animals, Toplady on, <a href='#Page_312'><b>312</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Gainsborough and Fowler the tailor, <a href='#Page_2'><b>2</b></a>, <a href='#Page_3'><b>3</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">his wife and their dogs, <a href='#Page_100'><b>100</b></a>, <a href='#Page_101'><b>101</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">pigs, countryman on, <a href='#Page_252'><b>252</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">kept an ass, <a href='#Page_277'><b>277</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Garrick and the horse, <a href='#Page_259'><b>259</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Gell, Sir William, his dog, <a href='#Page_101'><b>101</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">General's cow at Plymouth, <a href='#Page_308'><b>308</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">George III. at Winchester, meets Garrick, <a href='#Page_259'><b>259</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">George IV. visited at Windsor by "Happy Jerry," <a href='#Page_32'><b>32</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Gilpin's, Bernard, horses stolen and recovered, <a href='#Page_260'><b>260</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Gilpin's, Rev. Mr, love of the picturesque, <a href='#Page_308'><b>308</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Gimcrack, the widow, her letter to Mr Bickerstaff on her husband's peculiarities, <a href='#Page_6'><b>6</b></a>-<a href='#Page_8'><b>8</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Giraffe, anecdotes of, <a href='#Page_291'><b>291</b></a>-<a href='#Page_295'><b>295</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Glirine</i> animals, <a href='#Page_195'><b>195</b></a>, <a href='#Page_212'><b>212</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Goats, anecdotes of, <a href='#Page_299'><b>299</b></a>, <a href='#Page_300'><b>300</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Goethe on stag-trench at Frankfort, <a href='#Page_294'><b>294</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">on Roos's etchings of sheep, <a href='#Page_296'><b>296</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Good enough for a pig, <a href='#Page_251'><b>251</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Gordon, Duchess of, and the wolf-dog, <a href='#Page_102'><b>102</b></a>, <a href='#Page_103'><b>103</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Gorilla and its story, <a href='#Page_9'><b>9</b></a>-<a href='#Page_22'><b>22</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Graham, Rev. W., on dogs in the East, <a href='#Page_85'><b>85</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Grange, the, near Edinburgh, <a href='#Page_30'><b>30</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Gray compares poet-laureate to a rat-catcher, <a href='#Page_204'><b>204</b></a>, <a href='#Page_205'><b>205</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Gray. Dr, gets large specimen of gorilla, <a href='#Page_17'><b>17</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Greenland seal, <a href='#Page_181'><b>181</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Grotta del Cane, the poor dog at, <a href='#Page_111'><b>111</b></a>, <a href='#Page_112'><b>112</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Guilford, Lord Keeper, and the rhinoceros, <a href='#Page_230'><b>230</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Guinea pig, Dr Chalmers, <a href='#Page_223'><b>223</b></a>, <a href='#Page_224'><b>224</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Gunn, Mr, on tiger-wolf, <a href='#Page_192'><b>192</b></a>, <a href='#Page_193'><b>193</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Haff-fish, the Shetland name for seal, <a href='#Page_179'><b>179</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hairs or hares, <a href='#Page_220'><b>220</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hall, Robert, and the dog, <a href='#Page_106'><b>106</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hamilton, Sir Wm., his definition of man, <a href='#Page_1'><b>1</b></a>, <a href='#Page_2'><b>2</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hanover rats, <a href='#Page_202'><b>202</b></a>, <a href='#Page_203'><b>203</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Happy Jerry, the rib-nosed mandrill, <a href='#Page_31'><b>31</b></a>, <a href='#Page_32'><b>32</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hardwicke's lady, sow, <a href='#Page_253'><b>253</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hares, Mrs Browning on Cowper's, <a href='#Page_212'><b>212</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">petted by Cowper the poet, <a href='#Page_213'><b>213</b></a>-<a href='#Page_219'><b>219</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hastings and the refractory donkey, <a href='#Page_279'><b>279</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Heard, the herald, on the horse of George III., <a href='#Page_261'><b>261</b></a></span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hedgehogs, <a href='#Page_48'><b>48</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hill, Rev. Rowland, prayed for his horse, <a href='#Page_261'><b>261</b></a>, <a href='#Page_262'><b>262</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Holcroft on race-horses, <a href='#Page_263'><b>263</b></a>-<a href='#Page_265'><b>265</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hood's dog Dash, <a href='#Page_110'><b>110</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hook and the litter of pigs, <a href='#Page_253'><b>253</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hooker's sea-bear in Regent's Park, <a href='#Page_175'><b>175</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hospital for old cows and horses, <a href='#Page_309'><b>309</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Horse, <a href='#Page_256'><b>256</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">that carried stones to build Bell-Rock lighthouse, <a href='#Page_257'><b>257</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Horse exercises, a saying of Rowland Hill's, <a href='#Page_263'><b>263</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Horsemanship of Johnson the Irishman, <a href='#Page_257'><b>257</b></a>, <a href='#Page_258'><b>258</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Horsfield, Dr, on the Javanese fox-bat, <a href='#Page_45'><b>45</b></a>, <a href='#Page_46'><b>46</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hunter, John, and the dead tiger, <a href='#Page_165'><b>165</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">his menagerie at Earl's Court, <a href='#Page_300'><b>300</b></a>, <a href='#Page_302'><b>302</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hunters of Polmood, dog that belonged to, <a href='#Page_107'><b>107</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Impey, Warren Hastings, and the ass, <a href='#Page_279'><b>279</b></a>, <a href='#Page_280'><b>280</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">India shawls, <a href='#Page_301'><b>301</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Inglefield, Capt., on the affection of a Polar bear and her two cubs, <a href='#Page_65'><b>65</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Irish clergyman and the dogs, <a href='#Page_108'><b>108</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Irishman on rat-shooting, <a href='#Page_203'><b>203</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Irving, Washington, and the dog, <a href='#Page_108'><b>108</b></a>, <a href='#Page_109'><b>109</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Ivory dust, <a href='#Page_233'><b>233</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Jackal, <a href='#Page_148'><b>148</b></a>, <a href='#Page_149'><b>149</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Jeffrey on a donkey; Sydney Smith's lines on <a href='#Page_281'><b>281</b></a>, <a href='#Page_282'><b>282</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Jekyll treading on a small pig, <a href='#Page_251'><b>251</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">on a squirrel, <a href='#Page_195'><b>195</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Jerrold, Douglas, and his dog, <a href='#Page_109'><b>109</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Kangaroo Cooke, <a href='#Page_189'><b>189</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Kangaroos, Charles Lamb on, <a href='#Page_188'><b>188</b></a>, <a href='#Page_189'><b>189</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Keppel, Commodore, and the Dey of Algiers, <a href='#Page_303'><b>303</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">King James, on a cow getting over the Border, <a href='#Page_309'><b>309</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Laird of Balnamoon and the brock, <a href='#Page_75'><b>75</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Lamb, Charles, and the dog, <a href='#Page_110'><b>110</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">on Kangaroos, <a href='#Page_188'><b>188</b></a>, <a href='#Page_189'><b>189</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">on the hare, <a href='#Page_212'><b>212</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Landseer's "Monkeyana," <a href='#Page_10'><b>10</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">stags, <a href='#Page_293'><b>293</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Lap-dogs before the House of Commons, <a href='#Page_124'><b>124</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Lauder, Sir Thomas Dick, adventures of a monkey in Morayshire, <a href='#Page_29'><b>29</b></a>, <a href='#Page_30'><b>30</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Laurillard, Cuvier's assistant, <a href='#Page_237'><b>237</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Lawyer's horse, <a href='#Page_268'><b>268</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Lemming, and Arctic voyager, <a href='#Page_196'><b>196</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">habits of the Arctic, <a href='#Page_197'><b>197</b></a>, <a href='#Page_198'><b>198</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Leifchild, Dr, at Hoxton, <a href='#Page_127'><b>127</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Leopard, its ferocity when wounded, <a href='#Page_161'><b>161</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Letter from the gorilla, now in British Museum, <a href='#Page_13'><b>13</b></a>-<a href='#Page_17'><b>17</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Lightfoot, name for Sir Edwin Landseer, <a href='#Page_293'><b>293</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Lion and tiger, <a href='#Page_166'><b>166</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Lion, hunts on Assyrian monuments, <a href='#Page_162'><b>162</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Lions on monument of Clement XII., <a href='#Page_171'><b>171</b></a>-<a href='#Page_173'><b>173</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Liston the surgeon and his cat, <a href='#Page_153'><b>153</b></a>, <a href='#Page_154'><b>154</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Livingston, Dr, on paralysing effect of lion's bite, <a href='#Page_162'><b>162</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Luther observes a dog at Lintz, <a href='#Page_111'><b>111</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Lyon, Capt., on Arctic fox, <a href='#Page_144'><b>144</b></a>, <a href='#Page_145'><b>145</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Lytton, Sir Edward Bulwer, on the pets of some of the Revolutionary butchers, <a href='#Page_195'><b>195</b></a>, <a href='#Page_196'><b>196</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Macaulay, Lord, on the last days of King William III., <a href='#Page_50'><b>50</b></a>-<a href='#Page_56'><b>56</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">M'Clintock on Arctic fox, <a href='#Page_144'><b>144</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">M'Dougall on habits of Arctic lemming, <a href='#Page_197'><b>197</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Macgillivray, John, on a fox-bat from Fitzroy Island, <a href='#Page_45'><b>45</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Mackenzie, Mrs Colin, on the habits of the apes at Simla, <a href='#Page_35'><b>35</b></a>, <a href='#Page_36'><b>36</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">on the tiger being worshipped, <a href='#Page_166'><b>166</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Man, Professor Owen on his position, <a href='#Page_1'><b>1</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">definition of, by Linnæus, <a href='#Page_12'><b>12</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">defined in the Linnæan manner, <a href='#Page_4'><b>4</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Mandrill and George IV., <a href='#Page_31'><b>31</b></a>, <a href='#Page_32'><b>32</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Mansfield's, Lord, joke about a horse, <a href='#Page_267'><b>267</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Marat, the citizen, and his doves, <a href='#Page_196'><b>196</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Markham, Mr Clement, on the Polar bear, <a href='#Page_69'><b>69</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Marsupialia</i>, <a href='#Page_188'><b>188</b></a>-<a href='#Page_191'><b>191</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Mastiff and the soldier, <a href='#Page_97'><b>97</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Matthews, Henry, on the Grotta del Cane, <a href='#Page_112'><b>112</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Mayerne, Dr, and his balsam of bats, <a href='#Page_47'><b>47</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Metcalfe, when a boy, on camel, <a href='#Page_290'><b>290</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Miller, Hugh, on badger-baiting in the Canongate, <a href='#Page_72'><b>72</b></a>-<a href='#Page_74'><b>74</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Miscellaneous eating about a pig, <a href='#Page_238'><b>238</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Mitchell, D. W., on the habits of a young chimpanzee, <a href='#Page_22'><b>22</b></a>-<a href='#Page_24'><b>24</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Mitchell's antipathy to cats, <a href='#Page_155'><b>155</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Model dog of the artist Collins, <a href='#Page_96'><b>96</b></a>, <a href='#Page_97'><b>97</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Mole, its habits, <a href='#Page_49'><b>49</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Monkey revered by Hindoos, <a href='#Page_35'><b>35</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Monkeys, <a href='#Page_9'><b>9</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">liable to lung disease in British islands, <a href='#Page_22'><b>22</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Rev. Sydney Smith on, <a href='#Page_34'><b>34</b></a>, <a href='#Page_35'><b>35</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">poor relations, <a href='#Page_34'><b>34</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Montagu, Duke of, and his hospital for old cows, &c., <a href='#Page_309'><b>309</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Montgomery, James, his translation of a definition of man, <a href='#Page_4'><b>4</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">and his cats, <a href='#Page_155'><b>155</b></a>, <a href='#Page_156'><b>156</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Moore, General, and his horse at Corunna, <a href='#Page_268'><b>268</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Moore on Gilpin and Boatswain, two dogs, <a href='#Page_95'><b>95</b></a>, <a href='#Page_96'><b>96</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Moore, Dr John, sketch of a French marquis and his monkey, <a href='#Page_30'><b>30</b></a>, <a href='#Page_31'><b>31</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">More, Hannah, on dog of Garrick's, <a href='#Page_105'><b>105</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Moreau and his greyhound, <a href='#Page_113'><b>113</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Moses, a dog of Mrs Schimmelpenninck's, <a href='#Page_122'><b>122</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Moth larvæ eating at night, <a href='#Page_37'><b>37</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Mounsey, anecdote of, <a href='#Page_269'><b>269</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Mouse that amused Baron von Trenck, <a href='#Page_209'><b>209</b></a>, <a href='#Page_210'><b>210</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Mules should have their own way, <a href='#Page_286'><b>286</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Museum of John Hunter, <a href='#Page_164'><b>164</b></a>, <a href='#Page_165'><b>165</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Musical cats, <a href='#Page_152'><b>152</b></a>, <a href='#Page_153'><b>153</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Musk rat, <a href='#Page_200'><b>200</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Myrmecophaga jubata</i>, <a href='#Page_225'><b>225</b></a>-<a href='#Page_229'><b>229</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Names given to horses, <a href='#Page_270'><b>270</b></a>-<a href='#Page_274'><b>274</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Napier, Charles, and the lion in the Tower, <a href='#Page_173'><b>173</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Natural history collectors of the days of Addison and Steele, <a href='#Page_5'><b>5</b></a>, <a href='#Page_8'><b>8</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Neill, Dr Patrick, <a href='#Page_5'><b>5</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Nelson and the Polar bear, <a href='#Page_67'><b>67</b></a>-<a href='#Page_69'><b>69</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">in Arctic seas, <a href='#Page_186'><b>186</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Newfoundland dog, <a href='#Page_126'><b>126</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">N'Geena, or gorilla, <a href='#Page_18'><b>18</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Nicol, George, the bookseller and hunter, <a href='#Page_165'><b>165</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Norfolk, Duke of, and his spaniels, <a href='#Page_114'><b>114</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">North, Sir Dudley, visits the rhinoceros, <a href='#Page_231'><b>231</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">North, Lord, and the dog, <a href='#Page_115'><b>115</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Northcote's Balaam and the Ass, <a href='#Page_281'><b>281</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Norton, Hon. Mrs, address to a dog, <a href='#Page_83'><b>83</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Odell and his old donkey, <a href='#Page_277'><b>277</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Old Jack, a horse that drew stones for building Waterloo Bridge, <a href='#Page_270'><b>270</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Old lady and the beasts on the mound, <a href='#Page_173'><b>173</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Ommaney, Capt., and the Polar bear, <a href='#Page_70'><b>70</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Opossum, <a href='#Page_190'><b>190</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Ornithorhynchus</i>, the duck-bill, <a href='#Page_192'><b>192</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Owen, Professor, on the gorilla, <a href='#Page_18'><b>18</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">on the aye-aye, <a href='#Page_36'><b>36</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Parasols, how ladies used them at Cross's menagerie, <a href='#Page_33'><b>33</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Parrot and monkey, anecdote of two pets, <a href='#Page_33'><b>33</b></a>, <a href='#Page_34'><b>34</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Parry, Capt., on flesh of Polar bear, <a href='#Page_66'><b>66</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Paton, Sir J. Noel, has studied physiognomies of bats, &c., <a href='#Page_38'><b>38</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Peale, Titian, on a tame fox-bat, <a href='#Page_44'><b>44</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Peccaries of South America, <a href='#Page_240'><b>240</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Peel, Capt. Wm., on camel, <a href='#Page_287'><b>287</b></a>-<a href='#Page_289'><b>289</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Peracyon</i>, <a href='#Page_19'><b>19</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Perchance, a lap-dog, <a href='#Page_96'><b>96</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Perthes derives hints from his dog, <a href='#Page_115'><b>115</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Peter the Great and his dog Lisette, <a href='#Page_161'><b>161</b></a>, <a href='#Page_117'><b>117</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Phascolomys vombatus</i>, <a href='#Page_193'><b>193</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Philip IV. in bull-ring, <a href='#Page_310'><b>310</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Phillips, Sir Richard, eats jelly of ivory dust, <a href='#Page_233'><b>233</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Phoca barbata</i>, <a href='#Page_180'><b>180</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>vitulena</i>, <a href='#Page_177'><b>177</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Pied Piper of Hamelin, extract from, <a href='#Page_199'><b>199</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Pig, monument to, <a href='#Page_239'><b>239</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Pigs and silver spoons, <a href='#Page_254'><b>254</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Plants liked by hares, <a href='#Page_218'><b>218</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Polar bear, its history, <a href='#Page_61'><b>61</b></a>-<a href='#Page_70'><b>70</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Poll-cat, Fox and the, <a href='#Page_77'><b>77</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Polkemmet, Lord, a dinner on veal, <a href='#Page_305'><b>305</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Polson and the last Scottish wolf, <a href='#Page_135'><b>135</b></a>-<a href='#Page_137'><b>137</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Ponsonby and the poodle, <a href='#Page_118'><b>118</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Porpoise in Zoological Gardens, <a href='#Page_315'><b>315</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Pope on dogs, <a href='#Page_95'><b>95</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Porcupine ant-eater, <a href='#Page_192'><b>192</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Postman and carrier dog at Moffat, <a href='#Page_113'><b>113</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Postmen, Capt. Osborn, on Arctic foxes as, <a href='#Page_146'><b>146</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Potamochœrus</i>, <a href='#Page_240'><b>240</b></a>, <a href='#Page_245'><b>245</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Prinny, a pet dog of Collins the artist, <a href='#Page_96'><b>96</b></a>, <a href='#Page_97'><b>97</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Prison mouse, <a href='#Page_209'><b>209</b></a>, <a href='#Page_210'><b>210</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Pteropus conspicillatus</i>, <a href='#Page_44'><b>44</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>medius</i>, <a href='#Page_45'><b>45</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Puss, a pet hare of the poet Cowper's <a href='#Page_214'><b>214</b></a>, <a href='#Page_215'><b>215</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Quadrumana</i>, <a href='#Page_9'><b>9</b></a>-<a href='#Page_38'><b>38</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Queen of Charles I. and the lap-dog <a href='#Page_107'><b>107</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Quixote Bowles fond of pigs, <a href='#Page_251'><b>251</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Rabbits, a family all blind of one eye, <a href='#Page_222'><b>222</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Raccoon, <a href='#Page_71'><b>71</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Race-horses, Holcroft's anecdotes of, <a href='#Page_263'><b>263</b></a>-<a href='#Page_265'><b>265</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Ramsgate donkeys, Irishman on, <a href='#Page_278'><b>278</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Rats and mice, <a href='#Page_198'><b>198</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Rats' whiskers good for artists' brushes, <a href='#Page_204'><b>204</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Ravages of rats, <a href='#Page_203'><b>203</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Raven, pet of Wood the surgeon, <a href='#Page_299'><b>299</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Red-deer at Taymouth, <a href='#Page_291'><b>291</b></a>, <a href='#Page_292'><b>292</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"Relais," a dog belonging to Louis XII., <a href='#Page_111'><b>111</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Revolutionary butchers and their pets, <a href='#Page_195'><b>195</b></a>, <a href='#Page_196'><b>196</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Rhinoceros and elephant, <a href='#Page_229'><b>229</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Richardson, Sir J., on Arctic fox, <a href='#Page_143'><b>143</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">River pig, <a href='#Page_245'><b>245</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Rodent animals, <a href='#Page_195'><b>195</b></a>, <a href='#Page_212'><b>212</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Rodney, Lord, and his dog Loup, <a href='#Page_119'><b>119</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Rogue elephant, skull of one, <a href='#Page_230'><b>230</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Roos's etchings of sheep, Goethe on, <a href='#Page_296'><b>296</b></a>, <a href='#Page_297'><b>297</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Ross, Sir James, on Arctic fox, <a href='#Page_142'><b>142</b></a>, <a href='#Page_145'><b>145</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Rowan berries, dog that fetched, <a href='#Page_128'><b>128</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Ruddiman and his dog Rascal, <a href='#Page_119'><b>119</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Sand liked by hares, <a href='#Page_218'><b>218</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Schimmelpenninck, Mrs, her fondness for dogs, <a href='#Page_121'><b>121</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Scott, Sir Walter, when a boy, saw Burns, <a href='#Page_84'><b>84</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">his fondness for his dogs, <a href='#Page_122'><b>122</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">on a fox, <a href='#Page_138'><b>138</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">visit to the Black Dwarf, <a href='#Page_157'><b>157</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"Scratcher" of Sydney Smith, <a href='#Page_311'><b>311</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Scriptures, dogs mentioned in the, <a href='#Page_84'><b>84</b></a>, <a href='#Page_103'><b>103</b></a>, <a href='#Page_106'><b>106</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Seals, their intelligence, <a href='#Page_174'><b>174</b></a>-<a href='#Page_182'><b>182</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Semnopithecus Entellus</i>, an Indian monkey, <a href='#Page_35'><b>35</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Sergent and his spaniel, <a href='#Page_196'><b>196</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Shaved bear at Bristol, <a href='#Page_61'><b>61</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Shawl-goat at John Hunter's menagerie, <a href='#Page_301'><b>301</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Sheep, anecdotes of, <a href='#Page_295'><b>295</b></a>-<a href='#Page_298'><b>298</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">and goats, <a href='#Page_295'><b>295</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">pet, of Alex. Wood the surgeon, <a href='#Page_299'><b>299</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Shepherd dogs, <a href='#Page_82'><b>82</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Sheridan and the dog, <a href='#Page_109'><b>109</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">on the dog-tax, <a href='#Page_123'><b>123</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Shetland seals, <a href='#Page_174'><b>174</b></a>-<a href='#Page_182'><b>182</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Sidmouth, Lord, educated by the Rev. Mr Gilpin, <a href='#Page_308'><b>308</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Skins of rabbits, <a href='#Page_223'><b>223</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Sloth, Sydney Smith on, <a href='#Page_224'><b>224</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Smith, Rev. Sydney, on the differences between man and monkeys, <a href='#Page_34'><b>34</b></a>, <a href='#Page_35'><b>35</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">his answer to Landseer, <a href='#Page_78'><b>78</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">remark on a dog, <a href='#Page_88'><b>88</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">his dislike of dogs, <a href='#Page_124'><b>124</b></a>, <a href='#Page_125'><b>125</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">on pigs, <a href='#Page_254'><b>254</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">and his horses, <a href='#Page_271'><b>271</b></a>-<a href='#Page_274'><b>274</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Smith and the elephant, <a href='#Page_234'><b>234</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Sorrel, the horse of William III., <a href='#Page_51'><b>51</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Southey and his critics, <a href='#Page_48'><b>48</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">on dogs, <a href='#Page_126'><b>126</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">loved cats, <a href='#Page_158'><b>158</b></a>-<a href='#Page_160'><b>160</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Sow and swine, <a href='#Page_238'><b>238</b></a>-<a href='#Page_255'><b>255</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Spencer, Lord, and Rev. Sydney Smith, <a href='#Page_124'><b>124</b></a>, <a href='#Page_125'><b>125</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Spermophilus Parryi</i>, <a href='#Page_197'><b>197</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Sportsmen, exaggeration of some, <a href='#Page_221'><b>221</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Squirrel, <a href='#Page_195'><b>195</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Stags, anecdotes of, <a href='#Page_291'><b>291</b></a>-<a href='#Page_293'><b>293</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Stag-trench at Frankfort, <a href='#Page_294'><b>294</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Stanhope, Earl, on Jacobites calling adherents of Court "Hanover rats," <a href='#Page_202'><b>202</b></a>, <a href='#Page_203'><b>203</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">on the poet Cowper's tastes, <a href='#Page_220'><b>220</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Stapelia, a plant at the Cape, <a href='#Page_25'><b>25</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Stirling Castle, "Lion's den" at, <a href='#Page_162'><b>162</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Stokes, Capt. Lort, on the red-necked fox-bat, <a href='#Page_43'><b>43</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Story, Judge, names he gave his horses, <a href='#Page_274'><b>274</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Sturge and the pigs, <a href='#Page_255'><b>255</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Surgeon, an enthusiastic fox-hunting, <a href='#Page_138'><b>138</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Swinton, origin of name, <a href='#Page_241'><b>241</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Sykes, Colonel, on the flesh of a fox-bat, <a href='#Page_45'><b>45</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Syria, wild boar in, <a href='#Page_244'><b>244</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Tail, short-tailed and long-tailed horses, <a href='#Page_275'><b>275</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Tailor and the elephant, <a href='#Page_235'><b>235</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Tamandua</i>, or ant-eater, <a href='#Page_226'><b>226</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Tennyson, lines on man, and modern systems, <a href='#Page_10'><b>10</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">lines describing tropical bats, <a href='#Page_39'><b>39</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Thackeray on the Egyptian donkey, <a href='#Page_285'><b>285</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Thalassarctos maritimus</i>—the polar bear, <a href='#Page_61'><b>61</b></a>-<a href='#Page_70'><b>70</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Thylacinus Harrisii</i>, <a href='#Page_191'><b>191</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Tibetan mastiff, <a href='#Page_86'><b>86</b></a>, <a href='#Page_87'><b>87</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Tiger and lion, <a href='#Page_161'><b>161</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Tigers' claws and whiskers regarded as charms, <a href='#Page_165'><b>165</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Tiger-wolf of Tasmania, <a href='#Page_190'><b>190</b></a>-<a href='#Page_194'><b>194</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Tiney, a pet hare of Cowper's, <a href='#Page_216'><b>216</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Toplady on future state of animals, <a href='#Page_312'><b>312</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Tonton, Walpole's pet dog, <a href='#Page_129'><b>129</b></a>, <a href='#Page_130'><b>130</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Trained monkeys, <a href='#Page_26'><b>26</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Trenck and the tame mouse in prison, <a href='#Page_209'><b>209</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Trichechus rosmarus</i>, <a href='#Page_183'><b>183</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">True, on dog being a good judge of eloquence, <a href='#Page_127'><b>127</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Ulysses and his dog, <a href='#Page_133'><b>133</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Ursus lotor</i>, why raccoon was so called, <a href='#Page_71'><b>71</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Veal <i>ad nauseam</i>, <a href='#Page_304'><b>304</b></a></span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Venison fat, <a href='#Page_294'><b>294</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>Vulpes lagopus</i>, <a href='#Page_142'><b>142</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Walker, Dr David, on Polar bear, <a href='#Page_62'><b>62</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Wallace, Alfred, on orang-utan, <a href='#Page_11'><b>11</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">on great ant-eater, <a href='#Page_227'><b>227</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Walpole, Horace, the young lady's pet monkey and her parrot, <a href='#Page_33'><b>33</b></a>, <a href='#Page_34'><b>34</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">pet dog Rosette, lines on, <a href='#Page_129'><b>129</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Walrus, history of, <a href='#Page_182'><b>182</b></a>-<a href='#Page_188'><b>188</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Waterton, Charles, letter from, on young gorilla, <a href='#Page_18'><b>18</b></a>-<a href='#Page_20'><b>20</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">letter to Mrs Wombwell on her young gorilla, <a href='#Page_21'><b>21</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Hanover rats," <a href='#Page_202'><b>202</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Watt, James, on rats' whiskers, <a href='#Page_204'><b>204</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Wellington's story of musk rat, <a href='#Page_200'><b>200</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Whalebone, <a href='#Page_315'><b>315</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Whales, <a href='#Page_315'><b>315</b></a>, <a href='#Page_317'><b>317</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Whateley, Archbishop, and his dogs, <a href='#Page_131'><b>131</b></a>, <a href='#Page_132'><b>132</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">on a cat that rung the bell, <a href='#Page_160'><b>160</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Wild boar, <a href='#Page_239'><b>239</b></a>-<a href='#Page_245'><b>245</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Wilkie, Sir David, and the baby, <a href='#Page_3'><b>3</b></a>, <a href='#Page_4'><b>4</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">and the puppy, <a href='#Page_133'><b>133</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">William III., his death, as related by Lord Macaulay, <a href='#Page_49'><b>49</b></a>-<a href='#Page_56'><b>56</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Wilson, the American ornithologist, and the mouse, <a href='#Page_211'><b>211</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Windham, Right Hon. William, on Capt. Phipps's Arctic expedition, <a href='#Page_67'><b>67</b></a>, <a href='#Page_68'><b>68</b></a>;</span></li> +<li><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">on the feelings of a baited bull, <a href='#Page_313'><b>313</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Wolf, <a href='#Page_135'><b>135</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Wolf-dog, Hungarian, anecdote of, <a href='#Page_102'><b>102</b></a>, <a href='#Page_103'><b>103</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Wombat, <a href='#Page_193'><b>193</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Wood, Sandy, and his pets, <a href='#Page_298'><b>298</b></a>, <a href='#Page_299'><b>299</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Wordsworth on cruelty to horses in Ireland, <a href='#Page_275'><b>275</b></a>.</span></li> + + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Zebra, Lattin's joke, <a href='#Page_287'><b>287</b></a>.</span></li> + +<li><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Zoological Gardens, <a href='#Page_249'><b>249</b></a>.</span></li> +</ul> + + +<h4>THE END.</h4> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> There are many anecdotes in this book not included in this +list, which gives however, the principal.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Life of Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. By the late George +Williams Fulcher. Edited by his Son. P. 157.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Memoir of the Life of William Collins, R.A. By W. Wilkie +Collins. I., p. 235.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The future author of "The Woman in White" and "The Dead +Secret," and many other works of celebrity.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Memoirs of James Montgomery. By Holland and Everett. I., p. +283.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> The Durian, a peculiarly favourite fruit in several of the +Eastern Islands.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Mr Wolf's drawing was taken from a chimpanzee. Mr +Waterton's young chimpanzee was in reality a small-eared gorilla. The +ears of the chimpanzee are large.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Written in 1861. Skins and skeletons of the gorilla are to +be found now in many museums.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> For Jan. 1860, vol. iii., p. 177.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Monkeys are very liable to lung diseases in this climate, +and all menagerie keepers are aware of the bad effects of the winter on +these denizens of a warm climate.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> See "Lives of the Lindsays," by Lord Lindsay, vol. iii., +pp. 371-476.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> At Paradise. She describes some plants, one, evidently a +Stapelia, is a fine large star-plant, yellow and spotted like the skin +of a leopard, over which there grows a crop of glossy brown hair, at +once handsome and horrible; it crawls flat on the ground, and its leaves +are thick and fat (p. 407).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> "Conversations of Lord Byron" (p. 9).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <i>Loc. cit.</i> (p. 1).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> "Works of Professor Wilson," vol. i., p. 73.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Gilpin's "Forest Scenery," edited by Sir T. D. Lauder, +vol. i., p. 354.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> "View of Society and Manners in Italy," vol. ii., p. 475.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Extracted from the late Mr Cunningham's complete edition; +we neglected to quote the page, and have altered and shortened the +words.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> "Memoirs of Rev. Sydney Smith," i., p. 377.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> "Wit and Wisdom of Rev. Sydney Smith" (it is from a +lecture at the Royal Institution), p. 259.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> "Life in the Mission, the Camp, and the Zenánà; or, Six +Years in India," by Mrs Colin Mackenzie, vol. ii., p. 126.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Published by James Nisbet & Co., in 1863, 1864.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Illustrated Proceedings of Zoological Society.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> This was written some years ago; but I was glad to see +when last in the Zoological Gardens, June 1866, another live specimen of +a species of fox bat.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> "Narrative of the Voyage," i., p. 96 (1852).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> "New Voyage round the World" (1698), p. 381.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> "A Book about Doctors," by J. Cordy Jeaffreson, i., p. +23.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Jeremy Taylor, if I remember aright.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Vol. V., pp. 305-310.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> "Hungary and Transylvania," &c., by John Paget, Esq., vol. +ii. p. 445.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> "Conversations of Lord Byron," p. 72.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> "Master Humphrey's Clock."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 331</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> θἁλλασσα, sea; αρκτος, bear.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Those "Arctic hedge-rows," as Mr David Walker calls them, +when, on the 30th November 1857, he was on board the Arctic yacht <i>Fox</i>, +wintering in the floe-ice of Baffin's Bay. "The scene apparent on going +on deck after breakfast was splendid, and unlike anything I ever saw +before. The subdued light of the moon thrown over such a vast expanse of +ice, in the distance the loom of a berg, or the shadow of the hummocks +(the Arctic hedge-rows), the only thing to break the even surface, a few +stars peeping out, as if gazing in wonder at the spectacle,—all united +to render the prospect striking, and lead one to contemplate the +goodness and power of the Creator." On the 2d November, they had killed +a bear, which had been bayed and surrounded by their Esquimaux dogs. +Captain M'Clintock shot him. He was 7 feet 3 inches long. Only one of +the dogs was injured by his paws. Much did the hungry beasts enjoy their +feast, for they "were regaled with the entrails, which they polished off +in a very short time."—<i>Mr Walker, in</i> <i>"Belfast News Letter," quoted +in "Dublin Natural History Review," 1858</i>, p. 180.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> "Account of Arctic Regions," i. 517.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> The anecdote is given with more detail at p. 67.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> "Attempt to Reach the North Pole," p. 115.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> "Life of Nelson," by Robert Southey, Esq., LL.D., Poet +Laureate, p. 11.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> "Franklin's Footsteps," by Clement R. Markham, p. 65.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> "Franklin's Footsteps," by Clement Robert Markham, late of +H.M.S. <i>Assistance</i>, p. 93.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 1787, p. 14, "The +Twa Dogs."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> "My Schools and Schoolmasters; or, The Story of my +Education," by Hugh Miller, fifth edition, 1856, pp. 321-323.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> "Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character," tenth +edition, 1864, p. 183.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> "Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, R.A," by his son, +W. Wilkie Collins, i. p. 222.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> "The Olio," by the late Francis Grose, Esq., F.A.S., p. +203.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> "Dogs and their Ways;" illustrated by numerous anecdotes, +compiled from authentic sources, by the Rev. Charles Williams. 1863.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> It may interest the reader, who does not dive deep into +literary curiosities, to refer to the original edition of Hayley's +"Cowper" (4to, 1803, vol. i. p. 314), where the poet, in a letter to +Samuel Rose, Esq., written at Weston, August 18, 1788, alludes to his +having "composed a <i>spick</i> and <i>span</i> new piece called 'The Dog and the +Water-lily;'" and in his next letter, September 11, he sent this piece +to his excellent friend, the London barrister. Visitors to Olney and +Weston, who have gone over the poet's walks, cannot but have their love +for the gentle and afflicted Cowper most deeply <i>intensified</i>.—<i>See</i> +Miller's "First Impressions."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> This book, like Storer's other illustrations of the scenes +of the poems of Burns and Bloomfield, drawn immediately after the death +of these poets, will become year by year more valuable.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> "Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Sir James +Mackintosh," edited by his son, Robert James Mackintosh, Esq., vol. i. +p. 164.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> "Bawsn't," having a white stripe down the face.—<i>Glossary +to Burns's Poems.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> See an extract farther on, in proof of this.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> "The Jordan and the Rhine" (1854), p. 46, and pp. 91-93.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> <i>See</i> Layard's "Nineveh and its Remains," vol. ii. (1849), +p. 425.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> "Ladak, Physical, Statistical, and Historical," p. 218.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> "Memoir of Bishop Blomfield," by his son, i. 220.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 177.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> A selection from the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. +London, 1866, pp. 134-138.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> "Memoirs of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart.," edited by +his son, Charles Buxton, Esq., B.A., third edition, p. 139.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> Moore's "Life of Byron," chap. vii. p. 74.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 279.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> "Memoirs of the Life of Wm. Collins, R.A.," by his Son, i. +105.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 203.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> <i>Loc. cit.</i> p. 213.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> "The Life, Character, and Literary Labours of Samuel Drew, +A.M.," by his eldest son, p. 66.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> "Memoirs of Samuel Foote, Esq.," &c., by W. Cooke, Esq., +vol. ii. p. 36.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> "Life of Thomas Gainsborough, R.A.," by the late George +William Fulcher, p. 155.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> <i>Edinburgh Review</i>, 1836, vol. lxiv. p. 17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> "Life and Letters of Elizabeth, last Duchess of Gordon," +by the Rev. A. Moody Stuart, 1865, pp. 198-200.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> Portion of the Journal kept by Thomas Raikes, Esq., from +1831 to 1837, vol. iii. p. 134.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> "Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds," by C. R. Leslie, +R.A. and Tom Taylor, M.A., vol. ii. p. 191.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> "John Leifchild, D.D. His Public Ministry, &c.," by J. R. +Leifchild, A.M., p. 143.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> Agnes Strickland, "Lives of the Queens of England," vol. +v. p. 293 (ed. 1851).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> "A History of Peeblesshire," by William Chambers of +Glenormiston, p. 428.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> Vol. i. p. 156.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> Memoir by his friend, the Rev. John W. Burgon, p. 204.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 44.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 43.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> "Charles Lamb: his Friends, his Haunts, and his Books," by +Percy Fitzgerald, M.A., 1866, p. 161.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> Cunningham's Edition of Correspondence, viii. p. 331.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> "The Table Talk; or, Familiar Discourse of Martin Luther," +p. 66.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> "The Diary of an Invalid; being the Journal of a Tour in +Pursuit of Health in Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, and France in +1817-1819," p. 144.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> "Common-Place Book," 4th ser. p. 423.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 24.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> "Memoir of Baron Larrey, Surgeon-in-chief of the Grande +Armée." London. 1861. P. 191.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> "England under the House of Hanover," by Thomas Wright, +Esq., M.A., vol. ii. p. 57.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> "Memoir of Perthes," vol. ii. pp. 153-4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> "Original Anecdotes of Peter the Great, collected from the +conversation of several persons of distinction at St Petersburg and +Moscow," by Mr Stœhlin, Member of the Imp. Acad., St Peters., p. +306.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> A denthtchick is a soldier appointed to wait on an +officer.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> "Recollections and Anecdotes," 2d ser., by Capt. R. H. +Gronow, p. 194 (1863).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> "History of England, from the Peace of Utrecht to the +Peace of Versailles," by Lord Mahon, vii. p. 261.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> See Mundy's "Life of Lord Rodney," vol. i. 258. "Remember +me to my dear girls and poor Loup. Kiss them for me. I hope they were +pleased with my letter." Vol. ii. p. 28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> "Life of Thomas Ruddiman, A.M., the Keeper for almost +fifty years of the Library belonging to the Faculty of Advocates, +Edinburgh," p. 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> See her "Autobiography," p. 85, for an anecdote of her +saving a little dog, tied in a basket of stones, from the water. She +called it "Moses."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> Vol. ii. pp. 264, 265.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> "Memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith," by his daughter, Lady +Holland, &c., vol. i. p. 200.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> "Life of the Rev. Sydney Smith," by his daughter, Lady +Holland, &c., vol. i. p. 379.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> Vol. i. p. 267.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> "Life and Correspondence," vol. v. p. 133.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> "John Leifchild, D.D., his Public Ministry, Private +Usefulness, and Personal Characteristics," founded upon an +autobiography, by J. R. Leifchild, A.M., p. 34.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> See Burgon's "Memoir of Patrick F. Tytler," p. 140.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> Letter first published in Cunningham's Chronological +Edition, vol. vi. p. 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> Richmond Hill. The dog died at Strawberry Hill.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> Correspondence, chronologically arranged by Peter +Cunningham, viii. p. 39.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> <i>Loc. cit.</i>, p. 44.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> Vol. vi. p. 117.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> "The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford," edited +by Peter Cunningham, now first chronologically arranged, ix. p. 173.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> <i>Loc. cit.</i>, viii. p. 35.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> Fitzpatrick, "Memoirs of Richard Whately, Archbishop of +Dublin," vol. i. pp. 21, 22 (1864).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> "Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, R.A.," by his +son, W. Wilkie Collins, i. 193.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> Third edition, 1806, p. 385.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> "The Art of Deer-Stalking," &c., by William Scrope, Esq., +F.L.S., p. 371.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> <i>Edinburgh Review</i>, 1841, vol. lxxiv. p. 77.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> "Noctes Ambrosianæ." Works of Professor Wilson, vol. i. +pp. 136-138.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_115_115" id="Footnote_115_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115_115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> "Fauna Boreali-Americana." Mammalia, p. 87.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_116_116" id="Footnote_116_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116_116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> Appendix to "Second Voyage," p. xii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_117_117" id="Footnote_117_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117_117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> "Fauna Grœnlandica," p. 20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_118_118" id="Footnote_118_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor_118_118"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> <i>Dublin Nat. Hist. Review, 1858</i>, p. 166.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_119_119" id="Footnote_119_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor_119_119"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> "Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal," p. 176.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_120_120" id="Footnote_120_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor_120_120"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> "Private Journal," p. 105.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_121_121" id="Footnote_121_121"></a><a href="#FNanchor_121_121"><span class="label">[121]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest-Book," p. 280.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_122_122" id="Footnote_122_122"></a><a href="#FNanchor_122_122"><span class="label">[122]</span></a> "British Quadrupeds." The professor has long retired to +his favourite Selborne. He occupies the house of Gilbert White; and a +new illustrated edition of the "Natural History and Antiquities of +Selborne" has been long looked for from him.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_123_123" id="Footnote_123_123"></a><a href="#FNanchor_123_123"><span class="label">[123]</span></a> "The Instructive Picture Book; or, A Few Attractive +Lessons from the Natural History of Animals," by Adam White, p. 15 +(fifth edition, 1862).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_124_124" id="Footnote_124_124"></a><a href="#FNanchor_124_124"><span class="label">[124]</span></a> "The Works of Jeremy Bentham," now first collected under +the superintendence of his executor, John Bowring, vol. xi. pp. 80, 81.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_125_125" id="Footnote_125_125"></a><a href="#FNanchor_125_125"><span class="label">[125]</span></a> Jeremy Bentham's house in Queen's Square was that which +had been occupied by the great poet.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_126_126" id="Footnote_126_126"></a><a href="#FNanchor_126_126"><span class="label">[126]</span></a> Vol. i. No. 3. p. 27.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_127_127" id="Footnote_127_127"></a><a href="#FNanchor_127_127"><span class="label">[127]</span></a> <i>Times</i>, 18 Dec. 1830, quoted by Southey, "Common-Place +Book," iv. p. 489.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_128_128" id="Footnote_128_128"></a><a href="#FNanchor_128_128"><span class="label">[128]</span></a> "Physic and Physicians," a medical sketch-book, vol. ii. +p. 363 (1839).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_129_129" id="Footnote_129_129"></a><a href="#FNanchor_129_129"><span class="label">[129]</span></a> "A Book for a Rainy Day," p. 103. Old Smith was a regular +hunter after legacies, and like all such was often disappointed. His +"Nollekens" is a fine example.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_130_130" id="Footnote_130_130"></a><a href="#FNanchor_130_130"><span class="label">[130]</span></a> "Memoirs of James Montgomery," by Holland and Everett, +iv. pp. 114, 115.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_131_131" id="Footnote_131_131"></a><a href="#FNanchor_131_131"><span class="label">[131]</span></a> "A History of Peeblesshire," by William Chambers of +Glenormiston, p. 403 (1864).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_132_132" id="Footnote_132_132"></a><a href="#FNanchor_132_132"><span class="label">[132]</span></a> See vol. v. p. 145.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_133_133" id="Footnote_133_133"></a><a href="#FNanchor_133_133"><span class="label">[133]</span></a> A cat of Mr Bedford's.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_134_134" id="Footnote_134_134"></a><a href="#FNanchor_134_134"><span class="label">[134]</span></a> "Life and Correspondence," v. p. 223.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_135_135" id="Footnote_135_135"></a><a href="#FNanchor_135_135"><span class="label">[135]</span></a> On Instinct, a Lecture delivered before the Dublin +Natural History Society, 11th November 1842. Dublin, 1847. P. 10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_136_136" id="Footnote_136_136"></a><a href="#FNanchor_136_136"><span class="label">[136]</span></a> "Physics and Physicians: a Medical Sketch-Book," vol. i. +p. 174. It was published anonymously in 1839.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_137_137" id="Footnote_137_137"></a><a href="#FNanchor_137_137"><span class="label">[137]</span></a> "Life in the Mission, the Camp, and the Zenánà; or, Six +Years in India," vol. ii. p. 382.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_138_138" id="Footnote_138_138"></a><a href="#FNanchor_138_138"><span class="label">[138]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 237.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_139_139" id="Footnote_139_139"></a><a href="#FNanchor_139_139"><span class="label">[139]</span></a> August 20, 1713. Chalmers's edition of "British +Essayists," vol. xviii. p. 85.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_140_140" id="Footnote_140_140"></a><a href="#FNanchor_140_140"><span class="label">[140]</span></a> Up for lost.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_141_141" id="Footnote_141_141"></a><a href="#FNanchor_141_141"><span class="label">[141]</span></a> August 28, 1713. Chalmers's edition of "British +Essayists," vol. xviii p. 116.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_142_142" id="Footnote_142_142"></a><a href="#FNanchor_142_142"><span class="label">[142]</span></a> "Memoirs of Antonio Canova," by J. S. Memes, A.M. 1825. +Pp. 332, 334, 346.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_143_143" id="Footnote_143_143"></a><a href="#FNanchor_143_143"><span class="label">[143]</span></a> "The Life of Admiral Sir Charles Napier, K.C.B," by +Major-General Elers Napier, vol. i. p. 8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_144_144" id="Footnote_144_144"></a><a href="#FNanchor_144_144"><span class="label">[144]</span></a> "A Tour in Tartan-Land," by Cuthbert Bede.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_145_145" id="Footnote_145_145"></a><a href="#FNanchor_145_145"><span class="label">[145]</span></a> "Life," vol. iii. p. 188.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_146_146" id="Footnote_146_146"></a><a href="#FNanchor_146_146"><span class="label">[146]</span></a> Vol. viii. pp. 1-16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_147_147" id="Footnote_147_147"></a><a href="#FNanchor_147_147"><span class="label">[147]</span></a> <i>Trichechus</i>, from the Greek τριχας εχων, +"having hairs:" <i>walrus</i>, the German <i>wallross</i>, "whale-horse."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_148_148" id="Footnote_148_148"></a><a href="#FNanchor_148_148"><span class="label">[148]</span></a> See Fleming's "British Animals," p. 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_149_149" id="Footnote_149_149"></a><a href="#FNanchor_149_149"><span class="label">[149]</span></a> Mém. Acad. Imp. Sc. St. Pétersb., 1838, p. 232. Professor +Owen has communicated to the Zoological Society the anatomy of the young +walrus; and much valuable information will be found in Dr Gray's +"Catalogue of Mammalia in the British Museum."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_150_150" id="Footnote_150_150"></a><a href="#FNanchor_150_150"><span class="label">[150]</span></a> "Distant Correspondents," in the Essays of Elia, first +series ed. 1841, p. 67.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_151_151" id="Footnote_151_151"></a><a href="#FNanchor_151_151"><span class="label">[151]</span></a> Jesse's "Life of Beau Brummell," vol. i. p. 288.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_152_152" id="Footnote_152_152"></a><a href="#FNanchor_152_152"><span class="label">[152]</span></a> "Memoirs, Correspondence," &c., edited by Lord John +Russell, vol. iii. p. 179.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_153_153" id="Footnote_153_153"></a><a href="#FNanchor_153_153"><span class="label">[153]</span></a> So called from the Latin word <i>marsupium</i>, a pouch.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_154_154" id="Footnote_154_154"></a><a href="#FNanchor_154_154"><span class="label">[154]</span></a> <i>Diabolus ursinus</i>, the ursine opossum of Van Diemen's +Land, a great destroyer of young lambs.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_155_155" id="Footnote_155_155"></a><a href="#FNanchor_155_155"><span class="label">[155]</span></a> From the Greek words for a pouch and a dog, +θὑλακος and κὡον. Dr Gray had previously named it <i>Peracyon</i>, +from πἡρα, a bag, and κὑων, a dog.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_156_156" id="Footnote_156_156"></a><a href="#FNanchor_156_156"><span class="label">[156]</span></a> <i>Echidna aculeata</i>, or <i>E. hystrix</i>, the porcupine +ant-eater, a curious edentate, spine-covered quadruped, closely allied +to the still stranger <i>Ornithorhynchus</i>, the duck-bill.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_157_157" id="Footnote_157_157"></a><a href="#FNanchor_157_157"><span class="label">[157]</span></a> <i>Phascolomys Vombatus,</i> a curious, broad-backed, and +large-headed marsupial, two specimens of which are in the Zoological +Gardens. It is a burrower, and in the teeth it resembles the rodent +animals; hence its name, from φασκωλον, a pouch, and μὑς, a mouse.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_158_158" id="Footnote_158_158"></a><a href="#FNanchor_158_158"><span class="label">[158]</span></a> Mitchell's "Popular Guide to the Zoological Gardens," p. +9. (1852.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_159_159" id="Footnote_159_159"></a><a href="#FNanchor_159_159"><span class="label">[159]</span></a> Mark Lemon's "Jest Book," p. 180.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_160_160" id="Footnote_160_160"></a><a href="#FNanchor_160_160"><span class="label">[160]</span></a> Ed. 1845, p. 339.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_161_161" id="Footnote_161_161"></a><a href="#FNanchor_161_161"><span class="label">[161]</span></a> P. 441. Sir John Richardson told me that the species was +<i>Spermophilus Parryi</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_162_162" id="Footnote_162_162"></a><a href="#FNanchor_162_162"><span class="label">[162]</span></a> The Eventful Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ship <i>Resolute</i> to +the Arctic Regions, in Search of Sir John Franklin, in 1852-3-4, pp. +314, 315.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_163_163" id="Footnote_163_163"></a><a href="#FNanchor_163_163"><span class="label">[163]</span></a> "The Life of General Sir Howard Douglas, Bart., G.C.B., +F.R.S., D.C.L., from his Notes, Conversations, and Correspondence," by +S. W. Fullom. 1863. P. 28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_164_164" id="Footnote_164_164"></a><a href="#FNanchor_164_164"><span class="label">[164]</span></a> "History of England, from the Peace of Utrecht," by Lord +Mahon, vol. vii. p. 465.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_165_165" id="Footnote_165_165"></a><a href="#FNanchor_165_165"><span class="label">[165]</span></a> Life of Sydney Smith, by his daughter, Lady Holland, vol. +i. 374.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_166_166" id="Footnote_166_166"></a><a href="#FNanchor_166_166"><span class="label">[166]</span></a> "Correspondence of Thomas Gray and Mason, edited from the +originals," by the Rev. John Mitford, p. 112.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_167_167" id="Footnote_167_167"></a><a href="#FNanchor_167_167"><span class="label">[167]</span></a> Dr Bowring's "Life of Jeremy Bentham," Works, vol. xi. p. +80, 81.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_168_168" id="Footnote_168_168"></a><a href="#FNanchor_168_168"><span class="label">[168]</span></a> "Bowring's Life," vol. x., Works, p. 186.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_169_169" id="Footnote_169_169"></a><a href="#FNanchor_169_169"><span class="label">[169]</span></a> By Robert Chambers, Edinburgh, 1851, 4 vols., vol. i., p. +146.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_170_170" id="Footnote_170_170"></a><a href="#FNanchor_170_170"><span class="label">[170]</span></a> The stick used for clearing away the clods from the +plough.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_171_171" id="Footnote_171_171"></a><a href="#FNanchor_171_171"><span class="label">[171]</span></a> An occasional ear of corn in a thrave,—that is, +twenty-four sheaves.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_172_172" id="Footnote_172_172"></a><a href="#FNanchor_172_172"><span class="label">[172]</span></a> "Worthies of England," vol. i. p. 545.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_173_173" id="Footnote_173_173"></a><a href="#FNanchor_173_173"><span class="label">[173]</span></a> "Wilson's Life," p. 28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_174_174" id="Footnote_174_174"></a><a href="#FNanchor_174_174"><span class="label">[174]</span></a> "Memoir of Wilson," p. 27, prefixed to his poetical +works. Belfast, 1844.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_175_175" id="Footnote_175_175"></a><a href="#FNanchor_175_175"><span class="label">[175]</span></a> <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, for June 1784, being the sixth +number of vol. liv., pp. 412-414, "Unnoticed Properties of that little +animal the Hare."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_176_176" id="Footnote_176_176"></a><a href="#FNanchor_176_176"><span class="label">[176]</span></a> "History of England," vol. vi. p. 486.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_177_177" id="Footnote_177_177"></a><a href="#FNanchor_177_177"><span class="label">[177]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 59.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_178_178" id="Footnote_178_178"></a><a href="#FNanchor_178_178"><span class="label">[178]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 182.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_179_179" id="Footnote_179_179"></a><a href="#FNanchor_179_179"><span class="label">[179]</span></a> Biography of S. Bisset in G. H. Wilson's "Eccentric +Mirror," vol. i., No. 3, p. 29.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_180_180" id="Footnote_180_180"></a><a href="#FNanchor_180_180"><span class="label">[180]</span></a> Published by Lord Lindsay in vol. iii. of his "Lives of +the Lindsays," p. 387.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_181_181" id="Footnote_181_181"></a><a href="#FNanchor_181_181"><span class="label">[181]</span></a> "Worthies of England," vol. ii. p. 445 (ed. 1840).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_182_182" id="Footnote_182_182"></a><a href="#FNanchor_182_182"><span class="label">[182]</span></a> Dr Hannah's "Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Thomas +Chalmers, D.D., L.L.D.," vol. ii. p. 237.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_183_183" id="Footnote_183_183"></a><a href="#FNanchor_183_183"><span class="label">[183]</span></a> Sydney Smith, "Review of Waterton's Wanderings." +<i>Edinburgh Review</i>, 1826. Works, vol. ii. p. 145.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_184_184" id="Footnote_184_184"></a><a href="#FNanchor_184_184"><span class="label">[184]</span></a> From μυρμηξ, ant; ψαγω, I eat; +<i>jubata</i>, maned.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_185_185" id="Footnote_185_185"></a><a href="#FNanchor_185_185"><span class="label">[185]</span></a> "Wanderings in South America" (Third Journey), p. 159, +(ed. 1839).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_186_186" id="Footnote_186_186"></a><a href="#FNanchor_186_186"><span class="label">[186]</span></a> "A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro," by +Alfred R. Wallace, 1853, p. 452.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_187_187" id="Footnote_187_187"></a><a href="#FNanchor_187_187"><span class="label">[187]</span></a> This memoir has been published, and the subject of it was +this very ant-eater. Professor Owen has introduced many striking facts +from the history of its structure, in his lecture delivered at Exeter +Hall, 1863, and published by the Messrs Nisbet.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_188_188" id="Footnote_188_188"></a><a href="#FNanchor_188_188"><span class="label">[188]</span></a> "The Life of the Right Hon. Francis North, Baron +Guilford, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, under King Charles II. and King +James II., &c." By the Hon. Roger North. A New Edition, in three vols., +1826, vol. ii. p. 167.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_189_189" id="Footnote_189_189"></a><a href="#FNanchor_189_189"><span class="label">[189]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 329.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_190_190" id="Footnote_190_190"></a><a href="#FNanchor_190_190"><span class="label">[190]</span></a> "John Holland and James Everett," vol. iv. p. 283.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_191_191" id="Footnote_191_191"></a><a href="#FNanchor_191_191"><span class="label">[191]</span></a> "A Book for a Rainy Day," p. 92.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_192_192" id="Footnote_192_192"></a><a href="#FNanchor_192_192"><span class="label">[192]</span></a> "Letters of Horace Walpole," edited by Peter Cunningham, +ix., 319.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_193_193" id="Footnote_193_193"></a><a href="#FNanchor_193_193"><span class="label">[193]</span></a> "Memoirs of Baron Cuvier," by Mrs R. Lee (formerly Mrs T +Ed. Bowdich), 1833, p. 93.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_194_194" id="Footnote_194_194"></a><a href="#FNanchor_194_194"><span class="label">[194]</span></a> "Letters from Sarawak," p. 104. 1854.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_195_195" id="Footnote_195_195"></a><a href="#FNanchor_195_195"><span class="label">[195]</span></a> "Divides the hoof, and is cloven-footed, yet cheweth not +the cud" (Lev. ii. 7).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_196_196" id="Footnote_196_196"></a><a href="#FNanchor_196_196"><span class="label">[196]</span></a> Boner's "Chamois Hunting in the Mountains of Bavaria," p. +97.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_197_197" id="Footnote_197_197"></a><a href="#FNanchor_197_197"><span class="label">[197]</span></a> "Travels" (Home and Colonial Library), p. 147.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_198_198" id="Footnote_198_198"></a><a href="#FNanchor_198_198"><span class="label">[198]</span></a> "Travels in Syria and the Holy Land," p. 9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_199_199" id="Footnote_199_199"></a><a href="#FNanchor_199_199"><span class="label">[199]</span></a> Symbolæ Physicæ.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_200_200" id="Footnote_200_200"></a><a href="#FNanchor_200_200"><span class="label">[200]</span></a> <i>Potamochœrus penicellatus.</i> Ποταμος, a +river; χοἱρος, a pig; <i>penicellatus</i>, pencilled. It is said to +be the <i>Sus porcus</i> of Linnæus.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_201_201" id="Footnote_201_201"></a><a href="#FNanchor_201_201"><span class="label">[201]</span></a> "A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea, +written originally in Dutch." London, 1705, p. 247.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_202_202" id="Footnote_202_202"></a><a href="#FNanchor_202_202"><span class="label">[202]</span></a> See Dr Sutherland's interesting account in his "Journal +of a Voyage in Baffin Bay and Barrow's Straits in the years 1850, 1851;" +a truly excellent work on the Arctic regions, by one who is now Surveyor +of Natal.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_203_203" id="Footnote_203_203"></a><a href="#FNanchor_203_203"><span class="label">[203]</span></a> See Biography in G. H. Wilson's <i>Eccentric Mirror</i>, i., +No. 3, p. 30.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_204_204" id="Footnote_204_204"></a><a href="#FNanchor_204_204"><span class="label">[204]</span></a> "Common-Place Book," iv. p. 514.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_205_205" id="Footnote_205_205"></a><a href="#FNanchor_205_205"><span class="label">[205]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 107.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_206_206" id="Footnote_206_206"></a><a href="#FNanchor_206_206"><span class="label">[206]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 337.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_207_207" id="Footnote_207_207"></a><a href="#FNanchor_207_207"><span class="label">[207]</span></a> "Memoir of the Life of Elizabeth Fry," vol. ii. p. 30. +1847.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_208_208" id="Footnote_208_208"></a><a href="#FNanchor_208_208"><span class="label">[208]</span></a> "Life of Thomas Gainsborough, R.A.," by the late George +William Fulcher, edited by his Son, p. 122. 1856.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_209_209" id="Footnote_209_209"></a><a href="#FNanchor_209_209"><span class="label">[209]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 328.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_210_210" id="Footnote_210_210"></a><a href="#FNanchor_210_210"><span class="label">[210]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_211_211" id="Footnote_211_211"></a><a href="#FNanchor_211_211"><span class="label">[211]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 31. The latter of these jests +is attributed by Dean Ramsay to a half-witted Ayrshire man, who said he +"kenned a miller had aye a gey fat sow."—<i>Reminiscences</i>, p. 197.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_212_212" id="Footnote_212_212"></a><a href="#FNanchor_212_212"><span class="label">[212]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 269. This worthy nobleman was +and is much attached to his home-farm. He is well known in Perthshire.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_213_213" id="Footnote_213_213"></a><a href="#FNanchor_213_213"><span class="label">[213]</span></a> "Wit and Wisdom of Rev. Sydney Smith," third edition, p. +253. From a lecture at Royal Institution.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_214_214" id="Footnote_214_214"></a><a href="#FNanchor_214_214"><span class="label">[214]</span></a> "Memoirs of Joseph Sturge," by Henry Richard.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_215_215" id="Footnote_215_215"></a><a href="#FNanchor_215_215"><span class="label">[215]</span></a> "Journal of Horticultural Tour," p. 306.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_216_216" id="Footnote_216_216"></a><a href="#FNanchor_216_216"><span class="label">[216]</span></a> "Memorials of Angus and the Mearns," by Andrew Jervise +(1861), p. 175.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_217_217" id="Footnote_217_217"></a><a href="#FNanchor_217_217"><span class="label">[217]</span></a> "History of the Life and Times of Edmund Burke," by +Thomas Macknight, vol. i. p. 160.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_218_218" id="Footnote_218_218"></a><a href="#FNanchor_218_218"><span class="label">[218]</span></a> "Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds," &c., by James Northcote, +Esq., R.A. (2d edition), vol. ii. p. 80.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_219_219" id="Footnote_219_219"></a><a href="#FNanchor_219_219"><span class="label">[219]</span></a> "Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds," by C. R. Leslie +and Tom Taylor, M.A., vol. ii. p. 219.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_220_220" id="Footnote_220_220"></a><a href="#FNanchor_220_220"><span class="label">[220]</span></a> "Lives of Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, and of +Bernard Gilpin," by William Gilpin, M.A. (3d edition), 1780, p. 275.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_221_221" id="Footnote_221_221"></a><a href="#FNanchor_221_221"><span class="label">[221]</span></a> <i>Loc. cit.</i>, p. 284.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_222_222" id="Footnote_222_222"></a><a href="#FNanchor_222_222"><span class="label">[222]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 39.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_223_223" id="Footnote_223_223"></a><a href="#FNanchor_223_223"><span class="label">[223]</span></a> "The Lives of Robert Haldane of Airthrey, and of his +Brother, James Alexander Haldane," by Alex. Haldane, Esq., of the Inner +Temple (1852), p. 223.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_224_224" id="Footnote_224_224"></a><a href="#FNanchor_224_224"><span class="label">[224]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 318.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_225_225" id="Footnote_225_225"></a><a href="#FNanchor_225_225"><span class="label">[225]</span></a> "Memoirs of Thomas Holcroft" (ed. 1852), pp. 40, 41.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_226_226" id="Footnote_226_226"></a><a href="#FNanchor_226_226"><span class="label">[226]</span></a> "Memoirs of the late Thomas Holcroft," written by himself +(ed. London, 1852), p. 112.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_227_227" id="Footnote_227_227"></a><a href="#FNanchor_227_227"><span class="label">[227]</span></a> "Lives of the Chief-Justices of England" (Lord +Ellenborough), vol. iii. p. 100.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_228_228" id="Footnote_228_228"></a><a href="#FNanchor_228_228"><span class="label">[228]</span></a> Vol i. pp. 94-115.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_229_229" id="Footnote_229_229"></a><a href="#FNanchor_229_229"><span class="label">[229]</span></a> "Physic and Physicians: a Medical Sketch-Book," vol. i. +p. 59.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_230_230" id="Footnote_230_230"></a><a href="#FNanchor_230_230"><span class="label">[230]</span></a> "Memoirs of Frederick Perthes," vol. i. p. 309.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_231_231" id="Footnote_231_231"></a><a href="#FNanchor_231_231"><span class="label">[231]</span></a> "Lives of the Engineers," vol. ii. p. 185.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_232_232" id="Footnote_232_232"></a><a href="#FNanchor_232_232"><span class="label">[232]</span></a> "Memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith," by his daughter, Lady +Holland, vol. i. pp. 172-174.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_233_233" id="Footnote_233_233"></a><a href="#FNanchor_233_233"><span class="label">[233]</span></a> A horse which he called so.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_234_234" id="Footnote_234_234"></a><a href="#FNanchor_234_234"><span class="label">[234]</span></a> "Memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith," by his daughter, Lady +Holland, vol. i. p. 117.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_235_235" id="Footnote_235_235"></a><a href="#FNanchor_235_235"><span class="label">[235]</span></a> Mrs Marcet, in Lady Holland's Memoirs of her Father, the +Rev. Sydney Smith, vol. i. p. 364.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_236_236" id="Footnote_236_236"></a><a href="#FNanchor_236_236"><span class="label">[236]</span></a> "Life and Letters of Joseph Story, Associate Justice of +the Supreme Court of the United States, and Dane Professor of Law at +Harvard University," edited by his son, Wm. W. Story, vol. ii. p. 611.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_237_237" id="Footnote_237_237"></a><a href="#FNanchor_237_237"><span class="label">[237]</span></a> "The Intellectuality of Domestic Animals: a Lecture +Delivered before the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland," p. 25. +Dublin, 1847.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_238_238" id="Footnote_238_238"></a><a href="#FNanchor_238_238"><span class="label">[238]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 263.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_239_239" id="Footnote_239_239"></a><a href="#FNanchor_239_239"><span class="label">[239]</span></a> "The Poems of S. T. Coleridge," pp. 26, 27 (1844).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_240_240" id="Footnote_240_240"></a><a href="#FNanchor_240_240"><span class="label">[240]</span></a> "Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, R.A.," by his +son, W. Wilkie Collins, vol. i. p. 232.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_241_241" id="Footnote_241_241"></a><a href="#FNanchor_241_241"><span class="label">[241]</span></a> Edition of Sir T. D. Lauder, Bart., vol. ii. p. 273.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_242_242" id="Footnote_242_242"></a><a href="#FNanchor_242_242"><span class="label">[242]</span></a> "Gilpin's Forest Scenery," vol. ii. p. 275. Edited by Sir +T. D. Lauder.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_243_243" id="Footnote_243_243"></a><a href="#FNanchor_243_243"><span class="label">[243]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 129.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_244_244" id="Footnote_244_244"></a><a href="#FNanchor_244_244"><span class="label">[244]</span></a> Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 307.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_245_245" id="Footnote_245_245"></a><a href="#FNanchor_245_245"><span class="label">[245]</span></a> Photius, quoted by Southey in his "Common-Place Book," +first series, p. 588.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_246_246" id="Footnote_246_246"></a><a href="#FNanchor_246_246"><span class="label">[246]</span></a> "Memoirs of the Life of the Right Hon. Warren Hastings, +compiled from original papers," by the Rev. G. R. Gleig, M.A., vol. iii. +p. 367.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_247_247" id="Footnote_247_247"></a><a href="#FNanchor_247_247"><span class="label">[247]</span></a> "The Life and Writings of Henry Fuseli, Esq., M.A., +R.A.," the former written and the latter edited by John Knowles, Esq., +F.R.S., vol. i. p. 364.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_248_248" id="Footnote_248_248"></a><a href="#FNanchor_248_248"><span class="label">[248]</span></a> "A Memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith," by his daughter, +Lady Holland, &c., vol. i. p. 152.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_249_249" id="Footnote_249_249"></a><a href="#FNanchor_249_249"><span class="label">[249]</span></a> "Memoirs and Letters of Rev. Sydney Smith," vol. ii. p. +393.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_250_250" id="Footnote_250_250"></a><a href="#FNanchor_250_250"><span class="label">[250]</span></a> "A Century of Anecdote from 1760 to 1860," by John Timbs, +F.S.A., vol. i. p. 252 (1864).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_251_251" id="Footnote_251_251"></a><a href="#FNanchor_251_251"><span class="label">[251]</span></a> "Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo," by Mr +M. A. Titmarsh, p. 177 (1846).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_252_252" id="Footnote_252_252"></a><a href="#FNanchor_252_252"><span class="label">[252]</span></a> "View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and +Germany," vol. i. pp. 191, 192 (9th edition).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_253_253" id="Footnote_253_253"></a><a href="#FNanchor_253_253"><span class="label">[253]</span></a> Quoted in Timbs' "Century of Anecdote," vol. i. p. 223 +(1864).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_254_254" id="Footnote_254_254"></a><a href="#FNanchor_254_254"><span class="label">[254]</span></a> "A Ride through the Nubian Desert," by Captain W. Peel, +R.N., p. 49.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_255_255" id="Footnote_255_255"></a><a href="#FNanchor_255_255"><span class="label">[255]</span></a> "Life and Correspondence of Charles Lord Metcalfe," by +John William Kaye, vol. i., p. 8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_256_256" id="Footnote_256_256"></a><a href="#FNanchor_256_256"><span class="label">[256]</span></a> "The Art of Deer-Stalking," p. 33.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_257_257" id="Footnote_257_257"></a><a href="#FNanchor_257_257"><span class="label">[257]</span></a> "Deer-Stalking," p. 229.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_258_258" id="Footnote_258_258"></a><a href="#FNanchor_258_258"><span class="label">[258]</span></a> "Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds," vol. i., p. 124.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_259_259" id="Footnote_259_259"></a><a href="#FNanchor_259_259"><span class="label">[259]</span></a> "Truth and Poetry from my own Life; the Autobiography of +Goethe," edited by Parke Godwin, part i., p. 3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_260_260" id="Footnote_260_260"></a><a href="#FNanchor_260_260"><span class="label">[260]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 18.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_261_261" id="Footnote_261_261"></a><a href="#FNanchor_261_261"><span class="label">[261]</span></a> Translated from the German by John Oxenford, vol. i., p. +138.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_262_262" id="Footnote_262_262"></a><a href="#FNanchor_262_262"><span class="label">[262]</span></a> Roos must have been limited in his powers, unlike our +Landseer, who paints dogs, sheep, horses, cows, stags, and fowls with +equal power.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_263_263" id="Footnote_263_263"></a><a href="#FNanchor_263_263"><span class="label">[263]</span></a> Dean Ramsay's "Reminiscences of Scottish Life and +Character," 10th edition, p. 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_264_264" id="Footnote_264_264"></a><a href="#FNanchor_264_264"><span class="label">[264]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 214.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_265_265" id="Footnote_265_265"></a><a href="#FNanchor_265_265"><span class="label">[265]</span></a> There are two copperplates devoted to the figure and +portrait of "lang Sandy Wood," as he was called.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_266_266" id="Footnote_266_266"></a><a href="#FNanchor_266_266"><span class="label">[266]</span></a> "Philosophical Transactions," LXI. p. 176 (1771). Paper +on Nyl-ghau, with plate, by George Stubbs, engraved by Basire.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_267_267" id="Footnote_267_267"></a><a href="#FNanchor_267_267"><span class="label">[267]</span></a> Baird, "Report on the County of Middlesex," quoted in +view of the agriculture of Middlesex, &c., pp. 341, 342, by John +Middleton, Esq. London: 1798.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_268_268" id="Footnote_268_268"></a><a href="#FNanchor_268_268"><span class="label">[268]</span></a> The wool which grows on different parts of their bodies, +under very long hair, is obtained by gently combing them.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_269_269" id="Footnote_269_269"></a><a href="#FNanchor_269_269"><span class="label">[269]</span></a> "Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds," vol. i., p. 32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_270_270" id="Footnote_270_270"></a><a href="#FNanchor_270_270"><span class="label">[270]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 36.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_271_271" id="Footnote_271_271"></a><a href="#FNanchor_271_271"><span class="label">[271]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 111.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_272_272" id="Footnote_272_272"></a><a href="#FNanchor_272_272"><span class="label">[272]</span></a> "An Account of the Religious and Literary Life of Adam +Clarke, LL.D., F.A.S.," by a Member of his Family, vol ii., p. 346.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_273_273" id="Footnote_273_273"></a><a href="#FNanchor_273_273"><span class="label">[273]</span></a> "Memoirs of Samuel Foote, Esq.," by Wm. Cooke, Esq., vol. +i., p. 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_274_274" id="Footnote_274_274"></a><a href="#FNanchor_274_274"><span class="label">[274]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book", p. 246.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_275_275" id="Footnote_275_275"></a><a href="#FNanchor_275_275"><span class="label">[275]</span></a> Lord Sidmouth lived near Burghfield, where Mr Bird kept +pupils, and was curate. See "Sketches from the Life of the Rev. Charles +Smith Bird."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_276_276" id="Footnote_276_276"></a><a href="#FNanchor_276_276"><span class="label">[276]</span></a> "Lives of Hugh Latimer and Bernard Gilpin," by the Rev. +William Gilpin, p. 271.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_277_277" id="Footnote_277_277"></a><a href="#FNanchor_277_277"><span class="label">[277]</span></a> Anecdotes. Supplement, p. 249 (Singer's edition). Spence +died in 1768, aged 70.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_278_278" id="Footnote_278_278"></a><a href="#FNanchor_278_278"><span class="label">[278]</span></a> "Velasquez and his Works," by William Stirling, p. 62.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_279_279" id="Footnote_279_279"></a><a href="#FNanchor_279_279"><span class="label">[279]</span></a> Lady Holland's "Memoirs of her Father, the Rev. Sydney +Smith," vol. i., p. 118.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_280_280" id="Footnote_280_280"></a><a href="#FNanchor_280_280"><span class="label">[280]</span></a> "Memorials of the Rev. William Bull of Newport, Pagnel," +&c., by his grandson, the Rev. Josiah Bull, M.A. 1864.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_281_281" id="Footnote_281_281"></a><a href="#FNanchor_281_281"><span class="label">[281]</span></a> "Speeches in Parliament of the Right Honourable William +Windham, to which is prefixed some account of his Life," by Thomas +Amyot, Esq., vol. i. pp. 332, 353 (1812).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_282_282" id="Footnote_282_282"></a><a href="#FNanchor_282_282"><span class="label">[282]</span></a> Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 122.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_283_283" id="Footnote_283_283"></a><a href="#FNanchor_283_283"><span class="label">[283]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 201.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_284_284" id="Footnote_284_284"></a><a href="#FNanchor_284_284"><span class="label">[284]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 142.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_285_285" id="Footnote_285_285"></a><a href="#FNanchor_285_285"><span class="label">[285]</span></a> "Noctes Ambrosianæ," Works of Professor Wilson, vol. ii., +p. 4.</p></div> + +</div> + + + +<p class="center">PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY<br /> + +EDINBURGH AND LONDON</p> + +<div class="trans-note"> + +<p class="center">Transcriber's note:</p> + +<p>"The Aye-Aye, or Cheiromys of Madagascar (<i>with a Plate</i>)"</p> + +<p>Unfortunately no plate could be found for this particular section. Reference to it was removed +from the Table of Contents.</p> + + + + </div> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Heads and Tales, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEADS AND TALES *** + +***** This file should be named 25918-h.htm or 25918-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/9/1/25918/ + +Produced by Julia Miller, Janet Blenkinship and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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0000000..cbb38de --- /dev/null +++ b/25918-page-images/p0326.png diff --git a/25918.txt b/25918.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f1d109a --- /dev/null +++ b/25918.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11579 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Heads and Tales, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Heads and Tales + or, Anecdotes and Stories of Quadrupeds and Other Beasts, + Chiefly Connected with Incidents in the Histories of More + or Less Distinguished Men. + +Author: Various + +Editor: Adam White + +Release Date: June 28, 2008 [EBook #25918] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEADS AND TALES *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller, Janet Blenkinship and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + + + HEADS AND TALES. + + + + + PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY + EDINBURGH AND LONDON + + [Illustration: The Tasmanian Wolf. (_Thylacinus Cynocephalus._)] + + + + + HEADS AND TALES; + + OR, + + ANECDOTES AND STORIES OF QUADRUPEDS + AND OTHER BEASTS, + + CHIEFLY CONNECTED WITH INCIDENTS IN THE + HISTORIES OF MORE OR LESS DISTINGUISHED MEN. + + COMPILED AND SELECTED BY + + ADAM WHITE, + LATE ASSISTANT IN THE ZOOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT, BRITISH MUSEUM. + + Second Edition. + + LONDON: + JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET. + MDCCCLXX. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +In this work, a part of which is, so far as it extends, a careful +compilation from an extensive series of books, the great order mammalia, +or, rather, a few of its subjects, is treated anecdotically. The +connexion of certain animals with man, and the readiness with which man +can subdue even the largest of the mammalia, are very curious subjects +of thought. The dog and horse are our special friends and associates; +they seem to understand us, and we get very much attached to them. The +cat or the cow, again, possess a different degree of attachment, and +have "heads and hearts" less susceptible of this education than the +first mentioned. The anecdotes in this book will clearly show facts of +this nature. In the Letter of the Gorilla, under an appearance of +exaggeration, will be found many facts of its history. We have a strong +belief that natural history, written as White of Selborne did his Letter +of Timothy the Tortoise, would be very enticing and interesting to young +people. To make birds and other animals relate their stories has been +done sometimes, and generally with success. There are anecdotes hinging, +however, on animals which have more to do with man than the other +mammals referred to in the little story. These stories we have felt to +be very interesting when they occur in biographies of great men. Cowper +and his Hares, Huygens and his Sparrow, are tales--at least the +former--full of interesting matter on the history of the lower animal, +but are of most value as showing the influence on the man who amused +himself by taming them. We like to know that the great Duke, after +getting down from his horse Copenhagen, which carried him through the +whole battle of Waterloo, clapped him on the neck, when the war-charger +kicked out, as if untired. + +We could have added greatly to this book, especially in the part of +jests, puns, or cases of _double entendre_. The few selected may +suffice. The so-called conversations of "the Ettrick Shepherd" are full +of matter of this kind, treated by "Christopher North" with a happy +combination of rare power of description and apt exaggeration of detail, +often highly amusing. One or two instances are given here, such as the +Fox-hunt and the Whale. The intention of this book is primarily to be +amusing; but it will be strange if it do not instruct as well. There is +much in it that is _true_ of the habits of mammalia. These, with birds, +are likely to interest young people generally, more than anecdotes of +members of orders like fish, insects, or molluscs, lower in the scale, +though often possessing marvellous instincts, the accounts of which form +intensely interesting reading to those who are fond of seeing or hearing +of "the works of the Lord," and who "take pleasure" in them. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + MAMMALIA.[1] + + PAGE + MAN 1 + + Gainsborough's Joke--Skull of Julius Caesar when a boy 2 + + Sir David Wilkie's simplicity about Babies 3 + + James Montgomery translates into verse a description of + Man, after the manner of Linnaeus 4 + + Addison and Sir Richard Steele's Description of Gimcrack + the Collector 5 + + MONKEYS 9 + + The Gorilla and its Story 9 + + The Orang-Utan 11 + + The Chimpanzee 12 + + Letter of Mr Waterton 20 + + Mr Mitchell and the Young Chimpanzee 22 + + Lady Anne Barnard pleads for the Baboons 24 + + S. Bisset and his Trained Monkeys 25 + + Lord Byron's Pets 26 + + The Ettrick Shepherd's Monkey 27 + + The Findhorn Fisherman and the Monkey 29 + + "We ha'e seen the _Enemy_!" 29 + + The French Marquis and his Monkey 30 + + George IV. and Happy Jerry.--Mr Cross's Rib-nosed + Baboon at Exeter Change 31 + + The Young Lady's pet Monkey and the poor Parrot 33 + + Monkeys "poor relations" 34 + + Sydney Smith on Monkeys 34 + + Mrs Colin Mackenzie on the Apes at Simla 35 + + The Aye-Aye, or Cheiromys of Madagascar 36 + + BATS 38 + + One of Captain Cook's Sailors sees a Fox-Bat, and describes + it as a devil 39 + + Fox Bats (_with a Plate_) 41 + + Dr Mayerne and his Balsam of Bats 47 + + HEDGEHOG 48 + + Robert Southey to his Critics 48 + + MOLE 49 + + Mole, cause of Death of William III. 49 + + BROWN BEAR 56 + + The Austrian General and the Bear--"Back, rascal, I + am a general!" 58 + + Lord Byron's Bear at Cambridge 59 + + Charles Dickens on Bear's Grease and Bear-keepers 59 + + A Bearable Pun 60 + + A Shaved Bear 61 + + POLAR BEAR 61 + + General History and Anecdotes of Polar Bear, as observed + on recent Arctic Expeditions (_with a Plate_) 61 + + Nelson and the Polar Bear 67 + + A Clever Polar Bear 67 + + Captain Ommaney and the Polar Bear 70 + + RACCOON 71 + + "A Gone Coon" 71 + + BADGER 71 + + Hugh Miller sees the "Drawing of the Badger" 72 + + The Laird of Balnamoon and the Brock 75 + + FERRET 75 + + Collins and the Rat-catcher, with the Ferret 76 + + POLE-CAT 76 + + Fox and the Poll-Cat 77 + + DOG 77 + + Phrases about Dogs 77 + + Cowper's Dog 79 + + Cowper and his dog Beau 81 + + Burns's "Twa Dogs" 81 + + Dog of Assyrian Monument 86 + + Bishop Blomfield bitten by a Dog 88 + + Sydney Smith's Remark on it 88 + + Bishop of Bristol--"Puppies never see till they are nine + days old" 88 + + Mrs Browning, the Poetess, and her dog Flush 89 + + Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart., and his dog Speaker 93 + + Lord Byron and his dog Boatswain 94 + + Lady's reason for calling her dog Perchance 96 + + Collins the Artist and his dog Prinny--the faithful + Model 96 + + Soldier and Dog 97 + + Bark and Bite!--Curran on Lord Clare and his Dog 98 + + Mrs Drew and the two Dogs 98 + + Gainsborough and his Wife and their Dogs 100 + + Sir William Gell's Dog, which was said to speak 101 + + The Duke of Gordon's Wolf-hounds 102 + + Frederick the Great and his Italian Greyhounds 104 + + The Dog and the French Murderers 104 + + Hannah More on Garrick's Dog 105 + + Rev. Robert Hall and the Dog 106 + + A Queen (Henrietta Maria) and her Lap-Dog 106 + + The Clever Dog that belonged to the Hunters of Polmood 107 + + The Irish Clergyman and the Dogs 108 + + Washington Irving and the Dog 108 + + Douglas Jerrold and his Dog 109 + + Sheridan and the Dog 109 + + Charles Lamb and his dog "Dash" 110 + + French Dogs of Louis XII. 110 + + Martin Luther observes a Dog at Lintz 111 + + Poor Dog at the Grotta del Cane 111 + + Dog a Postman and Carrier 113 + + South and Sherlock--Dog-matic 113 + + General Moreau and his Greyhound 113 + + Duke of Norfolk and his Spaniels 114 + + Lord North and the Dog 115 + + Perthes derives Hints from his Dog 115 + + Peter the Great and his dog Lisette 116 + + The Light Company's Poodle and Sir F. Ponsonby 118 + + Admiral Rodney and his dog Loup 119 + + Ruddiman and his dog Rascal 119 + + Mrs Schimmelpenninck and the Dogs 120 + + Sir Walter Scott and his Dogs 122 + + Sheridan on the Dog-Tax 123 + + Sydney Smith dislikes Dogs.--An ingenious way of getting + rid of them 124 + + Sydney Smith on Dogs 125 + + Sydney Smith.--"Newfoundland Dog that breakfasted + on Parish Boys" 126 + + Robert Southey on his Dogs 126 + + A Dog that was a good judge of Elocution.--Mr True + and his Pupil 127 + + Dog that tried to please a Crying Child 128 + + Horace Walpole's pet dog Rosette 128 + + Horace Walpole.--Arrival of his dog Tonton 129 + + Horace Walpole.--Death of his dog Tonton 130 + + Archbishop Whateley and his Dogs 131 + + Archbishop Whately on Dogs 132 + + Sir David Wilkie.--A Dog Rose 133 + + Ulysses and his Dog 133 + + WOLF 135 + + Polson and the Last Wolf in Sutherlandshire 135 + + "If the tail break, you'll find that" 137 + + FOX 138 + + An Enthusiastic Fox-hunting Surgeon 138 + + Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, on the Pleasures of Fox-hunting, + and the gratification of the Fox 139 + + Arctic Foxes converted into Postmen, with Anecdotes + (_with a plate_) 142 + + JACKAL 148 + + Burke on the Jackal and Tiger 149 + + CAT 149 + + Jeremy Bentham and his pet cat "Sir John Langborn 150 + + S. Bisset and his Musical Cats 152 + + Constant, Chateaubriand, and their Cats 153 + + Liston, the Surgeon, and his Cat 153 + + The Banker Mitchell's Antipathy to Kittens 154 + + James Montgomery and his Cats 155 + + David Ritchie's Cat 157 + + Sir Walter Scott's Visit to the Black Dwarf 157 + + Southey, the Poet, and his Cats 158 + + Archbishop Whateley and the Cat that used to ring the + Bell 160 + + TIGER AND LION 161 + + Bussapa, the Tiger-slayer, and the Tiger 162 + + John Hunter and the Dead Tiger 164 + + Mrs Mackenzie on the Indian's regard and awe for the + Tiger 165 + + Jolly Jack-tar on Lion and Tiger 166 + + Androcles and the Lion 167 + + Sir George Davis and the Lion 170 + + Canova's Lions and the Child 171 + + Admiral Napier and the Lion in the Tower 173 + + Old Lady and the Beasts on the Mound 173 + + SEALS 174 + + Dr Adam Clarke on Shetland Seals 175 + + Dr Edmonstone and the Shetland Seals 176 + + The Walrus or Morse (_with a Plate_) 182 + + KANGAROO 188 + + Charles Lamb on its Peculiarities 188 + + Captain Cooke's Sailor and the first Kangaroo seen 189 + + Charles Lamb on Kangaroos having Purses in front 189 + + Kangaroo Cooke 189 + + TIGER WOLF 190 + + SQUIRREL, &c. 194 + + Jekyll on a Squirrel 195 + + Pets of some of the Parisian Revolutionary Butchers 195 + + Sir George Back and the poor Lemming 196 + + McDougall and Arctic Lemming 197 + + RATS AND MICE 198 + + Duke of Wellington and Musk-Rat 200 + + Lady Eglinton and the Rats 200 + + General Douglas and the Rats 201 + + Hanover Rats 202 + + Irishman Shooting Rats 203 + + James Watt and the Rat's Whiskers 204 + + Gray the Poet compares Poet-Laureate to Rat-catcher 204 + + Jeremy Bentham and the Mice 205 + + Robert Burns and the Field Mouse 206 + + Fuller on Destructive Field Mice 208 + + Baron Von Trenck and the Mouse in Prison 209 + + Alexander Wilson, the American Ornithologist, and the + Mouse 211 + + HARES, RABBITS, GUINEA-PIG 212 + + William Cowper on his Hares 213 + + Lord Norbury on the Exaggeration of a Hare-Shooter 220 + + Duke of L. prefers Friends to Hares 221 + + S. Bisset and his Trained Hare and Turtle 221 + + Lady Anne Barnard on a Family of Rabbits all blind of + one eye 222 + + Thomas Fuller on Norfolk Rabbits 222 + + Dr Chalmers and the Guinea-Pig 223 + + SLOTH 224 + + Sydney Smith on the Sloth--a Comparison 224 + + THE GREAT ANT-EATER (_with a Plate_) 225 + + ELEPHANT 229 + + Lord Clive--Elephant or Equivalent? 230 + + Canning on the Elephant and his Trunk 232 + + Sir R. Phillips and Jelly made of Ivory Dust 233 + + J. T. Smith and the Elephant 234 + + Sydney Smith on the Elephant and Tailor 235 + + Elephant's Skin--a teacher put down 236 + + FOSSIL PACHYDERMATA 236 + + Cuvier's Enthusiasm over Fossils 236 + + SOW 238 + + "There's a hantle o' miscellaneous eatin' aboot a Pig" 238 + + "Pig-Sticking at Chicago" 238 + + Monument to a Pig at Luneberg 239 + + WILD BOAR (_with a Plate_) 239 + + THE RIVER PIG (_with a Plate_) 245 + + S. Bisset and his Learned Pig 250 + + Quixote Bowles fond of Pigs 251 + + On Jekyll's treading on a small Pig 251 + + Good enough for a Pig 251 + + Gainsborough's Pigs 252 + + Theodore Hook and the Litter of Pigs 253 + + Lady Hardwicke's Pig--her Bailiff 253 + + Pigs and Silver Spoon 253 + + Sydney Smith on Beautiful Pigs 254 + + Joseph Sturge, when a boy, and the Pigs 255 + + RHINOCEROS 229 + + The Lord Keeper Guildford and the Rhinoceros in the + City of London 230 + + HORSE 256 + + Horse shot under Albert 256 + + Bell-Rock Lighthouse Horse 257 + + Edmund Burke and the Horse 257 + + David Garrick and his Horse, "A horse! a horse! my + kingdom for a horse!" 258 + + Bernard Gilpin's Horses stolen and recovered 260 + + The Herald and George III.'s Horse 261 + + Rev. Rowland Hill and his Horse 261 + + Holcroft on the Horse 263 + + Lord Mansfield, his Joke about a Horse 267 + + Sir John Moore and his Horse at Corunna 268 + + Neither Horses nor Children can explain their Complaints 269 + + Horses with Names 270 + + Rennie the Engineer and the Horse Old Jack 270 + + Sydney Smith and his Horses 271 + + Sydney Smith.--He drugs his Domestic Animals 273 + + Horseback, an Absent Clergyman 273 + + Judge Story and the Names he gave his Horses 274 + + Short-tailed and Long-tailed Horses at Livery, difference + of Charge 275 + + ASS AND ZEBRA 276 + + Coleridge on the Ass 276 + + Collins and the old Donkey at Odell 276 + + Gainsborough kept one to Study from 277 + + Irishman on the Ramsgate Donkeys 278 + + Douglas Jerrold and the Ass's Foal 278 + + The Judge and the Barrister 279 + + Ass that loved Poetry 279 + + Warren Hastings and the refractory Donkey 279 + + Northcote, an Angel at an Ass 281 + + Sydney Smith's Donkey with Jeffrey on his back 281 + + Sydney Smith on the Sagacity of the Ass 283 + + Sydney Smith's Deers, how he introduced them into + his Grounds to gratify Visitors 284 + + Asses' Duty Free 284 + + Thackeray on Egyptian Donkey 285 + + Zebra, a Frenchman's _double-entendre_ 287 + + CAMELS 287 + + Captain William Peel, R.N., on Camel 287 + + Captain in Royal Navy measures the progress of the + Ship of the Desert 289 + + Lord Metcalfe on a Camel when a Boy 290 + + RED DEER 291 + + Earl of Dalhousie and the ferocious Stag 291 + + The French Count and the Stag 293 + + FALLOW DEER 294 + + Venison Fat, Reynolds and the Gourmand 294 + + Goethe on Stag-trench at Frankfort-on-Maine 294 + + GIRAFFE 295 + + "Fancy Two Yards of Sore Throat!" 295 + + SHEEP AND GOAT 295 + + How many Legs has a Sheep? 296 + + Goethe on Roos's Etchings of Sheep 296 + + Lord Cockburn and the Sheep 298 + + Erskine's Sheep--an Eye to the Woolsack 298 + + Sandy Wood and his Pet Sheep and Raven 298 + + General Carnac and She-goat 299 + + John Hunter and the Shawl-goat 300 + + Commodore Keppel _beards_ the Dey of Algiers 303 + + OX 304 + + Irish Bulls 304 + + A great Calf! "The more he sucked the greater Calf he + grew!" 304 + + Veal _ad nauseam!_ too much of a good thing 304 + + James Boswell should confine himself to the Cow 305 + + Rev. Adam Clarke and his Bullock Pat 305 + + Samuel Foote and the Cows pulling the Bell of Worcester + College 306 + + The General's Cow at Plymouth 308 + + Gilpin's Love of the Picturesque carried out--a reason + for keeping three Cows 308 + + King James on a Cow getting over the Border 309 + + Duke of Montague and his Hospital for Old Cows and + Horses 309 + + Philip IV. of Spain in the Bull-ring 310 + + Sydney Smith and his "Universal Scratcher" 311 + + Rev. Augustus Toplady on the Future State of Animals--the + Rev. William Bull 312 + + Windham on the Feelings of a Baited Bull 313 + + WHALE 315 + + A Porpoise not at Home 315 + + Whalebone 315 + + "What's to become o' the puir Whales?" 316 + + Very like a Whale! 316 + + Christopher North on the Whale 316 + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] There are many anecdotes in this book not included in this list, +which gives however, the principal. + + + + +HEADS AND TALES. + + + + +MAN. + + +In this collection, like Linnaeus, we begin with man as undoubtedly an +animal, as opposed to a vegetable or mineral. Like Professor Owen, we +are inclined to fancy he is well entitled to separate rank from even the +Linnaean order, _Primates_, and to have more systematic honour conferred +on him than what Cuvier allowed him. That great French naturalist placed +man in a section separate from his four-handed order, _Quadrumana_, and, +from his two hands and some other qualities, enrolled our race in an +order, _Bimana_. Surely the ancients surpassed many modern naturalists +of the Lamarckian school, who would derive him from an ourang, a +chimpanzee, or a gorilla. One of them has nobly said-- + + "Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque tueri." + +Our own Sir William Hamilton, in a few powerful words has condensed what +will ever be, we are thankful to suppose, the general idea of most men, +be they naturalists or not, that mind and soul have much to distinguish +us from every other animal:-- + +"What man holds of matter does not make up his personality. Man is not +an organism. He is an intelligence served by organs. _They are_ HIS, +_not_ HE." + +As a mere specimen, we subjoin two or three anecdotes, although the +species, _Homo sapiens_, has supplied, and might supply, many volumes of +anecdotes touching on his whims and peculiarities. As a good example of +the Scottish variety, who is there that does not know Dean Ramsay's +"Reminiscences?" Surely each nation requires a similar judicious +selection. Mr Punch, especially when aided by his late admirable artist, +John Leech, shows seemingly that John Bull and his family are as +distinct from the French, as the French are from the Yankees. + + +THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH THE ARTIST, AND THE TAILOR. + +Gainsborough, the painter, was very ready-witted. His biographer[2] +records the following anecdote of him as very likely to be authentic. +The great artist occasionally made sketches from an honest old tailor, +of the name of Fowler, who had a picturesque countenance and silver-gray +locks. On the chimney-piece of his painting-room, among other +curiosities, was a beautiful preparation of an infant _cranium_, +presented to the painter by his old friend, Surgeon Cruickshanks. +Fowler, without moving his position, continually peered at it askance +with inquisitive eye. "Ah! Master Fowler," said the painter, "that is a +mighty curiosity." "What might it be, sir, if I may be so bold?" "A +_whale's eye_," replied Gainsborough. "Oh! not so; never say so, Muster +Gainsborough. Laws! sir, it is a little child's skull!" "You have hit +upon it," said the wag. "Why, Fowler, you are a witch! But what will you +think when I tell you that it is the skull of _Julius Caesar_ when he was +a little boy?" "Do you say so!" exclaimed Fowler, "what a phenomenon!" + +This reminds us of a similar story told of a countryman, who was shown +the so-called skull of Oliver Cromwell at the museum in Oxford, and +expressed his delight by saying how gratifying it was to see skulls of +great men at different ages, for he had just seen at Bath the skull of +the Protector when a youth! + + +SIR DAVID WILKIE AND THE BABY. + +A very popular novelist and author of the present day tells the +following anecdote of the simplicity of Sir David Wilkie, with regard to +his knowledge of _infant_ human nature:-- + +On the birth of his first son, at the beginning of 1824, William +Collins,[3] the great artist, requested Sir David Wilkie to become one +of the sponsors for his child.[4] The painter's first criticism on his +future godson is worth recording from its simplicity. Sir David, whose +studies of human nature extended to everything but _infant_ human +nature, had evidently been refreshing his faculties for the occasion, by +taxing his boyish recollections of puppies and kittens; for, after +looking intently into the child's eyes as it was held up for his +inspection, he exclaimed to the father, with serious astonishment and +satisfaction, "He _sees_!" + + +MAN DEFINED SOMEWHAT IN THE LINNAEAN MANNER. + +One who is partial to the Linnaean mode of characterising objects of +natural history has amused himself with drawing up the following +definition of man:--"_Simia sine cauda; pedibus posticis ambulans; +gregarius, omnivorus, inquietus, mendax, furax, rapax, salax, pugnax, +artium variarum capax, animalium reliquorum hostis, sui ipsius inimicus +acerrimus._" + +Montgomery translated the description thus:-- + + "Man is an animal unfledged, + A monkey with his tail abridged; + A thing that walks on spindle legs, + With bones as brittle, sir, as eggs; + His body, flexible and limber, + And headed with a knob of timber; + A being frantic and unquiet, + And very fond of beef and riot; + Rapacious, lustful, rough, and martial, + To lies and lying scoundrels partial! + By nature form'd with splendid parts + To rise in science--shine in arts; + Yet so confounded cross and vicious, + A mortal foe to all his species! + His own best _friend_, and you must know, + His own worst _enemy_ by being so!"[5] + + +ADDISON AND STEELE ON SOME OF THE PECULIARITIES OF THE NATURAL HISTORY +COLLECTORS OF THE DAY. + +In one of the early volumes of _Chambers's Edinburgh Journal_, there was +a very curious paper entitled "Nat Phin." Although considerably +exaggerated, no one who had the happiness of knowing the learned, +amiable, and excellent Dr Patrick Neill, could fail to recognise, in the +transposed title, an amusing description of his love of natural history +pets, zoological and botanical. The fun of the paper is that "Nat" gets +married, and, coming home one day from his office, finds that his young +wife has caused the gardener to clear out his ponds of tadpoles and +zoophytes. + +Addison or Sir Richard Steele, or both of them, in the following paper +of the _Tatler_ (No. 221, Sept. 7, 1710), has given one of those quietly +satiric pictures of many a well-known man of the day, some Petiver or +Hans Sloane. The widow Gimcrack's letter is peculiarly racy. Although +old books, the _Tatler_ and _Spectator_ still furnish rare material to +many a popular magazine writer of the day, who sometimes does little +more than dilute a paper in these and other rare repertories of the +style and wit of a golden age. We meditated offering various extracts +from Swift and Daniel Defoe; but our space limits us to one, and the +following may for the present suffice. + + "_From my own Apartment, September 6._ + +"As I was this morning going out of my house, a little boy in a black +coat delivered me the following letter. Upon asking who he was, he told +me that he belonged to my Lady Gimcrack. I did not at first recollect +the name, but, upon inquiry, I found it to be the widow of Sir Nicholas, +whose legacy I lately gave some account of to the world. The letter ran +thus:-- + +"'MR BICKERSTAFF,--I hope you will not be surprised to receive a letter +from the widow Gimcrack. You know, sir, that I have lately lost a very +whimsical husband, who, I find, by one of your last week's papers, was +not altogether a stranger to you. When I married this gentleman, he had +a very handsome estate; but, upon buying a set of microscopes, he was +chosen a _Fellow of the Royal Society; from which time I do not remember +ever to have heard him speak as other people did_, or talk in a manner +that any of his family could understand him. He used, however, to pass +away his time very innocently in conversation with several members of +that learned body: for which reason I never advised him against their +company for several years, until at last I found his brain quite turned +with their discourses. The first symptoms which he discovered of his +being a _virtuoso_, as you call him, poor man! was about fifteen years +ago; when he gave me positive orders to turn off an old weeding woman, +that had been employed in the family for some years. He told me, at the +same time, that there was no such thing in nature as a weed, and that it +was his design to let his garden produce what it pleased; so that, you +may be sure, it makes a very pleasant show as it now lies. About the +same time he took a humour to ramble up and down the country, and would +often bring home with him his pockets full of moss and pebbles. This, +you may be sure, gave me a heavy heart; though, at the same time, I must +needs say, he had the character of a very honest man, notwithstanding +he was reckoned a little weak, until he began to sell his estate, and +buy those strange baubles that you have taken notice of. Upon +midsummerday last, as he was walking with me in the fields, he saw a +very odd-coloured butterfly just before us. I observed that he +immediately changed colour, like a man that is surprised with a piece of +good luck; and telling me that it was what he had looked for above these +twelve years, he threw off his coat, and followed it. I lost sight of +them both in less than a quarter of an hour; but my husband continued +the chase over hedge and ditch until about sunset; at which time, as I +was afterwards told, he caught the butterfly as she rested herself upon +a cabbage, near five miles from the place where he first put her up. He +was here lifted from the ground by some passengers in a very fainting +condition, and brought home to me about midnight. His violent exercise +threw him into a fever, which grew upon him by degrees, and at last +carried him off. In one of the intervals of his distemper he called to +me, and, after having excused himself for running out his estate, he +told me that he had always been more industrious to improve his mind +than his fortune, and that his family must rather value themselves upon +his memory as he was a wise man than a rich one. He then told me that it +was a custom among the Romans for a man to give his slaves their liberty +when he lay upon his death-bed. I could not imagine what this meant, +until, after having a little composed himself, he ordered me to bring +him a flea which he had kept for several months in a chain, with a +design, as he said, to give it its manumission. This was done +accordingly. He then made the will, which I have since seen printed in +your works word for word. Only I must take notice that you have omitted +the codicil, in which he left a large _concha veneris_, as it is there +called, to a _Member of the Royal Society_, who was often with him in +his sickness, and _assisted him in his will_. And now, sir, I come to +the chief business of my letter, which is to desire your friendship and +assistance in the disposal of those many rarities and curiosities which +lie upon my hands. If you know any one that has an occasion for a parcel +of dried spiders, I will sell them a pennyworth. I could likewise let +any one have a bargain of cockle-shells. I would also desire your advice +whether I had best sell my beetles in a lump or by retail. The gentleman +above mentioned, who was my husband's friend, would have me make an +auction of all his goods, and is now drawing up a catalogue of every +particular for that purpose, with the two following words in great +letters over the head of them, Auctio Gimcrackiana. But, upon talking +with him, I begin to suspect he is as mad as poor Sir Nicholas was. Your +advice in all these particulars will be a great piece of charity to, +Sir, your most humble servant, + + "'ELIZABETH GIMCRACK.' + +"I shall answer the foregoing letter, and give the widow my best advice, +as soon as I can find out chapmen for the wares which she has to put +off." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] Life of Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. By the late George Williams +Fulcher. Edited by his Son. P. 157. + +[3] Memoir of the Life of William Collins, R.A. By W. Wilkie Collins. +I., p. 235. + +[4] The future author of "The Woman in White" and "The Dead Secret," and +many other works of celebrity. + +[5] Memoirs of James Montgomery. By Holland and Everett. I., p. 283. + + + + +MONKEYS. + +THE GORILLA AND ITS STORY. + + +In the British Museum, in handsome glass cases, and on the floors of the +three first rooms at the top of the stairs, may be seen the largest +collection of the skins and skeletons of quadrupeds ever brought +together. In the third, or principal room, will be found a nearly +complete series of the QUADRUMANA or four-handed Mammalia. Monkeys are +_quadrumanous mammalia_. The resemblance of these animals to men is most +conspicuous, in the largest of them, such as the gorilla, orang-utan, +chimpanzee, and the long-armed or gibbous apes. Such resemblance is most +distant in the ferocious dog-faced baboons of Africa, the _Cynocephali_ +of the ancients. It is softened off, but not effaced, in the pretty +little countenances of those dwarf pets from South America, the +ouistities or marmosets, and other species of new-world monkeys, some of +which are not larger than a squirrel. + +They are well called MONKEYS, Monnikies, Mannikies--little men, "_Simiae +quasi bestiae hominibus similes_," "monkeys, as if beasts resembling +man," or "mon," as the word man is pronounced in pure _Doric_ Saxon, +whether in York or Peebles. + +"Monkey! you very degraded little brute, how much you resemble us!" said +old Ennius, without ever fancying that the day would come when some men +would regard their own race as little better than highly-advanced +monkeys. + +Let us never for a moment rest in such fallacious theories, or accept +the belief of Darwin and Huxley, with a few active agitating disciples, +that animals, and even plants, may pass into each other. + + "I think we are not wholly brain, + Magnetic mockeries; ... + Not only cunning casts in clay; + Let science prove we are, and then + What matters science unto men, + At least to me! I would not stay: + Let him, the wiser man who springs + Hereafter, up from childhood shape + His action, like the greater ape, + But I was born to other things." + + --_In Memoriam_, cxix. + +Darwin and Huxley cannot change nature. They may change their minds and +opinions, as their fathers did before them. It is, we suspect, only the +old heathen materialism cropping out,-- + + "Our little systems have their day-- + They have their day and cease to be. + They are but broken lights of Thee, + And Thou, O Lord! art more than they." + + --_In Memoriam._ + +No artists or authors have ever pictured or described monkeys like Sir +Edwin Landseer and his brother Thomas. Surely a new edition of the +_Monkeyana_ is wanted for the rising generation. Oliver Goldsmith, that +great writer, who was most feeble in knowledge of natural history from +almost total ignorance of the subject, over which he threw the graces of +his charming style, noticed, as remarkable, that in countries "where the +men are barbarous and stupid, the brutes are the most active and +sagacious." He continues, that it is in the torrid tracts, inhabited by +barbarians, that animals are found with instinct so nearly approaching +reason. Both in Africa and America, accordingly, he tells us, "the +savages suppose monkeys to be men; idle, slothful, rational beings, +capable of speech and conversation, but obstinately dumb, for fear of +being compelled to labour." + +For the present, I shall suppose that the gorilla, largest of all the +apes, can not only speak, but write; and is speaking and writing to an +orang-utan of Borneo. Even a Lamarckian will allow this to be within the +range of possibility. Were it possible to get Gay or Cowper to write a +new set of fables, animals, in the days of postoffices and letters, +would become, like the age, epistolary. But a word on the imaginary +correspondent. + +The orang, as the reader knows, is the great red-haired "Man of the +Woods," as the name may be rendered in English. My old friend, Mr Alfred +Wallace, lately in New Guinea, and the adjoining parts, collecting +natural history subjects, and making all kinds of valuable observations +and surveys, sent to Europe most of the magnificent specimens of this +"ugly beast" now in the museum. He has detailed its habits and history +in an able account, published some years ago in "The Annals and Magazine +of Natural History." + +Its home seems to be the fine forests which cover many parts of the +coast of Borneo. The home of the gorilla and chimpanzee are in the +tropical forests of the coasts of Western Africa. + +There would seem to be but three or four well established _species_ of +these apes, though there are, as in man and most created beings, some +marked or decided varieties. These apes are altogether _quadrupeds_, +adapted for a life among trees. The late Charles Waterton, of Walton +Hall, whom I deem it an honour to have known for many years, personally +and in his writings, has well shown this in his "Essays on Natural +History." Professor Owen, with his osteologies, and old Tyson, with his +anatomies, have each demonstrated that--draw what inferences the +followers of Mr Darwin may choose--monkeys are not men, but quadrupeds. + +The structure of chimpanzee, orang, and gorilla considerably resembles +that of man, but so more distantly does a frog's, so does Scheuchzer's +fossil amphibian in the museum, so does a squirrel's, so does a +parrot's. Yet, because parrots, squirrels, frogs, and asses have skulls, +a pelvis, and fore-arms, they are _not_ men any more than fish are. +Linnaeus has given the _real_ specific, the _real_ class, order, and +generic character of man, unique as a species, as a genus, as an order, +or as a class, as even the greatest comparative anatomist of England +regards him; "Nosce teipsum:" "[Greek: Gnothi seauton]"--KNOW THYSELF. +Man alone expects a hereafter. He is immortal, and anticipates, hopes +for, or dreads a resurrection. Melancholy it is that he alone, as an +American writer curiously remarks, collects bodies of men of _one_ blood +to fight with each other. He alone can become a _drunkard_. + +The reader must leave rhapsody, and may now be reminded, in explanation +of allusions in the following letter, that the arm of Dr Livingstone, +the African traveller, was crushed and crunched by the bite and "chaw" +of a lion. He will also please to notice, that the skeleton of the +gorilla in the museum has the left arm broken by some dreadful accident. +This injury may _possibly_ have been caused by a fall when young, or +more probably by the empoisoned bite of a larger gorilla, or of a +tree-climbing Leopard. So much may be premised before giving a letter, +supposed to be intercepted on its way between the Gaboon and London, and +London and Borneo, opened at St Martin's-le-Grand, and detained as +unpaid. + +"I was born in a large baobab tree, on the west coast of Africa, not +very far from Calabar. We gorillas are good time-keepers, rise early and +go to bed early, guided infallibly by the sun. But though our family has +been in existence at least six thousand years, we have no chronology, +and care not a straw about our grandfathers. I suppose I had a +grandmother, but I never took _any_ interest in any but very close +relationships. + +"We never toiled for our daily food, and are not idle like these lazy +black fellows who hold their palavers near us, and whom I, for my part, +heartily despise. They cannot climb a tree, as we do, although they can +talk to each other, and make one another slaves. At least they so treat +their countrymen far off where the fine sweet plantains grow, and some +other juicy tit-bits, the memory of which makes my mouth water. These +fellows have ugly wives, not nearly so big-mouthed as ours, without our +noble bony ridge, small ears, and exalted presence. They are actually +forced to walk erect, and their fore-legs seldom touch the ground, +except in the case of piccanninies. These little creatures crawl on the +ground, are much paler when born, and are then perfectly helpless; and +have no hair except on their heads, whereas our beautiful young are +fine and hairy, and can swing among the branches, shortly after birth, +nearly as well as their parents. When I was very young, I could soon +help myself to fruits which abound on our trees. + +"Have you dates, plantains, and soursops--so sweet--at Sarawak, Master +Redhair? We have, and all kinds of them. I should like, for a variety, +to taste yours. Mind you send me some of the _durian_.[6] Make haste and +send it, for Wallace's description makes my mouth water. + +"I have told you our little ones soon learn to help themselves, whereas +I have seen the piccaninnies of the blacks nursed by their mothers till +many rainy seasons had come and gone. I really think nothing of the +talking blacks who live near us. They put on bits of coloured rags, not +nearly so bright, so regular, nor so _contrasting_ as the feathers of +our birds. + +"Beautifully coloured are the green touraco and the purple +plantain-eater, a rascally bird! who eats some of our finest plantains, +and has bitten holes in many a one I thought to get entirely to myself. +Why, our parrots beat these West-African negroes to sticks! Even our +common gray parrot, so prettily scaled with gray, and with the red +feathers under his tail, is more natural than these blacks, with their +dirty-white, yellow, blue, green, and red rags. + +"Besides, that gray parrot beats them hollow both in its voice and in +the way it imitates. Do you know that when I have been giving my quick +short bark, to tell that I am not well pleased, I have heard one of +these fellows near me actually make me startle--its bark was so like to +that of one of our kind! I cannot bear the blacks! I have had a grudge +against them since some little urchins shot at me when I was young, and +made my hand bleed. How it bled! My mother, with whom I had been, kept +out of the way of these blackguards, but I was playing with another +little gorilla, and forgot to keep a look-out. I have kept a good +look-out ever since I got _that_ wound, I assure you. I licked it often, +and so did my mother with her delicious mouth. It soon left off bleeding +and healed. We gorillas have no brandy, no whisky, no wine, not even +small beer, to inflame our blood. We sleep, too, among the trees, clear +off the ground, where there are dangerous vapours, so that we are free +from all miasmata. West Africa is my lovely home, and I am big and +beautifully pot-bellied. It is the home of the large-eared chimpanzee, a +near relative of ours, though we never marry. He is an active fellow, +with rather large vulgar-looking ears; while mine, though I ought not to +say so, are beautifully small, and denote my more exalted birth. Master +Chimpanzee needs all his ears, for he is not so strong as I, and as you +will hear, we anthropoids have enemies in our trees, just as you perhaps +have, Master Redhair. We are both cautious of getting on the ground, and +when there, I assure you I keep a sharp look-out. + +"I have told you of one adventure I had in my youth, and now listen to +another which I have not forgotten to this day. My left arm aches now as +I think of it. + +"As I was one day gambolling with another playfellow in a large tree, +with great branches standing out from the trunk, and at a good height +from the ground, my companion, another young gorilla, but with smaller +mouth, larger nose, and other features uglier than mine, suddenly +shrieked, and looked frightened and angry. No sooner had I noticed him +than my whole frame was shaken. I was seized by two paws in the small of +my back--a very painful part to be dug into--by ten hooked claws, nearly +as long as tenpenny nails, but horribly sharp and hooked.--Oh my arm! + +"I tried to turn round, and there was a most ferocious leopard growling +at me. I tried to bite, and to scratch his eyes out, but the pain in the +small of my back made me quite giddy. The spotted scoundrel seized my +left arm--how it aches!--and gave me a _crunch_ or two. I hear, I feel +the teeth against my bones as I write. My whole body is full of pain. + +"My mother came and released me. She was large, handsome, and +well-to-do, with _such_ long and strong arms, and with a magnificent +bulging and pouting mouth. In those days of my infancy I used to fancy I +should like to try to take as large a bite of a plantain as she could. I +tried twice or thrice, but could only squash a tenth of the juice of the +fruit into my mouth. She had glorious white teeth. Her grin clearly +frightened the leopard, as well as a pinch she gave him in the 'scruff' +of the neck with one of her hands, while with the other she caught hold +of his tail and made him yell. How he roared! He fell off the branch on +to another; but soon, like all the cats, recovered his hold and jumped +down to the ground, when he skulked away with his tail behind him. + +"I must really leave off, warned both by my paper and your impatience. +Well, I grew stronger and bigger every day, and swung by one arm almost +as well as the rest did with their two. I got, in fact, so strong on my +hind feet, that my toes were actually in time thicker than those of any +of my race. It is well, my dear Orang, to use what you have left you, +and to try as soon as possible to forget what has been taken from you. + +"... Look at my portrait, I am as strong, and as bony, and as bonnie, as +any gorilla. But I begin to boast, so I will leave off." + + * * * * * + +No doubt that gorilla's injured arm affected its habits and its activity +every day of its life. The broken arm, never set by some gorilla surgeon +of celebrity, formed a highly important feature in its biography. +Reader! when next thou visitest the noble Museum in Bloomsbury, look at +the skeleton of that gorilla, whose probable story Arachnophilus hath +tried to give thee, and remember that both skin and skeleton were +exhibited there before Du Chaillu became "a lion." + +The gorilla is a native of West Africa. It is closely allied to the +chimpanzee, but grows to a larger size, and has many striking anatomical +characters and external marks to distinguish it. It is certainly much +dreaded by the natives on the banks of the Gaboon, and, doubtless, +dreads them equally. Dr Gray procured a large specimen in a tub from +that district. It was skinned and set up by Mr Bartlett. I have seen +photographs in the hands of my excellent old friend--that admirable +natural history and anatomical draughtsman--Mr George Ford of Hatton +Garden. These photographs were taken from its truly ugly face as it was +pulled out of the stinking brine. Life in death, or death in life, it +was most repulsive. + +Professor Owen read a most elaborate paper on the gorilla before the +Zoological Society. The great comparative anatomist and zoologist shows +that it _may_ have been the very species whose skins were brought by +Hanno to Carthage, in times before the Christian era, as the skins of +_hairy wild men_. The historian refers to them as "gorullai" ([Greek: +Goryllai].) + +The natives of West Africa name it "N'Geena." + + * * * * * + +The stuffed specimen at the Museum is a young male. Its preparation does +great credit to Mr Bartlett's care and knowledge, for the hair over +nearly all the body was in patches among the spirit--thoroughly +corrupted in its alcoholic strength by animal matter. The peculiarly +anthropoid and morbidly-disagreeable look that even the face of the +young gorilla had was, of course, perfect in the photograph. In the +_Leisure Hour_, a tolerably good cut of it was given, but the artist did +not copy the label accurately, for on the photograph from which that cut +was derived, _another name_ was rendered by _that_ sun, who pays no +compliments and tells no lies. Professor Owen, the greatest of +comparative anatomists, has made the subject of anthropoid apes his own, +by the perfection of his researches, continued and continuous. He would +have liked, at least I may venture, I believe, to say so (if the matter +gave him more than a moment's thought), that the name of Dr Gray had +been on that label. + + +_Letter from C. Waterton, Esq., mentioning a young gorilla._ + + WALTON HALL, _Feb_. 4, 1856. + +"DEAR SIR,--As your favour of the 28th did not seem to require an +immediate answer I put it aside for a while, having a multiplicity of +business then on hand, and being obliged to be from home for a couple of +days. + +"I beg to enclose you the letter to which you allude. + +"Pray do not suppose that for one single moment I should be illiberal +enough to undervalue a 'closet naturalist.' 'Non cuivis homini contingit +adire corinthum.' It does not fall to every one's lot to range through +the forests of Guiana, still, a gentleman given to natural history may +do wonders for it in his own apartments on his native soil; and had +Audubon, Swainson, Jameson, &c., not attacked me in all the pride of +pompous self-conceit, I should have been the last man in the world to +expose their gross ignorance. + +"You ask me 'If we are to have another volume of essays?' I beg to +answer, no. Last year, Mrs Loudon (to whom I made a present of the +essays) wrote to me, and asked for a few papers to be inserted in a +forthcoming edition. I answered, that as I had had some strange and +awful adventures since the 'Autobiography' made its appearance, I would +tack them on to it. But from that time to this, I have never had a line, +either from Mrs Loudon or from her publishers. But some months ago, +having made a present of a superb case of preserved specimens in natural +history to the Jesuits' College in Lancashire, I gave directions to my +stationer at Wakefield to procure me from London the fourth or last +edition of the essays; and I made references to it accordingly. But, lo +and behold, when I had opened this supposed fourth edition, I saw +printed on the title page 'a new edition.' Better had they printed a +_fifth edition_. This threw all my references wrong. Should you be +passing by Messrs Longman, perhaps you will have the goodness to ask +when this 'new edition' was printed. + +"I am sorry you did not show me your drawing of the chimpanzee before it +was engraved. The artist has not done justice to it. He has made the +ears far too large.[7] The little brown chimpanzee has very small ears; +fully as small in proportion as those of a genuine negro. I am half +inclined to give to the world a little treatise on the monkey tribe. I +am prepared to show that Linnaeus, Buffon, and all our hosts of +naturalists who have copied the remarks of these celebrated naturalists, +are perfectly in the dark with regard to the true character of _all_ the +monkey tribe. Yesterday, I sent up to the _Gardener's Chronicle_ a few +notes on the woodpecker.--Believe me, dear sir, very truly yours, + + CHARLES WATERTON. + +"P.S.--Many thanks for your nice little treatise on the chimpanzee." + +Mr Waterton enclosed me a copy of the following letter, which he +published in a Yorkshire newspaper:-- + + _To Mrs Wombwell._ + +"MADAM,--I am truly sorry that the inclemency of the weather has +prevented the inhabitants of this renowned watering-place from visiting +your wonderful gorilla, or brown orang-outang. + +"I have passed two hours in its company, and I have been gratified +beyond expression. + +"Would that all lovers of natural history could get a sight of it, as, +possibly, they may never see another of the same species in this +country. + +"It differs widely in one respect from all other orang-outangs which +have been exhibited in England--namely, that, when on the ground, it +never walks on the soles of its fore-feet, but on the knuckles of the +toes of those feet; and those toes are doubled up like the closed fist +of a man. This must be a painful position; and, to relieve itself, the +animal catches hold of visitors, and clings caressingly to Miss Bright, +who exhibits it. Here then, it is at rest, with the toes of the +fore-feet performing their natural functions, which they never do when +the animal is on the ground. + +"Hence I draw the conclusion that this singular quadruped, like the +sloth, is not a walker on the ground of its own free-will, but by +accident only. + +"No doubt whatever it is born, and lives, and dies aloft, amongst the +trees in the forests of Africa. + +"Put it on a tree, and then it will immediately have the full use of the +toes of its fore-feet. Place it on the ground, and then you will see +that the toes of the fore-feet become useless, as I have already +described. + +"That it may retain its health, and thus remunerate you for the large +sum which you have expended in the purchase of it, is, madam, the +sincere hope of your obedient servant and well-wisher, + + CHARLES WATERTON." + +Scarborough Cliff, No. 1, _Nov. 1, 1855_. + +"_P.S._--You are quite at liberty to make what use you choose of this +letter. I have written it for your own benefit, and for the good of +natural history."[8] + + +MR MITCHELL ON A YOUNG CHIMPANZEE. + +The writer of a most readable article on the acclimatisation of animals +in the _Edinburgh Review_,[9] gives an amusing recital of the arrival of +a chimpanzee at the Zoological Gardens. It was related to him by the +late Mr Mitchell, who was long the active secretary of the society, and +who did much to improve the Gardens. "One damp November evening, just +before dusk, there arrived a French traveller from Senegal, with a +companion closely muffled up in a burnoose at his side. On going, at his +earnest request, to speak to him at the gate, he communicated to me the +interesting fact that the stranger in the burnoose was a young chim, who +had resided in his family in Senegal for some twelve months, and who had +accompanied him to England. The animal was in perfect health; but from +the state of the atmosphere required good lodging, and more tender care +than could be found in a hotel. He proposed to sell his friend. I was +hard; did not like pulmonic property[10] at that period of the year, +having already two of the race in moderate health, but could not refrain +from an offer of hospitality during Chim's residence in London. Chim was +to go to Paris if I did not buy him. So we carried him, burnoose and +all, into the house where the lady chims were, and liberated him in the +doorway. They had taken tea, and were beginning to think of their early +couch. When the Senegal Adonis caught sight of them, he assumed a jaunty +air and advanced with politeness, as if to offer them the last news from +Africa. A yell of surprise burst from each chimpanzella as they +successively recognised the unexpected arrival. One would have supposed +that all the Billingsgate of Chimpanzeedom rolled from the voluble +tongues of these unsophisticated and hitherto unimpressible young +ladies; but probably their gesticulations, their shrill exclamations, +their shrinkings, their threats, were but well-mannered expressions of +welcome to a countryman thus abruptly revealed in the foreign land of +their captivity. Sir Chim advanced undaunted, and with the composure of +a high-caste pongo; if he had had a hat he would have doffed it +incontinently, as it was, he only slid out of his burnoose and ascended +into the apartment which adjoined his countrywomen with agile grace, and +then, through the transparent separation, he took a closer view. Juliana +yelled afresh. Paquita crossed her hands, and sat silently with face +about three quarters averted. Sir Chim uttered what may have been a +tranquillising phrase, expressive of the great happiness he felt on thus +being suddenly restored to the presence of kinswomen in the moment of +his deepest bereavement. Juliana calmed. Paquita diminished her angle of +aversion, and then Sir Chim, advancing quite close to the division, +began what appeared to be a recollection of a minuet. He executed +marvellous gestures with a precision and aplomb which were quite +enchanting, and when at last he broke out into a quick movement with +loud smacking stamps, the ladies were completely carried away, and gave +him all attention. Friendship was established, refreshments were served, +notwithstanding the previous tea, and everybody was apparently +satisfied, especially the stranger. Upon asking the Senegal proprietor +what the dance meant, he told me that the animal had voluntarily taken +to that imitation of his slaves, who used to dance every evening in the +courtyard." + +So far Mr Mitchell's narrative; the reviewer relates how a chimpanzee, +placed for a short time in the society of the children of his owner in +this country, not only throve in an extraordinary manner, was perfectly +docile and good-tempered, but learnt to imitate them. When the eldest +little boy wished to tease his playfellow, he used, childlike, to make +faces at him. Chim soon outdid him, and one of the funniest things +imaginable was to see him blown at and blowing in return; his +protrusible lips converted themselves into a trumpet-shaped instrument, +which reminded one immediately of some of the devils of Albert Duerer, or +those incredible forms which the old painters used to delight in piling +together in their temptations of Saint Anthony. + + +LADY ANNE BARNARD PLEADS FOR THE BABOONS. + +Lady Anne Barnard, whose name as the writer of "Auld Robin Gray" is +familiar to every one who knows that most pathetic ballad, spent five +years with her husband at the Cape (1797-1802). Her journal letters to +her sisters are most amusing, and full of interesting observations.[11] +After describing "Musquito-hunting" with her husband, she writes:--"In +return, I endeavoured to effect a treaty of peace for the baboons, who +are apt to come down from the mountain in little troops to pillage our +garden of the fruit with which the trees are loaded. I told him he would +be worse than Don Carlos if he refused the children of the sun and the +soil the use of what had descended from ouran-outang to ouran-outang; +but, alas! I could not succeed. He had pledged himself to the +gardener,[12] to the slaves, and all the dogs, not to baulk them of +their sport; so he shot a superb man-of-the-mountain one morning, who +was marauding, and electrified himself the same moment, so shocked was +he at the groan given by the poor creature as he limped off the ground. +I do not think I shall hear of another falling a sacrifice to Barnard's +gun; they come too near the human race" (p. 408). + +In another letter she says (p. 391), "The best way to get rid of them is +to catch one, whip him, and turn him loose; he skips off chattering to +his comrades, and is extremely angry, but none of them return the season +this is done. I have given orders, however, that there may be no +whipping." + + +S. BISSET AND HIS TRAINED MONKEYS. + +We have elsewhere referred to S. Bisset as a trainer of animals. Among +the earliest of his trials, this Scotchman took two monkeys as pupils. +One of these he taught to dance and tumble on the rope, whilst the other +held a candle with one paw for his companion, and with the other played +a barrel organ. These animals he also instructed to play several +fanciful tricks, such as drinking to the company, riding and tumbling +upon a horse's back, and going through several regular dances with a +dog. The horse and dog referred to, were the first animals on which this +ingenious person tried his skill. Although Bisset lived in the last +century, few persons seem to have surpassed him in his power of teaching +the lower animals. We have seen a man in Charlotte Square, in 1865, make +a new-world monkey go through a series of tricks, ringing a bell, firing +a pea-gun, and such like. Poor Jacko was to be pitied. His want of heart +in his labours was very evident. Poor fellow, no time for reflection was +allowed him. Like some of the masters in the Old High School,--such +cruelty dates back more than thirty years,--a ferule, or a pair of tawse +kept Jacko to his work. It was play to the onlookers, but no sport to +master Cebus. Had he possessed memory and reflection, how his thoughts +must have wandered from Edinburgh to the forests of the Amazon! + + +LORD BYRON'S PETS. + +Beside horses and dogs, the poet Byron, like his own Don Juan, had a +kind of inclination, or weakness, for what most people deem mere vermin, +_live animals_. + +Captain Medwin records, in one of his conversations, that the poet +remarked that it was troublesome to travel about with so much live and +dead stock as he did, and adds--"I don't like to leave behind me any of +my pets, that have been accumulating since I came on the Continent. One +cannot trust to strangers to take care of them. You will see at the +farmer's some of my pea-fowls _en pension_. Fletcher tells me that they +are almost as bad fellow-travellers as the monkey, which I will show +you." Here he led the way to a room where he played with and caressed +the creature for some time. He afterwards bought another monkey in Pisa, +because he saw it ill-used.[13] + +Lord Byron's travelling equipage to Pisa in the autumn of 1821, +consisted, _inter caetera_, of nine horses, a monkey, a bull-dog, and a +mastiff, two cats, three pea-fowls, and some hens.[14] + + +THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD'S MONKEY. + +(_From the "Noctes Ambrosianae," Dec. 1825._[15]) + +_Shepherd._ I wish that you but saw my monkey, Mr North. He would make +you hop the twig in a guffaw. I ha'e got a pole erected for him, o' +about some 150 feet high, on a knowe ahint Mount Benger; and the way the +cretur rins up to the knob, looking ower the shouther o' him, and +twisting his tail roun' the pole for fear o' playin' thud on the grun', +is comical past a' endurance. + +_North._ Think you, James, that he is a link? + +_Shepherd._ A link in creation? Not he, indeed. He is merely a monkey. +Only to see him on his observatory, beholding the sunrise! or weeping, +like a Laker, at the beauty o' the moon and stars! + +_North._ Is he a bit of a poet? + +_Shepherd._ Gin he could but speak and write, there can be nae manner o' +doubt that he would be a gran' poet. Safe us! what een in the head o' +him! Wee, clear, red, fiery, watery, malignant-lookin een, fu' o' +inspiration. + +_Tickler._ You should have him stuffed. + +_Shepherd._ Stuffed, man! say, rather, embalmed. But he's no likely to +dee for years to come--indeed, the cretur's engaged to be married; +although he's no in the secret himsel yet. The bawns are published. + +_Tickler._ Why really, James, marriage I think ought to be simply a +civil contract. + +_Shepherd._ A civil contract! I wuss it was. But, oh! Mr Tickler, to see +the cretur sittin wi' a pen in 's hand, and pipe in 's mouth, jotting +down a sonnet, or odd, or lyrical ballad! Sometimes I put that black +velvet cap ye gied me on his head, and ane o' the bairns's auld +big-coats on his back; and then, sure aneugh, when he takes his stroll +in the avenue, he is a heathenish Christian. + +_North._ Why, James, by this time he must be quite like one of the +family? + +_Shepherd._ He's a capital flee-fisher. I never saw a monkey throw a +lighter line in my life.... Then, for rowing a boat! + +_Tickler._ Why don't you bring him to Ambrose's? + +_Shepherd._ He's sae bashfu'. He never shines in company; and the least +thing in the world will make him blush. + + +THE FINDHORN FISHERMAN AND THE MONKEY. + +Sir Thomas Dick Lauder[16] records the adventures of a monkey in +Morayshire, whose wanderings sadly alarmed the inhabitants who saw him, +all unused as they were to the sight of such an exotic stranger. + +"We knew a large monkey, which escaped from his chain, and was abroad in +Morayshire for some eight or ten days. Wherever he appeared he spread +terror among the peasantry. A poor fisherman on the banks of the +Findhorn was sitting with his wife and family at their frugal meal, when +a hairy little man, as they in their ignorance conceived him to be, +appeared on the window sill and grinned, and chattered through the +casement what seemed to them to be the most horrible incantations. +Horror-struck, the poor people crowded together on their knees on the +floor, and began to exorcise him with prayers most vehemently, until +some external cause of alarm made their persecutor vanish. The +neighbours found the family half dead with fear, and could with +difficulty extract from them the cause. 'Oh! worthy neebours!' at last +exclaimed the goodman with a groan, 'we ha'e seen the _Enemy_ glowrin' +at us through that vera wundow there. Lord keep us a'!!' He next alarmed +a little hamlet near the hills; appearing and disappearing to various +individuals in a most mysterious manner; till at last a clown, with a +few grains of more courage than the rest, loaded his gun and put a +sixpence into it, with the intention of stealing upon him as he sat most +mysteriously chattering on the top of a cairn of stones, and then +shooting him with silver, which is known never to fail in finishing the +imps of the Evil One. And lucky indeed was it for pug that he chanced, +through whim, to abscond from that quarter; for if he had not so +disappeared, he might have died by the lead, if not by the silver. As it +was, the bold peasant laid claim to the full glory of compelling this +dreaded goblin to flee." + +Sir Thomas Lauder kept several pets in his beautiful seat at the Grange, +long occupied by the Messrs Dalgleish of Dreghorn Castle as a genteel +boarding-school, and now by the Misses Mouatt as one for young ladies. +We have often seen the tombstones to his dogs, which were buried to the +south of that mansion, in which Principal Robertson the historian died, +and where Lord Brougham, his relation, used to go when a boy at the High +School. + + +THE FRENCH MARQUIS AND HIS MONKEY. + +Dr John Moore, the father of General Moore, who fell at Corunna, in one +of the graphic sketches of a Frenchman which he gives in his work on +Italy, records a visit he paid to the Marquis de F---- at Besancon. +After many questions, he says, "Before I could make any answer, I +chanced to turn my eyes upon a person whom I had not before observed, +who sat very gravely upon a chair in a corner of the room, with a large +periwig in full dress upon his head. The marquis, seeing my surprise at +the sight of this unknown person, after a very hearty fit of laughter, +begged pardon for not having introduced me sooner to that gentleman (who +was no other than a large monkey), and then told me, he had the honour +of being attended by a physician, who had the reputation of possessing +the greatest skill, and who _certainly_ wore the largest periwigs of any +doctor in the province. That one morning, while he was writing a +prescription at his bedside, this same monkey had catched hold of his +periwig by one of the knots, and instantly made the best of his way out +at the window to the roof of a neighbouring house, from which post he +could not be dislodged, till the doctor, having lost patience, had sent +home for another wig, and never after could be prevailed on to accept of +this, which had been so much disgraced. That, _enfin_, his valet, to +whom the monkey belonged, had, ever since that adventure, obliged the +culprit by way of punishment to sit quietly, for an hour every morning, +with the periwig on his head.--Et pendant ces moments de tranquillite je +suis honore de la societe du venerable personage. Then, addressing +himself to the monkey, "Adieu, mon ami, pour aujourdhui--au plaisir de +vous revoir;" and the servant immediately carried Monsieur le Medicin +out of the room.[17] + +This is a most characteristic bit, which could scarcely have occurred +out of France, where monkeys and dogs are petted as we never saw them +petted elsewhere. These things were so when we knew Paris under +Louis-Philippe. Frenchmen, surely, have not much changed under Louis +Napoleon. + + +THE MANDRILL AND GEORGE THE FOURTH. + +One of the attractive sights of Mr Cross's menagerie, some forty years +or so ago, was a full-grown baboon, to which had been given the name of +"Happy Jerry." He was conspicuous from the finely-coloured rib-like +ridges on each side of his cheeks, the clear blue and scarlet hue of +which, on such a hideous long face and muzzle, with its small, +deeply-sunk malicious eyes, and projecting brow and cheeks, seemed +almost as if beauty and bestiality were here combined. But Jerry had a +habit which would have made Father Matthew loathe him and those who +encouraged him. He had been taught to sit in an armchair and to drink +porter out of a pot, like a thirsty brickmaker; and, as an addition to +his accomplishments, he could also smoke a pipe, like a trained pupil of +Sir Walter Raleigh. This rib-nosed baboon, or mandrill, as he is often +called, obtained great renown; and among other distinguished personages +who wished to see him was his late majesty King George the Fourth. As +that king seldom during his reign frequented places of public resort, Mr +Cross was invited to bring Jerry to Windsor or Brighton, to display the +talents of his redoubtable baboon. I have heard Mr Cross say, that the +king placed his hands on the arm of one of the ladies of the Court, at +which Jerry began to show such unmistakable signs of ferocity, that the +mild, kind menagerist was glad to get Jerry removed, or at least the +king and his courtiers to withdraw. He showed his great teeth and +grinned and growled, as a baboon in a rage is apt to do. Jerry was a +powerful beast, especially in his fore-legs or arms. When he died, Mr +Cross presented his skin to the British Museum, where it has been long +preserved. The mandrill is a native of West Africa, where he is much +dreaded by the negroes. + +In Cross's menagerie at Walworth, nearly twenty years ago, there was +generally a fine mandrill. We remember the sulky ferocity of that +restless eye. How angry the mild menagerist used to be at the ladies in +the monkey-room with their parasols! These appendages were the feelers +with which some of the softer sex used to touch Cross's monkeys, and, as +the old gentleman used to insist, helped to kill them. Parasols were +freely used to touch the boas and other snakes feeding in the same warm +room. No doubt a boa-constrictor could not live comfortably if his soft, +muscular sides got fifty pokes a day from as many sticks or parasols. +Edward Cross, mild, gentle, gentlemanly, Prince of show-keepers, used to +be very indignant at the inquisitorial desire possessed, especially by +some of the fairer sex, to try the relative hardness and softness of +serpents and monkeys, and other mammals and creatures. This story of the +mandrill may excuse this pendant of an episode. + + +THE YOUNG LADY'S PET MONKEY AND HER PARROT. + +Horace Walpole tells an anecdote of a fine young French lady, a Madame +de Choiseul. She longed for a parrot that should be a miracle of +eloquence. A parrot was soon found for her in Paris. She also became +enamoured of General Jacko, a celebrated monkey, at Astley's. But the +possessor was so exorbitant in his demand for Jacko, that the General +did not change proprietors. Another monkey was soon heard of, who had +been brought up by a cook in a kitchen, where he had learned to pluck +fowls with inimitable dexterity. This accomplished pet was bought and +presented to Madame, who accepted him. The first time she went out, the +two animals were locked up in her bed-chamber. When the lady returned, +the monkey was alone to be seen. Search, was made for Pretty Poll, and +to her horror she was found at last under bed, shivering and cowering, +and without a feather. It seems that the two pets had been presented by +rival lovers of Madame. Poll's presenter concluded that his rival had +given the monkey with that very view, challenged him; they fought, and +both were wounded: and a heroic adventure it was![18] + + +MONKEYS POOR RELATIONS. + +One of Luttrell's sayings, recorded by Sydney Smith, was,-- + +"I hate the sight of monkeys, they remind me so of poor relations." Here +follows a fine passage of Sydney Smith, which he might have written +after hearing the lectures of Professor Huxley.[19] "I confess I feel +myself so much at my ease about the superiority of mankind,--I have such +a marked and decided contempt for the understanding of every baboon I +have yet seen,--I feel so sure that the blue ape without a tail will +never rival us in poetry, painting, and music,--that I see no reason +whatever why justice may not be done to the few fragments of soul, and +tatters of understanding, which they may really possess. I have +sometimes, perhaps, felt a little uneasy at Exeter 'Change, from +contrasting the monkeys with the 'prentice boys who are teasing them; +but a few pages of Locke, or a few lines of Milton, have always restored +my tranquillity, and convinced me that the superiority of man had +nothing to fear."[20] + + +MRS COLIN MACKENZIE OBSERVES APES AT SIMLA.[21] + +The monkey she alludes to seems to be the _Semnopithecus Entellus_, a +black-faced, light-haired monkey, with long legs and tail, much +venerated by the Hindoos. + +"Mrs L. and I were very much amused, early this morning (July 5), by +watching numbers of huge apes, the size of human beings, with white hair +all round their faces, and down their backs and chests, who were +disporting themselves and feeding on the green leaves, on the sides of +the precipice close to the house. Many of them had one or two little +ones--the most amusing, indefatigable little creatures imaginable--who +were incessantly running up small trees, jumping down again, and +performing all sorts of antics, till one felt quite wearied with their +perpetual activity. When the mother wished to fly, she clutched the +little one under her arm, where, clinging round her body with all its +arms, it remained in safety, while she made leaps of from thirty to +forty feet, and ran at a most astonishing rate down the khad, catching +at any tree or twig that offered itself to any one of her four arms. +There were two old grave apes of enormous size sitting together on the +branch of a tree, and deliberately catching the fleas in each other's +shaggy coats. The patient sat perfectly still, while his brother ape +divided and thoroughly searched his beard and hair, lifted up one arm +and then the other, and turned him round as he thought fit; and then the +patient undertook to perform the same office for his friend." + + +THE AYE-AYE (_Chiromys Madagascariensis_). + +Zoologists used to know a very curious animal from Madagascar, by name, +or by an indifferent specimen preserved in the Paris Museum. Sonnerat, +the naturalist, obtained it from that great island so well known to +geographical boys in former days by its being, so they were told, the +largest island in the world. This strange quadruped was named by a word +which meant "handed-mouse," for such is the signification of _chiromys_, +or _cheiromys_, as it used to be spelled. This creature, when its +history was better known, was believed to be not far removed in the +system from the lemurs and loris. Its soft fur, long tail, large eyes, +and other features and habits connected it with these quadrumana, while +its rodent dentition seemed to refer it to the group containing our +squirrels, hares, and mice. It has been the subject of a profound memoir +by Professor Owen, our greatest comparative anatomist; and I remember, +with pleasure, the last time I saw him at the Museum he was engaged in +its dissection. I may here refer to one of the Professor's lighter +productions--a lecture at Exeter Hall on some instances of the "power of +God as manifested in His animal creation"--for a very nice notice of +this curious quadruped. In one of the French journals, there was an +excellent account given of the peculiar habits of the little nocturnal +creature. In those tropical countries the trees are tenanted by +countless varieties of created things. Their wood affords rich feeding +to the large, fat, pulpy grubs of beetles of the families _Buprestidae_, +_Dynastidae_, _Passalidae_, and, above all, that glorious group the +_Longicornia_. These beetles worm their way into the wood, making often +long tunnels, feeding as they work, and leaving their _ejecta_ in the +shape of agglomerated sawdust. It is into the long holes drilled by +these beetles that the Aye-Aye searches with his long fingers, one of +which, on the fore-hand, is specially thin, slender, and skeleton-like. +It looks like the tool of some lock-picker. Our large-eyed little +friend, like the burglar, comes out at night and finds these holes on +the trees where he slept during the day. His sensitive thin ears, made +to hear every scratch, can detect the rasping of the retired grub, +feasting in apparent security below. Naturalists sometimes hear at +night, so Samouelle once told me, the grubs of moths munching the dewy +leaves. Our aye-aye is no collector, but he has eyes, ears, and fingers +too, that see, hear, and get larvae that, when grown and changed into +beetles, are the valued prizes of entomologists. Into that tunnelled +hole he inserts his long finger, and squash it goes into a large, pulpy, +fat, sweet grub. It takes but a moment to draw it out; and if it be a +pupa near the bark, so much the better for the aye-aye, so much the +worse for the beetle or cossus. I might dilate on this subject, but +prefer referring the reader to Professor Owen's memoir, and to his +lecture.[22] The aye-aye, in every point of its structure, like every +created thing, is full of design. Its curious fingers, especially the +skeleton-like chopstick of a digit referred to, attract especial notice, +from their evident adaptation to the condition of its situation and +existence, as one of the works of an omnipotent and beneficent Creator. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] The Durian, a peculiarly favourite fruit in several of the Eastern +Islands. + +[7] Mr Wolf's drawing was taken from a chimpanzee. Mr Waterton's young +chimpanzee was in reality a small-eared gorilla. The ears of the +chimpanzee are large. + +[8] Written in 1861. Skins and skeletons of the gorilla are to be found +now in many museums. + +[9] For Jan. 1860, vol. iii., p. 177. + +[10] Monkeys are very liable to lung diseases in this climate, and all +menagerie keepers are aware of the bad effects of the winter on these +denizens of a warm climate. + +[11] See "Lives of the Lindsays," by Lord Lindsay, vol. iii., pp. +371-476. + +[12] At Paradise. She describes some plants, one, evidently a Stapelia, +is a fine large star-plant, yellow and spotted like the skin of a +leopard, over which there grows a crop of glossy brown hair, at once +handsome and horrible; it crawls flat on the ground, and its leaves are +thick and fat (p. 407). + +[13] "Conversations of Lord Byron" (p. 9). + +[14] _Loc. cit._ (p. 1). + +[15] "Works of Professor Wilson," vol. i., p. 73. + +[16] Gilpin's "Forest Scenery," edited by Sir T. D. Lauder, vol. i., p. +354. + +[17] "View of Society and Manners in Italy," vol. ii., p. 475. + +[18] Extracted from the late Mr Cunningham's complete edition; we +neglected to quote the page, and have altered and shortened the words. + +[19] "Memoirs of Rev. Sydney Smith," i., p. 377. + +[20] "Wit and Wisdom of Rev. Sydney Smith" (it is from a lecture at the +Royal Institution), p. 259. + +[21] "Life in the Mission, the Camp, and the Zenana; or, Six Years in +India," by Mrs Colin Mackenzie, vol. ii., p. 126. + +[22] Published by James Nisbet & Co., in 1863, 1864. + + + + +BATS. + + +A highly curious, if not the strangest, order of the class are these +flying creatures called bats. It is evident from Noel Paton's fairy +pictures that he has closely studied their often fantastic faces. The +writer could commend to his attention an African bat, lately figured by +his friend Mr Murray.[23] Its enormous head, or rather muzzle, compared +with its other parts, gives it an outrageously hideous look. In the late +excellent Dr Horsfield's work on the animals of Java, there are some +engravings of bats by Mr Taylor, who acquired among engravers the title +of "Bat Taylor," so wonderfully has he rendered the exquisite pileage or +fur of these creatures. It is wonderful how numerous the researches of +naturalists, such as Mr Tomes, of Welford, near Stratford, have shown +the order _Cheiroptera_ to be in genera and species. Their profiles and +full faces, even in outline, are often most bizarre and strange. Their +interfemoral membranes, we may add, are actual "unreticulated" nets, +with which they catch and detain flies as they skim through the air. +They pick these out of this bag with their mouths, and "make no bones" +of any prey, so sharp and pointed are their pretty insectivorous teeth. +Their flying membranes, stretched on the elongated finger-bones of their +fore-legs, are wonderful adaptations of Divine wisdom, a capital subject +for the natural theologian to select. + +Our poet-laureate must be a close observer of natural history. In his +"In Memoriam," xciv., he distinctly alludes to some very curious West +African bats first described by the late amiable Edward T. Bennett, long +the much-valued secretary of the Zoological Society. These bats are +closely related to the fox bats, and form a genus which is named, from +their shoulder and breast appendages, _Epomophorus_:-- + + "Bats went round in fragrant skies, + And wheel'd or lit the filmy shapes + That haunt the dusk, with ermine capes, + And woolly breasts and beaded eyes." + +The species Mr Bennett named _E. Whitei_, after the good Rev. Gilbert +White, that well-known worthy who wrote "The Natural History of +Selborne," wherein are many notices of bats. + + +CAPTAIN COOK'S SAILOR AND HIS DESCRIPTION OF A FOX-BAT. + +It is curious, now that Australia is almost as civilised, and in parts +nearly as populous, as much of Europe, to read "Lieutenant Cook's Voyage +Round the World," in vol. iii. of Hawkesworth's quartos, detailing the +discoveries of June, July, and August 1770--that is close upon a +century ago. What progress has the world made since that period! We do +not require long periods of ages to alter, to adapt, to develop the +customs and knowledge of man. At p. 156 we get an account of a large +bat. On the 23d June 1770 Cook says:--"This day almost everybody had +seen the animal which the pigeon-shooters had brought an account of the +day before; and one of the seamen, who had been rambling in the woods, +told us, at his return, that he verily believed he had seen the devil. +We naturally inquired in what form he had appeared, and his answer was +in so singular a style that I shall set down his own words. 'He was,' +says John, 'as large as a one-gallon keg, and very like it; he had horns +and wings, yet he crept so slowly through the grass, that if I had not +been _afeared_ I might have touched him.' This formidable apparition we +afterwards discovered to have been a bat, and the bats here must be +acknowledged to have a frightful appearance, for they are nearly black, +and full as large as a partridge; they have indeed no horns, but the +fancy of a man who thought he saw the devil might easily supply that +defect." + + * * * * * + +Having seen some of the very curious fox-bats alive, and given some +condensed information about them in Dr Hamilton's series of volumes +called "Excelsior," the writer may extract the account, with some slight +additions, especially as the article is illustrated with a truly +admirable figure of a fox-bat, from a living specimen by Mr Wolf. In Sir +Emerson Tennent's "Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon," p. 14, Mr +Wolf has represented a whole colony of the "flying-foxes," as they are +called. + +[Illustration: Flying Fox. (Pteropus ruficollis.)] + + +FOX-BATS (_Pteropus_). + +In this country that bat is deemed a large one whose wings, when +measured from tip to tip, exceed twelve inches, or whose body is above +that of a small mouse in bulk. In some parts of the world, however, +there are members of this well-marked family, the wings of which, when +stretched and measured from one extremity to the other, are five feet +and upwards in extent, and their bodies large in proportion. These are +the fox-bats, a pair of which were lately procured for the Zoological +Gardens. It is from one of this pair that the very characteristic figure +of Mr Wolf has been derived.[24] There is something very odd in the +appearance of such an animal, suspended as it is during the day head +downwards, in a position the very sight of which suggests to the +looker-on ideas of nightmare and apoplexy. As the head peers out from +the membrane, contracted about the body and investing it as in a bag, +and the strange creature chews a piece of apple presented by its keeper, +the least curious observer must be struck with the peculiarity of the +position, and cannot fail to admire the velvety softness and great +elasticity of the membrane which forms its wings. It must have been from +an exaggerated account of the fox-bats of the Eastern Islands that the +ancients derived their ideas of the dreaded Harpies, those fabulous +winged monsters sent out by the relentless Juno, and whose names are +synonymous with rapine and cruelty. + +Some of these bats, before they were thoroughly known, frightened +British sailors not a little when they met with them. We have given an +anecdote, illustrative of this, in a preceding page. + +Dr Forster, who accompanied Captain Cook on the voyage round the world +from 1772 to 1775, observed fox-bats at the Friendly Islands, where they +were seen in large groups of hundreds. Our traveller even notices that +some of them flew about the whole day, doubtless from being disturbed by +the wandering crews of the British discovery ships. He saw a Casuarina +tree of large size, the branches of which were festooned with at least +five hundred of these pendent Cheiroptera in various attitudes of ease, +according to the habits and notions of the bat tribes, who can hang +either by the hind or by the fore-feet. He noticed that they skimmed +over the water with wonderful facility, and he saw one in the act of +swimming, though he cannot say that it did so with either ease or +expertness; they are known, however, to frequent the water in order to +wash themselves from any impurities on their fur and wings, as well as +to get rid of the vermin which may be infesting them. + +Captain Lort Stokes found the red-necked species to be very abundant, +during his survey of the north coast of Australia in H.M.S. _Beagle_. As +the boats were engaged in the survey, flights of these bats kept +hovering over them, uttering a disagreeable screeching noise and filling +the air with a faint mildewy odour, far from agreeable to the smell. The +sailors gave these bats the name of "monkey-birds," without being aware +that naturalists in their system consider them as following closely the +order which contains these four-handed lovers of trees. Captain Stokes +observes that the leathern wings have a singular heavy flap, and that a +flight of bats would suddenly alight on a bamboo and bend it to the +ground with their weight. Each individual struggles on alighting to +settle on the same spot, and like rooks or men in similar circumstances, +they do not succeed in fixing themselves without making a great deal of +noise. When first they clung to the bamboo, they did so by means of the +claw on the outer edge of the flying membrane, and then they gradually +settled. + +Among the wild and varied scenery of those groups of islands called the +Friendly Islands, the Feejees, and the Navigators, species of fox-bat +form one of the characteristics of the place to the observant eye; +while, if the traveller should happen to be blind, their presence among +the otherwise fragrant forests would be readily perceived from the +strong odour which taints the atmosphere, and which, says the Naturalist +of the United States Exploring Expedition, "will always be remembered by +persons who have visited the regions inhabited by these animals." Mr +Titian Peale mentions that a specimen of the fox-bat was kept in +Philadelphia for several years; and like most creatures, winged as well +as wingless, was amiable to those persons who were constantly near it, +while it showed clearly and unmistakably its dislike to strangers. + +On its voyage, this strange passenger was fed on boiled rice, sweetened +with sugar; while at the Museum, it was solaced and fed during its +captivity chiefly on fruit, and now and then appeared to enjoy the +picking from the bones of a boiled fowl. The fox-bat is but seldom +brought alive to this country. The late Mr Cross of the Surrey +Zoological Gardens kept one for a short time, and deemed it one of his +greatest rarities; and, till the arrival lately of the pair alluded to +at the Gardens in the Regent's Park, we have not heard of other +specimens having been exhibited in this country. They are difficult to +keep, and seem to feel very sensibly the changes of our climate, while +it is a hard thing to get for them the food on which they live when in a +state of liberty. + +Mr Macgillivray discovered a new species of fox-bat on Fitzroy Island, +off the coast of Australia, when he was naturalist of H.M.S. +_Rattlesnake_.[25] He fell in with this large fruit-eating bat +(_Pteropus conspicillatus_) on the wooded slope of a hill. They were in +prodigious numbers, and presented the appearance, as they flew along in +the bright sunshine, of a large flock of rooks. As they were approached, +a strong musky odour became apparent, and a loud incessant chattering +was heard. He describes the branches of some of the trees as bending +beneath the loads of bats which clung to them. Some of these were in a +state of inactivity, sleeping or composing themselves to sleep, while +many specimens scrambled along among the boughs and took to flight on +being disturbed. He shot several specimens, three or four at a time, as +they hung in clusters. Unless they were killed outright, they continued +suspended for some time; when wounded they are difficult to handle, as +they bite severely, and at such times their cry resembles somewhat the +squalling of a child. The flesh of these bats is described to be +excellent, and no wonder, when they feed on the sweetest fruits; the +natives regard it as nutritious food, and travellers in Australia, like +the adventurous Leichhardt on his journey to Port Essington, sometimes +are furnished with a welcome meal from the fruit-eating fox-bats which +fall in their way. Even the polished French, in the Isle of Bourbon, as +they used to call the Mauritius, sometimes stewed a Pteropus, in their +_bouillon_ or broth to give it a relish. + +Travellers observe that in a state of nature the fox-bats only eat the +ripest and the best fruit, and in their search for it they climb with +great facility along the under side of the branches. In Java, as Dr +Horsfield observes, these creatures, from their numbers and fruit-eating +propensities, occasion incalculable mischief, as they attack every kind +that grows there, from the cocoa-nut to the rarer and more delicate +productions, which are cultivated with care in the gardens of princes +and persons of rank. The doctor observes, that "delicate fruits, as they +approach to maturity, are ingeniously secured by means of a loose net or +basket, skilfully constructed of split bamboo. Without this precaution +little valuable fruit would escape the ravages of the kalong." + +We have mentioned that the fox-bats are occasionally eaten in Australia. +Colonel Sykes alludes to the native Portuguese in Western India eating +the flesh of another species of Pteropus; and it would seem that but for +prejudice, their flesh, like that of the young of the South American +monkeys, is extremely delicate; the colonel says, writing of the +_Pteropus medius_, a species found in India, "I can personally testify +that their flesh is delicate and without disagreeable flavour." + +The Javanese fox-bat occasionally affords amusement to the colonists as +well as natives, who chase it, according to Dr Horsfield, "during the +moonlight nights, which, in the latitude of Java, are uncommonly serene. +He is watched in his descent to the fruit-trees, and a discharge of +small shot readily brings him to the ground. By this means I frequently +obtained four or five individuals in the course of an hour." The natives +of New Caledonia, according to Dr Forster, use the hair of these great +bats in ropes, and in the tassels to their clubs, while they interweave +the hair among the threads of the _Cyperus squarrosus_, a grassy-looking +plant which they employ for that purpose. + +William Dampier,[26] in 1687, observed the habits of a fox-bat on one of +the Philippine Islands, though he has exaggerated its size when he +judged "that the wings stretched out in length, could not be less +asunder than seven or eight foot from tip to tip." He records that "in +the evening, as soon as the sun was set, these creatures would begin to +take their flight from this island in swarms like bees, directing their +flight over to the main island. Thus we should see them rising up from +the island till night hindered our sight; and in the morning, as soon as +it was light, we should see them returning again like a cloud to the +small island till sunrising. This course they kept constantly while we +lay here, affording us every morning and evening an hour's diversion in +gazing at them and talking about them." Dr Horsfield describes the +species, which is abundant in the lower parts of Java, as having the +same habit. During the day it retreats to the branches of a tree of the +genus _Ficus_, where it passes the greater portion of the day in sleep, +"hanging motionless, ranged in succession, and often in close contact, +they have little resemblance to living beings, and by a person not +accustomed to their economy, are readily mistaken for a part of the +tree, or for a fruit of uncommon size suspended from its branches." The +doctor describes their society as being generally silent during the day, +except when a contention arises among them to get out of the influence +of the sun, when they utter a sharp piercing shriek. Their claws are so +sharp, and their attachment is consequently so strong, that they cannot +readily leave their hold without the assistance of their wings, and if +shot when in this position, they remain suspended. + + +DR MAYERNE AND HIS BALSAM OF BATS. + +Dr Mayerne, a learned English physician, who died, aged eighty-two, in +1655, showed by his prescriptions that his enlightenment was not more +than that of the prevailing ignorance of the period. The chief +ingredient in his gout-powder was "raspings of a human skull unburied;" +"but," writes Mr Jeaffreson,[27] "his sweetest compound was his 'balsam +of bats,' strongly recommended as an unguent for hypochondriacal +persons, into which entered adders, bats, sucking whelps, earth-worms, +hogs' grease, the marrow of a stag, and the thigh-bone of an ox." + +No doubt the doctor imagined that a combination of the virulence, +flightiness, swiftness, strength, and other qualities of all these +animals would in some mysterious way be communicated to his melancholy +patient; and, indeed, by acting on the imagination of such persons a +favourable direction is given to their thoughts, and in this way their +severe malady may at times have been removed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23] Illustrated Proceedings of Zoological Society. + +[24] This was written some years ago; but I was glad to see when last in +the Zoological Gardens, June 1866, another live specimen of a species of +fox bat. + +[25] "Narrative of the Voyage," i., p. 96 (1852). + +[26] "New Voyage round the World" (1698), p. 381. + +[27] "A Book about Doctors," by J. Cordy Jeaffreson, i., p. 23. + + + + +HEDGEHOG. + + +This well-armed genus of insect-eating quadruped has sometimes given to +describing zoologists, at least so it is said, an opportunity of paying +a sly compliment, concealing an allusion to the _touchy_ or supposed +irritable disposition of the party after whom the species has been +named. When Southey wrote the following paragraph, he happily expressed +what is too commonly the meaning and wish of critics and criticised. If +my readers look into any system of mammalia of recent date, under the +article _Erinaceus_, he will see one or more instances of concealed +allusions to touchiness of disposition in the persons of the +naturalists, _honoured_ by the seeming compliment. The hedgehog is +itself a very useful and very harmless quadruped. It is of great use in +a garden, and also in a kitchen frequented by crickets or black-beetles. +Its food is chiefly grubs, insects, worms, and such like. The creature +is easily tamed, and becomes a lovable and not a touchy pet. It is +eminently nocturnal. + + +SOUTHEY AND HIS CRITICS. + +Robert Southey ("Common-Place Book," 4th series, p.44) writes:-- + +"I intend to be a hedgehog, and roll myself up in my own prickles: all I +regret is that I am not a porcupine, and endowed with the property of +shooting them to annoy the beasts who come near enough to annoy me." + + + + +MOLE. + + +This is perhaps the most remarkable of all our quadrupeds. Its +subterranean haunts and curious aptitudes for a life below the surface +of the ground are peculiarly worthy of study. The little hillocks it +turns up in its excavations are noticed by every one. Its pursuit of +worms and grubs, its nest, its soft plush-like fur, the pointed nose, +the strong digging fore-feet, the small all but hidden eyes, and +hundreds of other properties, render it a noticeable creature. The +following passage from Lord Macaulay's latest writings, although rather +long, may interest some in the story of this curious creature:-- + + +THE MOLE AND KING WILLIAM. + +"A fly, if it had God's message, could choke a king."[28] I never knew +till the 9th January 1862, when reading vol. v. of Macaulay's England, +that a horse, stumbling on a mole-hill, was the immediate cause of the +death of the great William III. + +Lady Trevelyan, the sister of Macaulay, published vol. v. of her +brother's work, and added an account of the death of the illustrious +Dutchman, who did so much for our religious and civil liberties. The +historian was very partial to William, and the account of that monarch's +last days is Macaulay's last finished piece: it is here quoted in full +from the history:[29]-- + +"Meanwhile reports about the state of the king's health were constantly +becoming more and more alarming. His medical advisers, both English and +Dutch, were at the end of their resources. He had consulted by letter +all the most eminent physicians of Europe; and, as he was apprehensive +that they might return flattering answers if they knew who he was, he +had written under feigned names. To Fagon he had described himself as a +parish priest. Fagon replied, somewhat bluntly, that such symptoms could +have only one meaning, and that the only advice which he had to give to +the sick man was to prepare himself for death. Having obtained this +plain answer, William consulted Fagon again without disguise, and +obtained some prescriptions which were thought to have a little retarded +the approach of the inevitable hour. But the great king's days were +numbered. Headaches and shivering fits returned on him almost daily. He +still rode, and even hunted; but he had no longer that firm seat, or +that perfect command of the bridle, for which he had once been renowned. +Still all his care was for the future. The filial respect and tenderness +of Albemarle had been almost a necessary of life to him. But it was of +importance that Heinsius should be fully informed both as to the whole +plan of the next campaign, and as to the state of the preparations. +Albemarle was in full possession of the king's views on these subjects. +He was therefore sent to the Hague. Heinsius was at that time suffering +from indisposition, which was indeed a trifle when compared with the +maladies under which William was sinking. But in the nature of William +there was none of that selfishness which is the too common vice of +invalids. On the 20th of February he sent to Heinsius a letter, in which +he did not even allude to his own sufferings and infirmities. 'I am,' +he said, 'infinitely concerned to learn that your health is not yet +quite re-established. May God be pleased to grant you a speedy recovery. +I am unalterably your good friend, WILLIAM.' These were the last lines +of that long correspondence. + +"On the 20th of February, William was ambling on a favourite horse named +Sorrel through the park of Hampton Court. He urged his horse to strike +into a gallop just at the spot where a mole had been at work. Sorrel +stumbled on the mole-hill, and went down on his knees. The king fell +off, and broke his collar-bone. The bone was set, and he returned to +Kensington in his coach. The jolting of the rough roads of that time +made it necessary to reduce the fracture again. To a young and vigorous +man such an accident would have been a trifle; but the frame of William +was not in a condition to bear even the slightest shock. He felt that +his time was short, and grieved, with a grief such as only noble spirits +feel, to think that he must leave his work but half finished. It was +possible that he might still live until one of his plans should be +carried into execution. He had long known that the relation in which +England and Scotland stood to each other was at best precarious, and +often unfriendly, and that it might be doubted whether, in an estimate +of the British power, the resources of the smaller country ought not to +be deducted from those of the larger. Recent events had proved that +without doubt the two kingdoms could not possibly continue for another +year to be on the terms on which they had been during the preceding +century, and that there must be between them either absolute union or +deadly enmity. Their enmity would bring frightful calamities, not on +themselves alone, but on all the civilised world. Their union would be +the best security for the prosperity of both, for the internal +tranquillity of the island, for the just balance of power among European +states, and for the immunities of all Protestant countries. On the 28th +of February, the Commons listened, with uncovered heads, to the last +message that bore William's sign-manual. An unhappy accident, he told +them, had forced him to make to them in writing a communication which he +would gladly have made from the throne. He had, in the first year of his +reign, expressed his desire to see a union accomplished between England +and Scotland. He was convinced that nothing could more conduce to the +safety and happiness of both. He should think it his peculiar felicity +if, before the close of his reign, some happy expedient could be devised +for making the two kingdoms one; and he, in the most earnest manner, +recommended the question to the consideration of the Houses. It was +resolved that the message should be taken into consideration on Saturday +the 7th of March. + +"But, on the 1st of March, humours of menacing appearance showed +themselves in the king's knee. On the 4th of March he was attacked by +fever; on the 5th, his strength failed greatly; and on the 6th he was +scarcely kept alive by cordials. The Abjuration Bill and a money bill +were awaiting his assent. That assent he felt that he should not be able +to give in person. He therefore ordered a commission to be prepared for +his signature. His hand was now too weak to form the letters of his +name, and it was suggested that a stamp should be prepared. On the 7th +of March the stamp was ready. The Lord Keeper and the Clerks of the +Parliament came, according to usage, to witness the signing of the +commission. But they were detained some hours in the ante-chamber while +he was in one of the paroxysms of his malady. Meanwhile the Houses were +sitting. It was Saturday the 7th, the day on which the Commons had +resolved to take into consideration the question of the union with +Scotland. But that subject was not mentioned. It was known that the king +had but a few hours to live; and the members asked each other anxiously +whether it was likely that the Abjuration and money bills would be +passed before he died. After sitting long in the expectation of a +message, the Commons adjourned till six in the afternoon. By that time +William had recovered himself sufficiently to put the stamp on the +parchment which authorised his commissioners to act for him. In the +evening, when the Houses had assembled, Black Rod knocked. The Commons +were summoned to the bar of the Lords; the commission was read, the +Abjuration Bill and the Malt Bill became law, and both Houses adjourned +till nine o'clock in the morning of the following day. The following day +was Sunday. But there was little chance that William would live through +the night. It was of the highest importance that, within the shortest +possible time after his decease, the successor designated by the Bill of +Rights and the Act of Succession should receive the homage of the +Estates of the Realm, and be publicly proclaimed in the Council: and the +most rigid Pharisee in the Society for the Reformation of Manners could +hardly deny that it was lawful to save the state, even on the Sabbath. + +"The king meanwhile was sinking fast. Albemarle had arrived at +Kensington from the Hague, exhausted by rapid travelling. His master +kindly bade him go to rest for some hours, and then summoned him to make +his report. That report was in all respects satisfactory. The States +General were in the best temper; the troops, the provisions, and the +magazines were in the best order. Everything was in readiness for an +early campaign. William received the intelligence with the calmness of a +man whose work was done. He was under no illusion as to his danger. 'I +am fast drawing,' he said, 'to my end.' His end was worthy of his life. +His intellect was not for a moment clouded. His fortitude was the more +admirable because he was not willing to die. He had very lately said to +one of those whom he most loved, 'You know that I never feared death; +there have been times when I should have wished it, but, now that this +great new prospect is opening before me, I do wish to stay here a little +longer.' Yet no weakness, no querulousness disgraced the noble close of +that noble career. To the physicians the king returned his thanks +graciously and gently. 'I know that you have done all that skill and +learning could do for me, but the case is beyond your art; and I +submit.' From the words which escaped him he seemed to be frequently +engaged in mental prayer. Burnet and Tenison remained many hours in the +sick-room. He professed to them his firm belief in the truth of the +Christian religion, and received the sacrament from their hands with +great seriousness. The antechambers were crowded all night with lords +and privy-councillors. He ordered several of them to be called in, and +exerted himself to take leave of them with a few kind and cheerful +words. Among the English who were admitted to his bedside were +Devonshire and Ormond. But there were in the crowd those who felt as no +Englishman could feel, friends of his youth, who had been true to him, +and to whom he had been true, through all vicissitudes of fortune; who +had served him with unalterable fidelity when his Secretaries of State, +his Treasury, and his Admiralty had betrayed him; who had never on any +field of battle, or in an atmosphere tainted with loathsome and deadly +disease, shrunk from placing their own lives in jeopardy to save his, +and whose truth he had at the cost of his own popularity rewarded with +bounteous munificence. He strained his feeble voice to thank +Auverquerque for the affectionate and loyal services of thirty years. To +Albemarle he gave the keys of his closet and of his private drawers. +'You know,' he said, 'what to do with them.' By this time he could +scarcely respire. 'Can this,' he said to the physicians, 'last long?' He +was told that the end was approaching. He swallowed a cordial, and asked +for Bentinck. Those were his last articulate words. Bentinck instantly +came to the bedside, bent down, and placed his ear close to the king's +mouth. The lips of the dying man moved, but nothing could be heard. The +king took the hand of his earliest friend, and pressed it tenderly to +his heart. In that moment, no doubt, all that had cast a slight passing +cloud over their long and pure friendship was forgotten. It was now +between seven and eight in the morning. He closed his eyes, and gasped +for breath. The bishops knelt down and read the commendatory prayer. +When it ended William was no more!" + +It was assuredly the stumbling of his horse against a mole-hill that led +more immediately to the death of this great monarch. It is but one link +in the chain of many providences affecting his life. We all remember the +schoolboy ditty-- + + "For want of a nail the shoe was lost; + For want of a shoe the rider was lost; + For want of the rider the battle was lost; + For want of the battle the kingdom was lost." + +How much the death of King William retarded progress in Great Britain +can never be judged or determined. His appointed hour had come. It was +no bullet with its billet on the banks of the Boyne that laid the +Dutchman low, but the cast-up earth of a specimen of a little +insectivorous quadruped called the mole, which laid him on that bed from +which he never arose. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[28] Jeremy Taylor, if I remember aright. + +[29] Vol. V., pp. 305-310. + + + + +BEARS. + + +A most comfortably clad set of plantigrade creatures, as fond, most of +them, of fruits as they are of flesh. No creatures are more amusing in +zoological gardens to children, who wonder at their climbing powers. Who +is so heartless as not to have pitied the roving polar bear, caged, on a +sultry July day, in a small paddock with a puddle, and wandering about +restlessly in his few feet of ground, as the well-dressed mob lounged to +hear the military band performing in the Regent's Park Zoological +Gardens? Even young bears have an _adult_ kind of look about them. The +writer remembers the manner of one, disappointed at its bread sap, most +of the milk of which had been absorbed. A little girl standing by, not +two years old, perfectly understood what the little creature was +searching for, and, looking up, said "milka," or something closely +resembling it. We recently saw a little brown bear, on board a Russian +ship at Leith. He acted as a capital guard. The little creature had a +grown-up face, more easily observed than described. + +Bear hams, we speak from rare experience, are truly excellent. Bears, in +our early London days, were kept by many hairdressers and perfumers. The +anecdote or passage from Dickens's "Humphrey's Clock" is very +characteristic. + +In one of Wilkie's pictures the brown bear is figured on its way with +its owners to the parish beadle's "house of detention." We remember the +very bear and its owners. A fine chapter might be written on the animals +that used to be led about the country by wandering foreigners. Our first +sight of guinea-pigs, our first view of the black-bellied hamster, our +first sight of the camel and dromedary, with a monkey on his neck, and +our first bear, were seen in this way. Boys and girls in those days +seldom saw menageries. A muzzled bear on its hind legs in Nicolson +Street, or at the Sciennes, was an exotic sight seldom witnessed, and +not easily forgotten. The last we saw was in Bernard Street, Leith, in +1869. That very day, the police were hunting for Bruin and its leaders +all over Edinburgh. Bears are now debarred from parading our streets. + + +AN AUSTRIAN GENERAL AND A BEAR.[30] + +Mr Paget was told an excellent story of a bear hunt, which took place in +the mountains of Transylvania, and in the presence of the gentleman who +told him the story. + +"General V----, the Austrian commander of the forces in this district, +had come to Cronstadt to inspect the troops, and had been invited by our +friend, in compliment to his rank, to join him in a bear hunt. Now, the +general, though more accustomed to drilling than hunting, accepted the +invitation, and appeared in due time in a cocked hat and long gray +greatcoat, the uniform of an Austrian general. When they had taken up +their places, the general, with half a dozen rifles arrayed before him, +paid such devoted attention to a bottle of spirits he had brought with +him, that he quite forgot the object of his coming. At last, however, a +huge bear burst suddenly from the cover of the pine forest, directly in +front of him. At that moment the bottle was raised so high that it quite +obscured the general's vision, and he did not perceive the intruder till +he was close upon him. Down went the bottle, up jumped the astonished +soldier, and, forgetful of his guns, off he started, with the bear +clutching at the tails of his greatcoat as he ran away. What strange +confusion of ideas was muddling the general's intellect at the moment it +is difficult to say, but I suspect he had some notion that the attack +was an act of insubordination on the part of Bruin, for he called out +most lustily, as he ran along, 'Back, rascal! back! I am a general!' +Luckily, a poor Wallack peasant had more respect for the epaulettes +than the bear, and, throwing himself in the way, with nothing but a +spear for his defence, he kept the enemy at bay till our friend and the +jaegers came up, and finished the contest with their rifles." + + +BYRON'S BEAR AT CAMBRIDGE. + +When at Trinity College, Cambridge, Lord Byron had a strange pet. He +"brought up a bear for a degree." He said to Captain Medwyn,[31] "I had +a great hatred of college rules, and contempt for academical honours. +How many of their wranglers have ever distinguished themselves in the +world? There was, by the by, rather a witty satire founded on my bear. A +friend of Shelley's made an ourang-outang (Oran Hanton, Esq.) the hero +of a novel ('Melincourt'), had him created a baronet, and returned for +the borough of One Vote." + + +CHARLES DICKENS ON BEARS' GREASE AND ITS PRODUCERS. + +Any one who has been long resident in London, or who has passed through +Fenchurch Street, or Everett Street, Russell Square, must have been +struck with the way in which "bears' grease" is or used to be advertised +in these localities. Dickens makes Mr Samuel Weller tell of an +enthusiastic tradesman of this description.[32] + +"His whole delight was in his trade. He spent all his money in bears, +and run in debt for 'em besides, and there they wos a growling away in +the front cellar all day long and ineffectually gnashing their teeth, +vile the grease o' their relations and friends wos being retailed in +gallipots in the shop above, and the first floor winder wos ornamented +with their heads; not to speak o' the dreadful aggrawation it must have +been to 'em to see a man always a walkin' up and down the pavement +outside, with the portrait of a bear in his last agonies, and +underneath, in large letters, 'Another fine animal was slaughtered +yesterday at Jenkinson's!' Hous'ever, there they wos, and there +Jenkinson wos, till he was took very ill with some inward disorder, lost +the use of his legs, and wos confined to his bed, vere he laid a wery +long time; but sich wos his pride in his profession even then, that +wenever he wos worse than usual the doctor used to go down-stairs, and +say, 'Jenkinson's wery low this mornin', we must give the bears a stir;' +and as sure as ever they stirred 'em up a bit, and made 'em roar, +Jenkinson opens his eyes, if he wos ever so bad, calls out, 'There's the +bears!' and rewives agin." + +The author of a most amusing article in the seventy-seventh volume of +the _Edinburgh Review_, on the modern system of advertising, records +that, in his puff, the first vendor of bears' grease cautioned his +customers to wash their hands in warm water after using it, to prevent +them from assuming the hairy appearance of a paw. + + +A BEARABLE PUN. + +An illiterate vendor of beer wrote over his door at Harrowgate, "_Bear_ +sold here." "He spells the word quite correctly," said Theodore Hook, +"if he means to apprise us that the article is his own _Bruin_."[33] + +[Illustration: Polar Bear. (Thalassarctos maritimus.)] + + +SHAVED BEAR. + +Robert Southey ("Common-Place Book," 4th ser., p. 359) says:--"At +Bristol I saw a shaved monkey shown for a fairy; and a shaved bear, in a +check waistcoat and trousers, sitting in a great chair as an Ethiopian +savage. This was the most cruel fraud I ever saw. The unnatural position +of the beast, and the damnable brutality of the woman-keeper, who sat +upon his knee, put her arm round his neck, called him husband and +sweetheart, and kissed him, made it the most disgusting spectacle I ever +witnessed. Cottle was with me." + +He also tells of a fellow exhibiting a dragon-fly under a magnifier at a +country fair, and calling it the great High German "Heiter-Keiter." + + +THE POLAR BEAR. + +(_Thalassarctos maritimus._[34]) + +Notwithstanding ice and snow, and the darkness of a nine months' winter, +the Arctic regions are tenanted by several mammalia. Some of these are +constant residents, the rest are migratory visitors. Of the former +division, one of the most conspicuous, as it is certainly the most +formidable, is the polar bear,--a creature between eight and nine feet +in length, which, shuffling along the snow at a very quick pace, and +being an excellent swimmer besides, cannot fail to inspire dread. The +large wide head and fearfully armed jaws are united by a strong neck to +powerful shoulders, from which spring the thick and muscular fore-legs. +The paws, both of the fore and of the hind feet, are broad and admirably +adapted, with their long hairy covering, to keep the polar bear from +sinking in the snow. Although the creature has an appearance of +clumsiness, it is the reverse of inactive. Every one who knows the +boundless spaces it has to traverse, when in a state of liberty and the +"monarch of all it surveys," cannot but pity it as a prisoner in the +Regent's Park, where a tolerably capacious den, supplied with a bath of +water of very limited dimension, affords the restless creature less +liberty than a squirrel has in its round-about, or a poor lark in its +cage. + +Voyagers to the Arctic regions describe it as wandering over the fields +of ice, mounting the hummocks,[35] and looking around for prey. With +outstretched head, its little but keen eye directed to the various +points of a wide horizon, the polar bear looks out for seals; or scents +with its quick nostrils the luscious smell of some stinking +whale-blubber or half-putrid whale-flesh. Dr Scoresby relates[36] that a +piece of the _kreng_ of a whale thrown into the fire drew a bear to a +ship from the distance of miles. Captain Beechey mentions, that his +party in 1818, as they were off the coast of Spitzbergen, by setting on +fire some fat of the walrus, soon attracted a bear to their close +vicinity. This polar Bruin was evidently unaccustomed to the sight of +masts, and, when approaching, occasionally hesitated, and seemed half +inclined to turn round and be off. So agreeable a smell as burning +walrus fat dispelled all distrust, and brought him within musket-shot. +On receiving the first ball, he sprang round, growled terrifically, and +half raised himself on his hind-legs, as if expecting to seize the +object which had caused so much pain; woe to any one who had at that +moment been within reach of his merciless paws! Although a second and +third ball laid him writhing on the ice, he was not mastered; and on the +butt end of a musket directed at his head breaking short off, the bear +quickly seized the thigh of his assailant, and, but for the immediate +assistance of two or three of his shipmates, the man would have been +seriously injured. In these very seas--nearly fifty years before--the +hero of Trafalgar encountered this Arctic tyrant, and, when missed from +his ship, was discovered with a comrade attacking a large specimen, +separated from them by a chasm in the ice. On being reprimanded by his +captain for his foolhardiness, "Sir," said the young middy, pouting his +lips, as he used to do when excited, "I wished to kill the bear that I +might carry the skin to my father."[37] + +Barentz, in his celebrated voyage in 1595, had two of his men killed by +"a great leane white beare." In these early days, so unused were polar +bears to man, that though thirty of their comrades attempted a rescue, +the prey was not abandoned. The purser, "stepping somewhat farther +forward, and seeing the beare to be within the length of a shot, +presently levelled his peece, and discharging it at the beare, shot her +into the head, betweene both the eyes, and yet shee held the man still +fast by the necke, and lifted up her head with the man in her mouth, but +shee beganne somewhat to stagger; wherewith the purser and a Scottishman +drew out their courtlaxes (cutlasses), and stroke at her so hard, that +their courtlaxes burst, and yet shee would not leave the man. At last +Wm. Geysen went to them, and with all his might stroke the beare upon +the snowt with his peece, at which time the beare fell to the ground, +making a great noyse, and Wm. Geysen leaping upon her cut her throat. +The 7th of September wee buried the dead bodies of our men in the States +Island, and having fleaed the beare, carryed her skinne to Amsterdam." + +This is about the earliest record of an encounter with this formidable +creature; sailors now find that they can be attacked with most advantage +in the water. When in this element, they try to escape by swimming to +the ice, and when the ice is in the form of loose and detached small +floes, Dr Sutherland has seen them dive underneath, and appear on the +opposite side. Scoresby records, that when shot at a distance, and able +to escape, the bear has been observed to retire to the shelter of a +hummock, and, as if aware of the styptical effect of cold, apply snow to +the wound. + +In common with nearly every animal, this huge despot of the North is +strongly attached to its young. Captain Inglefield, on his return home +from Baffin's Bay in 1852, pursued three bears, as he was anxious to get +a supply of fresh meat for his Esquimaux dogs. The trio were evidently a +mother and twins. The captain was anxious to secure the cubs alive as +trophies, and was cautious in shooting at the mother. All three fell, +and were brought on board the _Isabel_. He records that it was quite +heartrending to see the affection that existed between them. When the +cubs saw their mother was wounded, they commenced licking her wounds, +regardless of their own sufferings. At length the mother began to eat +the snow, a sure sign that she was mortally wounded. "Even then her care +for the cubs did not cease, as she kept continually turning her head +from one to the other, and, though roaring with pain, she seemed to warn +them to escape if possible. Their attachment was as great as hers, and I +was thus obliged to destroy them all. It went much against my feelings, +but the memory of my starving dogs reconciled me to the necessity." + +The female bear when pursued carries or pushes her cubs forwards, and +the little creatures are described as placing themselves across her path +to be shoved forwards. Scoresby mentions an instance where, when +projected some yards in advance, the cubs ran on until she overtook +them, when they alternately adjusted themselves for a second throw. + +It is chiefly on the seal that this bear feeds, and it displays great +cunning in catching them as they sleep on the ice, or come to the holes +in the ice to breathe, when it destroys them with one blow of its +formidable and heavy paw. For its mode of getting the walrus we refer +the reader to "Excelsior," vol. i. p. 37. Notwithstanding his strength +and ferocity, the Esquimaux frequently kill the polar bear, as they +esteem its flesh and fat, and highly prize its skin. The flesh is not so +prized by Saxons, whether they be European or American. Dr Kane's +opinion would differ but little from that of Arctic voyagers on our side +of the Atlantic. The surgeon to the "Grinnell Expedition" in search of +Sir John Franklin thus characterises its flesh: "Bear is strong, very +strong, and withal most capricious meat; you cannot tell where to find +him. One day he is quite beefy and bearable; another, hircine, hippuric, +and detestable." + +It is but fair to say that Captain Parry[38] regards the flesh of the +polar bear to be as wholesome as any other, though not quite so +palatable. His men suffered from indigestion after eating it; but this +he attributes to the quantity, and not to the quality, of the meat they +had eaten. + +There seems to be little doubt that the liver is highly deleterious. +Some of the sailors of Barentz, who made a meal of it, were very sick, +"and we verily thought we should have lost them, for all their skins +came off from the foot to the head." + +The skin of the bear is covered with long yellowish white hair, which, +is very close, and forms a wonderful defence against the cold, and +against the tusk of the animals on which it feeds. We heard of another +use of this hair from an officer on one of the late Arctic searching +expeditions. A bear was seen to come down a tolerably high and steep +declivity by sliding down on its hinder quarters, in an attitude known, +in more than one part of the British Islands, by the expressive name of +"katy-hunkers;" the shaggy hair with which it was covered serving like a +thick mat to protect the creature from injury. The Esquimaux prepare the +skin sometimes without ripping it up, and turning the hairy side inward +a warm sack-like bed is formed, into which they creep, and lie very +comfortably. Otho Fabricius, in his "Fauna Graenlandica" (p. 24), informs +us that the tendons are converted into sewing threads. The female bear +has one or two, and sometimes three, cubs at a time. They are born in +the winter, and the mother generally digs for them and for herself a +snug nestling-place in the snow. The males in the winter time leave the +coast, and go out on the ice-fields, to the edge of the open water after +seals.--_Adam White, in "Excelsior" (with additions)._ + + +NELSON AND THE POLAR BEAR. + +In 1773, Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, sailed on a voyage of +discovery towards the North Pole. In this expedition sailed two Norfolk +young men, one in his twenty-third year, the other a mere lad in his +fifteenth year. The former sailed from a spirit of curiosity, and being +sorely distressed by sea-sickness was landed in Norway. He afterwards +became famous in the British Parliament, and the speeches of the Right +Hon. William Windham, Secretary at War, are often referred to even now. +The younger man was Horatio Nelson, cockswain under Captain Lutwidge, +who was killed at the battle of Trafalgar, thirty-two years after his +Polar expedition, and left a name which is synonymous with the glory of +the British navy. + +Southey, in his admirable life,[39] records an instance of his hardihood +on this expedition:--"One night, during the mid-watch, he stole from the +ship with one of his comrades, taking advantage of a rising fog, and set +off over the ice in pursuit of a bear. It was not long before they were +missed. The fog thickened, and Captain Lutwidge and his officers became +exceedingly alarmed for their safety. Between three and four in the +morning the weather cleared, and the two adventurers were seen at a +considerable distance from the ship attacking a huge bear. The signal +for them to return was immediately made; Nelsons' comrade called upon +him to obey it, but in vain; his musket had flashed in the pan; their +ammunition was expended; and a chasm in the ice, which divided him from +the bear, probably preserved his life. 'Never mind,' he cried; 'do but +let me get a blow at this devil with the butt-end of my musket, and we +shall have him.' Captain Lutwidge, however, seeing his danger, fired a +gun, which had the desired effect of frightening the beast; and the boy +then returned, somewhat afraid of the consequences of his trespass. The +captain reprimanded him sternly for conduct so unworthy of the office +which he filled, and desired to know what motive he could have for +hunting a bear. 'Sir,' said he, pouting his lip, as he was wont to do +when agitated, 'I wished to kill the bear, that I might carry the skin +to my father.'" + + +A CLEVER POLAR BEAR. + +Mr Markham,[40] when the ship _Assistance_ was in the Wellington +Channel, observed several bears prowling about in search of seals. "On +one occasion," he writes, "I saw a bear swimming across a lane of water, +and pushing a large piece of ice before him. Landing on the floe, he +advanced stealthily towards a couple of seals, which were basking in the +sun at some little distance, still holding the ice in front to hide his +black muzzle; but this most sagacious of bears was for once outwitted, +for the seals dived into a pool of water before he could get within +reach. On another occasion, a female Bruin having been shot from the +deck of the _Intrepid_, her affectionate cub, an animal about the size +of a large Newfoundland dog, remained resolutely by the side of its +mother, and on the approach of the commander of the _Intrepid_ with part +of his crew, a sort of tournament ensued, in which the youthful bear, +although belaboured most savagely, showed a gallant resistance, and at +length rushing between the legs of the corporal of marines, laid him +prostrate on the ice, floored another man, who had seized hold of his +tail, and effected his escape." + + +CAPTAIN OMMANEY AND THE POLAR BEAR. + +Captain Ommaney,[41] who led one of the travelling parties in 1851 sent +out from the ships under Austin in search of Franklin on the 12th of +June, the day before he arrived at the ships, met with a laughable +accident, although it might have had a serious termination. They had all +of them but just got into their blanket bags, when a peculiar noise, as +if something was rubbing up the snow, was heard outside. The gallant +captain instantly divined its cause, seized, loaded, and cocked his gun, +and ordered the tent door to be opened, upon which a huge bear was seen +outside. Captain Ommaney fired at the animal, but, whether from the +benumbed state of his limbs, or the dim glimmering light, he +unfortunately missed him, and shot away the rope that supported the tent +instead. The enraged monster then poked his head against the poles, and +the tent fell upon its terrified inmates, and embraced them in its +folds. Their confusion and dismay can more easily be imagined than +described, but at length one man, with more self-possession than the +rest, slipped out of his bag, scrambled from under the prostrate tent, +and ran to the sledge for another gun; and it was well that he did so, +for no sooner had he vacated his sleeping sack than Bruin seized it +between his teeth, and shook it violently, with the evident intention of +wreaking his vengeance on its inmate. He was, however, speedily +despatched by a well-aimed shot from the man, the tent was repitched, +and tranquillity restored. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[30] "Hungary and Transylvania," &c., by John Paget, Esq., vol. ii. p. +445. + +[31] "Conversations of Lord Byron," p. 72. + +[32] "Master Humphrey's Clock." + +[33] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 331 + +[34] [Greek: Thalassa], sea; [Greek: arktos], bear. + +[35] Those "Arctic hedge-rows," as Mr David Walker calls them, when, on +the 30th November 1857, he was on board the Arctic yacht _Fox_, +wintering in the floe-ice of Baffin's Bay. "The scene apparent on going +on deck after breakfast was splendid, and unlike anything I ever saw +before. The subdued light of the moon thrown over such a vast expanse of +ice, in the distance the loom of a berg, or the shadow of the hummocks +(the Arctic hedge-rows), the only thing to break the even surface, a few +stars peeping out, as if gazing in wonder at the spectacle,--all united +to render the prospect striking, and lead one to contemplate the +goodness and power of the Creator." On the 2d November, they had killed +a bear, which had been bayed and surrounded by their Esquimaux dogs. +Captain M'Clintock shot him. He was 7 feet 3 inches long. Only one of +the dogs was injured by his paws. Much did the hungry beasts enjoy their +feast, for they "were regaled with the entrails, which they polished off +in a very short time."--_Mr Walker, in_ _"Belfast News Letter," quoted +in "Dublin Natural History Review," 1858_, p. 180. + +[36] "Account of Arctic Regions," i. 517. + +[37] The anecdote is given with more detail at p. 67. + +[38] "Attempt to Reach the North Pole," p. 115. + +[39] "Life of Nelson," by Robert Southey, Esq., LL.D., Poet Laureate, p. +11. + +[40] "Franklin's Footsteps," by Clement R. Markham, p. 65. + +[41] "Franklin's Footsteps," by Clement Robert Markham, late of H.M.S. +_Assistance_, p. 93. + + + + +RACCOON. + + +A strikingly pretty, well-clad, and pleasingly coloured North American +quadruped, of which many zoological anecdotes might be given. Linnaeus +named it _Ursu lotor_, or the Washer, from its curious habit of putting +any food offered to it, at least when in confinement, into water, before +attempting to eat it. + + +"A GONE COON." + +An American phrase for "the last extremity," or, "it's all up." They say +that a Major, or Colonel, or General Scott "down South" was notorious as +a dead shot. Once on a time, when out with his gun, he espied a raccoon +on a lofty tree. The poor raccoon, noticing the gun pointed at him, +cried to the dead shot, "Air _you_ General Scott?"--"I air."--"Then +wait, I air a comin' down, for I air _a gone coon_." + + + + +BADGER. + + +The badger, or brock, as it is called in Scotland, is yearly becoming +more and more rare. In a few years, this curious and powerful member of +the _ferae_, will figure, like the bear and beaver, as among the extinct +quadrupeds of these islands. Naturalists will be recording that in the +days of Robert Burns it must have been not at all uncommon, and not rare +in those of Hugh Miller, since low dram-shops kept them for the +entertainment of their guests. The Ayrshire bard makes the Newfoundland +dog, Caesar, say to his comrade Luath, the collie, when, speaking of most +of the gentry of his day-- + + "They gang as saucy by poor folk + As I wad by a stinking brock."[42] + +The author of "Old Red Sandstone" and "My Schools and Schoolmasters," +has recorded in the latter work the history of his employment as a hewer +of great stones under the branching foliage of the elm and chestnut +trees of Niddry Park, near Edinburgh, and how, in the course of a strike +among the masons, he marched into town with several of them to a meeting +on the Links, where, conspicuous from the deep red hue of their clothes +and aprons, they were cheered as a reinforcement from a distance. On +adjourning, Hugh Miller, in his racy style, gives the following account +of a badger-baiting more than forty years ago:-- + + +HUGH MILLER AND THE BADGER-BAITING IN THE CANONGATE. + +"My comrades proposed that we should pass the time until the hour of +meeting in a public-house, and, desirous of securing a glimpse of the +sort of enjoyment for which they sacrificed so much, I accompanied them. +Passing not a few more inviting-looking places, we entered a low tavern +in the upper part of the Canongate, kept in an old half-ruinous +building, which has since disappeared. We passed on through a narrow +passage to a low-roofed room in the centre of the erection, into which +the light of day never penetrated, and in which the gas was burning +dimly in a close, sluggish atmosphere, rendered still more stifling by +tobacco-smoke, and a strong smell of ardent spirits. In the middle of +the crazy floor there was a trap-door, which lay open at the time; and a +wild combination of sounds, in which the yelping of a dog, and a few +gruff voices that seemed cheering him on, were most noticeable, rose +from the apartment below. It was customary at this time for dram-shops +to keep badgers housed in long narrow boxes, and for working men to keep +dogs; and it was part of the ordinary sport of such places to set the +dogs to unhouse the badgers. The wild sport which Scott describes in his +'Guy Mannering,' as pursued by Dandy Dinmont and his associates among +the Cheviots, was extensively practised twenty-nine years ago amid the +dingier haunts of the High Street and Canongate. Our party, like most +others, had its dog,--a repulsive-looking brute, with an earth-directed +eye; as if he carried about with him an evil conscience; and my +companions were desirous of getting his earthing ability tested upon the +badger of the establishment; but on summoning the tavern-keeper, we were +told that the party below had got the start of us. Their dog was, as we +might hear, 'just drawing the badger; and before our dog could be +permitted to draw him, the poor brute would require to get an hour's +rest.' I need scarce say, that the hour was spent in hard drinking in +that stagnant atmosphere; and we then all descended through the +trap-door, by means of a ladder, into a bare-walled dungeon, dark and +damp, and where the pestiferous air smelt like that of a burial vault. +The scene which followed was exceedingly repulsive and brutal,--nearly +as much so as some of the scenes furnished by those otter-hunts in which +the aristocracy of the country delight occasionally to indulge. Amid +shouts and yells the badger, with the blood of his recent conflict still +fresh upon him, was again drawn to the box-mouth; and the party +returning satisfied to the apartment above, again betook themselves to +hard drinking. In a short time the liquor began to tell, not first, as +might be supposed, on our younger men, who were mostly tall, vigorous +fellows, in the first flush of their full strength, but on a few of the +middle-aged workmen, whose constitutions seemed undermined by a previous +course of dissipation and debauchery. The conversation became very loud, +very involved, and though highly seasoned with emphatic oaths, very +insipid; and leaving with Cha--who seemed somewhat uneasy that my eye +should be upon their meeting in its hour of weakness--money enough to +clear off my share of the reckoning, I stole out to the King's Park, and +passed an hour to better purpose among the trap rocks than I could +possibly have spent it beside the trap-door of that tavern party. I am +not aware that a single individual, save the writer, is now living; its +very dog did not live out half his days. His owner was alarmed one +morning, shortly after this time, by the intelligence that a dozen of +sheep had been worried during the night on a neighbouring farm, and that +a dog very like his had been seen prowling about the fold; but in order +to determine the point, he would be visited, it was added, in the course +of the day, by the shepherd and a law-officer. The dog meanwhile, +however, conscious of guilt,--for dogs do seem to have consciences in +such matters,--was nowhere to be found, though, after the lapse of +nearly a week, he again appeared at the work; and his master, slipping a +rope round his neck, brought him to a deserted coal-pit half-filled with +water, that opened in an adjacent field, and flinging him in, left the +authorities no clue by which to establish his identity with the robber +and assassin of the fold."[43] + + +THE LAIRD OF BALNAMOON AND THE BROCK. + +The laird, so Dean Ramsay had the story sent him, once riding past a +high steep bank, stopped opposite a hole in it, and said, "John, I saw a +brock gang in there."--"Did ye?" said John; "wull ye haud my horse, +sir?"--"Certainly," said the laird, and away rushed John for a spade. +After digging for half an hour, he came back, nigh speechless to the +laird, who had regarded him musingly. "I canna find him, sir," said +John.--"'Deed," said the laird, very coolly, "I wad ha' wondered if ye +had, for it's ten years sin' I saw him gang in there."[44] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[42] Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 1787, p. 14, "The Twa +Dogs." + + + + +FERRET. + + +A truly blood-thirsty member of that slim-bodied but active race, the +weasel tribe. He is certainly an inhabitant of a warmer climate than +this, being very sensitive to cold. He is used in killing rats and +_ferreting out_ rabbits, a verb indeed derived from his name. He has +been known to attack sleeping infants. + + +COLLINS AND THE RAT-CATCHERS _grip_ OF HIS FERRETS. + +That delightful painter of cottage life, says his son,[45] often found +cottagers who gloried in being painted, and who sat like professional +models, under an erroneous impression that it was for their personal +beauties and perfections that their likenesses were portrayed. The +remarks of these and other good people, who sat to the painter in +perfect ignorance of the use or object of his labours, were often +exquisitely original. He used to quote the criticism of a celebrated +country rat-catcher, on the study he had made from him, with hearty +triumph and delight. When asked whether he thought his portrait like, +the rat-catcher, who--perhaps in virtue of his calling--was a gruff and +unhesitating man, immediately declared that the face was "not a morsel +like," but vowed with a great oath, that nothing could ever be equal to +the correctness of the _dirt shine on his old leather breeches_, and the +_grip_ that he had of _the necks of his ferrets_! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[43] "My Schools and Schoolmasters; or, The Story of my Education," by +Hugh Miller, fifth edition, 1856, pp. 321-323. + +[44] "Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character," tenth edition, +1864, p. 183. + + + + +POLE-CAT. + + +An equally blood-thirsty member of the weasel family, with the subject +of the preceding paragraph. + + +FOX AND THE POLE-CAT.--(POLL-CAT.[46]) + +Francis Grose relates the following as having happened during one of the +famous Westminster elections:--"During the poll, a dead cat being thrown +on the hustings, one of Sir Cecil Wray's party observed it stunk worse +than a fox, to which Mr Fox replied, there was nothing extraordinary in +that, considering it was a poll-cat." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[45] "Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, R.A," by his son, W. +Wilkie Collins, i. p. 222. + + + + +DOGS. + + +One who seems to love the race of dogs, and who has written a most +readable book on them,[47] remarks, that the dog "even now is rarely the +companion of a Jew, or the inmate of his house." He quotes various terms +of reproach still common among us, and which seem to have originated +from a similar feeling to that of the Jew. For instance, we say of a +very cheap article, that it is "dog cheap." To call a person "a dog," or +"a cur," or "a hound," means something the very opposite of +complimentary. A surly person is said to have "a dogged disposition." +Any one very much fatigued is said to be "dog weary." A wretched room or +house is often called "a dog hole," or said to be only fit for "a dog." +Very poor verse is "doggerel." It is told of Lady Mary Wortley +Montague, that when a young nobleman refused to translate some +inscription over an alcove, because it was in "dog-latin," she observed, +"How strange a puppy shouldn't understand his mother tongue." + +What, too, can be more expressive of a man being on the verge of ruin, +than the common phrase, that "such a one is going to the dogs." Of +modern describers of the very life and feelings of dogs, who can surpass +Dr John Brown of Edinburgh? His "Rab," and his "Our Dogs," are worthy of +the brush of Sir Edwin Landseer. Who has not heard the answer _said_ to +have been given by Sydney Smith to the great painter, when he wanted to +make a portrait of the witty canon, "_Is thy servant a dog, that he +should do this thing?_" + +There is great diversity of standard in matters of taste. In China, a +well-roasted pup, of any variety of the very variable _Canis +familiaris_, is a dainty dish. In London the greatest exquisite delights +in the taste of a half-cooked woodcock, but would scruple to eat a +lady's lap-dog, even though descended, by indubitable pedigree, from a +genuine "liver-and-tan" spaniel, that followed King Charles II. in his +strolls through St James's Park; and which was given to her ladyship's +ancestress on a day recorded, perhaps, in the diary of Mr Samuel Pepys. +Again, in the country of the Esquimaux, who has not read in the +intensely interesting narratives of the Moravian missionaries, how the +dogs of the "Innuit"--of "the men," as they call themselves--are, in +winter, indispensable to their very existence? Parry, Lyon, Franklin, +Richardson, Ross, Rae, Penny, Sutherland, Inglefield, and Kane, have +told us what excellent "carriage"-pullers these hardy children of the +snow become from early infancy; and how the more they work, like the +wives of savages in Australia, the more they are kicked. Passing over +the dogs of the Indian tribes of North America and the gaunt race in +Patagonia, the reader may remember that the Roman youth, like the young +Briton, had, in the days of Horace, his outer marks--one was, that he +loved to have a dog, or a whole pack beside him--"_gaudet canibus_." +This attachment to the dog is given us "from above," and is one of the +many "good gifts" which proceed from Him, who made man and dog +"familiar," as the apt specific name of Linnaeus denominates the latter. +One of our greatly-gifted poets, in a cynical mood, could write an +epitaph on a favourite Newfoundlander, and end it with the dismal lines +on his views of "earthly friends"-- + + "He never knew but one,--and here he lies." + +Our genial and home-loving Cowper has made his dog Beau classical. We +must beg our readers to refresh their memories, by looking into the +Olney bard's exquisite story, + + "My spaniel, prettiest of his race, + And high in pedigree," + +and they will find that _that_ story of "The Dog and the Water-lily" was +"no fable," and that Beau really understood his master's wish when he +fetched him a water-lily out of "Ouse's silent tide." How graceful are +the last two stanzas of that sweet little poem-- + + "Charm'd with the sight, 'The world,' I cried, + 'Shall hear of this thy deed; + My dog shall mortify the pride + Of man's superior breed. + + 'But chief myself I will enjoin, + Awake at duty's call, + To show a love as prompt as thine + To Him who gives me all.'"[48] + +[Illustration: BEAU.] + +That the world might know the very "mark and figure" of this spaniel, +the late able illustrator of so many topographical works (Mr James +Storer) published in his "Rural Walks of Cowper"[49] a figure of Beau, +from the stuffed skin in the possession of Cowper's kinsman, the Rev. +Dr Johnson. + +Mr Montague, in a letter to the son and biographer of Sir James +Mackintosh,[50] gives many reminiscences of that eminent man, who was +much attached to the memory of Cowper. He says, "We reached Dereham +about mid-day (it was in 1801), and wrote to Mr Johnson, the clergyman, +who had protected Cowper in the last years of his life, and in whose +house he died. He instantly called upon us, and we accompanied him to +his house. In the hall, we were introduced to a little red and white +spaniel, in a glass case--the little dog Beau, who, seeing the +water-lily which Cowper could not reach, 'plunging, left the shore.'" + + "I saw him with that lily cropp'd, + Impatient swim to meet + My quick approach, and soon he dropp'd + The treasure at my feet." + +We saw the room where Cowper died, and the bell which he last touched. +We went to his grave, and to Mrs Unwin's, who is buried at some +distance. I lamented this, "Do not live in the visible, but the +invisible," said your father,--"his attainments, his tenderness, his +affections, his sufferings, and his hardships, will live long after both +their graves are no more." + +We could linger over a prized octavo volume, published in Edinburgh in +1787; the first poem of this, "The Twa Dogs, a Tale," occupies some +thirteen pages, written with that "rare felicity" so common to _the_ +Bard of Scotland. We mention it, because of the peculiar happiness with +which the collie, or Scottish shepherd-dog, is described in lines that +Sir Edwin Landseer alone has equalled on canvas, or his brother Thomas +with the graver-- + + "He was a gash an' faithfu' tyke + As ever lap a sheugh or dyke. + His honest, sonsie, bawsn't[51] face, + Aye gat him friends in ilka place. + His breast was white, his touzie back + Weel clad wi' coat of glossy black; + His gaucie tail, wi' upward curl, + Hung owre his hurdies wi' a swirl." + +_That's_ the shepherd-dog, as we have heard him described from a +specimen, which was the friend and follower of a valued one, who, when a +boy ('tis many years ago), frisked with the dog, over _one_ of the many +ferny haughs that margin the lovely Tweed above and below Peebles. It is +_the_ collie we have seen, on one of the sheep-farms of Lanarkshire, +obey its young master by a word or two, as unintelligible to us as +Japanese. But to the Culter "Luath," to hear was to obey; and in a +quarter of an hour a flock of sheep, which had been feeding on a +hillSide half a mile off, were brought back, driven by this faithful +"bit doggie." We wonder not that shepherds love their dogs. Why, even +the New Smithfield cattle-drovers, who drive sheep along the streets of +London on a Monday or Friday, never even require to urge their faithful +partners. Well may the gifted authoress of "The Dream" address "the +faithful guardian"-- + + "Oh, tried and trusted! thou whose love + Ne'er changes nor forsakes, + Thou proof, how perfect God hath stamp'd + The meanest thing He makes; + Thou, whom no snare entraps to serve, + No art is used to tame + (Train'd, like ourselves, thy path to know, + By words of love and blame); + Friend! who beside the cottage door, + Or in the rich man's hall, + With steadfast faith still answerest + The one familiar call; + Well by poor hearth and lordly home + Thy couchant form may rest, + And Prince and Peasant trust thee still, + To guard what they love best." + + _Hon. Mrs Norton, "The Dream," &c._, p. 192. + +No ordinary-sized volume, much less a short article, could give a tithe +of the true anecdotes of members of the dog race. Mere references to +their biography would take up a volume of Bibliography itself, just as +their forms, and character, and "pose," give endless subject to the +painter. Of modern authors, no one loved dogs more truly than Sir Walter +Scott, as the reader of his writings and of his biography is well +aware;[52] but it may not be generally known that, on the only occasion +when the great novelist met the Ayrshire peasant,-- + + "Virgilium tantum vidi,"-- + +the poem, which had made Burns a wonder to the boy then "unknown," was +that of "The Twa Dogs;" so that, even then, Scott had commenced to show +his attachment to these faithful followers. It was in the house of Sir +Adam Ferguson, when Scott was a mere lad; and the scene was described +most vividly to the writer by the late Scottish knight, after whose +battle in South Italy the author of "Marmion" named his pet staghound +Maida, or, as Scott pronounced it, "Myda." It was as the author of "The +Twa Dogs" that young Ferguson and Scott regarded Burns on his entrance +into the room with such wistful attention. The story is told in +Lockhart, and we will not quote it further; but, leaving dogs of our own +days and lands to Mr Jesse, who has given an interesting volume on them, +we will close with a few paragraphs on the dog of the East--a very +differently treated animal to that generally prized and esteemed +"friend" of man in these lands of the West. + +The Holy Scriptures show us that dogs were generally despised. We select +three, out of many instances. "Is thy servant a _dog_ that he should do +this thing?" was the question with which Hazael, ignorant of the +deceitfulness of his own heart, indignantly replied to Elisha, when the +prophet told him of the evil that he would yet do unto the children of +Israel (2 Kings viii. 13). He, "who spake as never man spake," knowing +the faith of the Syrophoenician woman, and giving her an opportunity +of manifesting it "for our example," said, in the Syriac fashion of +thought, "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to +_the dogs_" (Mark vii. 27). And the apostle John, in that wondrous close +of the prophetical writings, says, "For without," _i.e._, outside of the +New Jerusalem, "are _dogs_" (Rev. xxii. 5). In the East up to the +present day, with but few exceptions, dogs are treated with great +dislike. We might quote passages in proof from almost every Eastern +traveller, and may venture to extract one from the graphic page of the +Rev. W. Graham, who lived five years in Syria, and who has given some +noble word-pictures of men, and streets, and scenes in Damascus and +other Turkish towns. Writing of Damascus,[53] he remarks, "The dogs are +considered unclean, and are never domesticated in the East. They are +thin, lean, fox-like animals, and always at the starving point. They +live, breed, and die in the streets. They are useful as scavengers. They +are neither fondled nor persecuted, but simply tolerated; and no dog has +an owner, or ever follows and accompanies a man as the sheep do. I once +went out in the evening at Beyrout, with my teacher to enjoy the fresh +air and talk Arabic. My little English dog, the gift of a friend, +followed us. We passed through a garden, where a venerable Moslem was +sitting on a stone, silently and solemnly engaged in smoking his pipe. +He observed the dog _following_ us, and was astonished at it, as +something new and extraordinary; and rising, and making out of the way, +he cried out, 'May his father be accursed! Is that a dog or a fox?'" +Again, in Damascus, should a worn-out horse, donkey, or camel die in the +streets, in a few hours the dogs have devoured it; and the powerful rays +of the sun dry up all corrupt matter. Mr Graham tells us that the dogs +of Damascus are brown, blackish, or of an ash colour, and that he saw no +white or spotted specimens. He never saw a case of hydrophobia, nor did +he hear a _bark_. The dogs "howl, and make noise enough," he continues, +"but the fine, well-defined _bow-wow_ is entirely wanting." With a quiet +humour, he hints at the bark being a mark of the civilised, domesticated +dog, and as denoting, apparently, "the refinement of canine education." +We have been struck with the attempts of Penny's Esquimaux dogs, +deposited by the gallant Arctic mariner in the Zoological Gardens, to +_get up_ a bark somewhat like the "well-bred" dogs in the cages near +them. Mr Graham tells us of the Damascus dogs having established a kind +of police among themselves, and, like the rooks, driving all intruders +far from their district. + +Dogs were not always disregarded in the East. Herodotus informs us,[54] +during the Persian occupation the number of Indian dogs kept in the +province of Babylon for the use of the governor was so great, that four +cities were exempted from taxes for maintaining them. In the mountain +parts of India, travellers describe the great dogs of Thibet and +Cashmere as being much prized. + +"The domestic dog of Ladak," says Major Cunningham,[55] "is the +well-known shepherd's dog, or Thibetan mastiff. They have shaggy coats, +generally quite black, or black and tan; but I have seen some of a light +brown colour. They are usually ill-tempered to strangers; but I have +never found one that would face a stick, although they can fight well +when attacked. The only peculiarity that I have noticed about them is, +that the tail is nearly always curled upward on to the back, where the +hair is displaced by the constant rubbing of the tail." And that the +same massive variety was also prized in ancient times we know, by a +singularly fine, small bas-relief in baked clay, found in 1849 in the +Birs-i-Nimrud, Babylon, by Sir Henry Rawlinson, which is preserved in +the British Museum, to which it was presented by the late Prince Albert, +and an outline of which, reduced one-half, will convey a good idea to +the reader of its form. We may add that this bas-relief was first +noticed and figured, in 1851, in the third edition of a truly learned +and excellent work on "Nineveh and Persepolis," by Mr Vaux of the +British Museum (p. 183). These dogs, then, were nothing else than big, +"low jowled" Thibetan mastiffs, such as we occasionally see brought over +by some Indian officer; and the use for which they were employed by the +ancient kings and their attendants is strikingly exhibited on some slabs +from a chamber in the north palace of Koujunjik, a part of the great +Nineveh. On some of these slabs, dogs are seen engaged in pulling down +wild asses, deer, and other animals; and they were evidently kept also +to assist in securing nobler game--"the king of beasts;"--the sport of +which animals shows how truly the Assyrian king was named "Nimrod, the +mighty hunter before the Lord."--_Adam White, in "Excelsior" (with +additions)._ + +[Illustration] + + +BISHOP BLOMFIELD BITTEN BY A DOG. + +His natural temperament was quick, and he was fond of authority. "A +saying of Sydney Smith's has been preserved, humorously illustrative of +the view which he took of Bishop Blomfield's character. The bishop had +been bitten by a dog in the calf of the leg, and fearing possible +hydrophobia in consequence, he went, with characteristic promptitude, to +have the injured piece of flesh cut out by a surgeon before he returned +home. Two or three on whom he called were not at home; but, at last, the +operation was effected by the eminent surgeon, Mr Keate. The same +evening the bishop was to have dined with a party where Sydney Smith was +a guest. Just before dinner, a note arrived, saying that he was unable +to keep his engagement, a dog having rushed out from the crowd and +bitten him in the leg. When this note was read aloud to the company, +Sydney Smith's comment was, '_I should like to hear the dog's account of +the story_.' + +"When this accident occurred to him, Bishop Blomfield happened to be +walking with Dr D'Oyly, the rector of Lambeth. A lady of strong +Protestant principles, mistaking Dr D'Oyly for Dr Doyle, said that she +considered it was a judgment upon the bishop for keeping such +company."[56] + + +"PUPPIES NEVER SEE TILL THEY ARE NINE DAYS OLD." + +It is related, that when a former Bishop of Bristol held the office of +Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, he one day met a couple +of under-graduates, who neglected to pay the accustomed compliment of +_capping_. The bishop inquired the reason of the neglect. The two men +begged his lordship's pardon, observing they were _freshmen_, and did +not know him. "How long have you been in Cambridge?" asked his lordship. +"Only _eight_ days," was the reply. "Very good," said the bishop; +"_puppies_ never see till they are _nine_ days old."[57] + + +MRS ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING'S DOG FLUSH. + +Few have written so lovingly on the dog as this gifted poetess. Her dog +Flush is described so well that Landseer could paint the creature almost +to a hair. She has entered into the very feeling created in us by this +favoured pet of our race. The beautiful stanzas[58] I have copied give +also many little touches of her autobiography. This gifted lady was long +an invalid. She could enter with rare sympathy into Cowper's attachments +to animals. Her experience of the friendship of Flush is well told in +the following lines, so different from Lord Byron's misanthropic verses +on his dog:-- + + + TO FLUSH, MY DOG. + + Loving friend, the gift of one + Who her own true faith has run + Through her lower nature, + Be my benediction said + With my hand upon thy head, + Gentle fellow-creature! + + Like a lady's ringlets brown + Flow thy silken ears adown + Either side demurely + Of thy silver-suited breast, + Shining out from all the rest + Of thy body purely. + + Darkly brown thy body is, + Till the sunshine, striking this, + Alchemise its dulness, + When the sleek curls manifold + Flash all over into gold + With a burnish'd fulness. + + Underneath my stroking hand, + Startled eyes of hazel bland + Kindling, growing larger, + Up thou leapest with a spring, + Full of prank and curveting + Leaping like a charger. + + Leap! thy broad tail waves a light; + Leap! thy slender feet are bright, + Canopied in fringes; + Leap! those tassell'd ears of thine + Flicker strangely, fair and fine, + Down their golden inches. + + Yet, my pretty, sporting friend, + Little is 't to such an end + That I praise thy rareness; + Other dogs may be thy peers + Haply in these drooping ears + And this glossy fairness. + + But of _thee_ it shall be said, + This dog watch'd beside a bed + Day and night unweary-- + Watch'd within a curtain'd room, + Where no sunbeam brake the gloom, + Round the sick and dreary. + + Roses gather'd for a vase + In that chamber died apace, + Beam and breeze resigning; + This dog only waited on, + Knowing that, when light is gone, + Love remains for shining. + + Other dogs in thymy dew + Track'd the hares, and follow'd through + Sunny moor or meadow; + This dog only crept and crept + Next a languid cheek that slept, + Sharing in the shadow. + + Other dogs of loyal cheer + Bounded at the whistle clear, + Up the woodside hieing; + This dog only watch'd in reach + Of a faintly-utter'd speech, + Or a louder sighing. + + And if one or two quick tears + Dropp'd upon his glossy ears, + Or a sigh came double, + Up he sprang in eager haste, + Fawning, fondling, breathing fast + In a tender trouble + + And this dog was satisfied + If a pale, thin hand would glide + Down his dewlaps sloping, + Which he push'd his nose within, + After--platforming his chin + On the palm left open. + + This dog, if a friendly voice + Call him now to blither choice + Than such chamber-keeping, + "Come out!" praying from the door, + Presseth backward as before, + Up against me leaping. + + Therefore to this dog will I, + Tenderly, not scornfully, + Render praise and favour: + With my hand upon his head + Is my benediction said, + Therefore, and for ever. + + And because he loved me so, + Better than his kind will do, + Often man or woman, + Give I back more love again + Than dogs often take of men, + Leaning from my Human. + + Blessings on thee, dog of mine, + Pretty collars make thee fine, + Sugar'd milk make fat thee! + Pleasures wag on in thy tail, + Hands of gentle motion fail + Nevermore to pat thee! + + Downy pillow take thy head, + Silken coverlet bestead, + Sunshine help thy sleeping! + No fly's buzzing wake thee up, + No man break thy purple cup + Set for drinking deep in. + + Whisker'd cats arointed flee, + Sturdy stoppers keep from thee + Cologne distillations; + Nuts lie in thy path for stones, + And thy feast-day macaroons + Turn to daily rations! + + Mock I thee in wishing weal? + Tears are in my eyes to feel + Thou art made so straightly; + Blessing needs must straighten too; + Little canst thou joy or do, + Thou who lovest _greatly_. + + Yet be blessed to the height + Of all good and all delight + Pervious to thy nature; + Only _loved_ beyond that line, + With a love that answers thine, + Loving fellow-creature! + + +SIR THOMAS FOWELL BUXTON, BART., AND HIS DOG "SPEAKER." + +Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton was very fond of dogs; his son[59] tells an +anecdote of the singular manner in which one of his pets came into his +possession. "He was standing at the door of the House of Commons talking +to a friend, when a beautiful black and tan terrier rushed between them, +and immediately began barking furiously at Mr Joseph Pease, who was +speaking. All the members jumped up, shouting and laughing, while the +officers of the house chased the dog round and round, till at last he +took refuge with Mr Buxton, who, as he could find no traces of an owner, +carried him home. He proved to be quite an original. One of his whims +was, that he would never go into the kitchen nor yet into a poor man's +cottage; but he formed a habit of visiting by himself at the country +houses in the neighbourhood of Cromer, and his refined manners and +intelligence made 'Speaker' a welcome guest wherever he pleased to go." + + +LORD BYRON AND HIS DOG BOATSWAIN. + +In November 1808 Lord Byron lost his favourite dog Boatswain; the poor +animal having been seized with a fit of madness, at the commencement of +which so little aware was Byron of the nature of the malady, that he +more than once, with his bare hand, wiped away the slaver from the dog's +lips during the paroxysms. In a letter to his friend Mr Hodson, he thus +announces this event:--"Boatswain is dead! he expired in a state of +madness on the 18th, after suffering much, yet retaining all the +gentleness of his nature to the last, never attempting to do the least +injury to any one near him. I have now lost everything except old +Murray." + +The monument raised by him to this dog--the most memorable tribute of +the kind since the dog's grave, of old, at Salamis--is still a +conspicuous ornament of the gardens of Newstead. The misanthropic verses +engraved upon it may be found among his poems, and the following is the +inscription by which they are introduced:-- + + + + "Near this spot Are deposited the remains of one Who + possessed beauty without vanity, Strength without insolence, Courage + without ferocity, And all the virtues of man without his vices. This + praise, which would be unmeaning flattery If inscribed over human ashes, + Is but a just tribute to the memory of BOATSWAIN, a dog, Who was born at + Newfoundland, May 1803, And died at Newstead Abbey, November 18, 1805." + +The poet Pope, when about the same age as the writer of this +inscription, passed a similar eulogy on his dog, at the expense of human +nature; adding that "histories are more full of examples of the fidelity +of dogs than of friends." In a still sadder and bitterer spirit, Lord +Byron writes of his favourite:-- + + "To mark a friend's remains these stones arise; + I never knew but _one_, and _here_ he lies."[60] + +Moore relates a story of this dog, indicative, not only of intelligence, +but of a generosity of spirit, which might well win for him the +affections of such a master as Byron. A fox-terrier of his mother's, +called Gilpin, was an object of dislike to Boatswain, who worried him +nearly to the death. Gilpin was sent off and Boatswain was missed for a +day. To the surprise of the servants, towards evening Gilpin and +Boatswain were in company, the former led by the latter, who led him to +the kitchen fire, licked him and lavished on him every possible +demonstration of joy. He had been away to fetch him, and ever after +caressed him, and defended him from the attacks of other dogs. (P. 44.) + + +"PERCHANCE"--A LADY'S _reason_ FOR SO NAMING HER DOG. + +A lady had a favourite lap-dog, which she called Perchance. "A singular +name," said somebody, "for a beautiful pet, madam; where did you find +it?"--"Oh," drawled she, "it was named from Byron's dog. You remember +where he says, '_Perchance_ my dog will howl.'"[61] + + +COLLINS THE ARTIST AND HIS DOG "PRINNY"--A MODEL OF "_a model_." + +William Wilkie Collins, after a most graphic account of the companions +of his artist-father's home,[62] notices "one who was ever as ready to +offer his small aid and humble obedience as were any of his superiors, +to confer the benefit of their penetrating advice." I refer to Mr +Collins's dog "Prinny" (Prince). This docile and affectionate animal had +been trained by his master to sit in any attitude, which the +introduction of a dog in his picture (a frequent occurrence) might +happen to demand. So strict was "Prinny's" sense of duty, that he never +ventured to move from his set position until his master's signal gave +him permission to approach his chair, when he was generally rewarded +with a lump of sugar, placed, not between his teeth, but on his nose, +where he continued to balance it, until he was desired to throw it into +the air and catch it in his mouth, a feat which he very seldom failed to +perform. On one occasion his extraordinary integrity in the performance +of his duties was thus pleasantly exemplified:--"My father had placed +him on the backs of two chairs, his fore-legs on the rails of one, and +his hind-legs on the rails of the other; and in this rather arduous +position had painted from him for a considerable time, when a friend was +announced as waiting for him in another apartment. Particularly desirous +of seeing this visitor immediately, the painter hurried from the room, +entirely forgetting to tell 'Prinny' to get down, and remained in +conversation with his friend for full half an hour. On returning to his +study the first object that greeted him was poor 'Prinny,' standing on +his 'bad eminence' exactly in the position in which he had been left, +trembling with fatigue, and occasionally vending his anguish and +distress in a low piteous moan, but not moving a limb, or venturing even +to turn his head. Not having received the usual signal he had never once +attempted to get down, but had remained disconsolate in his position +'sitting' hard, with nobody to paint him, during the long half hour that +had delayed his master's return." + + +THE SOLDIER AND THE MASTIFF. + +A soldier passing through a meadow, a large mastiff ran at him, and he +stabbed the dog with a bayonet. The master of the dog asked him why he +had not rather struck the dog with the butt-end of his weapon? "So I +should," said the soldier, "if he had run at me with his tail!"[63] + + +BARK AND BITE. + +Lord Clare, who was much opposed to Curran, one day brought a +Newfoundland dog upon the bench, and during Curran's speech turned +himself aside and caressed the animal. Curran stopped. "Go on, go on, Mr +Curran," said Lord Clare.--"Oh, I beg a thousand pardons," was the +rejoinder. "I really thought your lordship was employed in +_consultation_."[64] + + +MRS DREW AND THE TWO DOGS. + +(A CURIOUSLY NEAR APPROACH TO MORAL PERCEPTION.) + +In the biography of Samuel Drew, A.M., a great name among the +metaphysical writers of this country, we read a very interesting +anecdote of two dogs. + +His father, a farmer and mail-carrier in Cornwall, had procured a +Newfoundland dog for protection on his journeys, having been attacked by +highwaymen. There was a smaller dog which had been bred in the house. +The son was living at Poplea, in Cornwall, when the following +circumstance occurred, and he witnessed it:[65]-- + +"Our dairy was under a room which was used occasionally as a barn and +apple-chamber, into which the fowls sometimes found their way; and, in +scratching among the chaff, scattered the dust on the pans of milk +below, to the great annoyance of my mother-in-law. In this a favourite +cock of hers was the chief transgressor. One day in harvest she went +into the dairy, followed by the little dog, and finding dust again on +her milk-pans, she exclaimed, 'I wish that cock were dead!' Not long +after, she being with us in the harvest field, we observed the little +dog dragging along the cock, just killed, which, with an air of triumph, +he laid at my mother-in-law's feet. Highly exasperated at the literal +fulfilment of her hastily-uttered wish, she snatched a stick from the +hedge, and attempted to give the dog a beating. The luckless animal, +seeing the reception he was likely to meet with, where he expected marks +of approbation, left the bird and ran off, she brandishing her stick, +and saying, in a loud angry tone, 'I'll pay thee for this by and by.' In +the evening, when about to put her threat into execution, she found the +little dog established in a corner of the room, and the large one +standing before it. Endeavouring to fulfil her intention by first +driving off the large dog, he gave her plainly to understand that he was +not at all disposed to relinquish his post. She then sought to get at +the small dog behind the other, but the threatening gesture, and fiercer +growl of the large one, sufficiently indicated that the attempt would be +not a little perilous. The result was that she was obliged to abandon +her design. In killing the cock I can scarcely think that the dog +understood the precise import of my stepmother's wish, as his immediate +execution of it would seem to imply. The cock was a more recent +favourite, and had received some attentions which had previously been +bestowed upon himself. This, I think, had led him to entertain a feeling +of hostility to the bird, which he did not presume to indulge, until my +mother's tone and manner indicated that the cock was no longer under her +protection. In the power of communicating with each other, which these +dogs evidently possess, and which, in some instances, has been displayed +by other species of animals, a faculty seems to be developed of which we +know very little. On the whole, I never remember to have met with a case +in which to human appearance there was a nearer approach to moral +perception than in that of my father's two dogs." + + +THE DIFFERENCE OF EXCHANGE.--"DOG-CHEAP." + +Dining at a nobleman's table, where the company were praising the +claret, his lordship told them that he had received that hogshead of +wine in return for a couple of hounds, which he sometime before +presented to Count Lauragais. "Why, then, my lord," cried Foote, "I not +only think your wine excellent, but _dog-cheap_."[66] + + +GAINSBOROUGH AND HIS WIFE AND THEIR DOGS. + +Thomas Gainsborough, the rival of Sir Joshua in portraiture, wanted that +evenness of temper which the President of the Royal Academy so +abundantly possessed. He was easily angered, but as soon appeased, and +says his biographer,[67] "If he was the first to offend, he was the +first to atone. Whenever he spoke crossly to his wife, a remarkably +sweet-tempered woman, he would write a note of repentance, sign it with +the name of his favourite dog 'Fox,' and address it to his Margaret's +pet spaniel, 'Tristram.' Fox would take the note in his mouth, and duly +deliver it to Tristram. Margaret would then answer--'My own dear Fox, +you are always loving and good, and I am a naughty little female ever to +worry you, as I too often do, so we will kiss and say no more about it; +your own affectionate Tris.'" The writers of such a correspondence could +not have led what is called "a cat and dog life." Husbands and wives +might derive a hint from this anecdote; for we know, from the old +ballad, that they will be sulky and quarrel at times even about getting + + "Up to bar the door, O!" + + +SIR WILLIAM GELL'S DOG. + +The reviewer[68] of Sir Thomas Browne's works says--"We ourselves have +witnessed an example of the curious and credulous exaggeration which has +construed certain articulations in animals into rational speech. Some +time since, in travelling through Italy, we heard, in grave earnest, +from several Italians, of the prodigy of a Pomeranian dog that had been +taught to speak most intelligibly by Sir William Gell. Afterwards, in +visiting that accomplished and lamented gentleman at Naples, we +requested to hear an animal possessed of so unusual a gift. And, as the +friends of the urban scholar can bear witness, the dog undoubtedly could +utter a howl, which, assisted by the hand of the master in closing the +jaw at certain inflections, might be intelligibly construed into two +words not to be repeated. Such a dog, with such an anathema in his +vocabulary, would have hanged any witch in England three centuries ago." + + +ELIZABETH, THE LAST DUCHESS OF GORDON, AND THE WOLF-DOG KAISER. + +The Rev. A. Moody Stuart, in his "Life of the last Duchess of +Gordon,"[69] that truly Christian lady, refers to some old pets of the +duke's and her own, which, on her becoming a widow, she took with her +from Gordon Castle to Huntly Lodge, a bullfinch, an immense Talbot +mastiff named Sall, and others. He adds--"To a stranger, the most +remarkable of the duke's old favourites was Kaiser, an Hungarian +wolf-dog, with a snow-white fleece, and most sheep-like aspect in the +distance, but at whose appearance out of doors, man, woman, and child +fled as from a wolf. The duchess called him 'The wolf in sheep's +clothing.' Her husband's tastes having brought her much into contact +with all sorts of dogs, she had learned to pat them confidently at their +first introduction, when a large space between their eyes betokened a +kindly temper. This open breadth of forehead was strongly marked in +Sall, a fine old mastiff that used at this time to walk round the +dining-room after breakfast, with her noble head reaching the level of +the table. But the duke had chosen Kaiser for other qualities. Two of +those wolf-dogs had been brought to him for sale when travelling on the +Continent; the other was the larger and handsomer animal; but Kaiser's +eyes, sunk deep in the head, and all but meeting under his shaggy hair, +at once fixed his choice on him as 'likest his work.' That work was to +defend the sheep from the wolves, and one mode of defence was by laying +a strange trap for the enemy. The dog was remarkably like a sheep, his +hair white without a dark speck, and he carried a great load of it, long +and fleecy like wool. In the Hungarian steppes four or five of those +dogs would lay themselves down on the grass in the evening, sleeping +there like so many harmless lambs, with their faces inward for the heat +of each other's breath. The keen eye of the wolf was soon attracted by +the white fleeces, with no shepherd near to guard them. Eager for blood, +he careered swiftly over the plain, and sprang unsuspecting into the +midst of the flock, only to find himself clenched in the relentless jaws +of Kaiser and his comrades, wolves more terrible than himself under the +clothing of timid sheep. A conversation once took place at the Lodge on +the character ascribed to dogs in Scripture. It slightly vexed the good +duchess that they were so often mentioned in the Bible, but only as +emblems of what is foul and fierce, except in a single instance, and +that not of commendation, but neutrality. This exception, she said, +occurred in the Book of Proverbs, where the greyhound is named, along +with the lion and the goat, as 'comely in going,' yet merely in praise +of his external beauty. But her difficulty was relieved by the reply, +that in Isaiah lvi. 10, the "dog" is really used in a good sense as +applied to the spiritual watchmen of the Lord's flock. For the +unfaithful shepherds, being there likened to dumb dogs that cannot bark, +were not censured under the simple image of watch-dogs, but because, as +such, they were faithless and useless; implying that the good watch-dog +is an honourable emblem of the true pastor, watching for the souls +committed to his care, and solemnly warning them of approaching danger." + + +FREDERICK THE GREAT AND HIS ITALIAN GREYHOUNDS. + +Dr John Moore, when travelling with the Duke of Hamilton, saw and heard +a good deal of Frederick the Great, and has given in his second volume +of "A View of Society and Manners in France," &c., many interesting +particulars of his private and public life. Among these, he alludes to +his using "a very large gold snuff-box, the lid ornamented with +diamonds," and his taking "an immoderate quantity of Spanish snuff, the +marks of which very often appear on his waistcoat and breeches. These +are also liable to be soiled by the paws of two or three Italian +greyhounds, which he often caresses" (vol. ii. p. 236). + + +THE DOG AND THE FRENCH MURDERERS. (AN OCCURRENCE IN THE SPRING OF 1837.) + +Thomas Raikes,[70] in his Journal 8th March 1837, records:--"Eight years +ago, a labouring man in the department of the Loire was found murdered +in a wood near his house, and his dog sitting near the body. No clue +could be gained to the perpetrators of the crime, and his widow +continued to live in the same cottage, accompanied always by the +faithful animal. Last week two men, apparently travellers, stopped at +the house, requesting shelter from the storm, which was granted; but no +sooner had the dog perceived them, than he flew at them with fury, and +could not be pacified. As they were quitting the house, one of them said +to the other, 'That rascally dog has not forgotten us.' This raised the +suspicion of the widow, who overheard it, and applying to the gendarmes +in the neighbourhood, they followed and arrested them. The result has +been that, after a long examination, one of them has confessed the +crime, and impeached his associate." + + * * * * * + +Hannah More wrote an ode addressed to Garrick's famous house-dog Dragon. +A copy of this she gave to Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1777, while still +unprinted, under an oath neither to take nor give a copy of it, which +oath Sir Joshua had observed (she says) like a true knight, only reading +it to his visitors till some of them learned it by heart. The "charming +bagatelle" was afterwards printed, that posterity might be enabled to +wonder what a small expenditure of wit in metre sufficed to purchase a +large modicum of fame among the blues of that day.[71] + + +ROBERT HALL AND THE DOG. + +The eloquent Robert Hall and Dr Leifchild were often in each other's +company when at Bristol, travelling and preaching together at +anniversaries and ordinations. The son and biographer of the latter +says:[72]--"I rode with them from Bristol to Wells, and can now, in +imagination, see Mr Hall smoking and reclining on one seat of the +carriage, while my father sat on the other. I can see Mr Hall descending +at a blacksmith's shop to re-light his pipe, making his way directly to +the forge, and jumping aside with unwonted agility, when a huge dog +growled at him. I can recall his look, when rallied on his agility, +after his return to the carriage. 'You seemed afraid of the dog, sir,' +said my father. 'Apostolic advice, sir--Beware of dogs,' rejoined Mr +Hall." Dr Leifchild, in another part of the memoir (p. 360), relates +that some housekeeper would exclaim to him, as he was about to enter the +house of friend or stranger, "Don't be afraid of the dog, sir, he never +bites."--"Are you quite sure he never bites?" was his prompt +question.--"Quite sure, sir," rejoined the servant.--"Then," rejoined +the good-humoured doctor, "if he never _bites_, how does he live?" + + +A QUEEN AND HER LAP-DOG. + +Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I., on her return to Burlington Bay +with assistance for her husband, was attacked in the house where she +slept by the cannonade of five ships of war belonging to the +Parliament. She left the house amid the whistling of balls, one of which +killed one of her servants. When on her way to the shelter of a ditch, +she remembered that an aged lap-dog, called "Mitte," was left behind. +She was much attached to this old favourite, and returned to the house +she had left. Rushing up-stairs into her chamber, she caught up her old +pet, which was reposing on her bed, and carried her off in safety. +Having done this, the queen and her ladies gained the ditch, and +crouched down in it, while the cannon played furiously over their +heads.[73] + + +THE CLEVER DOG THAT BELONGED TO THE HUNTERS OF POLMOOD. + +The estate of Polmood, in Peeblesshire, was the subject of extraordinary +litigation, and a volume of considerable bulk is devoted to its history. +This work contains much curious evidence from aged country folks in the +western parts of the country. Mr Chambers[74] tells us that in the +history "reminiscences concerning a wonderfully clever dog are put +forward as links in the line of propinquity." The deponent has heard his +father say that Robert Hunter had a remarkable dog called "Algiers;" and +that, when Robert lived at Woodend, he used to tie a napkin round the +dog's neck with money in it, and send him for snuff to Lammington, which +is about three miles from Woodend, and that the dog executed his +message faithfully, and prevented everybody from laying hold of or +stopping him. Another venerable deponent, aged eighty-nine, had heard +his mother tell many stories about a dog belonging to Uncle Robert, +which went by the name of "Algiers;" that they used to cut a fleece off +him every year sufficient to make a pair of stockings; and that Uncle +Robert used to tie a purse round his neck, with money in it, and the dog +then swam the Tweed, and brought back tobacco from the Crook! And a +third declares that "Algiers" could be sent to Edinburgh with a letter, +and bring back a letter to his master. + + +THE IRISH CLERGYMAN AND THE DOGS. + +Mr Fitzpatrick, in his anecdotal memoirs of Archbishop Whately, tells a +story of an eccentric Irish parson. This person, when preaching, was +interrupted in his homily by two dogs, which began to fight in church. +He descended the pulpit, and endeavoured to separate them. On returning +to his place, the clergyman, who was rather an absent man, asked the +clerk, "Where was I a while ago?"--"Wasn't yer Riverence appaising the +dogs?" responded the other.[75] + + +WASHINGTON IRVING AND THE DOG. + +Patrick Fraser Tytler, author of "The History of Scotland," in a letter +to his wife in 1830, says--"At Lady Morton's, one evening, I met with +Washington Irving. I had heard him described as a very silent man, who +was always observing others, but seldom opened his lips. Instead of +which, his tongue never lay still; and he gets out more wee wordies in a +minute than any ordinary converser does in five. But I found him a very +intelligent and agreeable man. I put him in mind of his travelling with +our dear Tommy. He had at first no recollection; but I brought it back +to his memory by the incident of the little black dog, who always went +before the horses in pulling up hill, and pretended to assist them. I +put him in mind of his own wit, 'that he wondered if the doggie mistook +himself for a horse;' at which he laughed, and added, 'Yes, and thought +it very hard that he was not rubbed down at the end of the +journey.'"[76] + + +DOUGLAS JERROLD AND HIS DOG. + +Jerrold had a favourite dog that followed him everywhere. One day in the +country, a lady, who was passing, turned round and said audibly, "What +an ugly little brute!" Whereupon Jerrold, addressing the lady, replied, +"Oh, madam! I wonder what he thinks _about us_ at this moment."[77] + + +SHERIDAN AND THE DOG. + +After witnessing the first representation of a dog-piece by Reynolds, +called the "Caravan," Sheridan suddenly came into the green-room, on +purpose, it was imagined, to wish the author joy. "Where is he?" was +the first question; "where is my guardian angel?"--"Here I am," answered +Reynolds.--"Pooh!" replied Sheridan, "I don't mean _you_, I mean _the +dog_."[78] + + +CHARLES LAMB AND HIS DOG. + +Thomas Hood had a dog called "Dash." This dog he gave to Charles Lamb. +The ready-witted Elia often took the creature out with him when walking +at Enfield. On one occasion, the dog dashed off to chase some young +sheep. The owner of the muttons came out quite indignant at the owner, +to expostulate with him on the assault of Lamb's dog on his sheep. Elia, +with his quiet ready wit, replied, "Hunt _Lambs_, sir?--why, he never +hunted _me_."[79] + + +FRENCH DOGS, TIME OF LOUIS XI.--HISTORY OF HIS DOG "RELAIS" BY LOUIS +XII. + +Horace Walpole, in one of his gossiping letters to the Countess of +Ossory in 1781, writes, "You must not be surprised if I should send you +a collection of Tonton's _bons-mots_. I have found a precedent for such +a work. A grave author wrote a book on the 'Hunt of the Grand Senechal +of Normandy,' and of _les DITS du bon chien Souillard, qui fut au Roi +Loy de France onzieme du nom_. Louis XII., the reverse of the +predecessor of the same name, did not leave to his historian to +celebrate his dog "Relais," but did him the honour of being his +biographer himself; and for a reason that was becoming so excellent a +king. It was _pour animer les descendans d'un si brave chien a se rendre +aussi bons que lui, et encore meilleurs_. It was great pity the Cardinal +d'Amboise had no bastard puppies, or, to be sure, his Majesty would have +written his Prime Minister's life too, for a model to his +successors."[80] + + +MARTIN LUTHER OBSERVES A DOG AT LINTZ. + +In the "Table Talk" of Martin Luther, it is recorded:--"I saw a dog at +Lintz, in Austria, that was taught to go with a hand-basket to the +butchers' shambles for meat. When other dogs came about him, and sought +to take the meat out of the basket, he set it down and fought lustily +with them; but when he saw they were too strong for him, he himself +would snatch out the first piece of meat, lest he should lose all. Even +so does now our Emperor Charles; who, after having long protected +spiritual benefices, seeing that every prince takes possession of +monasteries, himself takes possession of bishoprics, as just now he has +seized upon those of Utrecht and Liege."[81] + + +THE POOR DOG AT THE GROTTA DEL CANE. + +Henry Matthews,[82] like other visitors of Naples, went to the +celebrated _Grotta del Cane_, or Dog Grotto, on the borders of Lake +Agnano, so called from the vapour in the cave, destructive to animal +life, being shown by means of a dog. In his diary, of March 3, 1818, he +records:--"Travellers have made a great display of sensibility in their +strictures upon the spectacle exhibited here; but to all appearance the +dog did not care much about it. It may be said, with truth of him, that +he is _used_ to it; for he dies many times a day, and he went to the +place of execution wagging his tail. He became insensible in two +minutes; but upon being laid on the grass, he revived from his trance in +a few seconds, without the process of immersion in the lake, which is +generally mentioned as necessary to his recovery. From the voracity with +which he bolted down a loaf of bread which I bought for him, the vapour +does not seem to injure the animal functions. Addison seems to have been +very particular in his experiments upon the vapour of this cavern. He +found that a pistol would not take fire in it; but upon laying a train +of gunpowder, and igniting it beyond the sphere of the vapour, he found +that it could not intercept the train of fire when it had once begun +flashing, nor hinder it from running to the very end. He subjected a dog +to a second trial in order to ascertain whether he was longer in +expiring the first than the second time; and he found there was no +sensible difference. A viper bore it _nine minutes_ the first time he +put it in, and _ten minutes_ the second; and he attributes the prolonged +duration of the second trial to the large provision of air that the +viper laid in after his first death, upon which stock he supposes it to +have existed a minute longer the second time." + + +DOG, A POSTMAN AND CARRIER. + +Robert Southey says, that "near Moffat a dog used for many years to meet +the mail and receive the letters for a little post-town near."[83] + +How often may you see a dog carrying a basket or a parcel. No +enticement, even of a dog-friend or of a great bone, will induce this +faithful servant to abandon his charge. Every one must have observed +this. + + +DOG-MATIC. + +In the great dispute between South and Sherlock, the latter, who was a +great courtier, said--"His adversary reasoned well, but he barked like a +cur." To which the other replied, "That _fawning_ was the property of a +cur as well as barking."[84] + + +GENERAL MOREAU AND HIS GREYHOUND. + +"The day after the battle of Dresden (27th Aug. 1812), a greyhound was +brought to the King of Saxony, the ally of Napoleon. The dog was moaning +piteously. On the collar were engraved the words, 'I belong to the +General Moreau.' Where was the dog's master? By the side of the Emperor +Alexander. Moreau had been mortally wounded. The dog had remained with +his master until his death. While Moreau was conversing with the Emperor +Alexander a cannon-shot nearly carried off both his legs. It is said +that throughout the five days during which he lingered he uttered not a +murmur of pain."[85] + + * * * * * + +At the battle of Solferino, where rifled cannon were first brought to +bear in warfare, a dog excited great attention by its attachment to the +body of its slain master. It became the chief object in a painting of +the circumstance, from which an engraving was executed. + + +A DUKE OF NORFOLK AND HIS SPANIELS. + +In Southey's "Common-place Book," 4th ser. p. 479, he writes--"Our +Marlborough and King James's spaniels are unrivalled in beauty. The +latter breed (black and tan, with hair almost approaching to silk in +fineness, such as Vandyke loved to introduce into his portraits) were +solely in the possession of the late Duke of Norfolk. He never travelled +without two of his favourites in the carriage. When at Worksop he used +to feed his eagles with the pups; and a stranger to his exclusive pride +in the race, seeing him one day employed in thus destroying a whole +litter, told his grace how much he should be delighted to possess one of +them. The duke's reply was a characteristic one. 'Pray, sir, which of my +estates should you like to have?'" + +There are shepherds who possess collies, such _proud_, useful servants +and friends, that no bribe would induce them to part with them. But what +old favourite dog or even bird is there that any one would part with? +Man, be he scavenger or duke, is very similar in this species of +attachment. + + +LORD NORTH AND THE DOG. + +In several of the caricatures published about the year 1783, when Fox +and Burke had joined Lord North, and helped to form what is called the +Coalition Ministry, a dog is represented. This, says Mr Wright,[86] is +said to be an allusion to an occurrence in the House of Commons. During +the last defensive declamation of Lord North, on the eve of his +resignation, a dog, which had concealed itself under the benches, came +out and set up a hideous howling in the midst of his harangue. The house +was thrown into a roar of laughter, which continued until the intruder +was turned out; and then Lord North coolly observed, "As the new member +has ended his argument, I beg to be allowed to continue mine." + + +PERTHES DERIVES HINTS FROM HIS DOG. + +In a letter, written when he first came to Gotha, Perthes, the +publisher, says--"Do not laugh if I tell you that my dog has given me +many a hint upon human nature. I never before had a dog constantly with +me, and I now ask myself whether the poodle be not a man, and men +poodles. I am not led to this thought by the animal propensities which +we have in common, such as eating, drinking, &c., but by those of a more +refined character. He too is cheerful and dejected, excited and supine, +playful and morose, gentle and bold, caressing and snappish, patient +and refractory; just like us men in all things, even in his dreams! This +likeness is not to me at all discouraging; on the contrary, it suggests +a pleasing hope that this flesh and blood which plagues and fetters us, +is not the real man, but merely the earthly clothing which will be cast +off when he no longer belongs to earth, provided he has not sinfully +chosen to identify himself with the merely material. The devil's chief +seat is not in matter but in the mind, where he fosters pride, +selfishness, and hatred, and by their means destroys not what is +transitory but what is eternal in man."[87] + + +PETER THE GREAT AND HIS FAVOURITE DOG LISETTE. + +Mr Stoehlin[88] relates the following anecdote of the Czar Peter, on +the authority of Miss Anne Cramer, the chambermaid to the empress. In +the cabinet of natural history of the academy at St Petersburg, is +preserved, among a number of uncommon animals, Lisette, the favourite +dog of the Russian monarch. She was a small, dun-coloured Italian +greyhound, and very fond of her master, whom she never quitted but when +he went out, and then she laid herself down on his couch. At his return +she showed her fondness by a thousand caresses, followed him wherever he +went, and during his afternoon nap lay always at his feet. + +A person belonging to the court, having excited the anger of the czar--I +do not know by what means--was confined in the fort, and there was +reason to suppose that he would receive the punishment of the knout on +the first market-day. The whole court, and the empress herself, thought +him innocent, and considered the anger of the czar as excessive and +unjust. Every means was tried to save him, and the first opportunity +taken to intercede in his favour. But, so far from succeeding, it served +only to irritate the emperor the more, who forbade all persons, even the +empress, to speak for the prisoner, and, above all, to present any +petition on the subject, under the pain of incurring his highest +displeasure. + +It was supposed that no resource remained to save the culprit. However, +those who in concert with the czarina interested themselves in his +favour, devised the means of urging their suit without incurring the +penalty of the prohibition. + +They composed a short but pathetic petition, in the name of Lisette. +After having set forth her uncommon fidelity to her master, she adduced +the strongest proofs of innocence of the prisoner, entreated the czar to +take the matter into consideration, and to be propitious to her prayer, +by granting him his liberty. + +This petition was tied to her collar, in such a manner as to be easily +visible. + +On the czar's return from the Admiralty and Senate, Lisette, as usual, +came leaping about him; and he perceived the paper, folded in the form +of a petition. He took, and read it--"What!" said he; "Lisette, do you +also present me petitions? Well, as it is the first time, I grant your +prayer." He immediately sent a denthtchick[89] to the fort, with orders +to set the prisoner at liberty. + + +THE LIGHT COMPANY'S POODLE AND SIR F. PONSONBY. + +Captain Gronow, in his gossiping book,[90] says--"Every regiment has a +pet of some sort or another. One distinguished Highland regiment +possesses a deer; the Welsh Fusiliers a goat, which is the object of +their peculiar affection, and which generally marches with the band. The +light company of my battalion of the 1st Guards in 1813 rejoiced in a +very handsome poodle, which, if I mistake not, had been made prisoner at +Vittoria. At the commencement of the battle of the 9th of December 1813, +near the mayor's house, not far from Bidart, we observed the gallant +Frederick Ponsonby well in front with the skirmishers, and by the side +of his horse the soldiers' poodle. The colonel was encouraging our men +to advance, and the poodle, in great glee, was jumping and barking at +the bullets, as they flew round him like hail. On a sudden we observed +Ponsonby struggling with a French mounted officer, whom he had already +disarmed, and was endeavouring to lead off to our lines; when the French +skirmishers, whose numbers had increased, fired several shots, and +wounded Ponsonby, forcing him to relinquish his prisoner, and to retire. +At the same time, a bullet broke one of the poor dog's legs. For his +gallant conduct in this affair, the poodle became, if possible, a still +greater favourite than he was before; and his friends, the men of the +light company, took him to England, where I saw my three-legged friend +for several years afterwards, the most prosperous of poodles, and the +happiest of the canine race." + + +ADMIRAL RODNEY AND HIS DOG LOUP. + +Earl Stanhope, in his History,[91] remarks--"To those who love to trace +the lesser lights and shades of human character, I shall owe no apology +if I venture to record of the conqueror of De Grasse, that even in his +busiest hours he could turn some kindly thoughts not only to his family +and friends, but to his dog in England. That dog, named Loup, was of the +French fox-breed, and so attached to his master, that when the admiral +left home to take the command of his fleet, the faithful animal remained +for three days in his chamber, watching his coat, and refusing food. The +affection was warmly returned. On many more than one occasion we find +Rodney wrote much as follows to his wife--'Remember me to my dear girls +and my faithful friend Loup; I know you will kiss him for me.'"[92] + + +RUDDIMAN AND HIS DOG RASCAL. + +George Chalmers, in his Life of the learned Thomas Ruddiman,[93] tells +us that "young Ruddiman was initiated in grammar at the parish-school of +Boyndie, in Banffshire, which was distant a mile from his father's +dwelling; and which was then taught by George Morison, whom his pupil +always praised for his attention and his skill. To this school the boy +walked every morning, carrying his daily provisions with him. He is said +to have been daily accompanied by a dog, which, when he had proceeded to +the top of Tooting-hillock, the halfway resting-place, always returned +home after partaking of his victuals. This story is still (1794) +remembered, as if there were in it something supernatural. We may +suppose, however, that the excursion was equally agreeable to both +parties; and when it was once known that the dog was to eat at a +particular place at a stated hour, an appropriate allowance was +constantly made for him. Whether Ruddiman had a natural fondness for +dogs, or whether a particular attachment began, when impressions are +easily made, which are long remembered, cannot now be ascertained. He +certainly, throughout a long life, had a succession of dogs, which were +invariably called _Rascal_; and which, being springing spaniels, ever +accompanied him in all his walks. He used, with affectionate +recollection, to entertain his friends with stories of dogs, which all +tended to show the fidelity of that useful animal to man." + + * * * * * + +Mrs Schimmelpenninck, authoress of "Select Memoirs of Port Royal," died +in 1856. Her interesting Autobiography and Life were published in 1858 +by her relation, Christiana C. Hankin. In p. 467 it is remarked that +"her love of animals formed quite a feature in her daily habits. Like St +Francis, she delighted to attract the little birds, by tempting them +with dainty food upon her verandah; and it was a positive pleasure to +her to watch their feast. She had a bag made, which was always filled +with oats, to regale any stray horse or ass; and she has been seen +surrounded by four goats, each standing on its hind legs, with its +uplifted front feet resting on her, and all eagerly claiming the salt +she had prepared for them. But her great delight was in dogs. She never +forgot those sad hours in childhood, when, unable to mix in the sports +of children from illness (perhaps, too, from her want of sympathy in the +usual pleasures of that age), the beautiful dogs at Barr were her +companions and friends. + +"It is no figure of speech to say that she had a large acquaintance +amongst the dogs at Clifton. She always carried a pocketful of biscuit +to feed them; and she had a canine friend who for years was in the daily +habit of waiting at her door to accompany her morning walk, after which +he received his little portion of biscuit, and returned to his home. +Timid as Mrs Schimmelpenninck was by nature and by habit, she had no +idea of personal fear of animals, and especially of dogs. I have seen +her go up without hesitation to some splendid specimen of the race, of +which everybody else was afraid, to stroke him, or offer food; when the +noble creature, with that fine perception often so remarkably manifested +by dogs and children, would look up in her face, and then return her +caress, and crouch down at her feet in love and confidence. Her own two +beautiful little spaniels were her constant companions in her walks; +their happy gambols were always a source of pleasure."[94] + + * * * * * + +Sir Walter Scott loved dogs dearly. In his novels and poetical works his +knowledge of them and his regard often appear. He loved them, from the +stately deerhound to the wiry terrier. He was quite up to the ways of +their education. Dandie Dinmont, in "Guy Mannering," speaking of his +terriers, says, "I had them a' regularly entered, first wi' rottens, +then wi' stots and weasels, and then wi' the tods and brocks, and now +they fear naething that ever comes wi' a hairy skin on't." Then, again, +read Washington Irving's description of his visit to Abbotsford, and +how, on Scott taking him out for a walk, a host of his dogs attended, +evidently as a matter of course. He often spoke to them during the walk. +The American author was struck with the stately gravity of the noble +staghound Maida, while the younger dogs gambolled about him, and tried +to get him to gambol. Maida would occasionally turn round suddenly, and +give one of the playful creatures a tumble, and look at Scott and +Irving, as much as to say, "You see, gentlemen, I cannot help giving way +to this nonsense;" when on he would go as grave as ever. "I make no +doubt," said Scott to his companion, "when Maida is alone with these +young dogs, he throws gravity aside, and plays the boy as much as any of +them; but he is ashamed to do so in our company, and seems to say, "Ha' +done with your nonsense, youngsters; what will the laird and that other +gentleman think of me if I give way to such foolery?" A little volume +might almost be made on Sir Walter Scott and his dogs. Wilkie, Allan, +and especially Sir Edwin Landseer, have handed down to us the portraits +of many of them. His works, and biography by Lockhart, and the writings +of his many visitors, would afford many an interesting extract. + + +SHERIDAN ON THE DOG-TAX. + +In 1796, a tax, which caused great discontent and ridicule, was laid for +the first time upon dogs. Mr Wright, in his "England under the House of +Hanover," says--"The debates on this tax in the House of Commons appear +to have been extremely amusing. In opposing the motion to go into +committee, Sheridan objected that the bill was most curiously worded, as +it was, in the first instance, entitled, 'A bill for the protection of +his Majesty's subjects against dogs.' 'From these words,' he said, 'one +would imagine that dogs had been guilty of burglary, though he believed +they were a better protection to their masters' property than watchmen.' +After having entertained the House with some stories about mad dogs, and +giving a discourse upon dogs in general, he asked, 'Since there was an +exception in favour of puppies, at what age they were to be taxed, and +how the exact age was to be ascertained?' The Secretary at War, who +spoke against the bill, said, 'It would be wrong to destroy in the poor +that _virtuous feeling_ which they had for their dog.' In committee, Mr +Lechmere called the attention of the House to ladies' 'lap-dogs.' He +knew a lady who had _sixteen_ lap-dogs, and who allowed them a roast +shoulder of veal every day for dinner, while many poor persons were +starving; was it not, therefore, right to tax lap-dogs very high? He +knew another lady who kept one favourite dog, when well, on Savoy +biscuits soaked in Burgundy, and when ailing (by the advice of a doctor) +on minced chicken and sweetbread! Among the caricatures on this subject, +one by Gillray (of which there were imitations) represented Fox and his +friends, hanged upon a gallows, as 'dogs not worth a tax;' while the +supporters of Government, among whom is Burke, with 'G. R.' on his +collar, are ranged as well-fed dogs 'paid for.'"[95] + + +SYDNEY SMITH DISLIKES DOGS. + +AN INGENIOUS WAY OF GETTING RID OF THEM. + +Lady Holland tells us[96] that her father, the witty canon of St Paul's, +disliked dogs. "During one of his visits to London, at a dinner at +Spencer House, the conversation turned upon dogs. 'Oh,' said my father, +'one of the greatest difficulties I have had with my parishioners has +been on the subject of dogs.'--'How so?' said Lord Spencer.--'Why, when +I first went down into Yorkshire, there had not been a resident +clergyman in my parish for a hundred and fifty years. Each farmer kept a +huge mastiff dog ranging at large, and ready to make his morning meal on +clergy or laity, as best suited his particular taste. I never could +approach a cottage in pursuit of my calling but I rushed into the jaws +of one of these shaggy monsters. I scolded, preached, and prayed without +avail; so I determined to try what fear for their pockets might do. +Forthwith appeared in the county papers a minute account of the trial of +a farmer, at the Northampton Sessions, for keeping dogs unconfined; +where said farmer was not only fined five pounds and reprimanded by the +magistrates, but sentenced to three months' imprisonment. The effect was +wonderful, and the reign of Cerberus ceased in the land.'--'That +accounts,' said Lord Spencer, 'for what has puzzled me and Althorp for +many years. We never failed to attend the sessions at Northampton, and +we never could find out how we had missed this remarkable dog case.'" + + +SYDNEY SMITH ON DOGS.[97] + +"No, I don't like dogs; I always expect them to go mad. A lady asked me +once for a motto for her dog Spot. I proposed, 'Out, damned Spot!' But +she did not think it sentimental enough. You remember the story of the +French marquise, who, when her pet lap-dog bit a piece out of her +footman's leg, exclaimed, 'Ah, poor little beast! I hope it won't make +him sick.' I called one day on Mrs ----, and her lap-dog flew at my leg +and bit it. After pitying her dog, like the French marquise, she did all +she could to comfort me by assuring me the dog was a Dissenter, and +hated the Church, and was brought up in a Tory family. But whether the +bite came from madness or Dissent, I knew myself too well to neglect it, +and went on the instant to a surgeon, and had it cut out, making a mem. +on the way to enter that house no more." + + +SYDNEY SMITH'S "NEWFOUNDLAND DOG THAT BREAKFASTED ON PARISH BOYS." + +The Rev. Sydney Smith used to be much amused when he observed the utter +want of perception of a joke in some minds. One instance we may cite +from his "Memoirs:"[98] "Miss ----, the other day, walking round the +grounds at Combe Florey, exclaimed, 'Oh, why do you chain up that fine +Newfoundland dog, Mr Smith?'--'Because it has a passion for breakfasting +on parish boys.'--'Parish boys!' she exclaimed; 'does he really eat +boys, Mr Smith?'--'Yes, he devours them, buttons and all.' Her face of +horror made me die of laughing." + + +SOUTHEY ON DOGS. + +Southey was likewise not a little attached to the memory at least of +dogs, as may be inferred by the following passage in a letter to Mr +Bedford, Jan. 27, 1823. Snivel was a dog belonging to Mr B. in early +days. "We had an adventure this morning, which, if poor Snivel had been +living, would have set up her bristles in great style. A foumart was +caught in the back kitchen; you may perhaps know it better by the name +of polecat. It is the first I ever saw or smelt; and certainly it was in +high odour. Poor Snivel! I still have the hairs which we cut from her +tail thirty years ago; and if it were the fashion for men to wear +lockets, in a locket they should be worn, for I never had a greater +respect for any creature upon four legs than for poor Sni. See how +naturally men fall into relic worship; when I have preserved the +memorials of that momentary whim so many years, and through so many +removals."[99] + + +DOG, A GOOD JUDGE OF ELOCUTION. + +When Dr Leifchild, of Craven Chapel, London, was a student at Hoxton +Academy, there was a good lecturer on elocution there of the name of +True. In the Memoir, published in 1863, are some pleasing reminiscences +by Dr Leifchild of this excellent teacher, who seems to have taken great +pains with the students, and to have awakened in their breasts a desire +to become proficients in the art of speaking. The doctor himself was an +admirable example of the proficiency thus attained under good Mr True. +He records[100] a ludicrous circumstance which occurred one day. "In +reciting Satan's address to the evil spirits from 'Paradise Lost,' a +stout student was enjoined to pronounce the three words, 'Princes, +potentates, warriors,' in successively louder tones, and to speak out +boldly. He hardly needed this advice, for the first word came out like +distant thunder, the second like approaching thunder, and the third like +a terribly near and loud clap. At this last the large housedog, +Pompey, who had been asleep under the teacher's chair, started up and +jumped out of the window into the garden. 'The dog is a good judge, +sir,' mildly remarked Mr True." + + +COWPER'S DOG BEAU AND THE WATER-LILY. + +ILLUSTRATED BY THE STORY OF AS INTELLIGENT A DOG. + +In _Blackwood's Magazine_ for 1818 there is an address, in blank verse, +by Mr Patrick Fraser Tytler, "To my Dog." Mr Tytler's brother-in-law, Mr +Hog,[101] recorded the fact on which this address was founded in his +diary at the time. "Peter tells a delightful anecdote of Cossack, an +Isle of Skye terrier, which belonged originally to his brother at +Aldourie. It was amazingly fond of his children, one of which, having +fallen on the gravel and hurt itself, began to cry out. Cossack tried in +vain to comfort it by leaping upon it and licking its face. Finding all +his efforts to pacify the child fruitless, he ran off to a mountain-ash +tree, and leaping up, pulled a branch of red _rowan_ berries and carried +it in his mouth to the child." + + +HORACE WALPOLE'S PET DOG ROSETTE. + +Horace Walpole, writing to Lord Nuneham in November 1773,[102] +says:--"The rest of my time has been employed in nursing Rosette--alas! +to no purpose. After suffering dreadfully for a fortnight from the time +she was seized at Nuneham, she has only languished till about ten days +ago. As I have nothing to fill my letter, I will send you her epitaph; +it has no merit, for it is an imitation, but in coming from the heart if +ever epitaph did, and therefore your dogmanity will not dislike it-- + + 'Sweetest roses of the year, + Strew around my Rose's bier, + Calmly may the dust repose + Of my pretty, faithful Rose! + And if yon cloud-topp'd hill[103] behind + This frame dissolved, this breath resign'd, + Some happier isle, some humbler heaven, + Be to my trembling wishes given; + Admitted to that equal sky, + May sweet Rose bear me company!'" + + +ARRIVAL OF TONTON, A PET DOG, TO WALPOLE.--TONTON DOES NOT UNDERSTAND +ENGLISH. + +Horace Walpole, in May 1781,[104] had announced Tonton's arrival to his +correspondent, the Hon. H. S. Conway. He says:--"I brought him this +morning to take possession of his new villa, but his inauguration has +not been at all pacific. As he has already found out that he may be as +despotic as at St Joseph's, he began with exiling my beautiful little +cat, upon which, however, we shall not quite agree. He then flew at one +of my dogs, who returned it by biting his foot till it bled, but was +severely beaten for it. I immediately rung for Margaret (his +housekeeper) to dress his foot; but in the midst of my tribulation could +not keep my countenance, for she cried, 'Poor little thing; he does not +understand my language!' I hope she will not recollect, too, that he is +a Papist!" In a postscript he tells the general that Tonton "is a +cavalier, and a little of the _mousquetaire_ still; but if I do not +correct his vivacities, at least I shall not encourage them, like my +dear old friend." + +In a letter of about the same date to Mason the poet, he again alludes +to his fondness of Tonton, but adds--"I have no occasion to brag of my +dogmanity."[105] + +Horace Walpole, in 1774, thus refers to Margaret, in a letter to Lady +Ossory:--"Who is to have the care of the dear mouse in your absence? I +wish I could spare Margaret, who loves all creatures so well that she +would have been happy in the ark, and sorry when the deluge ceased; +unless people had come to see Noah's old house, which she would have +liked still better than cramming his menagerie."[106] A sly allusion to +the numerous fees Margaret got from visitors. Horace, in another of his +letters, alludes to this, and, in a joke, proposes to marry Margaret to +enrich himself. + + +HORACE WALPOLE.--DEATH OF HIS DOG TONTON. + +Horace Walpole, writing to the Countess of Ossory, Feb. 24, 1789,[107] +says:--"I delayed telling you that Tonton is dead, and that I comfort +myself. He was grown stone deaf, and very nearly equally blind, and so +weak that the two last days he could not walk up-stairs. Happily he had +not suffered, and died close by my side without a pang or a groan. I +have had the satisfaction, for my dear old friend's sake and his own, of +having nursed him up, by constant attention, to the age of sixteen, yet +always afraid of his surviving me, as it was scarcely possible he could +meet a third person who would study his happiness equally. I sent him to +Strawberry, and went thither on Sunday to see him buried behind the +chapel near Rosette. I shall miss him greatly, and must not have another +dog; I am too old, and should only breed it up to be unhappy when I am +gone. My resource is in two marble kittens that Mrs Damer has given me, +of her own work, and which are so much alive that I talk to them, as I +did to poor Tonton! If this is being superannuated, no matter; when +dotage can amuse itself it ceases to be an evil. I fear my marble +playfellows are better adapted to me, than I am to being your ladyship's +correspondent." Poor Tonton was left to Walpole by "poor dear Madame de +Deffand." In a letter to the Rev. Mr Cole, in 1781, he announces its +arrival, and how "she made me promise to take care of it the last time I +saw her. That I will most religiously, and make it as happy as is +possible."[108] + + +ARCHBISHOP WHATELY AND HIS DOGS. + +"In these rambles he was generally attended by three +uncompromising-looking dogs, the heads of which, if it were possible to +draw them together in shamrock form, would forcibly suggest Cerberus. +Richard Whately found, or thought he found, in the society of these dogs +far brighter intelligence, and infinitely more fidelity, than in many of +the Oxford men, who had been fulsomely praised for both. + +"In devotion to his dogs, Dr Whately continued true to the end of his +life, and during the winter season might be daily seen in St Stephen's +Green, Dublin, playing at 'tig' or 'hide and seek' with his canine +attendants. Sometimes the old archbishop might be seen clambering up a +tree, secreting his handkerchief or pocket-knife in some cunning nook, +then resuming his walk, and, after a while, suddenly affecting to have +lost these articles, which the dogs never failed immediately to regain. + +"That he was a close observer of the habits of dogs and other quadrupeds +we have evidence in his able lecture on 'Animal Instinct.' Dr Whately, +when referring to another subject, once said not irrelevantly, 'The +power of duly appreciating _little_ things belongs to a great mind: a +narrow-minded man has it not, for to him they are _great_ things.' Dr +Whately was of opinion that some brutes were as capable of exercising +reason as instinct. In his 'Lectures and Reviews' (p. 64) he tells of a +dog which, being left on the bank of a river by his master, who had gone +up the river in a boat, attempted to join him. He plunged into the +water, but not making allowance for the strength of the stream, which +carried him considerably below the boat, he could not beat up against +it. He landed, and made allowance for the current of the river by +leaping in at a place higher up. The combined action of the stream and +his swimming carried him in an oblique direction, and he thus reached +the boat. Dr Whately adopts the following conclusion--'It appears, then, +that we can neither deny reason universally and altogether to brutes, +nor instinct to man; but that each possesses a share of both, though in +very different proportions.'"[109] + + +SIR DAVID WILKIE COULD NOT SEE A PUN.--"A DOG-ROSE." + +The son and biographer of William Collins, the Royal Academician,[110] +quotes from a manuscript collection of anecdotes, written by that +charming painter of country life and landscape, the following on Sir +David Wilkie:--"Wilkie was not quick in perceiving a joke, although he +was always anxious to do so, and to recollect humorous stories, of which +he was exceedingly fond. As instances, I recollect once when we were +staying at Mr Wells's, at Redleaf, one morning at breakfast a very small +puppy was running about under the table. 'Dear me,' said a lady, 'how +this creature teases me!' I took it up and put it into my breast-pocket. +Mr Wells said, 'That is a pretty nosegay.'--'Yes,' said I, 'it is a +dog-rose.' Wilkie's attention, sitting opposite, was called to his +friend's pun, but all in vain. He could not be persuaded to see anything +in it. I recollect trying once to explain to him, with the same want of +success, Hogarth's joke in putting the sign of the woman without a head +('The Good Woman') under the window from which the quarrelsome wife is +throwing the dinner into the street." + + +ULYSSES AND HIS DOG. + +Richard Payne Knight, in his "Inquiry into the Principles of +Taste,"[111] when treating of the "sublime and pathetic," quotes the +story of Ulysses and his dog, as follows:--"No Dutch painter ever +exhibited an image less imposing, or less calculated to inspire awe and +terror, or any other of Burke's symptoms or sources of the sublime +(unless, indeed, it be a stink), than the celebrated dog of Ulysses +lying upon a dunghill, covered with vermin and in the agonies of death; +yet, when in such circumstances, on hearing the voice of his old master, +who had been absent twenty years, he pricks his ears, wags his tail, and +expires, what heart is not at once melted, elevated, and expanded with +all those glowing feelings which Longinus has so well described as the +genuine effects of the true sublime? That master, too--the patient, +crafty, and obdurate Ulysses, who encounters every danger and bears +every calamity with a constancy unshaken, a spirit undepressed, and a +temper unruffled--when he sees this faithful old servant perishing in +want, misery, and neglect, yet still remembering his long-lost +benefactor, and collecting the last effort of expiring nature to give a +sign of joy and gratulation at his return, hides his face and wipes away +the tear! This is true sublimity of character, which is always mixed +with tenderness--mere sanguinary ferocity being terrible and odious, but +never sublime. [Greek: Agathoi polydakrytoi andres]--_Men prone to tears +are brave_, says the proverbial Greek hemistich; for courage, which does +not arise from mere coarseness of organisation, but from that sense of +dignity and honour which constitutes the generous pride of a high mind, +is founded in sensibility." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[46] "The Olio," by the late Francis Grose, Esq., F.A.S., p. 203. + +[47] "Dogs and their Ways;" illustrated by numerous anecdotes, compiled +from authentic sources, by the Rev. Charles Williams. 1863. + +[48] It may interest the reader, who does not dive deep into literary +curiosities, to refer to the original edition of Hayley's "Cowper" (4to, +1803, vol. i. p. 314), where the poet, in a letter to Samuel Rose, Esq., +written at Weston, August 18, 1788, alludes to his having "composed a +_spick_ and _span_ new piece called 'The Dog and the Water-lily;'" and +in his next letter, September 11, he sent this piece to his excellent +friend, the London barrister. Visitors to Olney and Weston, who have +gone over the poet's walks, cannot but have their love for the gentle +and afflicted Cowper most deeply _intensified_.--_See_ Miller's "First +Impressions." + +[49] This book, like Storer's other illustrations of the scenes of the +poems of Burns and Bloomfield, drawn immediately after the death of +these poets, will become year by year more valuable. + +[50] "Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Sir James Mackintosh," +edited by his son, Robert James Mackintosh, Esq., vol. i. p. 164. + +[51] "Bawsn't," having a white stripe down the face.--_Glossary to +Burns's Poems._ + +[52] See an extract farther on, in proof of this. + +[53] "The Jordan and the Rhine" (1854), p. 46, and pp. 91-93. + +[54] _See_ Layard's "Nineveh and its Remains," vol. ii. (1849), p. 425. + +[55] "Ladak, Physical, Statistical, and Historical," p. 218. + +[56] "Memoir of Bishop Blomfield," by his son, i. 220. + +[57] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 177. + +[58] A selection from the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. London, +1866, pp. 134-138. + +[59] "Memoirs of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart.," edited by his son, +Charles Buxton, Esq., B.A., third edition, p. 139. + +[60] Moore's "Life of Byron," chap. vii. p. 74. + +[61] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 279. + +[62] "Memoirs of the Life of Wm. Collins, R.A.," by his Son, i. 105. + +[63] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 203. + +[64] _Loc. cit._ p. 213. + +[65] "The Life, Character, and Literary Labours of Samuel Drew, A.M.," +by his eldest son, p. 66. + +[66] "Memoirs of Samuel Foote, Esq.," &c., by W. Cooke, Esq., vol. ii. +p. 36. + +[67] "Life of Thomas Gainsborough, R.A.," by the late George William +Fulcher, p. 155. + +[68] _Edinburgh Review_, 1836, vol. lxiv. p. 17. + +[69] "Life and Letters of Elizabeth, last Duchess of Gordon," by the +Rev. A. Moody Stuart, 1865, pp. 198-200. + +[70] Portion of the Journal kept by Thomas Raikes, Esq., from 1831 to +1837, vol. iii. p. 134. + +[71] "Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds," by C. R. Leslie, R.A. and +Tom Taylor, M.A., vol. ii. p. 191. + +[72] "John Leifchild, D.D. His Public Ministry, &c.," by J. R. +Leifchild, A.M., p. 143. + +[73] Agnes Strickland, "Lives of the Queens of England," vol. v. p. 293 +(ed. 1851). + +[74] "A History of Peeblesshire," by William Chambers of Glenormiston, +p. 428. + +[75] Vol. i. p. 156. + +[76] Memoir by his friend, the Rev. John W. Burgon, p. 204. + +[77] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 44. + +[78] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 43. + +[79] "Charles Lamb: his Friends, his Haunts, and his Books," by Percy +Fitzgerald, M.A., 1866, p. 161. + +[80] Cunningham's Edition of Correspondence, viii. p. 331. + +[81] "The Table Talk; or, Familiar Discourse of Martin Luther," p. 66. + +[82] "The Diary of an Invalid; being the Journal of a Tour in Pursuit of +Health in Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, and France in 1817-1819," p. +144. + +[83] "Common-Place Book," 4th ser. p. 423. + +[84] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 24. + +[85] "Memoir of Baron Larrey, Surgeon-in-chief of the Grande Armee." +London. 1861. P. 191. + +[86] "England under the House of Hanover," by Thomas Wright, Esq., M.A., +vol. ii. p. 57. + +[87] "Memoir of Perthes," vol. ii. pp. 153-4. + +[88] "Original Anecdotes of Peter the Great, collected from the +conversation of several persons of distinction at St Petersburg and +Moscow," by Mr Stoehlin, Member of the Imp. Acad., St Peters., p. 306. + +[89] A denthtchick is a soldier appointed to wait on an officer. + +[90] "Recollections and Anecdotes," 2d ser., by Capt. R. H. Gronow, p. +194 (1863). + +[91] "History of England, from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of +Versailles," by Lord Mahon, vii. p. 261. + +[92] See Mundy's "Life of Lord Rodney," vol. i. 258. "Remember me to my +dear girls and poor Loup. Kiss them for me. I hope they were pleased +with my letter." Vol. ii. p. 28. + +[93] "Life of Thomas Ruddiman, A.M., the Keeper for almost fifty years +of the Library belonging to the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh," p. 4. + +[94] See her "Autobiography," p. 85, for an anecdote of her saving a +little dog, tied in a basket of stones, from the water. She called it +"Moses." + +[95] Vol. ii. pp. 264, 265. + +[96] "Memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith," by his daughter, Lady Holland, +&c., vol. i. p. 200. + +[97] "Life of the Rev. Sydney Smith," by his daughter, Lady Holland, +&c., vol. i. p. 379. + +[98] Vol. i. p. 267. + +[99] "Life and Correspondence," vol. v. p. 133. + +[100] "John Leifchild, D.D., his Public Ministry, Private Usefulness, +and Personal Characteristics," founded upon an autobiography, by J. R. +Leifchild, A.M., p. 34. + +[101] See Burgon's "Memoir of Patrick F. Tytler," p. 140. + +[102] Letter first published in Cunningham's Chronological Edition, vol. +vi. p. 4. + +[103] Richmond Hill. The dog died at Strawberry Hill. + +[104] Correspondence, chronologically arranged by Peter Cunningham, +viii. p. 39. + +[105] _Loc. cit._, p. 44. + +[106] Vol. vi. p. 117. + +[107] "The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford," edited by Peter +Cunningham, now first chronologically arranged, ix. p. 173. + +[108] _Loc. cit._, viii. p. 35. + +[109] Fitzpatrick, "Memoirs of Richard Whately, Archbishop of Dublin," +vol. i. pp. 21, 22 (1864). + +[110] "Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, R.A.," by his son, W. +Wilkie Collins, i. 193. + +[111] Third edition, 1806, p. 385. + + + + +WOLF. + + +Surely the man should get a monument who is proved to have killed the +last she-wolf in these islands. How closely allied the wolf is to the +dog may be clearly read in the accounts of Polar winterings. Some of the +larger butchers' dogs are singularly wolf-like, and it seems to be +_that_ variety which occasionally, as it were, resumes its wolfish +habits of prowling at night and killing numbers of sheep in certain +districts, as we sometimes read in the country papers of the day. In +Strathearn, we lately heard of a very recent instance of this wolf-like +ferocity breaking out. The dog was traced with great difficulty, and at +last shot. He proved to be of the kind alluded to. + + +POLSON AND THE LAST SCOTTISH WOLF. + +Mr Scrope[112] describes, from traditions still existing on the east +coast of Sutherland, the destruction of what is supposed to have been +the last Scottish wolf and her cubs. This was between 1690 and 1700. +This wolf had committed many depredations on their flocks, and the +inhabitants had been unsuccessful in their attempts to hunt it down. + +A man named Polson, attended by two herd boys, went in search of it. + +Polson was an old hunter, and had much experience in tracing and +destroying wolves and other predatory animals. Forming his own +conjectures, he proceeded at once to the wild and rugged ground that +surrounds the rocky mountain-gulley which forms the channel of the burn +of Sledale. Here, after a minute investigation, he discovered a narrow +fissure in the midst of a confused mass of large fragments of rock, +which, upon examination, he had reason to think might lead to a larger +opening or cavern below, which the wolf might use as his den. Stones +were now thrown down, and other means resorted to, to rouse any animal +that might be lurking within. Nothing formidable appearing, the two lads +contrived to squeeze themselves through the fissure, that they might +examine the interior, while Polson kept guard on the outside. The boys +descended through the narrow passage into a small cavern, which was +evidently a wolf's den, for the ground was covered with bones and horns +of animals, feathers, and egg-shells; and the dark space was somewhat +enlivened by five or six active wolf cubs. Not a little dubious of the +event, the voices of the poor boys came up hollow and anxious from +below, communicating this intelligence. Polson at once desired them to +do their best, and to destroy the cubs. Soon after, he heard the feeble +howling of the whelps as they were attacked below, and saw almost at the +same time, to his great horror, a full-grown wolf, evidently the dam, +raging furiously at the cries of her young, and now close upon the mouth +of the cavern, which she had approached unobserved, among the rocky +irregularities of the place. She attempted to leap down at one bound +from the spot where she was first seen. In this emergency, Polson +instinctively threw himself forward on the wolf, and succeeded in +catching a firm hold of the animal's long and bushy tail, just as the +forepart of the body was within the narrow entrance of the cavern. He +had unluckily placed his gun against a rock, when aiding the boys in +their descent, and could not now reach it. Without apprising the lads +below of their imminent peril, the stout hunter kept firm grip of the +wolf's tail, which he wound round his left arm; and although the +maddened brute scrambled, and twisted, and strove with all her might to +force herself down to the rescue of her cubs, Polson was just able, with +the exertion of all his strength, to keep her from going forward. In the +midst of this singular struggle, which passed in silence--for the wolf +was mute, and the hunter, either from the engrossing nature of his +exertions, or from his unwillingness to alarm the boys, spoke not a word +at the commencement of the conflict--his son within the cave, finding +the light excluded from above, asked in Gaelic, and in an abrupt tone, +"Father, what is keeping the light from us?"--"If the root of the tail +break," replied he, "you will soon know that." Before long, however, the +man contrived to get hold of his hunting-knife, and stabbed the wolf in +the most vital parts he could reach. The enraged animal now attempted to +turn and face her foe, but the hole was too narrow to allow of this; and +when Polson saw his danger, he squeezed her forward, keeping her jammed +in, whilst he repeated his stabs as rapidly as he could, until the +animal, being mortally wounded, was easily dragged back and finished. + + * * * * * + +A similar story has been given, with the wilds of Canada for the scene. +The young Highlander was said to be dirking pigs, while the father was +keeping guard. "Phat's keeping out the licht, fayther?" shouts the +son.--"If ta tail preaks, tou 'lt fine tat," were the question and +answer. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[112] "The Art of Deer-Stalking," &c., by William Scrope, Esq., F.L.S., +p. 371. + + + + +FOX. + + +The sharp-faced fox is a very epitome of cunning, and his name is a +by-word for slyness. Farmers know well that no fox, nestling close to +their houses, ever meddles with their poultry. Reynard rambles a good +way from home before he begins to plunder. How admirable is Professor +Wilson's description of fox-hunting, quoted here from the "Noctes." Sir +Walter Scott, in one of his topographical essays, has given a curious +account of the way in which a fox, acquainted with the "ins and outs" of +a certain old castle, outwitted a whole pack of dogs, who had to jump up +singly to get through a small window to which Reynard led them. His +large tail, so bushy and so free, is of great use to Reynard. He often +brushes the eyes of his pursuers with it when sprinkled with water +anything but sweet, and which, by its pungency, for a time blinds them. +The pursuit of the fox is most exciting, and turns out the lord "of high +degree," and the country squire and farmer. It is the most +characteristic sport of the "better classes" in this country. + + +AN ENTHUSIASTIC FOX-HUNTING SURGEON.[113] + +A medical gentleman, named Hansted, residing near Newbury, who was very +fond of fox-hunting, ordered his gardener to set a trap for some vermin +that infested his garden. As ill luck would have it, a fox was found in +the morning with his leg broken, instead of a plant-eating rabbit. The +gardener took Reynard to the doctor, when he exclaimed, "Why did you not +call me up in the night, that I might have set the leg?" Better late +than never: the surgeon set the leg; the fox recovered, and was killed +in due form, after a capital run. + + +FOX-HUNTING. + +(_From the "Noctes Ambrosianae," April 1826._[114]) + +_North._ It seems fox-hunting, too, is cruel. + +_Shepherd._ To wham? Is't cruel to dowgs, to feed fifty or sixty o' them +on crackers and ither sorts o' food, in a kennel like a Christian house, +wi' a clear burn flowin' through 't, and to gie them, twice a-week or +aftener, during the season, a brattlin rin o' thretty miles after a fox? +Is that cruelty to dowgs? + +_North._ But the fox, James? + +_Shepherd._ We'll come to the fox by and by. Is't cruel to horses, to +buy a hundred o' them for ae hunt, rarely for less than a hundred pounds +each, and aften for five hundred--to feed them on five or sax feeds o' +corn _per diem_--and to gie them skins as sleek as satin--and to gar +them nicher (_neigh_) wi' fu'ness o' bluid, sae that every vein in their +bodies starts like sinnies (_sinews_)--and to gallop them like deevils +in a hurricane, up hill and doun brae, and loup or soom canals and +rivers, and flee ower hedges, and dikes, and palings, like birds, and +drive crashin' through woods, like elephants or rhinoceroses--a' the +while every coorser flingin' fire-flaughts (_flakes_) frae his een, and +whitening the sweat o' speed wi' the foam o' fury--I say, ca' you that +cruelty to horses, when the hunt charge with all their chivalry, and +plain, mountain, or forest are shook by the quadrupedal thunder? + +_North._ But the fox, James? + +_Shepherd._ We'll come to the fox by and by. Is 't cruel to +men to inspirit wi' a rampagin happiness fivescore o' the flower o' +England or Scotland's youth, a' wi' caps and red coats, and whups in +their hauns--a troop o' lauchin, tearin', tallyhoin' "wild and wayward +humorists," as the doctor ca'd them the tither Sunday? + +_North._ I like the expression, James. + +_Shepherd._ So do I, or I would not have quoted it. But it's just as +applicable to a set o' outrageous ministers, eatin' and drinkin', and +guffawin' at a Presbytery denner. + +_North._ But the fox, James? + +_Shepherd._ We'll come to the fox by and by. Is't cruel to the lambs, +and leverets, and geese, and turkeys, and dyucks, and patricks, and wee +birds, and ither animal eatables, to kill the fox that devoors them, and +keeps them in perpetual het water? + +_North._ But the fox, James? + +_Shepherd._ Deevil take baith you and the fox; I said that we would come +to the fox by and by. Weel, then, wha kens that the fox isna away +snorin' happy afore the houn's? I hae nae doubt he is, for a fox is no +sae complete a coward as to think huntin' cruel; and his haill nature +is then on the alert, which in itsel' is happiness. Huntin' him fa'in +into languor and ennui, and growin' ower fat on how-towdies (_barn-door +fowls_). He's no killed every time he's hunted. + +_North._ Why, James, you might write for the "Annals of Sporting." + +_Shepherd._ So I do sometimes--and mair o' ye than me, I jalouse; but I +was gaun to ask ye if ye could imagine the delicht o' a fox gettin' into +an undiggable earth, just when the leadin' houn' was at his +hainches?--ae sic moment is aneuch to repay half an hour's draggle +through the dirt; and he can lick himsel' clean at his leisure, far ben +in the cranny o' the rock, and come out a' tosh and tidy by the first +dawn o' licht, to snuff the mornin' air, and visit the distant +farm-house before Partlet has left her perch, or Count Crow lifted his +head from beneath his oxter on his shed-seraglio. + +_North._ Was ye ever in at a death? Is not that cruel? + +_Shepherd._ Do you mean in at the death o' ae fox, or the death o' a +hundred thousand men and sixty thousand horses?--the takin' o' a Brush, +or a Borodino? + +_North._ My dear James, thank ye for your argument. As one Chalmers is +worth a thousand Martins, so is one Hogg worth a thousand Chalmerses. + +_Shepherd._ Ane may weel lose patience, to think o' fules being sorry +for the death o' a fox. When the jowlers tear him to pieces, he shows +fecht, and gangs aff in a snarl. Hoo could he dee mair easier?--and for +a' the gude he has ever dune, or was likely to do, he surely had leeved +lang eneuch. + + +ARCTIC FOX (_Vulpes lagopus_). + +This inoffensive and pretty little creature is found in all parts of the +Arctic lands. Its fur is peculiarly fine and thick; and as in winter +this is closer and more mixed with wool than it is in summer, the +intense cold of these regions is easily resisted. When sleeping rolled +up into a ball, with the black muzzle buried in the long hairs of the +tail, there is not a portion of the body but what is protected from the +cold, the shaggy hairs of the brush acting as a respirator or boa for +the mouth and a muff for the paws. Our Arctic travellers have remarked, +that it is a peculiarly cleanly animal, and its vigilance is extreme. It +is almost impossible to come on it unawares, for even when appearing to +be soundly asleep, it opens its eyes on the slightest noise being made. +During the day it appears to be listless, but no sooner has the night +set in than it is in motion, and it continues very active until morning. +The young migrate to the southward in the autumn, and sometimes collect +in great numbers on the shores of Hudson's Bay. Mr Graham noticed that +they came there in November and left in April. + +[Illustration: Arctic Fox. (Canis Lagopus.)] + +Sir James Ross found a fox's burrow on the sandy margin of a lake in the +month of July. It had several passages, each opening into a common cell, +beyond which was an inner nest, in which the young, six in number, were +found. These had the dusky, lead-coloured livery worn by the parents in +summer; and though four of them were kept alive till the following +winter, they never acquired the pure white coats of the old fox, but +retained the dusky colour on the face and sides of the body. The parents +had kept a good larder for their progeny, as the outer cell and the +several passages leading to it contained many lemmings and ermines, and +the bones of fish, ducks, and hares, in great quantities. Sir John +Richardson[115] observed them to live in villages, twenty or thirty +burrows being constructed close to each other. A pair were kept by Sir +James Ross for the express purpose of watching the changes which take +place in the colour of their fur. He noticed that they threw off their +winter dress during the first week in June, and that this change took +place a few days earlier in the female than in the male. About the end +of September the brown fur of the summer gradually became of an ash +colour, and by the middle of October it was perfectly white. It +continued to increase in thickness until the end of November.[116] A +variety of a blackish-brown colour is occasionally met with, but this is +rare: such specimens, Ross remarks, must have extreme difficulty in +surprising their prey in a country whose surface is of an unvaried +white, and must also be much more exposed to the persecutions of their +enemies. The food of this fox is various, but seems to consist +principally of lemmings and of birds and their eggs. He eats, too, the +berries of the _Empetrum nigrum_, a plant common on our own hills, and +goes to the shore for mussels and other shell-fish. Otho Fabricius[117] +says he catches the Arctic salmon as that fish approaches the shore to +spawn, and that he seizes too the haddock, having enticed it near by +beating the water. Crantz, in his "History of Greenland," evidently +alludes to this cunning habit when he observes, "They plash with their +feet in the water, to excite the curiosity of some kinds of fishes to +come and see what is going forward, and then they snap them up; and _the +Greenland women have learnt this piece of art from them_." Captain Lyon +noticed a fox prowling on a hill-side, and heard him for some hours +afterwards in the neighbourhood imitating the cry of the brent-goose. In +another part of his Journal he mentions that the bark is so modulated as +to give an idea that it proceeds from a distance, though at the time the +fox lies at your feet. It struck him that the creature was gifted "with +this kind of ventriloquism in order to deceive its prey as to the +distance it is from them." It sometimes catches the ptarmigan; and +though it cannot swim, it manages occasionally to get hold of oceanic +birds; in fact, nothing alive which it can master seems to come amiss, +and failing to make a meal from something it has caught and killed, the +Arctic fox is glad, like foxes in more favoured lands, to feed on +carrion. + +Captain M'Clintock, who commanded the yacht _Fox_ on the Franklin Arctic +search in 1857 and 1858, wintered in the ice pack of Baffin's Bay. One +of the party shot an Arctic fox when they were 140 miles from the land. +He records in a letter to his brother,[118] that this wanderer from the +shore "was very fat, living upon such few dovekies as were silly enough +to spend their winter in the pack." + +Martens, in his "Spitzbergen," says, that some of the ship's crew +informed him, that the fox when he is hungry "lies down as if he was +dead, until the birds fly to him to eat him, which by that trick he +catches and eats." Our author believed it a fable, but it may +nevertheless be one of the many expedients used by a species of a group +whose name is proverbial for craftiness and cunning. + +The flesh of the fox is occasionally eaten by the Esquimaux: Captain +Lyon, in his "Private Journal," says that at first all of his party were +horrified at the idea of eating foxes--"But very many soon got the +better of their fastidiousness and found them good eating; not being +myself very nice, I soon made the experiment, and found the flesh much +resembling that of kid, and afterwards frequently had a supper of it." + +Sir James Clarke Ross, during his five years' imprisonment in Boothia +Felix and the adjoining seas, had ample means of judging of its flavour; +he tells us that some of his party, who were the first to taste them, +named them "lambs," from their resemblance in flavour to very young +lamb. He adds, that the flesh of the old fox is by no means so +palatable. During that disastrous expedition the flesh of this fox +formed one of the principal luxuries of their table, and it was always +"reserved for holidays and great occasions. We ate them boiled, or, more +frequently after being parboiled, _roasted_, in a pitch kettle." + +When the Arctic Expedition in search of Franklin wintered in Leopold +Harbour in 1848-49, the commander, Sir J. C. Ross, made use of the +Arctic fox as a messenger. Having caught some of these animals in traps, +a collar with information for the missing parties was put round the neck +of each before liberation, as the fox is known to travel great distances +in search of food. On Captain Austin's subsequent expedition in 1850-51 +the same plan was carried out, but it was found to be equally without +result. Commander Osborn thus facetiously describes the +circumstance.[119] "Several animals thus intrusted with despatches or +records were liberated by different ships; but, as the truth must be +told, I fear in many cases the next night saw the poor 'postman,' as +Jack termed him, in another trap, out of which he would be taken, +killed, the skin taken off, and packed away to ornament at some future +day the neck of some fair Dulcinea. As a 'sub,' I was admitted into this +secret mystery, or, otherwise, I with others might have accounted for +the disappearance of the collared foxes by believing them busy on their +honourable mission. In order that the crime of killing 'the postmen' may +be recognised in its true light, it is but fair that I should say, that +the brutes, having partaken once of the good cheer on board or around +the ships, seldom seemed satisfied with the mere empty honours of a +copper collar, and returned to be caught over and over again. Strict +laws were laid down for their safety, such as that no fox taken alive in +a trap was to be killed: of course no fox was after this taken alive; +they were all unaccountably dead, unless it was some fortunate wight +whose brush and coat were worthless; in such case he lived either to +drag about a quantity of information in a copper collar for the rest of +his days, or else to die a slow death, as being intended for Lord +Derby's menagerie. The departure of 'a postman' was a scene of no small +merriment; all hands, from the captain to the cook, were out to chase +the fox, who, half frightened out of its wits, seemed to doubt which way +to run, whilst loud shouts and roars of laughter, breaking the cold, +frosty air, were heard from ship to ship, as the foxhunters, swelled in +numbers from all sides, and those that could not run mounted some +neighbouring hummock of ice and gave a loud halloo, which said far more +for robust health than for tuneful melody." + +The Arctic fox as a captive has often amused our Arctic voyagers, and +accounts of it are to be met with in most of their narratives. Captain +Lyon made a pet of one he captured, and confined it on deck in a small +kennel with a piece of chain. The little creature astonished the party +very much by his extraordinary sagacity, for, on the very first day, +having been repeatedly drawn out by his chain, he at length drew his +chain in after him whenever he retreated to his hut, and took it in with +his mouth so completely, that no one who valued his fingers would +venture afterwards to take hold of the end attached to the staple. + +Sir J. C. Ross observed in Boothia Felix a good deal of difference in +the disposition of specimens, some being easily tamed, whilst others +would remain savage and untractable even with the kindest treatment. He +found the females much more vicious than the males. A dog-fox which his +party captured lived several months with them, and became so tame in a +short time that he regularly attended the dinner-table like a dog, and +was always allowed to go at large about the cabin. When newly caught +their rage is quite ungovernable, and yet when two are put together they +very seldom quarrel. They soon get reconciled to confinement. Captain +Lyon[120] notices that their first impulse on getting food is to hide it +as soon as possible, and this, he observed, they did, even when hungry +and by themselves; when there was snow on the ground they piled it over +their stores, and pressed it down forcibly with their nose. When no +snow was to be obtained, he noticed his pet fox gather the chain into +his mouth, and then carefully coil it so as to cover the meat. Having +gone through this process, and drawn away his chain after him on moving +away, he has sometimes repeated his useless labours five or six times, +until disgusted, apparently, at the inability of making the morsel a +greater luxury by previous concealment, he has been forced to eat it. +These creatures use snow as a substitute for water, and it is pleasing +to see them break a large lump with their feet, and roll on the pieces +with evident delight. When the snow lay lightly scattered on the decks, +they did not lick it up as dogs do, but by pressing it repeatedly with +their nose, collected a small lump which they drew into their mouth. + +It may be added that the specific name _lagopus_, or "hare-foot," was +given to this fox from the soles of its feet being densely covered with +woolly hair, which gives them some resemblance to the feet of a hare. +Cuvier remarks that other foxes acquire this hair on the soles when +taken to northern lands. + +The specimens, figured so admirably by Mr Wolf, were drawn from some +brought alive to the Zoological Gardens by one of the late Arctic +expeditions.--_A. White, in "Excelsior" (with additions)._ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[113] _Edinburgh Review_, 1841, vol. lxxiv. p. 77. + +[114] "Noctes Ambrosianae." Works of Professor Wilson, vol. i. pp. +136-138. + +[115] "Fauna Boreali-Americana." Mammalia, p. 87. + +[116] Appendix to "Second Voyage," p. xii. + +[117] "Fauna Groenlandica," p. 20. + +[118] _Dublin Nat. Hist. Review, 1858_, p. 166. + +[119] "Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal," p. 176. + +[120] "Private Journal," p. 105. + + + + +JACKAL. + + +The boy who used to read, long ago, "The Three Hundred Animals," was +ever familiar with "_the Lion's Provider_," as the menagerie showmen, +even now, somewhat pompously style this hungry howler of the desert. + +The jackal is a social kind of dog, and a pack of hungry or excited +jackals can howl in notes fit to pierce the ears of the deafest. He is a +mean, starved-looking creature in ordinary circumstances, seeming as if +his social life prevented his getting what is called _a lion's_ share on +any occasion. + + +JACKAL AND TIGER. + +As Burke was declaiming with great animation against Hastings, he was +interrupted by little Major Scott. "Am I," said he, indignantly, "to be +teased by the barking of this _jackal_, while I am attacking the royal +_tiger_ of Bengal?"[121] + + + + +CATS. + + +Another fertile subject for anecdote. Who has not some faithful black +Topsy, Tortoise-shell, or Tabby, or rather succession of them, whose +biographies would afford many a curious story? Professor Bell[122] has +well defended the general character of poor pussy from the oft-repeated +calumnies spread about it. Cats certainly get much attached to +individuals, as well as to houses and articles in them. They want the +lovableness and demonstrativeness of dogs; but their habits are very +different, and they are strictly organised to adapt them to watch and to +pounce on their prey. + +As we have elsewhere remarked, and the remark was founded on observation +of our eldest daughter when a very young child, "Your little baby loves +the pussy, and pussy sheathes her claws most carefully, but should baby +draw back her arm suddenly, and pussy accidentally scratch that tender +skin, how the little girl cries! It is, perhaps, her first lesson that +sweets and bitters, pleasures and pains, meekness and ferocity, are +mingled in this world."[123] + + +JEREMY BENTHAM AND HIS PET CAT "SIR JOHN LANGBORN." + +Dr, afterwards Sir John, Bowring, in the life of that diligent eccentric +"codificator," Jeremy Bentham,[124] thus alludes to some of his +pets:--"Bentham was very fond of animals, particularly '_pussies_,' as +he called them, 'when they had domestic virtues;' but he had no +particular affection for the common race of _cats_. He had one, however, +of which he used to boast that he had 'made a man of him,' and whom he +was wont to invite to eat maccaroni at his own table. This puss got +knighted, and rejoiced in the name of Sir John Langborn. In his early +days, he was a frisky, inconsiderate, and, to say the truth, somewhat +profligate gentleman; and had, according to the report of his patron, +the habit of seducing light and giddy young ladies of his own race into +the garden of Queen's Square Place; but tired at last, like Solomon, of +pleasures and vanities, he became sedate and thoughtful--took to the +church, laid down his knightly title, and was installed as the Reverend +John Langborn. He gradually obtained a great reputation for sanctity and +learning, and a doctor's degree was conferred upon him. When I knew him, +in his declining days, he bore no other name than the Reverend Doctor +John Langborn; and he was alike conspicuous for his gravity and +philosophy. Great respect was invariably shown his reverence; and it was +supposed he was not far off from a mitre, when old age interfered with +his hopes and honours. He departed amidst the regrets of his many +friends, and was gathered to his fathers, and to eternal rest, in a +cemetery in Milton's Garden.[125] + +"'I had a cat,' he said, 'at Hendon, which used to follow me about even +in the street. George Wilson was very fond of animals too. I remember a +cat following him as far as Staines. There was a beautiful pig at +Hendon, which I used to rub with my stick. He loved to come and lie down +to be rubbed, and took to following me like a dog. I had a remarkably +intellectual cat, who never failed to attend one of us when we went +round the garden. He grew quite a tyrant, insisting on being fed and on +being noticed. He interrupted my labours. Once he came with a most +hideous yell, insisting on the door being opened. He tormented Jack +(Colls) so much, that Jack threw him out of the window. He was so +clamorous that it could not be borne, and means were found to send him +to another world. His moral qualities were most despotic--his +intellectual extraordinary; but he was a universal nuisance." + +"'From my youth I was fond of cats, as I am still. I was once playing +with one in my grandmother's room. I had heard the story of cats having +nine lives, and being sure of falling on their legs; and I threw the cat +out of the window on the grass-plot. When it fell it turned towards me, +looked in my face and mewed. "Poor thing!" I said, "thou art reproaching +me with my unkindness." I have a distinct recollection of all these +things. Cowper's story of his hares had the highest interest for me when +young; for I always enjoyed the society of tame animals. Wilson had the +same taste--so had Romilly, who kept a noble puss, before he came into +great business. I never failed to pay it my respects. I remember +accusing Romilly of violating the commandment in the matter of cats. My +fondness for animals exposed me to many jokes.'" + + +BISSET AND HIS MUSICAL CATS. + +S. Bisset, to whom we referred before, was a Scotchman, born at Perth. +He went to London as a shoemaker; but afterwards turned a broker. About +1739 he turned his attention to the teaching of animals. He was very +successful, and among the subjects of his experiments were three young +cats. Wilson, in his "Eccentric Mirror,"[126] has recorded that "he +taught these domestic tigers to strike their paws in such directions on +the dulcimer, as to produce several tunes, having music-books before +them, and squalling at the same time in different keys or tones, first, +second, and third, by way of concert. In such a city as London these +feats could not fail of making some noise. His house was every day +crowded, and great interruption given to his business. Among the rest, +he was visited by an exhibitor of wonders. Pinchbeck advised him to a +public exhibition of his animals at the Haymarket, and even promised, on +receiving a moiety, to be concerned in the exhibition. Bisset agreed, +but the day before the performance, Pinchbeck declined, and the other +was left to act for himself. The well-known _Cats' Opera_ was advertised +in the Haymarket; the horse, the dog, the monkeys, and the cats went +through their several parts with uncommon applause, to crowded houses, +and in a few days Bisset found himself possessed of nearly a thousand +pounds to reward his ingenuity." + + +CONSTANT, CHATEAUBRIAND, AND THE CAT. + +"Benjamin Constant was accustomed to write in a closet on the third +story. Beside him sat his estimable wife, and on his knee his favourite +cat; this feline affection he entertained in common with Count de +Chateaubriand."[127] + + +LISTON THE SURGEON AND HIS CAT. + +Robert Liston, the great surgeon, was, it seems, very fond of a cat. Dr +Forbes Winslow asks, "Who has not seen Liston's favourite cat Tom? This +animal is considered to be a unique specimen of the feline tribe; and so +one would think, to see the passionate fondness which he manifests for +it. This cat is always perched on Liston's shoulder, at breakfast, +dinner, and tea, in his carriage, and out of his carriage. It is quite +ludicrous to witness the devotion which the great operator exhibits +towards his favourite."[128] + +Liston was a curious man. He often called on his friends as early as six +o'clock in the morning. In most cases, such calls must have been visits +of formality or quiet jokes at the lazy manners of most men of the +present age. We know one person whom he called on usually at this early +hour. It would be more healthy for the young, if they would imitate this +talented surgeon. We may here say that he used to allow one particular +nail to grow long. It was a nail he used to guide his knife when +operating. When at college in 1833 or 1834, we heard a student, who knew +this clever operator well, happily apply the _double-entendre_, "_homo +ad unguem factus_," a phrase, Dr Carson, our noble rector at the High +School, taught us to translate "_an accomplished man_." + + +THE BANKER MITCHELL'S ANTIPATHY TO KITTENS. + +Mr J. T. Smith, once Keeper of the Prints in the British Museum, author +of the "Life and Times of Nollekens, the Royal Academician,"[129] tells +a story of Mr Matthew Mitchell, a banker, who collected prints. + +"Mr Mitchell had a most serious antipathy to a kitten. He could sit in a +room without experiencing the least emotion from a cat; but directly he +perceived a kitten, his flesh shook on his bones, like a snail in +vinegar. I once relieved him from one of these paroxysms by taking a +kitten out of the room; on my return he thanked me, and declared his +feelings to be insupportable upon such an occasion. Long subsequently, I +asked him whether he could in any way account for this agitation. He +said he could not, adding that he experienced no such sensations upon +seeing a full-grown cat; but that a kitten, after he had looked at it +for a minute or two, in his imagination grew to the size of an +overpowering elephant." + + +JAMES MONTGOMERY AND HIS CATS.[130] + +The poet Montgomery was very fond of cats. His biographers say--"We +never recollect the time when some familiar 'Tabby' or audacious 'Tom' +did not claim to share the poet's attention during our familiar +interviews with him in his own parlour. We well recollect one fine +brindled fellow, called 'Nero,' who, during his kittenhood, 'purred' the +following epistle to a little girl who had been his playmate:-- + + + "HARTSHEAD, NEAR THE HOLE-IN-THE-WALL, + "_July 23, 1825_. + "_Harrrrrrr_, + + "_Mew, wew, auw, mauw, hee, wee, miaw, waw, wurr, whirr, ghurr, wew, + mew, whew, isssss, tz, tz, tz, purrurrurrur._" + + +DONE INTO ENGLISH. + +"HARRIET, + +"This comes to tell you that I am very well, and I hope you are so too. +I am growing a great cat; pray how do you come on? I wish you were here +to carry me about as you used to do, and I would scratch you to some +purpose, for I can do this much better than I could while you were here. +I have not run away yet, but I believe I shall soon, for I find my feet +are too many for my head, and often carry me into mischief. Love to +Sheffelina, though I was always fit to pull her cap when I saw you +petting her. My cross old mother sends her love to you--she shows me +very little now-a-days, I assure you, so I do not care what she does +with the rest. She has brought me a mouse or two, and I caught one +myself last night; but it was in my dream, and I awoke as hungry as a +hunter, and fell to biting at my tail, which I believe I should have +eaten up; but it would not let me catch it. So no more at present from + + TINY. + +"_P.S._--They call me Tiny yet, you see; but I intend to take the name +of Nero, after the lion fight at Warwick next week, if the lion +conquers, not else. + +"_2d P.S._--I forgot to tell you that I can beg, but I like better to +steal,--it's more natural, you know. + +"HARRIET, at Ockbrook." + + +SIR WALTER SCOTT'S VISIT TO THE BLACK DWARF.--DAVID RITCHIE'S CAT. + +David Ritchie, the prototype of the "Black Dwarf," inhabited a small +cottage on the farm of Woodhouse, parish of Manor, Peeblesshire. In the +year 1797, Walter Scott, then a young advocate, was taken by the +Fergusons to see "Bowed Davie," as the poor misanthropic man was +generally called. + +Mr William Chambers,[131] the historian of his native county, describes +the visit at greater length than Scott has done in the introduction to +his novel. He says--"At the first sight of Scott, the misanthrope seemed +oppressed with a sentiment of extraordinary interest, which was either +owing to the lameness of the stranger--a circumstance throwing a +narrower gulf between this person and himself than what existed between +him and most other men--or to some perception of an extraordinary mental +character in this limping youth, which was then hid from other eyes. +After grinning upon him for a moment with a smile less bitter than his +wont, the dwarf passed to the door, double-locked it, and then coming up +to the stranger, seized him by the wrist with one of his iron hands, and +said, 'Man, hae ye ony poo'er?' By this he meant magical power, to which +he had himself some vague pretensions, or which, at least, he had +studied and reflected upon till it had become with him a kind of +monomania. Scott disavowed the possession of any gifts of that kind, +evidently to the great disappointment of the inquirer, who then turned +round and gave a signal to a huge black cat, hitherto unobserved, which +immediately jumped up to a shelf, where it perched itself, and seemed to +the excited senses of the visitors as if it had really been the familiar +spirit of the mansion. 'He has poo'er,' said the dwarf in a voice which +made the flesh of the hearers thrill, and Scott, in particular, looked +as if he conceived himself to have actually got into the den of one of +those magicians with whom his studies had rendered him familiar. 'Ay, +_he_ has poo'er,' repeated the recluse; and then, going to his usual +seat, he sat for some minutes grinning horribly, as if enjoying the +impression he had made, while not a word escaped from any of the party. +Mr Ferguson at length plucked up his spirits, and called to David to +open the door, as they must now be going. The dwarf slowly obeyed, and +when they had got out, Mr Ferguson observed that his friend was as pale +as ashes, while his person was agitated in every limb. Under such +striking circumstances was this extraordinary being first presented to +the _real_ magician, who was afterwards to give him such a deathless +celebrity." + +Mr Chambers doubtless received the particulars of this visit from Sir +Adam Ferguson, Scott's friend and companion. + + * * * * * + +Robert Southey, like Jeremy Bentham, with whom the Quarterly Reviewer +would have grudged to have been classified, loved cats. His son, in his +"Life and Correspondence," vol. vi. p. 210, says--"My father's fondness +for cats has been occasionally shown by allusion in his letters,[132] +and in 'The Doctor' is inserted an amusing memorial of the various cats +which at different times were inmates of Greta Hall. He rejoiced in +bestowing upon them the strangest appellations, and it was not a little +amusing to see a kitten answer to the name of some Italian singer or +Indian chief, or hero of a German fairy tale, and often names and titles +were heaped one upon another, till the possessor, unconscious of the +honour conveyed, used to 'set up his eyes and look' in wonderment. Mr +Bedford had an equal liking for the feline race, and occasional notices +of their favourites therefore passed between them, of which the +following records the death of one of the greatest:-- + + "'_To Grosvenor C. Bedford, Esq._ + "'KESWICK, _May 18, 1833_. + +"'My Dear G---- ... --Alas! Grosvenor, this day poor old Rumpel was found +dead, after as long and happy a life as cat could wish for, if cats form +wishes on that subject. His full titles were:--"The Most Noble the +Archduke Rumpelstiltzchen, Marquis M'Bum, Earl Tomlemagne, Baron +Raticide, Waowhler, and Skaratch." There should be a court mourning in +Catland, and if the Dragon[133] wear a black ribbon round his neck, or a +band of crape _a la militaire_ round one of the fore paws, it will be +but a becoming mark of respect. + +"'As we have no catacombs here, he is to be decently interred in the +orchard, and cat-mint planted on his grave. Poor creature, it is well +that he has thus come to his end after he had become an object of pity, +I believe we are, each and all, servants included, more sorry for his +loss, or rather more affected by it, than any one of us would like to +confess. + +"'I should not have written to you at present, had it not been to notify +this event. + + R. S.'" + +In a letter from Leyden to his son Cuthbert, then in his seventh year, +he says--"I hope Rumpelstiltzchen has recovered his health, and that +Miss Cat is well; and I should like to know whether Miss Fitzrumpel has +been given away, and if there is another kitten. The Dutch cats do not +speak exactly the same language as the English ones. I will tell you how +they talk when I come home."[134] + + +ARCHBISHOP WHATELY'S ANECDOTE OF THE CAT THAT USED TO RING THE BELL. + +Archbishop Whately[135] records a case of an act done by a cat, which, +if done by a man, would be called reason. He says--"This cat lived many +years in my mother's family, and its feats of sagacity were witnessed by +her, my sisters, and myself. It was known, not merely once or twice, but +habitually, to ring the parlour bell whenever it wished the door to be +opened. Some alarm was excited on the first occasion that it turned +bell-ringer. The family had retired to rest, and in the middle of the +night the parlour-bell was rung violently; the sleepers were startled +from their repose, and proceeded down-stairs, with pokers and tongs, to +interrupt, as they thought, the predatory movement of some burglar; but +they were agreeably surprised to discover that the bell had been rung by +pussy; who frequently repeated the act whenever she wanted to get out of +the parlour." + + * * * * * + +A friend (D. D., Esq., Edinburgh) tells me of a cat his family had in +the country, that used regularly to "_tirl at the pin_" of the back door +when it wished to get in to the house. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[121] Mark Lemon, "Jest-Book," p. 280. + +[122] "British Quadrupeds." The professor has long retired to his +favourite Selborne. He occupies the house of Gilbert White; and a new +illustrated edition of the "Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne" +has been long looked for from him. + +[123] "The Instructive Picture Book; or, A Few Attractive Lessons from +the Natural History of Animals," by Adam White, p. 15 (fifth edition, +1862). + +[124] "The Works of Jeremy Bentham," now first collected under the +superintendence of his executor, John Bowring, vol. xi. pp. 80, 81. + +[125] Jeremy Bentham's house in Queen's Square was that which had been +occupied by the great poet. + +[126] Vol. i. No. 3. p. 27. + +[127] _Times_, 18 Dec. 1830, quoted by Southey, "Common-Place Book," iv. +p. 489. + +[128] "Physic and Physicians," a medical sketch-book, vol. ii. p. 363 +(1839). + +[129] "A Book for a Rainy Day," p. 103. Old Smith was a regular hunter +after legacies, and like all such was often disappointed. His +"Nollekens" is a fine example. + +[130] "Memoirs of James Montgomery," by Holland and Everett, iv. pp. +114, 115. + +[131] "A History of Peeblesshire," by William Chambers of Glenormiston, +p. 403 (1864). + +[132] See vol. v. p. 145. + +[133] A cat of Mr Bedford's. + +[134] "Life and Correspondence," v. p. 223. + +[135] On Instinct, a Lecture delivered before the Dublin Natural History +Society, 11th November 1842. Dublin, 1847. P. 10. + + + + +TIGER AND LION. + + +These most ferocious of the Carnivora have afforded interesting subjects +to many a traveller. An extensive volume of truly sensational adventure +might be compiled about them, adding a chapter for the jaguar and the +leopard, two extremely dangerous spotted cats, that can do what neither +tigers nor lions are able to do--namely, climb trees. Having once asked +a friend, who was at the death of many a wild beast, which was the most +savage animal he had ever seen, he replied, "A wounded leopard." It was +to such an animal that Jacob referred when he saw Joseph's clothes, and +said--"Some evil beast hath devoured him." Colonel Campbell's work, from +which the first paragraph is derived, contains much about the pursuit of +the tiger. Dr Livingstone's travels and Gordon Cumming's books on South +Africa, neither of which we have quoted, have thrilling pages about the +lordly presence of "the king of beasts." Mr Joseph Wolf and Mr Lewis are +perhaps the best draughtsmen of the lion among recent artists. The +public admire much Sir Edwin Landseer's striking bronze lions on the +pedestal of the Nelson Monument. That artist excels in his pictures of +the lion. On the Assyrian monuments in the British Museum are many +wonderfully executed lion hunts, as perfectly preserved as if they had +been chiselled in our day. Parts of these bas-reliefs were certainly +designed from actual sketches made from the lions and dogs, which took +the chief part in the amusements of some "Nimrod, a mighty hunter before +the Lord." Even our Scottish kings kept a lion or lions as ornaments of +their court. At Stirling Castle and Palace, a room which we saw in 1865, +still bears the name of the "Lion's Den." The British lion is an old +emblem of both Scotland and England, and it is not twenty-five years ago +since we, in common with every visitor to the Tower, were glad to see +"the Royal Lion." Dr Livingstone's experience, we have not the slightest +wish to prove its accuracy, shows that the lion has a soothing, or +rather paralysing power over his prey, when he has knocked it down or +bitten it. + + +BUSSAPA, THE TIGER-SLAYER, AND THE TIGER. + +The following striking anecdote recounts the extraordinary presence of +mind and determined courage of a celebrated Mahratta hunter named +Bussapa. This man acquired the name of the "Tiger-slayer," and wore on +his breast several silver medals granted by the Indian Government for +feats of courage in destroying tigers. Colonel Campbell met him, and in +"My Indian Journal" (pp. 142, 143), published in 1864, has recorded from +his brother's diary the following anecdote:--"Bussapa, a hunter of +'Lingyat' caste, with whom I am well acquainted, was sent for by the +headman of a village, to destroy a tiger which had carried off a number +of cattle. He came, and having ascertained the brute's usual haunts, +fastened a bullock near the edge of a ravine which he frequented, and +quietly seated himself beside it, protected only by a small bush. Soon +after sunset the tiger appeared, killed the bullock, and was glutting +himself with blood, when Bussapa, thrusting his long matchlock through +the bush, fired, and wounded him severely. The tiger half rose, but +being unable to see his assailant on account of the intervening bush, +dropped again on his prey with a sudden growl. Bussapa was kneeling +within three paces of him, completely defenceless; he did not even dare +to reload, for he well knew that the slightest movement on his part +would be the signal for his immediate destruction; his bare knees were +pressed upon gravel, but he dared not venture to shift his uneasy +position. Ever and anon, the tiger, as he lay with his glaring eyes +fixed upon the bush, uttered his hoarse growl of anger; his hot breath +absolutely blew upon the cheek of the wretched man, yet still he moved +not. The pain of his cramped position increased every moment--suspense +became almost intolerable; but the motion of a limb, the rustling of a +leaf, would have been death. Thus they remained, the man and the tiger, +watching each other's motions; but even in this fearful situation, his +presence of mind never for a moment forsook the noble fellow. He heard +the gong of the village strike each hour of that fearful night, that +seemed to him 'eternity,' and yet he lived; the tormenting mosquitoes +swarmed round his face, but he dared not brush them off. That fiend-like +eye met his whenever he ventured a glance towards the horrid spell that +bound him; and a hoarse growl grated on the stillness of the night, as a +passing breeze stirred the leaves that sheltered him. Hours rolled on, +and his powers of endurance were well-nigh exhausted, when, at length, +the welcome streaks of light shot up from the eastern horizon. On the +approach of day, the tiger rose, and stalked away with a sulky pace, to +a thicket at some distance, and then the stiff and wearied Bussapa felt +that he was safe. + +"One would have thought that, after such a night of suffering, he would +have been too thankful for his escape, to venture on any further risk. +But the valiant Bussapa was not so easily diverted from his purpose; as +soon as he had stretched his cramped limbs, and restored the checked +circulation, he reloaded his matchlock, and coolly proceeded to finish +his work. With his match lighted, he advanced close to the tiger, lying +ready to receive him, and shot him dead by a ball in the forehead, while +in the act of charging." + +Colonel Campbell relates, that most of Bussapa's family have fallen +victims to tigers. But the firm belief of the "tiger-slayer" in +predestination, makes him blind to all danger. + + +JOHN HUNTER AND THE DEAD TIGER. + +The greatest comparative anatomist our country has produced, John +Hunter, obtained the refusal of all animals which happened to die in the +Tower or in the travelling menageries. In this way he often obtained +rare subjects for his researches. Dr Forbes Winslow[136] alludes to a +well-known fact, that all the money Hunter could spare, was devoted to +procuring curiosities of this sort, and Sir Everard Home used to state, +that as soon as he had accumulated fees to the amount of ten guineas, he +always purchased some addition to his collection. Indeed, he was not +unfrequently obliged to borrow of his friends, when his own funds were +at a low ebb, and the temptation was strong. "Pray, George," said he one +day to Mr G. Nicol, the bookseller to the king, with whom he was very +intimate, "have you got any money in your pocket?" Mr N. replied in the +affirmative. "Have you got five guineas? Because, if you have, and will +lend it me, you shall go halves."--"Halves in what?" inquired his +friend.--"Why, halves in a magnificent tiger, which is now dying in +Castle Street." Mr Nicol lent the money, and Hunter purchased the tiger. + + +TIGERS. + +Mrs Colin Mackenzie[137] records the death of a man from the wounds of a +tiger. "The tiger," she says, "was brought in on the second day. He died +from the wound he had received. I gave the body to the Dhers in our +service, who ate it. The claws and whiskers are greatly prized by the +natives as charms. The latter are supposed to give the possessor a +certain malignant power over his enemies, for which reason I always +take possession of them to prevent our people getting them. The tiger is +very commonly worshipped all over India. The women often prostrate +themselves before a dead tiger, when sportsmen are bringing it home in +triumph; and in a village, near Nagpur, Mr Hislop found a number of rude +images, almost like four-legged stools, which, on inquiry, proved to be +meant for tigers, who were worshipped as the tutelary deities of the +place. I believe a fresh image is added for every tiger that is slain." + + +LION AND TIGER. + + +A jolly jack-tar, having strayed into Atkin's show at Bartholomew Fair, +to have a look at the wild beasts, was much struck with the sight of a +lion and a tiger in the same den. "Why, Jack," said he to a messmate, +who was chewing a quid in silent amazement, "I shouldn't wonder if next +year they were to carry about _a sailor and a marine living peaceably +together_!"--"Ay," said his married companion, "_or a man and +wife_."[138] + +We may add that we have long regarded it as a vile calumny to two +animals to say of a man and wife who quarrel, that they live "a cat and +dog life." No two animals are better agreed when kept together. Each +knows his own place and keeps it. Hence they live at peace--speaking +"generally," as "Mr Artemus Ward" would say of "such an observation." + + +ANDROCLES AND THE LION. + +Addison,[139] in the 139th _Guardian_, has given us the story of +Androcles and the Lion. He prefaces it by saying that he has no regard +"to what AEsop has said upon the subject, whom," says he, "I look upon to +have been a republican, by the unworthy treatment which he often gives +to the king of beasts, and whom, if I had time, I could convict of +falsehood and forgery in almost every matter of fact which he has +related of this generous animal." + +Better observation of it, however, from the time of Burchell to that of +Livingstone, shows that AEsop's account is on the whole to be relied on, +and that the lion is a thorough cat, treacherous, cruel, and, for the +most part, with a good deal of the coward in him. + +The story of Androcles was related by Aulus Gellius, who extracted it +from Dion Cassius. Although likely to be embellished, there is every +likelihood of the foundation of the story being true. Addison relates +this, "for the sake of my learned reader, who needs go no further in it, +if he has read it already:--Androcles was the slave of a noble Roman who +was proconsul of Afric. He had been guilty of a fault, for which his +master would have put him to death, had not he found an opportunity to +escape out of his hands, and fled into the deserts of Numidia. As he was +wandering among the barren sands, and almost dead with heat and hunger, +he saw a cave in the side of a rock. He went into it, and finding at the +farther end of it a place to sit down upon, rested there for some time. +At length, to his great surprise, a huge overgrown lion entered at the +mouth of the cave, and seeing a man at the upper end of it, immediately +made towards him. Androcles gave himself up for gone;[140] but the lion, +instead of treating him as he expected, laid his paw upon his lap, and +with a complaining kind of voice, fell a licking his hand. Androcles, +after having recovered himself a little from the fright he was in, +observed the lion's paw to be exceedingly swelled by a large thorn that +stuck in it. He immediately pulled it out, and by squeezing the paw very +gently made a great deal of corrupt matter run out of it, which, +probably freed the lion from the great anguish he had felt some time +before. The lion left him upon receiving this good office from him, and +soon after returned with a fawn which he had just killed. This he laid +down at the feet of his benefactor, and went off again in pursuit of his +prey. Androcles, after having sodden the flesh of it by the sun, +subsisted upon it until the lion had supplied him with another. He lived +many days in this frightful solitude, the lion catering for him with +great assiduity. Being tired at length with this savage society, he was +resolved to deliver himself up into his master's hands, and suffer the +worst effects of his displeasure, rather than be thus driven out from +mankind. His master, as was customary for the proconsuls of Africa, was +at that time getting together a present of all the largest lions that +could be found in the country, in order to send them to Rome, that they +might furnish out a show to the Roman people. Upon his poor slave +surrendering himself into his hands, he ordered him to be carried away +to Rome as soon as the lions were in readiness to be sent, and that for +his crime he should be exposed to fight with one of the lions in the +amphitheatre, as usual, for the diversion of the people. This was all +performed accordingly. Androcles, after such a strange run of fortune, +was now in the area of the theatre, amidst thousands of spectators, +expecting every moment when his antagonist would come out upon him. At +length a huge monstrous lion leaped out from the place where he had been +kept hungry for the show. He advanced with great rage towards the man, +but on a sudden, after having regarded him a little wistfully, fell to +the ground, and crept towards his feet with all the signs of +blandishment and caress. Androcles, after a short pause, discovered that +it was his old Numidian friend, and immediately renewed his acquaintance +with him. Their mutual congratulations were very surprising to the +beholders, who, upon hearing an account of the whole matter from +Androcles, ordered him to be pardoned, and the lion to be given up into +his possession. Androcles returned at Rome the civilities which he had +received from him in the deserts of Afric. Dion Cassius says, that he +himself saw the man leading the lion about the streets of Rome, the +people everywhere gathering about them, and repeating to one another, +'_Hic est leo hospes hominis; hic est homo medicus leonis_.' 'This is +the lion who was the man's host; this is the man who was the lion's +physician.'" + +We are glad to repeat this anecdote, although some may call it "stale +and old." The last time we were at the Zoological Gardens, in the +Regents Park, London, we saw a lion very kindly come and rub itself +against the rails of its den, on seeing a turbaned visitor come up, who +addressed it. The man had been kind to it on its passage home. It was +by no means a tame lion, nor one that its keeper would have ventured to +touch. + + +SIR GEORGE DAVIS AND THE LION + +Steele, in the 146th _Guardian_,[141] has followed up a paper by +Addison, on the subject of lions, and gives an anecdote sent him, he +says, by "a worthy merchant and a friend of mine," who had it in the +year 1700 from the gentleman to whom it happened. + +"About sixty years ago, when the plague raged at Naples, Sir George +Davis, consul there for the English nation, retired to Florence. It +happened one day he went out of curiosity to see the great duke's lions. +At the farther end, in one of the dens, lay a lion, which the keepers in +three years' time could not tame, with all the art and gentle usage +imaginable. Sir George no sooner appeared at the grates of the den, but +the lion ran to him with all the marks of joy and transport he was +capable of expressing. He reared himself up, and licked his hand, which +this gentleman put in through the grates. The keeper affrighted, took +him by the arm and pulled him away, begging him not to hazard his life +by going so near the fiercest creature of that kind that ever entered +those dens. However, nothing would satisfy Sir George, notwithstanding +all that could be said to dissuade him, but he must go into the den to +him. The very instant he entered, the lion threw his paws upon his +shoulders, and licked his face, and ran to and fro in the den, fawning +and full of joy, like a dog at the sight of his master. After several +embraces and salutations exchanged on both sides, they parted very good +friends. The rumour of this interview between the lion and the stranger +rung immediately through the whole city, and Sir George was very near +passing for a saint among the people. The great duke, when he heard of +it, sent for Sir George, who waited upon his highness, to the den, and +to satisfy his curiosity, gave him the following account of what seemed +so strange to the duke and his followers:-- + +"'A captain of a ship from Barbary gave me this lion when he was a young +whelp. I brought him up tame, but when I thought him too large to be +suffered to run about the house, I built a den for him in my courtyard; +from that time he was never permitted to go loose, except when I brought +him within doors to show him to my friends. When he was five years old, +in his gamesome tricks, he did some mischief by pawing and playing with +people. Having griped a man one day a little too hard, I ordered him to +be shot, for fear of incurring the guilt of what might happen; upon this +a friend who was then at dinner with me begged him: how he came here I +know not.' + +Here Sir George Davis ended, and thereupon the Duke of Tuscany assured +him that he had the lion from that very friend of his." + + +CANOVA'S LIONS AND THE CHILD. + +The mausoleum of Pope Clement XII., whose name was Rezzonico, is one of +the greatest works of Antonio Canova, the celebrated Italian sculptor. +It is in St Peter's, at Rome, and was erected in 1792. It is only +mentioned here on account of two lions, which were faithfully studied +from nature. + +His biographer, Mr Memes,[142] tells us that these lions were formed +"after long and repeated observation on the habits and forms of the +living animals. Wherever they were to be seen Canova constantly visited +them, at all hours, and under every variety of circumstances, that he +might mark their natural expression in different states of action and of +repose, of ferocity or gentleness. One of the keepers was even paid to +bring information, lest any favourable opportunity should pass +unimproved." + +One of these lions is sleeping, while the other, which is under the +figure of the personification of religion, couches--but is awake, in +attitude of guarding inviolate the approach to the sepulchre, and ready +with a tremendous roar to spring upon the intruder. + +Canova himself was much pleased with these lions. Mr Memes illustrates +their wonderful force and truth by a little anecdote. + +"One day, while the author (a frequent employment) stood at some +distance admiring from different points of view the tomb of Rezzonico, a +woman with a child in her arms advanced to the lion, which appears to be +watching. The terrified infant began to scream violently, clinging to +the nurse's bosom, and exclaiming, '_Mordera, mamma, mordera!_' (It will +bite, mamma; it will bite.) The mother turned to the opposite one, which +seems asleep; her charge was instantly pacified; and smiling through +tears, extended its little arm to stroke the shaggy head, whispering in +subdued accents, as if afraid to awake the monster, '_O come placido! +non mordero quello, mamma._' (How gentle! this one will not bite, +mother.") + + +ADMIRAL NAPIER AND THE LION IN THE TOWER. + +Admiral Sir Charles Napier, K.C.B., when a boy in his fourteenth year, +visited London on his way to join his first ship at Spithead, the +_Renown_. His biographer tells us he was staying at the house of a +relative, who, "after showing the youngster all the London sights, took +him to see the lions at the Tower. Amongst them was one which the keeper +represented as being so very tame that, said he, 'you might put your +hand into his mouth.' Taking him at his word, the young middy, to the +horror of the spectators, thrust his hand into the jaws of the animal, +who, no doubt, was taken as much by surprise as the lookers-on. It was a +daring feat; but providentially he did not suffer for his +temerity."[143] This reminds the biographer of Nelson's feat with the +polar bear, and of Charles Napier's (the soldier) bold adventure with an +eagle in his boyhood, as related by Sir William Napier in the history of +his gallant brother's life. + + +OLD LADY AND THE BEASTS ON THE MOUND. + +When the houses were cleared from the head of the Mound in Edinburgh, a +travelling menagerie had set up its caravans on that great earthen +bridge, just at the time when George Ferguson, the celebrated Scotch +advocate, better known by his justiciary title of Lord Hermand, came up, +full of Pittite triumph that the ministry of "all the talents" had +fallen. "They are out! they are all out! every mother's son of them!" he +shouted. A lady, who heard the words, and perceived his excited +condition, imagined that he referred to the wild beasts; and seizing the +judge by his arm, exclaimed, "Gude heaven! we shall a' be +devoored!"[144] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[136] "Physics and Physicians: a Medical Sketch-Book," vol. i. p. 174. +It was published anonymously in 1839. + +[137] "Life in the Mission, the Camp, and the Zenana; or, Six Years in +India," vol. ii. p. 382. + +[138] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 237. + +[139] August 20, 1713. Chalmers's edition of "British Essayists," vol. +xviii. p. 85. + +[140] Up for lost. + +[141] August 28, 1713. Chalmers's edition of "British Essayists," vol. +xviii p. 116. + +[142] "Memoirs of Antonio Canova," by J. S. Memes, A.M. 1825. Pp. 332, +334, 346. + +[143] "The Life of Admiral Sir Charles Napier, K.C.B," by Major-General +Elers Napier, vol. i. p. 8. + + + + +SEALS. + + +A most intelligent group of creatures, some of which the compiler has +watched in Yell Sound, close to Mossbank. He has even seen them once or +twice in the Forth, close to the end of the pier. In the Zoological +Gardens a specimen of the common seal proved for months a great source +of attraction by its mild nature, and its singular form and activity. It +soon died, and, had a coroner's jury returned a verdict, it would have +been "Death from the hooks swallowed with the fish" daily provided. We +have heard seal-fishers describe the great rapidity of the growth of +seals in the Arctic seas. They seem in about a fortnight after their +birth to attain nearly the size of their mothers. The same has been +recorded of the whale order. Both seals and whales have powers of +assimilating food and making fat that are unparalleled even by pigs. The +intelligence of seals is marvellous. Many who visited the Zoological +Gardens in the Regent's Park in May and June 1866 witnessed instances of +this in a seal from the South Seas, recently exhibited in London. +Persons on the sea-side might readily domesticate these interesting and +truly affectionate creatures. Hooker's sea-bear, the species exhibited +in London, was at first, so the kind Frenchman told us, very fierce, but +soon got reconciled to him, and, when I saw it, great was the mutual +attachment. It was a strangely interesting sight to see the great +creature walk on its fin-like legs, and clamber up and kiss the +genial-bearded French sailor. + + +DR ADAM CLARKE ON SHETLAND SEALS. + +In Shetland, Dr Adam Clarke tells us the popular belief is that the +seals, or, as they call them, _selkies_, are fallen spirits, and that it +is dangerous to kill any of them, as evil will assuredly happen to him +who does. They think that when the blood of a seal touches the water, +the sea begins to rise and swell. Those who shoot them notice that gulls +appear to watch carefully over them; and Mr Edmonston assured him that +he has known a gull scratch, a seal to warn it of his approach. Dr +Clarke, in the second of his voyages to Shetland, had a seal on board, +which was caught on the Island of Papa. He says:--"It refuses all +nourishment; it is very young, and about three feet long; it roars +nearly like a calf, but not so loud, and continually crawls about the +deck, seeking to get again to sea. As I cannot bear its cries, I intend +to return it to the giver. Several of them have been tamed by the +Shetlanders, and these will attend their owners to the place where the +cows are milked, in order to get a drink. This was the case with one Mr +Henry of Burrastow brought up. When it thought proper it would go to sea +and forage there, but was sure to return to land, and to its owner. They +tell me that it is a creature of considerable sagacity. The young seal +mentioned above made his escape over the gangway, and got to sea. I am +glad of it; for its plaintive lowing was painful to me. We saw it +afterwards making its way to the ocean."[145] + + +DR EDMONSTON ON SHETLAND SEALS. + +Every one familiar with seals is struck with their plaintive, +intelligent faces, and any one who has seen the seals from time to time +living in the Zoological Gardens must have been pleased with the marks +of attention paid by them to their keepers. Dr Edmonston of Balta Sound +has published in the "Memoirs of the Wernerian Society"[146] a graphic +and valuable paper on the distinctions, history, and hunting of seals in +the Shetland Isles. As that gentleman is a native of Unst, and had, when +he wrote the Memoir, been for more than twenty years actively engaged in +their pursuit, both as an amusement and as a study, we may extract two +or three interesting passages. + +He remarks (p. 29) on the singular circumstance that so few additions +have been made to the list of domestic animals bequeathed to us from +remote antiquity, and mentions the practicability of an attempt being +made to tame seals; and also says that it is yet to be learned whether +they would breed in captivity and remain reclaimed from the wild state. +The few instances recorded in books of natural history of tame seals +refer to the species called _Phoca vitulina_, but of the processes of +rearing and education we have no details. "The trials," continues Dr +Edmonston, "I have made on these points have been equally numerous on +the great as on the common seal. By far the most interesting one I ever +had was a young male of the _barbata_ species: he was taken by myself +from a cave when only a few hours old, and in a day or two became as +attached as a dog to me. The varied movements and sounds by which he +expressed delight at my presence and regret at my absence were most +affecting; these sounds were as like as possible to the inarticulate +tones of the human voice. I know no animal capable of displaying more +affection than he did, and his temper was the gentlest imaginable. I +kept him for four or five weeks, feeding him entirely on warm milk from +the cow; in my temporary absence butter-milk was given to him, and he +died soon after. + +"Another was a female, also of the great seal species, which we captured +in a cave when about six weeks old, in October 1830. This individual +would never allow herself to be handled but by the person who chiefly +had the charge of her, yet even she soon became comparatively familiar. + +"It was amusing to see how readily she ascended the stairs, which she +often did, intent, as it seemed, on examining every room in the house; +on showing towards her signs of displeasure and correction, she +descended more rapidly and safely than her awkwardness seemed to +promise. + +"She was fed from the first on fresh fish alone, and grew and fattened +considerably. We had her carried down daily in a hand-barrow to the +sea-side, where an old excavation admitting the salt water was +abundantly roomy and deep for her recreation and our observation. After +sporting and diving for some time she would come ashore, and seemed +perfectly to understand the use of the barrow. Often she tried to waddle +from the house to the water, or from the latter to her apartment, but +finding this fatiguing, and seeing preparations by her chairman, she +would of her own accord mount her palanquin, and thus be carried as +composedly as any Hindoo princess. By degrees we ventured to let her go +fairly into the sea, and she regularly returned after a short interval; +but one day during a thick fall of snow she was imprudently let off as +usual, and, being decoyed some distance out of sight of the shore by +some wild ones which happened to be in the bay at the time, she either +could not find her way back or voluntarily decamped. + +"She was, we understood, killed very shortly after in a neighbouring +inlet. We had kept her about six months, and every moment she was +becoming more familiar; we had dubbed her Finna, and she seemed to know +her name. Every one that saw her was struck with her appearance. + +"The smooth face without external ears--the nose slightly aquiline--the +large, dark, and beautiful eye which stood the sternest human gaze, gave +to the expression of her countenance such dignity and variety that we +all agreed that it really was _super_-animal. The Scandinavian Scald, +with such a mermaid before him, would find in her eye a metaphor so +emphatic that he would have no reason to borrow the favourite oriental +image of the gazelles from his Caucasian ancestors. + +"This remarkable expressiveness and dignity of aspect of the +_Haff-fish_, so superior to all other animals with which the fishermen +of Shetland were acquainted, and the human character of his voice, may +have procured for him that peculiar respect with which he was regarded +by those who lived nearest his domains, and were admitted to most +frequent intercourse with him. He was the favourite animal of +superstition, and a few tales of him are still current. These, however, +are not of much interest or variety, the leading ideas in them being +these: That the great seal is a human soul, or a fallen angel in +metempsychosis, and that to him who is remarkable for hostility to the +phocal race some fatal retribution will ensue. I can easily conceive the +feeling of awe with which a fisherman would be impressed when, in the +sombre magnificence of some rocky solitude, a great seal suddenly +presented himself, for an interview of this kind once occurred to +myself. + +"I was lying one calm summer day on a rock a little elevated above the +water, watching the approach of seals, in a small creek formed by +frowning precipices several hundred feet high, near the north point of +the Shetland Islands. + +"I had patiently waited for two hours, and the scene and the sunshine +had thrown me into a kind of reverie, when my companion, who was more +awake, arrested my attention. A full-sized female haff-fish was swimming +slowly past, within eight yards of my feet, her head askance, and her +eyes fixed upon me; the gun, charged with two balls, was immediately +pointed. I followed her with the aim for some distance, when she dived +without my firing. + +"I resolved that this omission should not recur, if she afforded me +another opportunity of a shot, which I hardly hoped for, but which +actually in a few moments took place. Still I did not fire, until, when +at a considerable distance, she was on the eve of diving, and she eluded +the shot by springing to a side. Here was really a species of +fascination. The wild scene, the near presence and commanding aspect of +the splendid animal before me, produced a spellbound impression which, +in my sporting experience, I never felt before. + +"On reflection, I was delighted that she escaped. + +"The younger seals are the more easy to tame, but the more difficult to +rear; under a month old they must be fed, and, especially the _barbata_, +almost entirely on milk, and that of the cow seems hardly to agree with +them. + +"Perhaps their being suckled by a cow fed chiefly on fish, the giving +them occasionally a little salt water, and then by degrees inducing them +to eat fish, might be the best mode until they attained the age of being +sustained on fish alone. In the _barbata_, to insure rapid taming, it +appears to be necessary to capture them before the period of casting the +foetal hair, analogous to what I have observed in the case of the +young of water-birds before getting up their first feathers, and when +they are entirely covered with the egg down. + +"These changes seem connected with a great development of the wild +habits, and attachment to, and knowledge of, the localities where they +have first seen the light. As the _barbata_ is until this period in +reality a land animal, the chief difficulty we have to surmount with it +is in the quality of the milk to be given it. The _vitulina_ is +essentially an inhabitant of the water from its birth, yet the care of +the mother is perhaps for weeks necessary to judge how long and how +often it should be on land, and this we can hardly expect to imitate. In +the young of this species a few days old, which we have tried to rear, a +want of knowledge of this kind of management may have led to failure. I +have not attempted to rear them at a greater age. + +"The Greenland seal is, I have been informed, occasionally kept for a +month or two on board the whalers, and thrives sufficiently well on the +flesh of sea-birds. This species appears to bring forth in January, and +therefore it is subjected to captivity. + +"I know but comparatively little of its capability of being easily +tamed; but this quality, of itself, is no evidence of superior +intelligence. + +"Might it not be easy to induce Greenland shipmasters to bring some of +these animals to England, where they would be accessible to the +observation of zoologists. + +"One mode of attempting to tame them might be to take half-grown animals +in a net, or surprise them on land, and then keep them in salt-water +ponds in a semi-domestic state: if any of them were pregnant when +caught, or could be got to breed, the main difficulty would be +overcome." + +Long as these extracts are, they possess great interest as being derived +from observations on living animals made by one who was a friend of the +Duke of Wellington, and was always welcomed by him. His northern Island +of Unst is a fine field for studying marine animals. The sweeping +currents of the Arctic oceans bring creatures to the quiet voes and +sounds. Shetland in spring, summer, and autumn is a favoured locality +for the naturalist and painter. + + +THE WALRUS. + +There was some likelihood, a few years ago, that a most attractive +animal would be added to the collection of the Zoological Society. But, +unfortunately for the public gratification, as well as the remuneration +of the spirited captain who brought the creature, it reached the gardens +in a dying state, and only survived a few days. But it is not the first +of its family which has travelled so far to the southward. Nearly 250 +years ago a specimen was brought alive by some of the Arctic +adventurers, and excited no little surprise, as old Purchas tells us. It +was in the year 1608, when "the king and many honourable personages +beheld it with admiration, for the strangeness of the same, the like +whereof had never before beene seene alive in England. Not long after it +fell sicke and died. As the beast in shape is very strange, so is it of +strange docilitie, and apt to be taught, as by good experience we often +proved." + +The figure which accompanies this paper was drawn from our late lamented +visitor by Mr Wolf, who sketched it before its removal to the Zoological +Gardens. Captain Henry caught it during a whaling expedition, and sent +it to London. Though quite young, it was nearly four feet in length; and +when the person who used to feed it came into the room, it would give +him an affectionate greeting, in a voice somewhat resembling the cry of +a calf, but considerably louder. It walked about, but, owing to its +weakness, soon grew tired, and lay down. Unlike the seals, to which it +is closely allied, the walrus has considerable power with its limbs when +out of the water, and can support its bulky body quite clear of the +ground. Its mode of progression, however, is awkward when compared with +ordinary quadrupeds; its hind-limbs shuffling along, as if inclosed in a +sack. In some future season, when a lively specimen reaches the Gardens, +and is accommodated with an extensive tank of water, there is no reason +why the walrus should not thrive as well as the seal, or his close, +though not kind, neighbour of the North, the Polar bear. + +[Illustration: The Walrus.] + +The walrus, _morse_, or _sea-horse_ (_Trichechus rosmarus_, Linn.[147]), +is one of the most characteristic inhabitants of the Arctic regions. +There it is widely distributed, and thence it seldom wanders. One or two +specimens were killed on the shores of the northern Scottish islands in +1817 and 1825; but these instances seem hardly to admit of its +introduction into our _fauna_, any more than West Indian beans, brought +by the currents, are admissible into our _flora_. It is mentioned by +some old Scottish writers[148] among our native animals, and at one time +may have been carried to our coasts on some of the bergs, which are +occasionally seen in the German Ocean after the periodical disruptions +of the Arctic ice. Like the Polar bear, however, the walrus has +evidently been formed by its Creator for a life among icy seas, and +there it is now found often in large herds. Captain Beechey and other +voyagers to the seas around Spitzbergen, describe them as being +particularly abundant on the western coast of that inclement island. The +captain says that in fine weather they resort to large pieces of ice at +the edge of the main body, where herds of them may be seen of sometimes +more than a hundred individuals each. "In these situations they appear +greatly to enjoy themselves, rolling and sporting about, and frequently +making the air resound with their bellowing, which bears some +resemblance to that of a bull. These diversions generally end in sleep, +during which these wary animals appear always to take the precaution of +having a sentinel to warn them of any danger." The only warning, +however, which the sentinel gives, is by seeking his own safety; in +effecting which, as the herd lie huddled on one another like swine, the +motion of one is speedily communicated to the whole, and they instantly +tumble, one over the other, into the sea, head-foremost, if possible; +but failing that, anyhow. + +Scoresby remarks that the front part of the head of the young walrus, +without tusks, when seen at a distance, is not unlike the human face. It +has the habit of raising its head above the water to look at ships and +other passing objects; and when seen in such a position, it may have +given rise to some of the stories of mermaids. + +There is still a considerable uncertainty as to the food of the walrus. +Cook found no traces of aliment in the stomachs of those shot by his +party. Crantz says that in Greenland shell-fish and sea-weeds seem to be +its only subsistence. Scoresby found shrimps, a kind of craw-fish, and +the remains of young seals, in the stomachs of those which he examined. +Becchey mentions, that in the inside of several specimens he found +numerous granite pebbles larger than walnuts. These may be taken for the +same purpose that some birds, especially of the gallinaceous order, +swallow bits of gravel. Dr Von Baer concludes, from an analysis of all +the published accounts, that the walrus is omnivorous.[149] A specimen +that died at St Petersburg was fed on oatmeal mixed with turnips or +other vegetables; and the little fellow, who lately died in the Regent's +Park, seems to have been fed by the sailors on oatmeal porridge. + +One of the chief characteristics of the walrus is the presence of two +elongated tusks (the canine teeth) in the upper jaw. According to +Crantz, it uses these to scrape mussels and other shell-fish from the +rocks and out of the sand, and also to grapple and get along with, for +they enable it to raise itself on the ice. They are also powerful +weapons of defence against the Polar bear and its other enemies. + +The walrus attains a great size. Twelve feet is the length of a fine +specimen in the British Museum. Beechey's party found some of them +fourteen feet in length and nine feet in girth, and of such prodigious +weight that they could scarcely turn them over. + +Gratifying accounts are given of the attachment of the female to its +young, and the male occasionally assists in their defence when exposed +to danger, or at least in revenging the attack. Lord Nelson, when a lad, +was coxwain to one of the ships of Phipps's expedition to the Arctic +seas, and commanded a boat, which was the means of saving a party +belonging to the other ship from imminent danger. "Some of the officers +had fired at and wounded a walrus. As no other animal," says Southey, +"has so human-like an expression in its countenance, so also is there +none that seems to possess more of the passions of humanity. The wounded +animal dived immediately, and brought up a number of its companions; and +they all joined in an attack upon the boat. They wrested an oar from one +of the men; and it was with the utmost difficulty that the crew could +prevent them from staving or upsetting her, till the _Carcass's_ boat +(commanded by young Horatio Nelson) came up: and the walruses, finding +their enemies thus reinforced, dispersed." And Captain Beechey gives the +following pleasing picture of maternal affection which he witnessed in +the seas around Spitzbergen: "We were greatly amused by the singular and +affectionate conduct of a walrus towards its young. In the vast sheet of +ice which surrounded the ships, there were occasionally many pools; and +when the weather was clear and warm, animals of various kinds would +frequently rise and sport about in them, or crawl from thence upon the +ice to bask in the warmth of the sun. A walrus rose in one of these +pools close to the ship, and, finding everything quiet, dived down and +brought up its young, which it held to its breast by pressing it with +its flipper. In this manner it moved about the pool, keeping in an erect +posture, and always directing the face of the young towards the vessel. +On the slightest movement on board, the mother released her flipper, and +pushed the young one under water; but, when everything was again quiet, +brought it up as before, and for a length of time continued to play +about in the pool, to the great amusement of the seamen, who gave her +credit for abilities in tuition, which, though possessed of considerable +sagacity, she hardly merited." + +The walrus has two great enemies in its icy home--the Polar bear and the +Esquimaux. Captain Beechey thus graphically describes the manoeuvres +of that king of the Bruin race, which must often be attended with +success. The bears, when hungry, are always on the watch for animals +sleeping upon the ice, and try to come on them unawares, as their prey +darts through holes in the ice. "One sunshiny day a walrus, of nine or +ten feet length, rose in a pool of water not very far from us; and after +looking around, drew his greasy carcase upon the ice, where he rolled +about for a time, and at length laid himself down to sleep. A bear, +which had probably been observing his movements, crawled carefully upon +the ice on the opposite side of the pool, and began to roll about also, +but apparently more with design than amusement, as he progressively +lessened the distance that intervened between him and his prey. The +walrus, suspicious of his advances, drew himself up preparatory to a +precipitate retreat into the water in case of a nearer acquaintance with +his playful but treacherous visitor; on which the bear was instantly +motionless, as if in the act of sleep; but after a time began to lick +his paws, and clean himself, occasionally encroaching a little more upon +his intended prey. But even this artifice did not succeed; the wary +walrus was far too cunning to allow himself to be entrapped, and +suddenly plunged into the pool; which the bear no sooner observed than +he threw off all disguise, rushed towards the spot, and followed him in +an instant into the water, where, I fear, he was as much disappointed in +his meal, as we were of the pleasure of witnessing a very interesting +encounter." + +The meat of the walrus is not despised by Europeans, and its heart is +reckoned a delicacy. To the Esquimaux there is no greater treat than a +kettle well filled with walrus-blubber; and to the natives along +Behring's Straits this quadruped is as valuable as is the palm to the +sons of the desert. Their canoes are covered with its skin; their +weapons and sledge-runners, and many useful articles, are formed from +its tusks; their lamps are filled with its oil; and they themselves are +fed with its fat and its fibre. So thick is the skin, that a bayonet is +almost the only weapon which can pierce it. Cut into shreds, it makes +excellent cordage, being especially adapted for wheel-ropes. The tusks +bear a high commercial value, and are extensively employed by dentists +in the manufacture of artificial teeth. The fat of a good-sized specimen +yields thirty gallons of oil.--_A. White, from "Excelsior."_ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[144] "A Tour in Tartan-Land," by Cuthbert Bede. + +[145] "Life," vol. iii. p. 188. + +[146] Vol. viii. pp. 1-16. + +[147] _Trichechus_, from the Greek [Greek: trichas echon], "having +hairs:" _walrus_, the German _wallross_, "whale-horse." + +[148] See Fleming's "British Animals," p. 19. + +[149] Mem. Acad. Imp. Sc. St. Petersb., 1838, p. 232. Professor Owen has +communicated to the Zoological Society the anatomy of the young walrus; +and much valuable information will be found in Dr Gray's "Catalogue of +Mammalia in the British Museum." + + + + +KANGAROOS. + + +What dissertation on the strange outward form, or stranger mode of +reproduction to which this famed member of the _Marsupialia_ belongs, +could contain as much in little space as Charles Lamb's happy +description in his letter to Baron Field, his "distant correspondent" in +New South Wales? When that was written, and for long after, it may be +necessary to tell some, Australia was chiefly known as the land of the +convict. + +"Tell me," writes Elia, "what your Sidneyites do? Are they th-v-ng all +day long? Merciful heaven! what property can stand against such a +depredation? The kangaroos--your aborigines--do they keep their +primitive simplicity un-Europe-tainted, with those little short +forepuds, looking like a lesson framed by nature to the pickpocket! +Marry, for diving into fobs they are rather lamely provided _a priori_; +but if the hue and cry were once up, they would show as fair a pair of +hind-shifters as the expertest locomotor in the colony."[150] + +In one of his letters to another of his favoured correspondents he +alludes to his friend Field having gone to a country where there are so +many thieves that even the kangaroos have to wear their pockets in +front, lest they be picked! + + +KANGAROO COOKE. + +Major-General Henry Frederick Cooke, C.B. and K.C.H., commonly called +Kang-Cooke, was a captain in the Coldstream Guards, and aide-de-camp to +the Duke of York. He was called the kangaroo by his intimate associates. +It is said that this arose from his once having let loose a cageful of +these animals at Pidcock's Menagerie, or from his answer to the Duke of +York, who, inquiring how he fared in the Peninsula, replied that he +"could get nothing to eat but kangaroo."[151] Moore, in his Diary,[152] +December 13, 1820, records that he dined with him and others at Lord +Granard's. Cooke told of Admiral Cotton once (at Lisbon, I think) saying +during dinner, "Make signals for the _Kangaroo_ to get under way;" and +Cooke, who had just been expressing his anxiety to leave Lisbon, thought +the speech alluded to his nickname, and considered it an extraordinary +liberty for one who knew so little of him as Admiral Cotton to take. He +found out afterwards, however, that his namesake was a sloop-of-war. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[150] "Distant Correspondents," in the Essays of Elia, first series ed. +1841, p. 67. + +[151] Jesse's "Life of Beau Brummell," vol. i. p. 288. + +[152] "Memoirs, Correspondence," &c., edited by Lord John Russell, vol. +iii. p. 179. + + + + +THE TIGER-WOLF. + +(_Thylacinus cynocephalus._) + + +The great order, or rather division, of mammalia, the +_Marsupialia_,[153] is furnished with a pouch, into which the young are +received and nourished at a very early period of their existence. The +first species of the group, known to voyagers and naturalists, was the +celebrated opossum of North America, whose instinctive care to defend +itself from danger causes it to feign the appearance of death. As the +great continent of Australia became known, it was found that the great +mass of its mammalia, from the gigantic kangaroo to the pigmy, +mouse-like potoroo, belonged to this singular order. The order contains +a most anomalous set of animals, some being exclusively carnivorous, +some chiefly subsisting on insects, while others browse on grass; and +many live on fruits and leaves, which they climb trees to procure; a +smaller portion subsisting on roots, for which they burrow in the +ground. The gentle and deer-faced kangaroo belongs to this order; the +curious bandicoots, the tree-frequenting phalangers and petauri, the +savage "native devil,"[154] and the voracious subject of this notice. + +The "tiger-wolf" is a native of Van Diemen's Land, and is strictly +confined to that island. It was first described in the ninth volume of +the "Linnean Transactions," under the name of _Didelphis cynocephalus_, +or "dog-headed opossum," the English name being an exact translation of +its Latin one. Its non-prehensile tail, peculiar feet, and different +arrangement of teeth, pointed out to naturalists that it entered into a +genus distinct from the American opossums; and to this genus the name of +_Thylacinus_[155] has been applied; its specific name _cynocephalus_ +being still retained in conformity with zoological nomenclature, +although M. Temminck, the founder of the genus, honoured the species +with the name of its first describer, and called it _Thylacinus +Harrisii_. + +Mr Gould has given a short account of this quadruped in his great work, +"The Mammals of Australia," accompanied with two plates, one showing the +head of the male, of the natural size, in such a point of view as to +exhibit the applicability of one of the names applied to it by the +colonists, that of "zebra-wolf." He justly remarks that it must be +regarded as by far the most formidable of all the marsupial animals, as +it certainly is the most savage indigenous quadruped belonging to the +Australian continent. Although it is too feeble to make a successful +attack on man, it commits great havoc among the smaller quadrupeds of +the country; and to the settler it is a great object of dread, as his +poultry and other domestic animals are never safe from its attacks. His +sheep are, especially, an object of the colonist's anxious care, as he +can house his poultry, and thus secure them from the prowler; but his +flocks, wandering about over the country, are liable to be attacked at +night by the tiger-wolf, whose habits are strictly nocturnal. Mr Gunn +has seen some so large and powerful that a number of dogs would not face +one of them. It has become an object with the settler to destroy every +specimen he can fall in with, so that it is much rarer than it was at +the time Mr Harris, its first describer, wrote its history, at least in +the cultivated districts. Much, however, of Van Diemen's Land is still +in a state of nature, and as large tracts of forest-land remain yet +uncleared, there is abundance of covert for it still in the more remote +parts of the colony, and it is even now often seen at Woolnoth and among +the Hampshire hills. In such places it feeds on the smaller species of +kangaroos and other marsupials,--bandicoots, and kangaroo-rats, while +even the prickle-covered echidna--a much more formidable mouthful than +any hedgehog--supplies the tiger-wolf with a portion of its sustenance. +The specimen described by Mr Harris was caught in a trap baited with the +flesh of the kangaroo. When opened, the remains of a half-digested +echidna[156] were found in its stomach. + +The tiger-wolf has a certain amount of daintiness in its appetite when +in a state of nature. From the observations of Mr Gunn it would seem +that nothing will induce it to prey on the wombat,[157] a fat, sluggish, +marsupial quadruped, abundant in the districts which it frequents, and +whose flesh would seem to be very edible, seeing that it lives on fruits +and roots. No sooner, however, was the sheep introduced than the +tiger-wolf began to attack the flocks, and has ever since shown a most +unmistakable appetite for mutton, preferring the flesh of that most +useful and easily-mastered quadruped to that of any kangaroo however +venison-like, or bandicoot however savoury. The colonists of Van +Diemen's land have applied various names to this animal, according as +its resemblance to other ferocious quadrupeds of different climates +struck their fancy. The names of "tiger," "hyena," and "zebra-wolf," are +partly acquired from its ferocity, somewhat corresponding with that of +these well-known carnivorous denizens of other lands, and partly from +the black bands which commence behind the shoulders, and which extend in +length on the haunches, and resemble in some faint measure those on the +barred tyrant of the Indian jungles, and the other somewhat similarly +ornamented mammalia implied in the names. These bars are well relieved +by the general grayish-brown colour of the fur, which is somewhat woolly +in its texture, from each of the hairs of which it is composed being +waved. + +The specimens in the Zoological Gardens are very shy and restless; when +alarmed they dash and leap about their dens and utter a short guttural +cry somewhat resembling a bark. This shyness is partly to be attributed +to their imperfect vision by day, and partly to their resemblance in +character to the wolf, whose treachery and suspicious manners in +confinement must have struck every one who has gazed on this "gaunt +savage" in his den in the Regent's Park. The specimens exhibited are the +first living members of the species first brought to Europe. The male +was taken in November 1849, and the female at an earlier period in the +same year, on the upper part of St Patrick's River, about thirty miles +north-east of Launceston. After being gradually accustomed to +confinement by Mr Gunn, they were shipped for this country, and reached +the Gardens in the spring of 1850. It is very seldom, indeed, that they +are caught alive; and when so caught they are generally at once killed, +so that it was with some difficulty and by offering a considerable +pecuniary inducement to the shepherds, that they were at last secured +for the Zoological Society.[158] In their den they show great activity, +and can bound upwards nearly to the roof of the place where they are +confined.--_A. White, from "Excelsior."_ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[153] So called from the Latin word _marsupium_, a pouch. + +[154] _Diabolus ursinus_, the ursine opossum of Van Diemen's Land, a +great destroyer of young lambs. + +[155] From the Greek words for a pouch and a dog, [Greek: thylakos] and +[Greek: kuon]. Dr Gray had previously named it _Peracyon_, from [Greek: +pera], a bag, and [Greek: kuon], a dog. + +[156] _Echidna aculeata_, or _E. hystrix_, the porcupine ant-eater, a +curious edentate, spine-covered quadruped, closely allied to the still +stranger _Ornithorhynchus_, the duck-bill. + +[157] _Phascolomys Vombatus,_ a curious, broad-backed, and large-headed +marsupial, two specimens of which are in the Zoological Gardens. It is a +burrower, and in the teeth it resembles the rodent animals; hence its +name, from [Greek: phaskolon], a pouch, and [Greek: mus], a mouse. + + + + +SQUIRREL: ARCTIC LEMMING. + + +The one with its long plume-like tail, organised for a life among trees, +the other with its home in the arctic regions, belong to an order not +generally distinguished for intelligence, although, the beaver, once +reputed a miracle of mind, belongs to it. The glirine or rodent animals +are generally of small or moderate size, though some, like the +water-loving capybara, are of considerable dimensions. + +The squirrel is a fine subject for a painter. There is a picture by Sir +Edwin Landseer, of a squirrel and bullfinch. On an engraving of it, +published in 1865, is inscribed "a pair of nut-crackers,"--a happy +title, and very apposite. + +Jekyll saw in Colman's chambers a squirrel in the usual round cage. "Ah! +poor devil," said Jekyll, "he's going the _home circuit_."[159] + +If you come upon a squirrel on the ground, he is not long in getting to +the topmost branch of the highest tree, so perfectly is he adapted for +"rising" at a "bar"! + + +PETS OF SOME OF THE REVOLUTIONARY BUTCHERS. A SQUIRREL. + +Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart., in his novel, "Zanoni,"[160] pictures +Citizen Couthon fondling a little spaniel "that he invariably carried in +his bosom, even to the Convention, as a vent for the exuberant +sensibilities which overflowed his affectionate heart." + +In a note the novelist remarks-- + +"This tenderness for some pet animal was by no means peculiar to +Couthon; it seems rather a common fashion with the gentle butchers of +the Revolution. M. George Duval informs us ('Souvenirs de la Terreur,' +iii. p. 183), that Chaumette had an aviary, to which he devoted his +harmless leisure; the murderous Fournier carried, on his shoulders, a +pretty little squirrel attached by a silver chain; Panis bestowed the +superfluity of his affections upon two gold pheasants; and Marat, who +would not abate one of the three hundred thousand heads he demanded, +_reared doves_! Apropos of the spaniel of Couthon, Duval gives us a +characteristic anecdote of Sergent, not one of the least relentless +agents of the massacre of September. A lady came to implore his +protection for one of her relations confined in the Abbaye. He scarcely +deigned to speak to her. As she retired in despair, she trod by accident +on the paw of his favourite spaniel. Sergent, turning round, enraged and +furious, exclaimed, '_Madam, have you no humanity?_'" + + +ARCTIC VOYAGER AND THE LEMMING. + +Captain Back, on his arctic land expedition, when returning in September +1835, encountered a severe gale, which forced them to land their boat, +and as the water rose they had three times to haul it higher on the +bank. He introduces an affecting little incident: "So completely cold +and drenched was everything outside, that a poor little lemming, unable +to contend with the floods, which had driven it successively from all +its retreats, crept silently under the tent, and snuggled away in +precarious security within a few paces of a sleeping terrier. +Unconscious of its danger, it licked its fur coat, and darted its bright +eyes from object to object, as if pleased and surprised with its new +quarters; but soon the pricked ears of the awakened dog announced its +fate, and in another instant the poor little stranger was quivering in +his jaws!"[161] + + * * * * * + +Mr McDougall?][162] records several amusing anecdotes of the little +arctic lemming, named _Arctomys Spermophilus Parryi_, after the great +arctic voyager. He says,--"My own experience of those industrious little +warriors tended to prove that they possessed a strange combination of +sociality and combativeness. Industrious they most certainly are, as is +shown by the complicated excavation of their subterranean cities; +besides which, every feather and hair of bird and animal found in the +vicinity of their dwellings, is made to contribute its iota of warmth +and comfort to the interior of their winter quarters. + +"I had," continues the master of the _Resolute_, "many opportunities of +watching their movements during my detention at Winter Harbour. My tent +happened to be pitched immediately over one of their large towns, +causing its inhabitants to issue forth from its thousand gates to catch +a view of the strangers. Frequently on waking we have found the little +animals, rolled up in a ball, snugly ensconced within the folds of our +blanket-bags; nor would they be expelled from such a warm and desirable +position without showing fight. On several occasions I observed Naps, +the dog, fast asleep with one or two lemmings huddled away between its +legs, like so many pups." + +He says that Lieutenant Mecham noticed an Esquimaux dog, named Buffer, +trudging along, nose to the ground, quite unconscious of danger, when a +lemming, suddenly starting from its cavern, seized poor Buffer by the +nose, inflicting a severe wound. The dog, astounded at such an +unsuspected assault, gave a dismal howl, and at length shook the enemy +off, after which he became the attacking party, and in less than a +minute the presumptuous assailant disappeared between the jaws of the +Tartar he had attempted to catch. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[158] Mitchell's "Popular Guide to the Zoological Gardens," p. 9. +(1852.) + +[159] Mark Lemon's "Jest Book," p. 180. + +[160] Ed. 1845, p. 339. + +[161] P. 441. Sir John Richardson told me that the species was +_Spermophilus Parryi_. + +[162] The Eventful Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ship _Resolute_ to the +Arctic Regions, in Search of Sir John Franklin, in 1852-3-4, pp. 314, +315. + + + + +RATS AND MICE. + + +Why should we not, like Grainger, begin this section as the writer of +"The Sugar-Cane" does one of his paragraphs-- + + "Come muse! let's sing of rats." + +The "restless rottens" and mice need little introduction. They are a +most fertile race, and some species of them seem only to be in human +habitations. They are terrible nuisances, and yet rat-skins are said to +be manufactured in Paris into gloves. + +Sydney Smith's comparison of some one dying like a poisoned rat in a +ditch is a powerful one. The same writer, in hunting down an unworthy +man, with his cutting criticism, says, that he did it not on account of +his power, but to put down what might prove noisome if not settled, much +as a Dutch burgomaster might hunt a rat, not for its value, but because +by its boring it might cause the water to break through his dikes, and +thus flood his native land. + +Robert Browning, in one of his poems, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin," has +powerfully described an incursion of rats. A few lines may be quoted:-- + + "Almost five hundred years ago, + To see the townsfolk suffer so + From vermin, was a pity. + "Rats! + They fought the dogs and killed the cats, + And bit the babies in their cradles, + And ate the cheeses out of the vats, + And licked the soup from the cook's own ladles, + Split open the kegs of salted sprats, + Made nests inside men's Sunday hats, + And even spoiled the women's chats, + By drowning their speaking + With shrieking and squeaking + In fifty different sharps and flats. + + * * * * * + + "And ere three shrill notes the pipes had uttered, + You heard as if an army muttered; + And the muttering grew to a grumbling; + And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling; + And out of the houses the rats came tumbling-- + Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats, + Brown rats, black rats, grey rats, tawny rats; + Grave old plodders, gay young friskers, + Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins, + Cocking tails, and pricking whiskers, + Families by tens and dozens, + Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives-- + Followed the Piper for their lives. + From street to street he piped, advancing, + And step for step they followed dancing, + Until they came to the river Weser + Wherein all plunged and perished, + Save one." + + +THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON AND THE MUSK-RAT. + +Mr Taylor, in his notes to the artist Haydon's Autobiography, tells us +that a favourite expression of the Duke of Wellington, when people tried +to coax him to do what he had resolved not to do, was, "The rat has got +into the bottle." This not very intelligible expression may refer to an +anecdote I have heard of the Duke's once telling, in his later days, how +the musk-rats in India got into bottles, which ever after retained the +odour of musk. "Either the rats must be very small," said a lady who +heard him, "or the bottles very large." "On the contrary, madam," was +the Duke's reply, "very small bottles and very large rats." "That is the +style of logic we have to deal with at the Horse Guards," whispered Lord +----. + + +LADY EGLINTOUN AND THE RATS. + +Mr Robert Chambers, in his "Traditions of Edinburgh" (p. 191), gives an +interesting account of the elegant Susanna, Countess of Eglintoun, who +was in her eighty-fifth year when Johnson and Boswell visited her. She +died in 1780, at the age of ninety-one, having preserved to the last her +stately mien and fine complexion. She is said to have washed her face +periodically with sow's milk. + +"This venerable woman amused herself latterly in taming and patronising +rats. She kept a vast number of these animals in her pay at Auchans, and +they succeeded in her affections the poets and artists she had loved in +early life. It does not reflect much credit upon the latter, that her +ladyship used to complain of never having met with true gratitude +except from four-footed animals. She had a panel in the oak wainscot of +her dining-room, which she tapped upon and opened at meal times, when +ten or twelve jolly rats came tripping forth, and joined her at table. +At the word of command or a signal from her ladyship, they retired again +to their native obscurity--a trait of good sense in the character and +habits of the animals which, it is hardly necessary to remark, patrons +do not always find in two-legged _proteges_." + + +GENERAL DOUGLAS AND THE RATS. + +The biographer of this highly-distinguished military engineer-officer +relates an anecdote of him when a lieutenant at Tynemouth. The future +author of well-known works on Gunnery and Military Bridges, early began +to show ability in mechanics. "Lieutenant Douglas occupied a room barely +habitable, and had to contest the tenancy with rats, which asserted +their claim with such tenacity, that he went to sleep at the risk of +being devoured. Their incursions compelled him to furnish himself with +loaded pistols and a tinder-box, and he kept watch one night, remaining +quiet till there was an irruption, when he started up and struck a +light. But his vigilance proved of no avail, for the clink of the flint +and steel caused a stampede, and not a rat remained by the time he had +kindled the tinder. Their flight suggested to him another device. He +looked out all the holes, and covered them with slides, connected with +each other by wires, and these he fastened to a string, which enabled +him to draw them all with one pull, and thus close the outlets. The +contrivance claims to be mentioned as his first success in mechanics, +foreshadowing his future expertness. It came into use the same night: he +pulled the string without rising from bed, then struck a light, while +the rats flew off to the holes to find them blocked, and he shot them at +leisure. Two or three such massacres cleared off the intruders, and left +him undisturbed in his quarters."[163] + + +HANOVER RATS. + +How amusingly does Mr Waterton show his attachment to the extinct +Stuarts in his essays. Go where he may, "a Hanover rat" pops up before +him. In his charming autobiography appended to the three series of his +graphic essays, whether he be in Rome or Cologne, in York or London, at +a farm-house, or on board a steamer on the Rhine, "a Hanover rat" is +sure to be encountered. We could cite many amusing illustrations. + +Earl Stanhope[164] speaks of the Jacobites after the death of Anne +reviling all adherents of the court as "a parcel of Roundheads and +Hanover rats." This is the phrase used by Squire Western in Fielding's +novel of "Tom Jones." He tells us that the former of these titles was +the by-word first applied to the Calvinistic preachers in the civil +wars, from the close cropped hair which they affected as distinguished +from the flowing curls of the cavaliers. The second phrase was of far +more recent origin. It so chanced that not long after the accession of +the House of Hanover, some of the brown, that is, the German or Norway +rats, were first brought over to this country in some timber, as is +said; and being much stronger than the black, or till then, the common +rats, they in many places quite extirpated the latter. The word, both +the noun and the verb "to rat," was first levelled at the converts to +the government of George the First, but has by degrees obtained a wider +meaning, and come to be applied to any sudden and mercenary change in +politics. The ravages of rats might form the subject of a curious +volume. They are not at all literary in their tastes, though they are +known to eat through bales of books, should they be placed in the way of +their runs. The booksellers in the Row always leave room between the +wall and the books in their cellars, to allow room for this predacious +vermin. + +Mr Cole, when examined before the Committee of the House on the +condition of the depositories of the Records some time ago, stated that +"six or seven perfect skeletons of rats were found imbedded (in the +Rolls); bones of these vermin were generally distributed throughout the +mass, and a dog was employed in hunting the live ones." + + +IRISHMAN EMPLOYED SHOOTING RATS. + +Luttrell visited Sydney Smith at his parsonage in Somersetshire. The +London wit told some amusing Irish stories, and his manner of telling +them was so good. "One: 'Is your master at home, Paddy?' '_No_, your +honour.' 'Why, I saw him go in five minutes ago.' 'Faith, your honour, +he's not exactly at home; he's only there in the back yard a-shooting +rats with cannon, your honour, for his _devarsion_.'"[165] + + +JAMES WATT AND THE RAT'S WHISKERS. + +Mrs Schimmelpenninck in her youth lived at Birmingham, where she often +met James Watt. In her autobiography (p. 34), she says, "Everybody +practically knew the infinite variety of his talents and stores of +knowledge. When Mr Watt entered a room, men of letters, men of science, +nay, military men, artists, ladies, even little children thronged round +him. I remember a celebrated Swedish artist having been instructed by +him that rats' whiskers made the most pliant and elastic painting-brush; +ladies would appeal to him on the best means of devising grates, curing +smoky chimneys, warming their houses, and obtaining fast colours. I can +speak from experience of his teaching me how to make a dulcimer, and +improve a Jew's harp." + + +THE POET GRAY COMPARES THE POET-LAUREATE TO A RAT-CATCHER. + +The poet Gray very much despised such offices as that of the +poet-laureate, or that held by Elkanah Settle, the last of the city +poets whose name is held up to ridicule by Pope in the "Dunciad." In a +letter to the Rev. Wm. Mason,[166] he puts this very strikingly:-- + +"Though I very well know the bland emolient saponaceous qualities both +of sack and silver, yet if any great man would say to me, 'I make you +rat-catcher to his Majesty, with a salary of L300 a year, and two butts +of the best Malaga; and though it has been usual to catch a mouse or +two, for form's sake, in public once a year, yet to you, sir, we shall +not stand upon these things,' I cannot say I should jump at it; nay, if +they would drop the very name of the office, and call me Sinecure to the +King's Majesty, I should still feel a little awkward, and think +everybody I saw smelt a rat about me: but I do not pretend to blame any +one else that has not the same sensations. For my part, I would rather +be serjeant-trumpeter or pinmaker to the palace." + + +JEREMY BENTHAM AND THE MICE. + +The biographer of Jeremy Bentham[167] tells us that among the animals he +was fond of were mice. They were encouraged "to play" about in his +workshop. I remember, when one got among his papers, that he exclaimed, +"Ho! ho! here's a mouse at work; why won't he come into my lap?--but +then I ought to be writing legislation, and that would not do." + +One day, while we were at dinner, mice had got, as they frequently did, +into the drawers of the dinner-table, and were making no small noise. "O +you rascals," exclaimed Bentham, "there's an uproar among you. I'll tell +puss of you;" and then added, "I became once very intimate with a +colony of mice. They used to run up my legs, and eat crumbs from my lap. +I love everything that has four legs; so did George Wilson. We were fond +of mice, and fond of cats; but it was difficult to reconcile the two +affections." + +Jeremy Bentham records: "George Wilson had a disorder which kept him two +months to his couch. The _mouses_ used to run up his back and eat the +powder and pomatum from his hair. They used also to run up my knees when +I went to see him. I remember they did so to Lord Glenbervie, who +thought it odd."[168] + + +BURNS AND THE FIELD MOUSE. + +The history of the origin of this well-known piece of the Scottish poet +is thus given by Mr Chambers in that edition of the Life and Works of +Robert Burns,[169] which will ever be regarded, by Scotchmen at least, +as the most complete and carefully-edited of the numerous editions of +that most popular poet. + +"We have the testimony of Gilbert Burns that this beautiful poem was +composed while the author was following the plough. Burns ploughed with +four horses, being twice the amount of power now required on most of the +soils of Scotland. He required an assistant, called a _gaudsman_, to +drive the horses, his own duty being to hold and guide the plough. John +Blane, who had acted as gaudsman to Burns, and who lived sixty years +afterwards, had a distinct recollection of the turning-up of the mouse. +Like a thoughtless youth as he was, he ran after the creature to kill +it, but was checked and recalled by his master, who, he observed, became +thereafter thoughtful and abstracted. Burns, who treated his servants +with the familiarity of fellow-labourers, soon after read the poem to +Blane. + + +TO A MOUSE, ON TURNING UP HER NEST WITH THE PLOUGH, NOVEMBER 1785. + + "Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie, + Oh, what a panic's in thy breastie! + Thou needna start awa sae hasty + Wi' bickering brattle! + I wad be laith to rin and chase thee + Wi' murd'ring pattle.[170] + + "I'm truly sorry man's dominion + Has broken nature's social union, + And justifies that ill opinion, + Which makes thee startle + At me, thy poor earth-born companion, + And fellow-mortal! + + "I doubt na whyles, but thou may thieve; + What then? poor beastie, thou maun live! + A daimen icker in a thrave[171] + 'S a sma' request: + I'll get a blessin' wi' the laive, + And never miss't. + + "Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin! + Its silly wa's the win's are strewin"! + And naething now to big a new ane + O, foggage green, + And bleak December's winds ensuin' + Baith snell and keen! + + "Thou saw the fields laid bare and waste, + And weary winter coming fast, + And cozie here, beneath the blast, + Thou thought to dwell, + Till crash! the cruel coulter passed + Out through thy cell. + + "That wee bit heap o' leaves and stibble, + Has cost thee mony a weary nibble! + Now thou's turned out for a' thy trouble, + But house or hald, + To thole the winter's sleety dribble, + And cranreuch cauld! + + "But, mousie, thou art no thy lane; + Improving foresight may be vain; + The best-laid schemes o' mice and men + Gang aft a-gley, + And lea'e us nought but grief and pain + For promised joy. + + "Still thou art blest, compared wi' me! + The present only toucheth thee; + But, och! I backward cast my e'e, + On prospects drear! + And forward, though I canna see, + I guess and fear." + +It was on the farm of Mossgiel, in the parish of Mauchline, where he +resided nearly nine years, that the occurrence took place so +pathetically recorded and gloriously commented on in this piece. + + +DESTRUCTIVE FIELD MICE. + +Thomas Fuller, in "The Farewell" to his description of the "Worthies of +Essex," says, "I wish the sad casualties may never return which lately +have happened in this county; the one, 1581, in the Hundred of Dengy, +the other, 1648, in the Hundred of Rochford and Isle of Foulness (rented +in part by two of my credible parishioners, who attested it, having paid +dear for the truth thereof); when an army of mice, nesting in ant-hills, +as conies in burrows, shaved off the grass at the bare roots, which, +withering to dung, was infectious to cattle. The March following, +numberless flocks of owls from all parts flew thither, and destroyed +them, which otherwise had ruined the country, if continuing another +year. Thus, though great the distance betwixt a man and a mouse, the +meanest may become formidable to the mightiest creature by their +multitudes; and this may render the punishment of the Philistines more +clearly to our apprehensions, at the same time pestered with mice in +their barns and pained with emerods in their bodies."[172] + + +THE BARON VON TRENCK AND THE TAME MOUSE IN PRISON. + +The unfortunate Baron Von Trenck was a Prussian officer, whose +adventures, imprisonments, and escape form the subject of memoirs which +he wrote in Hungary. He at last settled in France, and there, in 1794, +perished by the guillotine. + +Before he obtained his liberty, he lost a companion which had for two +years helped to beguile the solitude of his captivity. This was a mouse, +which he had tamed so perfectly, that the little creature was +continually playing with him, and would eat out of his mouth. "One night +it skipped about so much that the sentinels heard a noise and reported +it to the officer of the guard. As the garrison had been changed at the +peace (between Austria and Prussia), and as Trenck had not been able to +form at once so close a connexion with the officers of the regular +troops as he had done with those of the militia, one of the former, +after ascertaining the truth of the report with his own ears, sent to +inform the commandant that something extraordinary was going on in the +prison. The town-major arrived in consequence early in the morning, +accompanied by locksmiths and masons. The floor, the walls, the baron's +chains, his body, everything in short, were strictly examined. Finding +all in order, they asked the cause of the last evening's bustle. Trenck +had heard the mouse, and told them frankly by what it had been +occasioned. They desired him to call his little favourite; he whistled, +and the mouse immediately leaped upon his shoulder. He solicited that +its life might be spared; but the officer of the guard took it into his +possession, promising, however, on his word of honour, to give it to a +lady who would take great care of it. Turning it afterwards loose in his +chamber, the mouse, who knew nobody but Trenck, soon disappeared, and +hid himself in a hole. At the usual hour of visiting his prison, when +the officers were just going away, the poor little animal darted in, +climbed up his legs, seated itself on his shoulder, and played a +thousand tricks to express the joy it felt on seeing him again. Every +one was astonished, and wished to have it. The major, to terminate the +dispute, carried it away, gave it to his wife, who had a light cage made +for it; but the mouse refused to eat, and a few days after was found +dead."[173] + + +ALEXANDER WILSON AND THE MOUSE. + +About the time when Alexander Wilson formed the design of drawing the +American birds, and writing those descriptions which, when published, +gave him that name which has clung to him, "_the American +Ornithologist_" he had a school within a few miles of Philadelphia. He +was then a keen student of the animal life around him. In 1802 he wrote +to his friend Bertram, and tells him of his having had "live crows, +hawks, and owls; opossums, squirrels, snakes, lizards," &c. He tells him +that his room sometimes reminded him of Noah's ark, and comically adds, +"but Noah had a wife in one corner of it, and in this particular our +parallel does not altogether tally. I receive every subject of natural +history that is brought to me; and, though they do not march into my ark +from all quarters, as they did into that of our great ancestor, yet I +find means, by the distribution of a few fivepenny _bits_, to make them +find the way fast enough. A boy, not long ago, brought me a large +basketful of crows. I expect his next load will be bull-frogs, if I +don't soon issue orders to the contrary. One of my boys caught a mouse +in school a few days ago, and directly marched up to me with his +prisoner. I set about drawing it the same evening, and all the while the +pantings of its little heart showed it to be in the most extreme agonies +of fear. I had intended to kill it, in order to fix it in the claws of a +stuffed owl; but, happening to spill a few drops of water near where it +was tied, it lapped it up with such eagerness, and looked in my face +with such an eye of supplicating terror, as perfectly overcame me. I +immediately restored it to life and liberty. The agonies of a prisoner +at the stake, while the fire and instruments of torture are preparing, +could not be more severe than the sufferings of that poor mouse; and, +insignificant as the object was, I felt at that moment the sweet +sensation that mercy leaves in the mind when she triumphs over +cruelty."[174] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[163] "The Life of General Sir Howard Douglas, Bart., G.C.B., F.R.S., +D.C.L., from his Notes, Conversations, and Correspondence," by S. W. +Fullom. 1863. P. 28. + +[164] "History of England, from the Peace of Utrecht," by Lord Mahon, +vol. vii. p. 465. + +[165] Life of Sydney Smith, by his daughter, Lady Holland, vol. i. 374. + +[166] "Correspondence of Thomas Gray and Mason, edited from the +originals," by the Rev. John Mitford, p. 112. + +[167] Dr Bowring's "Life of Jeremy Bentham," Works, vol. xi. p. 80, 81. + +[168] "Bowring's Life," vol. x., Works, p. 186. + +[169] By Robert Chambers, Edinburgh, 1851, 4 vols., vol. i., p. 146. + +[170] The stick used for clearing away the clods from the plough. + +[171] An occasional ear of corn in a thrave,--that is, twenty-four +sheaves. + +[172] "Worthies of England," vol. i. p. 545. + +[173] "Wilson's Life," p. 28. + + + + +HARES, RABBITS, GUINEA-PIG. + + +All gnawing creatures, belonging to the Glirine or Rodentia order. +Charles Lamb has written on the hare, in one view of that +finely-flavoured beast, as only Elia could write. But the poet Cowper +has made the hare's history peculiarly pleasing and familiar. How often +in his letters he alludes to his hares! Mrs E. B. Browning, in her +exquisitely delicate and pathetic poem, "Cowper's Grave," thus alludes +to Cowper's pets-- + + "Wild, timid hares were drawn from woods to share his home caresses, + Uplooking to his human eyes with sylvan tendernesses; + The very world, by God's constraint, from falsehood's ways removing, + Its women and its men became, beside him, true and loving." + +Not many years ago the compiler saw traces of the holes the poet had cut +in the skirting-boards of the room for their ingress and egress, that +they might have ampler room for wandering. His epitaphs on two of them +are often quoted. Rabbits are peculiarly the pets of boys, and though, +when wild, often great vermin, from their destructive habits and their +mining operations, are yet said to contribute much to the revenue of one +European monarch. + +How Mr Malthus ought to have hated guinea-pigs, those fertile little +lumps of blotched fur! Few creatures can be more productive. + + +WILLIAM COWPER ON HIS HARES. + +What a model description of the habits of an animal we have in the +gentle Cowper's account of his hares! Would that he had made pets of +other animals, and written descriptions of them, like that which +follows, and which is here copied from the original place to which he +contributed it.[175] + + "_May_ 28. + +"MR URBAN,--Convinced that you despise no communications that may +gratify curiosity, amuse rationally, or add, though but a little, to the +stock of public knowledge, I send you a circumstantial account of an +animal, which, though its general properties are pretty well known, is +for the most part such a stranger to man, that we are but little aware +of its peculiarities. We know indeed that the hare is good to hunt and +good to eat; but in all other respects poor Puss is a neglected subject. +In the year 1774, being much indisposed, both in mind and body, +incapable of diverting myself either with company or books, and yet in +a condition that made some diversion necessary, I was glad of anything +that would engage my attention without fatiguing it. The children of a +neighbour of mine had a leveret given them for a plaything; it was at +that time about three months old. Understanding better how to tease the +poor creature than to feed it, and soon becoming weary of their charge, +they readily consented that their father, who saw it pining and growing +leaner every day, should offer it to my acceptance. I was willing enough +to take the prisoner under my protection, perceiving that in the +management of such an animal, and in the attempt to tame it, I should +find just that sort of employment which my case required. It was soon +known among the neighbours that I was pleased with the present; and the +consequence was, that in a short time, I had as many leverets offered to +me as would have stocked a paddock. I undertook the care of three, which +it is necessary that I should here distinguish by the names I gave +them--Puss, Tiney, and Bess. Notwithstanding the two feminine +appellatives, I must inform you that they were all males. Immediately +commencing carpenter, I built them houses to sleep in. Each had a +separate apartment, so contrived that their ordure would pass through +the bottom of it; an earthen pan placed under each received whatsoever +fell, which being duly emptied and washed, they were thus kept perfectly +sweet and clean. In the daytime they had the range of a hall, and at +night retired each to his own bed, never intruding into that of another. + +"Puss grew presently familiar, would leap into my lap, raise himself +upon his hinder feet, and bite the hair from my temples. He would suffer +me to take him up, and to carry him about in my arms, and has more than +once fallen fast asleep upon my knee. He was ill three days, during +which time I nursed him, kept him apart from his fellows that they might +not molest him (for, like many other wild animals, they persecute one of +their own species that is sick), and by constant care, and trying him +with a variety of herbs, restored him to perfect health. No creature +could be more grateful than my patient after his recovery,--a sentiment +which he most significantly expressed by licking my hand, first the back +of it, then the palm, then every finger separately; then between all the +fingers, as if anxious to leave no part of it unsaluted,--a ceremony +which he never performed but once again upon a similar occasion. Finding +him extremely tractable, I made it my custom to carry him always after +breakfast into the garden, where he hid himself generally under the +leaves of a cucumber vine, sleeping or chewing the cud till evening; in +the leaves also of that vine he found a favourite repast. I had not long +habituated him to this taste of liberty, before he began to be impatient +for the return of the time when he might enjoy it. He would invite me to +the garden by drumming upon my knee, and by a look of such expression as +it was not possible to misinterpret. If this rhetoric did not +immediately succeed, he would take the skirt of my coat between his +teeth, and pull at it with all his force. Thus Puss might be said to be +perfectly tamed; the shyness of his nature was done away, and on the +whole it was visible, by many symptoms which I have not room to +enumerate, that he was happier in human society than when shut up with +his natural companions. + +"Not so Tiney. Upon him the kindest treatment had not the least effect. +He, too, was sick, and in his sickness, had an equal share of my +attention; but if, after his recovery, I took the liberty to stroke him, +he would grunt, strike with his fore-feet, spring forward, and bite. He +was, however, very entertaining in his way, even his surliness was +matter of mirth, and in his play he preserved such an air of gravity, +and performed his feats with such a solemnity of manner, that in him, +too, I had an agreeable companion. + +"Bess, who died soon after he was full grown, and whose death was +occasioned by his being turned into his box, which had been washed, +while it was yet damp, was a hare of great humour and drollery. Puss was +tamed by gentle usage; Tiney was not to be tamed at all; and Bess had a +courage and confidence that made him tame from the beginning. I always +admitted them into the parlour after supper, where the carpet affording +their feet a firm hold, they would frisk, and bound, and play a thousand +gambols, in which Bess, being remarkably strong and fearless, was always +superior to the rest, and proved himself the Vestris of the party. One +evening, the cat, being in the room, had the hardiness to pat Bess upon +the cheek, an indignity which he resented by drumming upon her back with +such violence, that the cat was happy to escape from under his paws and +hide herself. + +"You observe, sir, that I describe these animals as having each a +character of his own. Such they were in fact, and their countenances +were so expressive of that character, that, when I looked only on the +face of either, I immediately knew which it was. It is said that a +shepherd, however numerous his flock, soon becomes so familiar with +their features, that he can by that indication only distinguish each +from all the rest, and yet to a common observer the difference is hardly +perceptible. I doubt not that the same discrimination in the cast of +countenances would be discoverable in hares, and am persuaded that among +a thousand of them no two could be found exactly similar; a circumstance +little suspected by those who have not had opportunity to observe it. +These creatures have a singular sagacity in discovering the minutest +alteration that is made in the place to which they are accustomed, and +instantly apply their nose to the examination of a new object. A small +hole being burnt in the carpet, it was mended with a patch, and that +patch in a moment underwent the strictest scrutiny. They seem, too, to +be very much directed by the smell in the choice of their favourites; to +some persons, though they saw them daily, they could never be +reconciled, and would even scream when they attempted to touch them; but +a miller coming in, engaged their affections at once--his powdered coat +had charms that were irresistible. You will not wonder, sir, that my +intimate acquaintance with these specimens of the kind has taught me to +hold the sportsman's amusement in abhorrence. He little knows what +amiable creatures he persecutes, of what gratitude they are capable, how +cheerful they are in their spirits, what enjoyment they have of life, +and that, impressed as they seem with a peculiar dread of man, it is +only because man gives them peculiar cause for it. + +"That I may not be tedious, I will just give you a short summary of +those articles of diet that suit them best, and then retire to make +room for some more important correspondent. + +"I take it to be a general opinion that they graze, but it is an +erroneous one, at least grass is not their staple; they seem rather to +use it medicinally, soon quitting it for leaves of almost any kind. +Sowthistle, dent-de-lion, and lettuce are their favourite vegetables, +especially the last. I discovered, by accident, that fine white sand is +in great estimation with them, I suppose as a digestive. It happened +that I was cleaning a bird cage while the hares were with me; I placed a +pot filled with such sand upon the floor, to which being at once +directed by a strong instinct, they devoured it voraciously; since that +time I have generally taken care to see them well supplied with it. They +account green corn a delicacy, both blade and stalk, but the ear they +seldom eat; straw of any kind, especially wheat-straw, is another of +their dainties; they will feed greedily upon oats, but if furnished with +clean straw, never want them; it serves them also for a bed, and, if +shaken up daily, will be kept sweet and dry for a considerable time. +They do not indeed require aromatic herbs, but will eat a small quantity +of them with great relish, and are particularly fond of the plant called +musk; they seem to resemble sheep in this, that if their pastures be too +succulent, they are very subject to the rot; to prevent which, I always +made bread their principal nourishment; and, filling a pan with it cut +into small squares, placed it every evening in their chambers, for they +feed only at evening and in the night; during the winter, when +vegetables are not to be got, I mingled this mess of bread with shreds +of carrot, adding to it the rind of apples cut extremely thin; for, +though they are fond of the paring, the apple itself disgusts them. +These, however, not being a sufficient substitute for the juice of +summer herbs, they must at this time be supplied with water; but so +placed that they cannot overset it into their beds. I must not omit, +that occasionally they are much pleased with twigs of hawthorn and of +the common briar, eating even the very wood when it is of considerable +thickness. + +"Bess, I have said, died young; Tiney lived to be nine years old, and +died at last, I have reason to think, of some hurt in his loins by a +fall. Puss is still living, and has just completed his tenth year, +discovering no signs of decay nor even of age, except that he is grown +more discreet and less frolicsome than he was. I cannot conclude, sir, +without informing you that I have lately introduced a dog to his +acquaintance, a spaniel that had never seen a hare, to a hare that had +never seen a spaniel. I did it with great caution, but there was no real +need of it. Puss discovered no token of fear, nor Marquis the least +symptom of hostility. There is, therefore, it should seem, no natural +antipathy between dog and hare, but the pursuit of the one occasions the +flight of the other, and the dog pursues because he is trained to it; +they eat bread at the same time out of the same hand, and are in all +respects sociable and friendly.--Yours &c., + + W. C. + +"_P.S._--I should not do complete justice to my subject, did I not add, +that they have no ill scent belonging to them, that they are +indefatigably nice in keeping themselves clean, for which purpose nature +has furnished them with a brush under each foot; and that they are never +infested by any vermin." + +Our readers know his fine verses or epitaphs on his hares. We may quote +from the biographer to whom Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington +left all their papers and memoirs, a sentence or two on Cowper's hares, +and on the other pets of that lovable man. Earl Stanhope[176] says of +this poet and "best letter-writer in the English language--"Such, +indeed, were his powers of description and felicity of language, that +even the most trivial objects drew life and colour from his touch. In +his pages, the training of three tame hares, or the building of a frame +for cucumbers, excite a warmer interest than many accounts compiled by +other writers, of great battles deciding the fate of empires. In his +pages, the sluggish waters of the Ouse,--the floating lilies which he +stooped to gather from them,--the poplars, in whose shade he sat, and +over whose fall he mourned, rise before us as though we had known and +loved them too. As Cowper himself declares, 'My descriptions are all +from nature, not one of them second-handed; my delineations of the heart +are from my own experience, not one of them borrowed from books.'" + + +HAIRS OR HARES! + +A gentleman on circuit, narrating to Lord Norbury some extravagant feat +in sporting, mentioned that he had lately shot thirty-three hares before +breakfast. "Thirty-three _hairs_!" exclaimed Lord Norbury; "zounds, sir! +then you must have been firing at a _wig_."[177] + +Sportsmen are very apt to exaggerate. They did so at least in Horace's +days. We have heard of a man of rank, who actually made a gamekeeper, +who was a first-rate marksman, fire whenever he discharged his piece. +The story goes, that _that_ man was regarded as having shot everything +that fell. + +The Duke of L.'s reply, when it was observed to him that the gentlemen +bordering on his estates were continually hunting upon them, and that he +ought not to suffer it, is worthy of imitation. "I had much rather," +said he, "have _friends_ than hares."[178] + +The time must be coming, when every farmer or peasant will be allowed to +shoot hares. It is surely cruel to imprison or fine a man for shooting +and shouldering a hare. Having lately traversed a goodly part of the +Perthshire Highlands, we were struck with the numbers of Arctic hares +that scudded away out of our path. What a fine help one of them would be +to a poor family. + + +S. BISSET AND HIS TRAINED HARE AND TURTLE. + +S. Bisset, whose training of other animals is elsewhere recorded, like +the poet Cowper, procured a leveret, and reared it to beat several +marches on the drum with its hind legs, until it became a good stout +hare. This creature, which is always set down as the most timid, he +declared to be as mischievous and bold an animal, to the extent of its +power, as any with which he was acquainted. He taught canary-birds, +linnets, and sparrows, to spell the name of any person in company, to +distinguish the hour and minute of time, and play many other surprising +tricks. He trained six turkey-cocks to go through a regular country +dance; but in doing this he confessed he adopted the eastern method, by +which camels are made to dance, by heating the floor. In the course of +six months' teaching, he made a turtle fetch and carry like a dog; and +having chalked the floor, and blackened its claws, could direct it to +trace out any given name of the company.[179] + + +A FAMILY OF RABBITS ALL BLIND OF ONE EYE. + +Lady Anne Barnard, in her Cape Journal,[180] referring to Dessin or +Rabbit Island at the Cape of Good Hope, says that it is "dreadfully +exposed to the south-east winds. A gentleman told me of a natural +phenomenon he had met with when shooting there; his dog pointed at a +rabbit's hole, where the company within were placed so near the opening +that he could see Mynheer, Madame, and the whole rabbit family. Pompey, +encouraged, brought out the old coney, his wife, and seven young +ones,--all, like the callenders in the 'Arabian Nights' Entertainments,' +blind of one eye, and that the same eye. The question was, on which side +of the island was the rabbit's hole? With a very little reasoning and +comparing, it was found that from its position, the keen blast must have +produced this effect. The oddest part of this story is, that it is true, +but I do not expect you to believe it." + + +THOMAS FULLER ON NORFOLK RABBITS. + +"These are an army of natural pioneers whence men have learned +_cuniculos agere_, the art of undermining. They thrive best on barren +ground, and grow fattest in the hardest frosts. Their flesh is fine and +wholesome. If Scottish men tax our language as improper, and smile at +our wing of a rabbit, let us laugh at their shoulder of a capon. + +Their skins were formerly much used, when furs were in fashion; till of +late our citizens, of Romans are turned Grecians, have laid down their +grave gowns and taken up their light cloaks; men generally disliking all +habits, though emblems of honour, if also badges of age. + +Their rich or silver-hair skins, formerly so dear, are now levelled in +prices with other colours; yea, are lower than black in estimation, +because their wool is most used in making of hats, commonly (for the +more credit) called half-beavers, though many of them hardly amount to +the proportion of semi-demi castors."[181] + + +DR CHALMERS AND THE GUINEA-PIG. + +Mr Aitken alludes in a pleasing manner to an instance of Dr Chalmers's +fondness for animals. He had just been appointed the head-master of one +of the Glasgow parish schools (St John's). "Early in the week following +my appointment, I received my first private call. One circumstance +occurred during the visit which I still remember most vividly. One of my +children had been presented with a pair of guinea-pigs. These had found +their way into the apartment where we were sitting, and ran about in all +directions. I could have wished to turn them out, but had not the power +to rise from my chair. He soon observed them, followed them with his eye +as they now retreated under his chair and again ventured out into his +presence--he even changed the position of his feet to give them scope. +That same kindly eye, one glance of which we all loved so much to catch +in after-life, beamed only the more warmly as the creatures frisked in +greater confidence around him. It was to me an omen for good. He who +could enjoy thus the innocent gamble of these guinea-pigs could not fail +to be accessible for good when occasion required. It was the first flush +of that largeness of heart which afterwards appeared in all I ever heard +him say or saw him do."[182] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[174] "Memoir of Wilson," p. 27, prefixed to his poetical works. +Belfast, 1844. + +[175] _Gentleman's Magazine_, for June 1784, being the sixth number of +vol. liv., pp. 412-414, "Unnoticed Properties of that little animal the +Hare." + +[176] "History of England," vol. vi. p. 486. + +[177] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 59. + +[178] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 182. + +[179] Biography of S. Bisset in G. H. Wilson's "Eccentric Mirror," vol. +i., No. 3, p. 29. + +[180] Published by Lord Lindsay in vol. iii. of his "Lives of the +Lindsays," p. 387. + +[181] "Worthies of England," vol. ii. p. 445 (ed. 1840). + + + + +SLOTH. + + +REVEREND SYDNEY SMITH ON THE SLOTH. + +Few anecdotes can be published of this curious creature, though Waterton +and Burchell, or Dr Buckland, for him and his friend Bates, have +recorded much that is interesting of its habits. The following bit is +peculiarly happy: "The sloth, in its wild state, spends its life in +trees, and never leaves them but from force or accident. The eagle to +the sky, the mole to the ground, the sloth to the tree; but what is most +extraordinary, he lives not _upon_ the branches, but _under_ them. He +moves suspended, rests suspended, sleeps suspended, and passes his +life in suspense--like a young clergyman distantly related to a +bishop."[183] + +[Illustration: The Great Ant-Eater. (Myrmecophaga jabata).] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[182] Dr Hannah's "Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Thomas Chalmers, +D.D., L.L.D.," vol. ii. p. 237. + + + + +THE GREAT ANT-EATER. + +(_Myrmecophaga jubata_, L.[184]) + + +A few months ago a handbill was distributed in the neighbourhood of +Seven Dials, inviting the public to visit a "wonderful animal fed with +ants, and possessing strength to kill the lion, tiger, or any other +animal under its claws." We entered the miserable apartment where it was +exhibited, and any spectator must at once have been struck with the +creature's want of resemblance to any other he had ever seen. Its head +so small, so long and slender; the straight, wiry, dry hair with which +it was covered, and its singularly large and bushy tail, first attracted +notice. A second glance showed its enormously thick fore-legs, and the +claws of its feet turned in, so that it walked on the sides of its +soles. Oken and St Hilaire would have said that it was "all extremity." +A cup, with the contents of one or two eggs, was brought, and it sucked +them with great avidity, every now and then darting from its small mouth +a very long tongue, which looked like a great, black worm, whisking +about in the custard. One of its showmen told us that it had attacked +the woman of the house the preceding day, and had scratched her arm. +Whether this was true or grossly exaggerated, we know not; but if so, we +suspect that the woman herself must have been in fault, and not the +inoffensive stranger. + +On the payment of a handsome consideration to her owners, the poor +captive was transferred from her unwholesome lodging in St Giles's, to +the Gardens of the Zoological Society in the Regent's Park. And within +the last few weeks her solitude has been cheered by the arrival of a +companion from her native forests. The new-comer is in beautiful +condition, though not nearly so large. He has a head decidedly shorter +and stronger, and is probably not yet fully grown. + +The great ant-eater seems to be scattered over a wide extent of South +America--Guiana, Brazil, and Paraguay, being its places of abode. It is +a stout animal, measuring from the end of the snout to the tip of the +long tail six or seven feet, of which the tail takes nearly the half; so +that the actual size of its body is much reduced. In Paraguay it is +named _Nurumi_ or _Yogui_. The former name is altered from the native +word for _small mouth_, and indicates a striking peculiarity in its +structure. The Portuguese call it _Tamandua_; the Spaniards, _Osa +hormiguero_ (_i.e._, ant-hill bear). In Paraguay it prefers sides of +lakes where ants, at least termites or white ants, are abundant; but it +also frequents woods. In Guiana, Mr Waterton found it chiefly "in the +inmost recesses of the forest," where it "seems partial to the low and +swampy parts near creeks, where the troely tree grows."[185] It sleeps a +great deal, reclining on its side, as the visitor to the Gardens may +frequently see it do, with its head between its fore-legs, joining its +fore and hindfeet, and spreading the tail so as to cover the whole +body. Huddled up under this thatch, it might almost be taken for a +bundle of coarse and badly dried hay. The tail is thickly covered with +long hairs, placed vertically, the hairs draggling on the ground. When +the creature is irritated, the tail is shaken straight and elevated. The +natives of Paraguay, like other persecutors of harmlessness, kill every +specimen they meet, so that the ant-eater gets rare, and so rare is it +on the Amazon that Mr Wallace, who travelled there from 1848 to 1852, +honestly tells us he never saw one. He heard, however, that during rain +it turns its bushy tail over its head and stands still. The Indians, +knowing this habit, when they meet an ant-eater, make a rustling noise +among the leaves. The creature instantly turns up its tail, and is +easily killed by the stroke of a stick on its little head.[186] + +The ant-eater is slow in its movements--never attempting to escape. When +hard pressed it stops, and, seated on its hind-legs, waits for the +aggressor. Its object is to receive him between its fore-legs; and one +has only to look at its arms and claws in order to fancy what a +frightful squeeze it would give. Nothing but death, they say, will make +the creature relax its grasp. It is asserted that the jaguar--the tiger +of South America, and the most formidable beast of the New World--dares +not attack it. This Azara, with good reason, doubts. A single bite from +a jaguar, or the stroke of his paw, would fracture an ant-eater's skull +before it had time to turn round; for the movements of this edentate +quadruped are as sluggish as those of the toothed carnivorous tyrant are +rapid. + +As seen in its handsome and roomy cage, the ant-eater gives us an +impression of dulness and stupidity; and always smelling and listening +and looking at the door where its keeper introduces its food, its mind, +when awake, appears to be constantly occupied about "creature comforts." +In the course of the day it laps up with its darting tongue, and sucks +in through its long taper snout a dozen eggs, and almost the whole of a +rabbit, chopped into a fine mince-meat. With such dainty fare, and with +the anxious attention which it receives from its sagacious curators, it +is scarcely surprising that it thrives; and when the warm weather comes, +it will be a fine sight to see these animals enjoying the range of a +paddock, which will doubtless be provided for their use, and exercising +their brawny forelimbs and powerful claws in pulling down conical +mounds, which may remind them of departed joys and balmier climes. Nor +will it be the least charm of the spectacle that it will enable us to +compare this living species with other _Edentata_ of South America--such +as the Megatherium, now only found in the fossil state, but so admirably +restored by Mr Hawkins for the Crystal Palace. + +We need not dwell on the admirable adaptation of the ant-eater to its +position and to its few and simple wants. To those who have not studied +"the works of the Lord," it may appear uncouth and unattractive. +Compared with a dog, it is stupid; and alongside of a lion, it is slow. +It has not the symmetry of the horse, nor the beautiful markings of the +zebra and leopard. But its Creator has given it the instincts, the form, +the muscular powers, and the colours which best answer its purpose. And +no one can say that it is plain and ugly, who looks at its legs so +prettily variegated with white and black, and its noble black collar. + +Those of our readers who wish further information will find it in the +_Literary Gazette_ for October 8, 1853. In that article it is easy to +recognise the Roman hand of the _facile princeps_ among living +comparative anatomists. Long may it be before either of our new +acquaintances in the Garden afford him a subject for dissection; but +when that day arrives, we hope that he will not delay to publish the +memoir.[187]--_A. White, in "Excelsior" (with additions)._ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[183] Sydney Smith, "Review of Waterton's Wanderings." _Edinburgh +Review_, 1826. Works, vol. ii. p. 145. + +[184] From [Greek: myrmex], ant; [Greek: phago], I eat; _jubata_, maned. + +[185] "Wanderings in South America" (Third Journey), p. 159, (ed. 1839). + +[186] "A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro," by Alfred R. +Wallace, 1853, p. 452. + + + + +RHINOCEROS AND ELEPHANT. + + +Two genera of the bulkiest among terrestrial beasts. Just imagine the +great rhinoceros at the Zoological Gardens taking it into its head, with +that little eye, target hide, and bulky bones, and other items about it, +to fondle its keeper!--he was nearly crushed to death. How the great +thick-skinned creature enjoys a bath! + +As for the elephant, he is a mountain of matter as well as of animal +intelligence. Sir Emerson Tennant in his "Ceylon," but especially in his +"Natural History," volumes, has given some truly readable chapters on +the Asiatic elephant. We could have extracted many an anecdote, even +from recent works, of the intelligent sagacity of the Indian as well as +the African elephants. The account of the shooting of Mr Cross's +well-known elephant _Chunie_, at Exeter Change, has been very curiously +and fully detailed by Hone in his "Every-Day Book." A skull of an +elephant in the British Museum, shows how wonderfully an elephant is at +times able to defend itself from attack. Many a shot that "rogue +elephant" had received, years before the three or four Indian sportsmen, +who presented its skull as a trophy, succeeded in planting a shot in its +brain, or in its heart. Think of the feelings of Lord Clive's relations, +at the prospect of his sending home an elephant for a pet. The good +folks, not without some motive, as the great Indian ruler conceived, +other than mere love for him, had been sending him presents. Samuel +Rogers, who wrote the neatest of hands, records that Clive wrote the +worst and certainly the most illegible of scrawls. Instead of +"elephant," as they read it, their liberal relative had written +"equivalent!" + + +THE LORD KEEPER GUILFORD AND HIS VISIT TO THE RHINOCEROS IN THE CITY OF +LONDON.[188] + +It is strange to read in the life of the Lord Keeper Guilford, that his +lordship's court enemies, "hard put to it to find, or invent, something +tending to the diminution of his character," took advantage of his going +to see a rhinoceros, to circulate a foolish story of him, which much +annoyed him. It was in the reign of James II. his biographer thus +records it. The rhinoceros, referred to, was the first ever brought to +England. Evelyn, in his "Memoirs," says, that it was sold for L2000, a +most enormous sum in those days (1685). + +Roger North relates the story:--"It fell out thus--a merchant of Sir +Dudley North's acquaintance had brought over an enormous rhinoceros, to +be sold to showmen for profit. It is a noble beast, wonderfully armed by +nature for offence, but more for defence, being covered with +impenetrable shields, which no weapon would make any impression upon, +and a rarity so great that few men, in our country, have in their whole +lives the opportunity of seeing so singular an animal. This merchant +told Sir Dudley North that if he, with a friend or two, had a mind to +see it, they might take the opportunity at his house before it was sold. +Hereupon Sir Dudley North proposed to his brother, the Lord Keeper, to +go with him upon this exhibition, which he did, and came away +exceedingly satisfied with the curiosity he had seen. But whether he was +dogged to find out where he and his brother housed in the city, or +flying fame carried an account of the voyage to court, I know not; but +it is certain that the very next morning a bruit went from thence all +over the town, and (as factious reports used to run) in a very short +time, viz., that his lordship rode upon the rhinoceros, than which a +more infantine exploit could not have been fastened upon him. And most +people were struck with amazement at it, and divers ran here and there +to find out whether it was true or no. And soon after dinner some lords +and others came to his lordship to know the truth from himself, for the +setters of the lie affirmed it positively as of their own knowledge. +That did not give his lordship much disturbance, for he expected no +better from his adversaries. But that his friends, intelligent persons, +who must know him to be far from guilty of any childish levity, should +believe it, was what roiled him extremely, and much more when they had +the face to come to him to know if it were true. I never saw him in such +a rage, and to lay about him with affronts (which he keenly bestowed +upon the minor courtiers that came on that errand) as then; for he sent +them away with fleas in their ear. And he was seriously angry with his +own brother, Sir Dudley North, because he did not contradict the lie in +sudden and direct terms, but laughed as taking the question put to him +for a banter, till, by iteration, he was brought to it. For some lords +came, and because they seemed to attribute somewhat to the avowed +positiveness of the reporters, he rather chose to send for his brother +to attest than to impose his bare denial, and so it passed; and the +noble earl (of Sunderland), with Jeffries, and others of that crew, made +merry, and never blushed at the lie of their own making, but valued +themselves upon it as a very good jest." + +And so it passed. What a sensation would have been caused by the sudden +apparition in that age of a few numbers of _Punch_. What a subject for a +cartoon, some John Leech of 1685 would have made of the stately Lord +Keeper on the back of a rhinoceros, and the infamous Judge Jeffries +leering at him from a window. + + +THE ELEPHANT AND HIS TRUNK. + +Canning and another gentleman were looking at a picture of the deluge; +the ark was seen in the middle distance, while in the fore-sea an +elephant was struggling with his fate. "I wonder," said the gentleman, +"that the elephant did not secure _an inside_ place!"--"He was too late, +my friend," replied Canning; "he was detained _packing up his +trunk_."[189] + + +SIR RICHARD PHILLIPS AND JELLY MADE OF IVORY DUST.--A VEGETARIAN TAKEN +IN. + +The biographers of James Montgomery[190] relate an amusing anecdote of +Sir Richard Phillips, the eccentric London bookseller and author. He +visited Sheffield in October 1828. "He had lived too long amidst the +bustle and business of the great world, and was too little conscious of +any feeling at all like diffidence, to allow him to hesitate about +calling upon any person, whether of rank, genius, or eccentricity, when +the success of his project was likely to be thereby promoted. The time +selected by the free and easy knight for his unannounced visitation of +Montgomery was _Sunday at dinner time_. He was at once asked to sit down +and partake of the chickens and bacon which had just been placed on the +table, but here was a dilemma; Sir Richard, although neither a Brahmin +nor a Jew, avowed himself a staunch Pythagorean--he could eat no flesh! +Luckily there was a plentiful supply of carrots and turnips, and--jelly. +But was the latter made from calves' feet? Montgomery assured his guest +that it was _not_; but, added he, with a conscientious regard for his +visitor's scruples, from _ivory dust_. We believe the poet fancied the +hypothesis of an animal origin of this viand could not be very obscure; +it was, however, swallowed; the clever bibliopole perhaps believing, +with some of the Sheffield ivory-cutters, that elephants, instead of +being hunted and killed for their tusks, _shed them_ when fully grown, +as bucks do their antlers!" + + +J. T. SMITH AND THE ELEPHANT. + +That gossiping man, J. T. Smith, once Keeper of the Prints in the +British Museum, and author of "Nollekens and his Times," relates, that +when he and a friend were returning late from a club, and were +approaching Temple Bar, "about one o'clock, a most unaccountable +appearance claimed our attention,--it was no less than an elephant, +whose keepers were coaxing it to pass through the gateway. He had been +accompanied with several persons from the Tower wharf with tall poles, +but was principally guided by two men with ropes, each walking on either +side of the street, to keep him as much as possible in the middle, on +his way to the menagerie, Exeter Change, to which destination, after +passing St Clement's Church, he steadily trudged on, with strict +obedience to the command of his keepers.[191] + +"I had the honour afterwards of partaking of a pot of Barclay's entire +with this same elephant, which high mark of his condescension was +bestowed when I accompanied my friend, the late Sir James Wintel Lake, +Bart., to view the rare animals in Exeter Change,--that gentleman being +assured by the elephant's keeper that, if he would offer the beast a +shilling, he would see the noble animal nod his head and drink a pot of +porter. The elephant had no sooner taken the shilling, which he did in +the mildest manner from the palm of Sir James's hand, than he gave it to +the keeper, and eagerly watched his return with the beer. The elephant +then, after placing his proboscis to the top of the tankard, drew up +nearly the whole of the beverage. The keeper observed, 'You will hardly +believe, gentlemen, but the little he has left is quite warm;' upon this +we were tempted to taste it, and it really was so. This animal was +afterwards disposed of for the sum of one thousand guineas." + + +THE ELEPHANT AND THE TAILOR. + +This old story has been often told, but never so well as by Sydney Smith +in one of his lectures at the Royal Institution. "Every one knows the +old story of the tailor and the elephant, which, if it be not true, at +least shows the opinion the Orientals, who know the animal well, +entertain of his sagacity. An eastern tailor to the Court was making a +magnificent doublet for a bashaw of nine tails, and covering it, after +the manner of eastern doublets, with gold, silver, and every species of +metallic magnificence. As he was busying himself on this momentous +occasion, there passed by, to the pools of water, one of the royal +elephants, about the size of a broad-wheeled waggon, rich in ivory +teeth, and shaking, with its ponderous tread, the tailor's shop to its +remotest thimble. As he passed near the window, the elephant happened to +look in; the tailor lifted up his eyes, perceived the proboscis of the +elephant near him, and, being seized with a fit of facetiousness, +pricked the animal with his needle; the mass of matter immediately +retired, stalked away to the pool, filled his trunk full of muddy water, +and, returning to the shop, overwhelmed the artisan and his doublet with +the dirty effects of his vengeance." + + +DR JOHNSON ALLUDED TO AS "AN ELEPHANT." + +"If an elephant could write a book, perhaps one that had read a great +deal would say, that an Arabian horse is a very clumsy, ungraceful +animal." This was written by Horace Walpole to Miss Berry, in 1791, in +allusion to Dr Johnson's depreciation of Thomas Gray the poet.[192] It +is an acute observation, well worth being wrought out. There is a +grandeur and even a grace about this bulky beast and its motions well +deserving the study of any one who has the opportunity. Elephants in our +streets are not now so rare as they used to be. We saw three in one +procession in the streets of Edinburgh in 1865. + + +ELEPHANT'S SKIN. + +"Did any of you ever see an elephant's skin?" asked the master of an +infant school in a fast neighbourhood. "I have!" shouted a six-year-old +at the foot of the class. "Where?" inquired the master, amused by his +earnestness. "_On the elephant!_" was the reply. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[187] This memoir has been published, and the subject of it was this +very ant-eater. Professor Owen has introduced many striking facts from +the history of its structure, in his lecture delivered at Exeter Hall, +1863, and published by the Messrs Nisbet. + +[188] "The Life of the Right Hon. Francis North, Baron Guilford, Lord +Keeper of the Great Seal, under King Charles II. and King James II., +&c." By the Hon. Roger North. A New Edition, in three vols., 1826, vol. +ii. p. 167. + +[189] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 329. + +[190] "John Holland and James Everett," vol. iv. p. 283. + +[191] "A Book for a Rainy Day," p. 92. + + + + +FOSSIL PACHYDERMATA. + + +CUVIER AND THE FOSSIL. + +George Cuvier was perhaps the first man who, by his admirable works and +researches, gave zoology its true place among the sciences. + +His discoveries of the structure of molluscous and other animals of the +obscurer orders are perhaps eclipsed by his researches in osteology. He +has enabled the comparative anatomist to tell from a small portion of +bone not only the class, but the order, genus, and even the species to +which animal that bone belonged. + +Mrs Lee,[193] in her Life of the Baron, gives an example of his +enthusiasm in his researches. + +M. Laurillard was afterwards his secretary and the draftsman who +executed nearly all the drawings in his "Ossemens fossiles." At the time +of this story he had not particularly attracted Cuvier's notice. + +"One day Cuvier came to his brother Frederic to ask him to disengage a +fossil from its surrounding mass, an office he had frequently performed. +M. Laurillard was applied to in the absence of F. Cuvier. Little aware +of the value of the specimen confided to his care, he cheerfully set to +work, and succeeded in getting the bone entire from its position. M. +Cuvier, after a short time, returned for his treasure, and when he saw +how perfect it was, his ecstasies became incontrollable; he danced, he +shook his hands, he uttered expressions of delight, till M. Laurillard, +in his ignorance both of the importance of what he had done, and of the +ardent character of M. Cuvier, thought he was mad. Taking, however, his +fossil foot in one hand, and dragging Laurillard's arm with the other, +he led him up-stairs to present him to his wife and sister-in-law, +saying, 'I have got my foot, and M. Laurillard found it for me.' It +seems that this skilful operation confirmed all M. Cuvier's previous +conjecture concerning a foot, the existence and form of which he had +already guessed, but for which he had long and vainly sought. So +occupied had he been by it, that, when he appeared to be particularly +absent, his family were wont to accuse him of seeking his fore-foot. The +next morning the able operator and draftsman was engaged as secretary." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[192] "Letters of Horace Walpole," edited by Peter Cunningham, ix., 319. + +[193] "Memoirs of Baron Cuvier," by Mrs R. Lee (formerly Mrs T Ed. +Bowdich), 1833, p. 93. + + + + +SOW. + + +A very gross but useful animal, which can, by feeding, be stuffed into +such a state of fatness as only one who has seen a Christmas cattle show +in England could believe it possible for beast to acquire. Dean Ramsay, +in a happy anecdote, refers to a good quality of the sow as food. He +tells, that a Scottish minister had been persuaded to keep a pig, and +that the good wife had been duly instructed in the mysteries of +black-puddings, pork-chops, pig's-head, and other modes of turning poor +piggy to account. The minister remarked to a friend, "Nae doubt there's +a hantle o' miscellaneous eating aboot a pig." The author of "A Ramble," +published by Edmonstone and Douglas in 1865, has devoted some most +amusing pages of his work to an account of "Pig-sticking in Chicago," as +witnessed by him during the late American war. The wholesale and +scientific off-hand way in which living pigs enter into one part of a +machine, and come out prepared pork, could only have been devised by a +Yankee. + +[Illustration: The Wild Boar of Syria and Egypt. (Sus Scrofa.)] + +The essay of Charles Lamb on Roast Pig, and his history of how the +Chinaman discovered it, is a most characteristic bit of the productions +of Elia. We have cut from a recent paper, what seems an authentic story, +of one of this race having obtained a kind of mausoleum. We hope it is +not a hoax, but that it is as genuine as all that is in one of "Murray's +Handbooks:"-- + +MONUMENT TO A PIG.--"Up to the present time," says the _Europe_ of +Frankfort, "no monument that we are aware of had ever been erected to +the memory of a _pig_. The town of Luneburg, in Hanover, has wished to +fill up that blank; and at the Hotel de Ville, in that town, there is to +be seen a kind of mausoleum to the memory of a member of the swinish +race. In the interior of that commemorative structure is to be seen a +glass case, inclosing a ham still in good preservation. A slab of black +marble attracts the eye of visitors, who find thereon the following +inscription in Latin, engraved in letters of gold--'Passer-by, +contemplate here the mortal remains of the pig which acquired for itself +imperishable glory by the discovery of the salt springs of Luneburg.'" + + +THE WILD BOAR (_Sus scrofa_). + +We have a specimen of the family of swine in that well-known and useful +animal, with whose portrait Sir Charles Bell furnishes the reader, as an +example of a head as remote as possible from the head of him who +designed and executed the Elgin marbles. Although the learned anatomist +brought forward the profile of this animal as the type of a +"non-intellectual" being, yet there are instances enough on record to +show that pigs are not devoid of intelligence, and are even, when +trained, capable of considerable docility. "Learned pigs," however, such +as are exhibited at country fairs, are a rare occurrence, and the family +to which they belong is essentially one "gross" in character, and far +from gainly in appearance. The most handsome of the race is one from +West Africa, recently added to the Zoological Gardens, and described by +Dr Gray under the name of _Potamochaerus penicillatus_. The wild swine of +Africa are, with this bright exception, anything but handsome, either in +shape or colour; and the large excrescences on their cheeks and face +give the "warthogs" a ferocious look, which corresponds with their +habits. In the East there are several species of wild swine. One of the +most celebrated is the _Babyrusa_ of the Malay peninsula, distinguished +by its long recurved teeth, with which it was once fancied that they +suspended themselves from trees, or rather supported themselves when +asleep. Mrs M'Dougall[194] refers to the wild hogs of Borneo, which seem +to be dainty in their diet, as they think nothing of a swim of four +miles from their jungle home to places on the river where they know +there are trees laden with ripe fruit. These Borneo swine are active +creatures too, as they can leap fences nearly six feet high. In South +America the sow family is represented by the Peccaries (_Dicotyles_), of +which there are two species, one of which is very abundant in the woods, +and forms a most important article in the diet of the poor Indians. +They, too, can swim across rivers, and although their legs are short, +they can run very fast. + +It is chiefly in the warmer parts of the world that the species of this +family are found. They are all distinguished by the middle toes of each +foot being larger than the others, and armed with hoofs,[195] the side +toe or toes being shorter, and scarcely reaching the ground. The nose +terminates in a truncated, tough, grissly disk, which is singularly well +adapted for the purpose of the animals, which all grub in the ground for +their food. In some parts of France it is said that they are trained to +search for truffles. + +Having briefly alluded to different species "_de grege porci_," we now +limit ourselves to our immediate subject. + +The wild boar, at no very remote period, was found in the extensive +woods which covered great portions of this island. The family of Baird +derives its heraldic crest of a wild boar's head from a grant of David +I., King of Scotland. This monarch was hunting in Aberdeenshire, and +when separated from his attendants, the infuriated pig turned upon him; +one of his people came up and killed it, and in memory of his feat +received from the grateful king the device still borne by the family. +The name of a Scottish parish, and of one of the oldest baronial +families in Scotland--Swinton of Swinton, in Berwickshire--is derived +also from this animal, the first of the Swintons having cleared that +part of the country from the wild swine which then infested it. It is +curious to know that some large fields in the neighbourhood of Swinton +still carry in their names traces of these early occupants. Dr Baird +informed the writer that there are four of these fields so +distinguished:--"Sow-causeway," and "Pikerigg," where the wild swine +used to feed ("pick their food"); "Stab's Cross," where Sir Alan Swinton +with his spear pierced some monarch of the race; and "Alan's Cairn," +where a heap of stones was raised as a monument of his hardihood. In the +southern part of our island only the nobility and gentry were allowed to +hunt this animal; and in the reign of William the Conqueror any one +convicted of killing a wild boar in any of the royal demesnes was +punished with the loss of his eyes. + +In many parts of the Continent the wild boar is still far from rare, and +affords, to those who are fond of excitement, that peculiar kind of +"pleasure" which involves a certain amount of danger. Scenes somewhat +similar to those depicted by Snyders may still be witnessed in some +parts of Germany; and in the sketches of Mr Wolf, the able artist whose +designs illustrate these papers, we have seen animated studies of this +truly hazardous sport. + +The nose of the wild boar is very acute in the sense of smell. A zealous +sportsman tells us, "I have often been surprised, when stealing upon one +in the woods, to observe how soon he has become aware of my +neighbourhood. Lifting his head, he would sniff the air inquiringly, +then, uttering a short grunt, make off as fast as he could."[196] The +same writer has also sometimes noticed in a family of wild boars one, +generally a weakling, who was buffeted and ill-treated by the rest. "Do +what he would, nothing was right; sometimes the mother, uttering a +disapproving grunt, would give him a nudge to make him move more +quickly, and that would be a sign for all the rest of his relations to +begin showing their contempt for him too. One would push him, and then +another; for, go where he might, he was sure to be in the way." In the +extensive woods frequented by this animal in Europe, abundant supplies +of food are met with in the roots of various plants which it grubs up, +in the beech-mast, acorns, and other tree productions, which, during two +or three months of the year, it finds on the ground. Although well able +to defend itself, it is a harmless animal, and being shy, retires to +those parts of the forests most remote from the presence of man. A site +in the neighbourhood of water is preferred to any other. + +Travellers in the East frequently refer to this animal and to its +ravages when it gets into a rice-field or a vineyard; for although its +natural food be wild roots and wild fruits, if cultivated grounds be in +the neighbourhood, its ravages are very annoying to the husbandmen, who +can fully and feelingly understand the words of the Psalmist, "The boar +out of the wood doth waste it" (Ps. lxxx. 13). + +Messrs Irby and Mangles,[197] as they approached the Jordan, saw a herd +of nine wild pigs, and they found the trees on the banks of a stream +near that river all marked with mud, left by the wild swine in rubbing +themselves. A valley which they passed was grubbed up in all directions +with furrows made by these animals, so that the soil had all the +appearance of having been ploughed up. + +Burckhardt mentions the occurrence of the wild boar and panther +together, or the _ounce_, as he calls it, on the mountain of Rieha, and +also in the wooded part of Tabor. He mentions "a common saying and +belief among the Turks, that all the animal kingdom was converted by +their prophet to the true faith, except the wild boar and buffalo, which +remained unbelievers; it is on this account that both these animals are +often called Christians. We are not surprised that the boar should be so +denominated; but as the flesh of the buffalo, as well as its Leben or +sour milk, is much esteemed by the Turks, it is difficult to account for +the disgrace into which that animal has fallen among them; the only +reason I could learn for it is, that the buffalo, like the hog, has a +habit of rolling in the mud, and of plunging into the muddy ponds in the +summer time up to the very nose, which alone remains visible above the +surface."[198] Wild boars were frequently fallen in with by this +traveller during his Syrian travels in the neighbourhood of rush-covered +springs, where they could easily return to their "wallowing in the +mire;" he also met with them on all the mountains he visited in his +tour. In the Ghor they are very abundant, and so injurious to the Arabs +of that valley that they are unable to cultivate the common barley on +account of the eagerness with which the wild swine feed on it, and are +obliged to grow a less esteemed kind, with six rows of grains which the +swine will not touch. + +Messrs Hemprich and Ehrenberg tell us that the wild boar is far +from scarce in the marshy districts around Rosetta and Damietta, and +that it does not seem to differ from the European species. The head of a +wild boar which these travellers saw at Bischerre, a village of Lebanon, +closely resembled the European variety, except in being a little longer. +The Maronites there, who ate its flesh in their company, called it +_chansir_,[199] a name evidently identical with the Hebrew word +_chasir_, which occurs in the Bible. The Turks, according to Ehrenberg, +keep swine in their stables, from a persuasion that all devils who may +enter will be more likely to go into the pigs than the horses, from +their alliance to the former unclean animals.--_A. White, in +"Excelsior."_ + +[Illustration: The River Pig.] + + +THE RIVER PIG, OR PAINTED PIG OF THE CAMAROON.[200] + +The other day we revisited the Zoological Gardens, and found that two +old friends had got--the one, a companion, the other, a neighbour. The +latter was the bulky hippopotamus, now most bearish, and more and more +unmistakably showing the minute accuracy of those master lines in the +Book of Job, in which Behemoth's portrait, pose, and character are +depicted. The former was the subject of this article--evidently, as far +as colour goes, "the chieftain of the _porcine_ race." + +The poet tells us, however, "Nimium ne crede colori;" and observation, +as well as the Scripture, shows us daily that "fair havens" in summer +are but foul places to "winter in;" that fair speeches, and a flattering +tongue, and the kisses of an enemy, "are deceitful;" and that beneath a +fine spotted or barred coat, the jaguar and the tiger, the cobra and the +hornet, conceal both the power and the propensity for mischief. So with +our old friend Potamochoerus. The pretty creature,--beauty is +relative--the Cameroon pig is the prettiest, the gaudiest of the +race,--the pretty creature, we repeat, is of a fine bay red, made to +look more bright from the circumstance of the face, ears, and front of +the legs being black, while the red is relieved, and the black is +defined, by the pencilled lines of white which edge the ears, streak +over and under the eye, and ornament the long whiskers, another long +white line traversing the middle of the back; a very attractive +combination of colour--the painting of "Him who made the world"--and one +which must make the _Potamochoerus penicellatus_ most conspicuous +among the bright green shrubs and dark marshes of the rivers of +equinoctial Africa, on whose banks the race has been planted. The +present largest specimen was taken, when a "piggie," by a trading +captain, as it was swimming across the Cameroon River. He brought it to +Liverpool; Dr Gray, of the British Museum, gave an account of it in the +"Illustrated Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London for +1852"--an excellent work--where its figure, drawn and coloured by the +hand of Wolf, shows the condition of the African sow four years ago. It +was then a round, comfortable, kind-looking creature, which one might +almost have fondled as a pet. The pig now looks rather a dangerous +beast, and its beauty is not increased by its face having grown longer, +and by the bump and hollow on each cheek being larger and deeper; nor is +its mouth so attractive or innocent, now that its tusks--those ivory +daggers and knives of the family of Swine--have grown longer. The +creature, partly it may be from familiarity, jumps up against the iron +palisade which separates the visitor from its walk, but a poor pannage +as a substitute for its African home. We would advise him to read the +notice: "Visitors are requested not to tease the animals;" "not to +touch" would be a good reprint--for few, we fancy, would try to tease. + +One, however, especially a lady, likes to know and to feel _texture_; +and sadly used the fine, mild Edward Cross, of Exeter Change and the +Surrey Zoological Gardens, once the Nestor as well as the King among +keepers of wild beasts--a gentle, gentlemanly, white-haired, venerable +man,--sadly, we say, used Mr Cross to lament that there _were_ parasols, +and that he could not keep them _out_ of his garden. Mr C. told the +writer that he lost many a beast and bird from the pokes of that +insinuating weapon. We dissuade any lady from touching or going near a +zebra's mouth, or the horns of an ibex or an algazel, or the pointed +bill of a heron or stork, or from putting her hand near this fine +painted pig. + +Up jumps Potamochoerus--eye rather vindictive, however--and mark, as +that big specimen is foreshortened before you, the profile of the little +companion pig of the same species, standing within a few feet, but safe +from the poke of any umbrella or parasol; look how innocent and +inviting--how quiet, and sleek, and polished, and painted, and mild it +looks, all but that little suspicious eye, with its wink oblique, and +its malicious twinkle. + +Of the habits of this pig we can find no written record, though in the +journals of the Scottish or Wesleyan Missionaries there may be some +notices of it. We do not know whence the Society procured the second +specimen, but it shows that Africa's wild animals, like its chain of +internal Caspian seas, and its mountain-ranges and rivers, are becoming +gradually known. Old Bosman, who was chief factor for the Dutch on the +Gold Coast 150 years ago, refers to the swine near Fort St George +d'Elmina being not nearly so wild as those of Europe, and adds, "I have +several times eaten of them here, and found them very delicious and very +tender meat, the fat being extraordinarily fine."[201] He evidently +refers to some other species. + +Travellers in South Africa have made us familiar with the habits, and +specimens in the Zoological Gardens, in a pannage close to that of the +"painted pig," show us the form and ugliness, of the bush pig and flat +pig (_Choiropotamus Africanus_) of that southern land, with their long +heads, long legs, upturned tails, and horrid tusks. They have a strange +habit of kneeling on their fore-legs. In South Africa they abound; and +the natives--our excellent friend, the Rev. Henry Methuen, tells +us--often bring their jaws for barter. They are of a dingy, dirty gray; +the boar is two feet and a half high, and his tusks sometimes measure +"eleven inches and a half each from the jawbone," are five inches and a +half in circumference at the base, and are thirteen inches apart at +their extremities. + +No animal is more formidably armed; and his rapidity and lightness of +movement make him a very marked object to the African Nimrod, who, midst +"clumps of bush"--be they Proteacae, heaths, or Diosmeae--not unfrequently +comes on a herd of wild pigs "headed by a noble boar," with tail erect. +We could enter largely on the history of this active species, and quote +many a stirring anecdote of travellers' rencontres with this fearless +animal. The lion skulks away from him, but the rhinoceros--at least one +species--the buffalo, with his formidable front of horn and bone, and +the bush pig, with his dreaded tusks, show but little fear; and it is +well for the huntsman that he has a sure eye, a steady hand, and a +double-barrelled gun, and not a few Caffir followers to help him, should +his eye be dim, his hand waver, or his gun "flash in the pan." Dogs +avail but little; a deadly gash lays open their ribs, and a side-thrust +of a wild boar will cut into the most muscular leg, and for ever destroy +its tendons. We have done with pigs, and would only recommend a visit--a +frequent visit--to that paradise of animals, the Zoological Gardens, +where, a fortnight ago, we saw wild boars from Hesse Darmstadt; wild +boars from Egypt; bush pigs from Africa; peccaries from South America; +and two painted pigs from West Africa; all "_de grege porci_," and in +excellent health: to say nothing of two hippopotamuses; four "seraphic" +giraffes; antelopes (we did not number them); brush turkeys from +Australia; an apteryx from New Zealand; the curious white sheathbills +from the South Seas; the refulgent metallic green and purple-tinted +monaul, or Impeyan pheasant, strutting with outspread, light-coloured +tail, just as he courts his plain hen-mate on the Indian mountains; a +family of the funny pelicans--cleanliness, ugliness, and contentment in +one happy combination; a band of flamingoes; eagles and vultures; the +harpy--that Picton of the birds--looking defiance as he stands, with +upraised crest, flashing eye, and clenched talons, over his food; the +wily otter; the amiable seal, which carries us to the seas and rocks of +much-loved Shetland, with their long, winding voes, their +bird-frequented cliffs, and outlying skerries; the Indian thrush, which +reminds one of a "mavis" at home; the parrot-house, with its fine +contrasts of colour and its discordant noises; Penny's Esquimaux +dog--poor fellow, a prisoner, unlike to what he was when, with our dear +friends Dr Sutherland and Captain Stewart, this very dog breasted the +blast before a sledge in the Wellington Channel.[202] Look at that +wondrous sloth, organised for a life in a Brazilian forest--those two +restless Polar bears; and though last, not least, those wonders of the +great deep, "the sea-anemones," the exquisite red and white "feathery" +tentacles of the long cylindrical-twisted serpulae, and +marvellously-transparent streaked shrimps, all leg, and feeler, and eye, +and "nose"--in the salt-water tanks in the Vivarium.--_A. White, in +"Excelsior."_ + + +S. BISSET AND HIS LEARNED PIG. + +S. Bisset, formerly referred to, when at Belfast bought a black sucking +pig, and after several experiments succeeded in training a creature, so +obstinate and perverse by nature, to become most tractable and docile. +In August 1783, he took his learned pig to Dublin for exhibition. "It +was not only under full command, but appeared as pliant and good-natured +as a spaniel. He had taught it to spell the names of any one in the +company, to tell the hour, minute, and second, to make his obeisance to +the company, and he occasioned many a laugh by his pointing out the +married and the unmarried. Some one in authority forced him to leave +Dublin, and he died broken-hearted shortly after at Chester, on his way +to London, where forty and more years before he had first been induced +to train animals."[203] + + +QUIXOTE BOWLES FOND OF PIGS. + +Southey records of Quixote Bowles that he "had a great love for pigs; he +thought them the happiest of all God's creatures, and would walk twenty +miles to see one that was remarkably fat. This love extended to bacon; +he was an epicure in it; and whenever he went out to dinner, took a +piece of his own curing in his pocket, and requested the cook to dress +it."[204] + + +ON JEKYLL NEARLY THROWN DOWN BY A VERY SMALL PIG. + + "As Jekyll walk'd out in his gown and his wig, + He happen'd to tread on a very small pig; + 'Pig of science,' he said, 'or else I'm mistaken, + For surely thou art an _abridgment of Bacon_.'"[205] + + +GOOD ENOUGH FOR A PIG. + +An Irish peasant being asked why he permitted his pig to take up its +quarters with his family, made an answer abounding with satirical +_naivete_. "Why not? Doesn't the place afford every convenience that _a +pig can require_?"[206] + +Mrs Fry, in 1827, visited Ireland on one of her Christian and +philanthropic tours. In a letter to her children from Armagh she +says--"Pigs abound; I think they have rather a more elegant appearance +than ours, their hair often rather curled. Perhaps naturalists may +attribute this to their intimate association with their betters!"[207] + + +THE COUNTRYMAN'S CRITICISM ON THE PIGS IN GAINSBOROUGH'S PICTURE OF THE +GIRL AND PIGS. + +Thomas Gainsborough, the great English painter, exhibited, in 1782, +among pictures of noblemen, gentlemen, and ladies, his well-known "Girl +and Pigs."[208] + +Wolcot, better known as "Peter Pindar," in his first "Ode to the Royal +Academicians," refers to this picture. + + "And now, O Muse, with song so big, + Turn round to Gainsborough's Girl and Pig, + Or Pig and Girl, I rather should have said; + The pig in white, I must allow, + Is really a well painted sow, + I wish to say the same thing of the maid." + +"The expression and truth of nature in the Girl and Pigs," remarks +Northcote, "were never surpassed. Sir Joshua Reynolds was struck with +it, though he thought Gainsborough ought to have made her a beauty." +Reynolds, indeed, became the purchaser of the painting at one hundred +guineas, Gainsborough asking but sixty. During its exhibition, it is +said to have attracted the attention of a countryman, who +remarked--"They be deadly like pigs, but nobody ever saw pigs feeding +together but what one on 'em had a foot in the trough." + + +HOOK AND THE LITTER OF PIGS. + +Once a gentleman, who had the marvellous gift of shaping a great many +things out of orange-peel, was displaying his abilities at a +dinner-party before Theodore Hook and Mr Thomas Hill, and succeeded in +counterfeiting a pig. Mr Hill tried the same feat; and after destroying +and strewing the table with the peel of a dozen oranges, gave it up, +with the exclamation, "Hang the pig! I _can't_ make him." "Nay, Hill," +exclaimed Hook, glancing at the mess on the table, "you have done more; +instead of one pig, you have made a _litter_."[209] + +Hook, we may add, was an original wit. He did not, like most professed +wits, study his sayings before, and arrange with his seeming opponent +for an imaginary war of words. He was an _impromptu_ wit. + + +JESTS ABOUT SWINE. + +Lord Chancellor Hardwicke's bailiff, having been ordered by his lady to +procure a sow of a particular description, came one day into the +dining-room when full of company, proclaiming with a burst of joy he +could not suppress--"I have been at Royston Fair, my lady, and I have +got a sow exactly of _your ladyship's_ size."[210] + + * * * * * + +John was thought to be very stupid. He was sent to a mill one day, and +the miller said--"John, some people say you are a fool! Now, tell me, +what you do know, and what you don't know."--"Well," replied John, "I +know millers' hogs are fat!"--"Yes, that's well, John; now, what don't +you know?"--"I don't know _whose corn_ fats 'em."[211] + + +PIGS AND SILVER SPOON. + +The Earl of P---- kept a number of swine at his seat in Wiltshire, and +crossing the yard one day, he was surprised to see the pigs gathered +round one trough, and making a great noise. Curiosity prompted him to +see what was the cause, and on looking into the trough he perceived a +large silver spoon. A servant-maid came out, and began to abuse the pigs +for crying so. "Well they may," said his lordship, "when they have got +but one _silver spoon_ among them all." + + * * * * * + +We have heard of one nobleman in Strathearn, who, when a young man, used +to be thus addressed by his mother--"William! how are the children _and +your pigs_?"[212] + + +SYDNEY SMITH ON BEAUTIFUL PIGS. + +DEFINITION OF BEAUTY BY A UTILITARIAN. + +"Go to the Duke of Bedford's piggery at Woburn, and you will see a breed +of pigs with legs so short, that their stomachs trail upon the ground; +a breed of animals entombed in their own fat, overwhelmed with +prosperity, success, and farina. No animal could possibly be so +disgusting, if it were not useful; but a breeder who has accurately +attended to the small quantity of food it requires to swell this pig out +to such extraordinary dimensions,--the extraordinary genius it displays +for obesity,--and the laudable propensity of the flesh to desert the +cheap regions of the body, and to agglomerate on those parts which are +worth ninepence a pound,--such an observer of its utility does not +scruple to call these otherwise hideous quadrupeds a beautiful race of +pigs!"[213] + + +JOSEPH STURGE, WHEN A BOY, AND THE PIGS. + +When Joseph Sturge, that good Quaker, was in his sixth year, his +biographer, Henry Richard,[214] records that he was on a visit to a +friend of his mother's at Frenchay, near Bristol. Sauntering about one +day, he came near the house of an eccentric man, a Quaker, who was much +annoyed by the depredations of his neighbour's pigs. Half in jest, and +half in earnest, he told the lad to drive the pigs into a pond close by. +Joseph, nothing loath, set to work with a will, delighted with the fun. +The woman, to whom the pigs belonged, came out presently, broom in hand, +flourishing it over the young sinner's head. The tempter was standing +by, and sought to cover his share of the transaction by shaking his head +and saying--"Ah, + + 'Satan finds some mischief still + For idle hands to do.' + +The child looked up at him indignantly, and said, 'Thee bee'st Satan +then, for thee told'st me to do it.'" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[194] "Letters from Sarawak," p. 104. 1854. + +[195] "Divides the hoof, and is cloven-footed, yet cheweth not the cud" +(Lev. ii. 7). + +[196] Boner's "Chamois Hunting in the Mountains of Bavaria," p. 97. + +[197] "Travels" (Home and Colonial Library), p. 147. + +[198] "Travels in Syria and the Holy Land," p. 9. + +[199] Symbolae Physicae. + +[200] _Potamochoerus penicellatus._ [Greek: Potamos], a river; [Greek: +choiros], a pig; _penicellatus_, pencilled. It is said to be the _Sus +porcus_ of Linnaeus. + +[201] "A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea, written +originally in Dutch." London, 1705, p. 247. + +[202] See Dr Sutherland's interesting account in his "Journal of a +Voyage in Baffin Bay and Barrow's Straits in the years 1850, 1851;" a +truly excellent work on the Arctic regions, by one who is now Surveyor +of Natal. + +[203] See Biography in G. H. Wilson's _Eccentric Mirror_, i., No. 3, p. +30. + +[204] "Common-Place Book," iv. p. 514. + +[205] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 107. + +[206] _Ibid._, p. 337. + +[207] "Memoir of the Life of Elizabeth Fry," vol. ii. p. 30. 1847. + +[208] "Life of Thomas Gainsborough, R.A.," by the late George William +Fulcher, edited by his Son, p. 122. 1856. + +[209] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 328. + +[210] _Ibid._, p. 2. + +[211] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 31. The latter of these jests is +attributed by Dean Ramsay to a half-witted Ayrshire man, who said he +"kenned a miller had aye a gey fat sow."--_Reminiscences_, p. 197. + +[212] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 269. This worthy nobleman was and is +much attached to his home-farm. He is well known in Perthshire. + +[213] "Wit and Wisdom of Rev. Sydney Smith," third edition, p. 253. From +a lecture at Royal Institution. + +[214] "Memoirs of Joseph Sturge," by Henry Richard. + + + + +HORSE. + + +The noblest animal employed by man, and consequently the subject of many +volumes of anecdote,--a study for the painter and sculptor, from the +days of the Greek and Assyrian artists to the present day. Charles +Darwin and Sir Francis Head have given graphic descriptions of the +catching of the wild horse, which swarms on the Pampas of South America. + +How pathetic to see the led horse following the bier of a soldier! It +was, perhaps, the most affecting incident in the long array of the +funeral of the great Duke. + +In the Museum at Brussels, Dr Patrick Neill observed, in 1817, "the +stuffed skin of the horse belonging to one of the Alberts, who governed +the Low Countries in the time of the Spaniards. It was shot under him in +the field, and the holes made in the thorax by the musket bullets are +still very evident."[215] + +Poor Copenhagen, the Duke's charger at Waterloo, was buried. Many would +have liked his skin or skeleton. The Duke resisted all attempts to give +his old friend up for such a purpose. We hope no resurrectionist +succeeded in getting up his bones, years after his burial at +Strathfieldsaye. + + +BELL-ROCK HORSE. + +The Bell-Rock Lighthouse, built on a dangerous range of rocks twelve +miles south by east from Arbroath, was begun by Robert Stevenson on the +17th August 1807, and finished in October 1810. Mr Jervise[216] records +that "one horse, the property of James Craw, a labourer in Arbroath, is +believed to have drawn the entire materials of the building. The animal +latterly became a _pensioner_ of the Lighthouse Commissioners, and was +sent by them to graze on the Island of Inchkeith, where it died of old +age in 1813. Dr John Barclay, the celebrated anatomist, had its bones +collected and arranged in his museum, which he bequeathed at his death +to the Royal College of Surgeons, and in their museum at Edinburgh the +skeleton of the _Bell-Rock horse_ may yet be seen." + + +BURKE AND THE HORSE. + +An anecdote of the humanity of the great Edmund Burke in the year 1762 +has been preserved.[217] "An Irishman, of the name of Johnson, was +astonishing the town by his horsemanship. All London crowded to see his +feats of agility and his highly-trained steeds. Dr Johnson and Boswell +talked of this man's wonderful ability, and the Doctor thought that he +fully deserved encouragement on philosophical grounds. He proved what +human perseverance could do. One who saw him riding on three horses at +once, or dancing upon a wire, might hope, that with the same application +in the profession of his choice, he should attain the same success. +Burke, always ready to encourage his countrymen, and curious in all the +ramifications of ingenuity, went frequently to the circus. The favourite +performance of the evening was that of a handsome black horse, which, at +the sound of Johnson's whip, would leave the stable, stand with much +docility at his side, then gallop about the ring, and on hearing the +crack of the lash again return obediently to its master. On one +unfortunate occasion, the signal was disregarded. The horse-rider flew +into a rage, and by a blow between the ears, struck the noble animal to +the earth. The spectators thought the horse was dying, but they had +little time to reflect on the sight before they were surprised at seeing +a gentleman jump into the ring, rush up to Johnson, and with his eyes +flashing, and every muscle in the face quivering with emotion, shout +out, 'You scoundrel! I have a mind to knock you down.' And Johnson would +certainly have been laid sprawling in the sawdust beside his panting +steed, had not the friends of the gentleman interposed, and prevented +him inflicting such summary chastisement. This incident was long +remembered. When the relater of it, many years afterwards, heard Burke +declaiming, on the floor of the House of Commons, against injustice and +oppression, his mind naturally reverted to the time when he saw the same +hatred of all cruelty displayed by the same individual as he stood over +the prostrate body of the poor black horse, prepared to punish the +miscreant who had felled it to the ground." + + +DAVID GARRICK AND HIS HORSE. + +In 1778 Sir Joshua Reynolds visited Dr Warton at Winchester College. +Here he was particularly noticed by George III. and his queen, who were +then making a tour through the summer encampments. The father of Lord +Palmerston, and David Garrick, the great actor, with others, visited +Warton at the same time. + +Mr Northcote[218] relates that a whimsical accident occurred to Garrick +at one of the reviews, which Sir Joshua afterwards recounted with great +humour. + +"At one of those field-days in the vicinity, Garrick found it necessary +to dismount, when his horse escaped from his hold and ran off; throwing +himself immediately into his professional attitude, he cried out, as if +on Bosworth field, 'A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!'" + +This exclamation, and the accompanying attitude, excited great amazement +amongst the surrounding spectators, who knew him not; but it could not +escape his majesty's quick apprehension, for, it being within his +hearing, he immediately said, "Those must be the tones of Garrick! see +if he is not on the ground." The theatrical and dismounted monarch was +immediately brought to his majesty, who not only condoled with him most +good humouredly on his misfortune, but flatteringly added, that his +delivery of Shakspeare could never pass undiscovered. + +This anecdote of Garrick at Winchester is told in the Rev. John Wool's +"Life of Warton." Mr Taylor says--"One can't help suspecting Roscius +took care to make his speech when he knew the king was within earshot--a +little bit of that 'artifice' of his which has left such an impression +in the theatre, that the phrase, 'As deep as Garrick,' is still current +stage slang."[219] + + +BERNARD GILPIN'S HORSES STOLEN AND RECOVERED.[220] + +The biographer of the saintly Bernard Gilpin, the apostle of the +northern counties of England in the days of Edward VI., and Queens Mary +and Elizabeth, relates that, by the carelessness of his servant, his +horses were one day stolen. The news was quickly propagated, and every +one expressed the highest indignation. The thief was rejoicing over his +prize, when, by the report of the country, he found whose horses he had +taken. Terrified at what he had done, he instantly came trembling back, +confessed the fact, returned the horses, and declared he believed the +devil would have seized him directly had he carried them off, knowing +them to have been Mr Gilpin's. The biographer gives an instance of his +benevolent temper. "One day returning home, he saw in a field several +people crowding together; and judging that something more than ordinary +had happened, he rode up to them, and found that one of the horses in a +team had suddenly dropped down, which they were endeavouring to raise; +but in vain, for the horse was dead. The owner of it seeming much +dejected with his misfortune, and declaring how grievous a loss it was +to him, Mr Gilpin bade him not be disheartened; "I'll let you have, +honest man, that horse of mine," and pointed to his servant's. "Ah! +master," replied the countryman, "my pocket will not reach such a beast +as that." "Come, come," says Mr Gilpin, "take him, take him; and when I +demand my money, then thou shalt pay me."[221] + +No wonder that the horses of the apostolic rector of Houghton-le-Spring +were safe, even in those horse-stealing times, and in that Border +county. + + +THE HERALD AND GEORGE III.'S HORSE. + +One day, when Sir Isaac Heard was in company with George III., it was +announced that his majesty's horse was ready for hunting. "Sir Isaac," +said the king, "are you a judge of horses?"--"In my younger days, please +your majesty, I was a great deal among them," was the reply.--"What do +you think of this, then?" said the king, who was by this time preparing +to mount his favourite; and, without waiting for an answer, added, "We +call him _Perfection_."--"A most appropriate name," replied the courtly +herald, bowing as his majesty reached the saddle, "for he _bears_ the +best of characters."[222] + + +ROWLAND HILL AND HIS HORSE AT DUNBAR. + +Many stories of the excellent but eccentric Rowland Hill are told, but +often with considerable exaggeration. The following may be depended on +for its accuracy, as it was told by Robert Haldane.[223] It occurred at +Dunbar, in September 1797, during an evangelistic tour Hill and Haldane +were making in Scotland. They were sleeping at Mr Cunningham's, when, +in the morning, intending to proceed southward, on Mr Hill's carriage +being brought to the door, his horse was found to be dead lame. A +farrier was sent for, who, after careful examination, reported that the +seat of the mischief was in the shoulder, that the disease was +incurable, and that they might shoot the poor animal as soon as they +pleased. To this proposal Mr Hill was by no means prepared to accede. +Indeed, it seemed to Mr Haldane as precipitate as the conduct of an +Irish sailor on board the _Monarch_, who, on seeing another knocked down +senseless by a splinter, and supposing his companion to be dead, went up +to Captain Duncan, on the quarter-deck, in the midst of the action with +Languara, off St Vincent, and exclaimed, "Shall we jerk him overboard, +sir?" On that occasion the sailor revived in a short time, and was even +able to work at his gun. In the present instance the horse, too, +recovered, and was able to carry his master on many a future errand of +mercy. Meanwhile, however, the travellers availed themselves of Mr +Cunningham's hospitality, and remained for two days more at his place, +near Dunbar. In the evening Mr Hill conducted family worship, and after +the supplications for the family, domestics, and friends, added a +fervent prayer for the restoration of the valuable animal which had +carried him so many thousands of miles, preaching the everlasting gospel +to his fellow-sinners. Mr Cunningham, who was remarkable for the staid +and orderly, if not stiff, demeanour, which characterised the +anti-burghers, was not only surprised but grieved, and even scandalised, +at what he deemed so great an impropriety. He remonstrated with his +guest. But Mr Hill stoutly defended his conduct by an appeal to +Scripture, and the superintending watchfulness of Him without whom a +sparrow falls not to the ground. He persisted in his prayer during the +two days he continued at Dunbar, and, although he left the horse, in a +hopeless state, to follow in charge of his servant by easy stages, he +continued his prayer, night and morning, till one day, at an inn in +Yorkshire, while the two travellers were sitting at breakfast, they +heard a horse and chaise trot briskly into the yard, and, looking out, +saw that Mr Hill's servant had arrived, bringing up the horse perfectly +restored. Mr Hill did not fail to return thanks, and begged his +fellow-traveller to consider whether the minuteness of his prayers had +deserved the censure which had been directed against them. + + +A SAYING OF ROWLAND HILL'S. + +Rowland Hill rode a great deal, and exercise preserved him in vigorous +health. On one occasion, when asked by a medical friend, who was +commenting on his invariably good health, what physician and apothecary +he employed, he replied, "My physician has always been a _horse_, and my +apothecary an _ass_!"[224] + + +HOLCROFT ON THE HORSE. + +Thomas Holcroft, the novelist and play-writer, when a lad, was a stable +boy to a trainer of running horses. In his memoirs he has written a good +deal about the habits of the race-horse. He says of them:--"I soon +learned that the safehold for sitting steady was to keep the knee and +the calf of the leg strongly pressed against the sides of the animal +that endeavours to unhorse you; and as little accidents afford frequent +occasions to remind the boys of this rule, it becomes so rooted in the +memory of the intelligent, that their danger is comparatively trifling. +Of the temperaments and habits of blood-horses there are great +varieties, and those very strongly contrasted. The majority of them are +playful, but their gambols are dangerous to the timid or unskilful. They +are all easily and suddenly alarmed, when anything they do not +understand forcibly catches their attention, and they are then to be +feared by the bad horseman, and carefully guarded against by the good. +Very serious accidents have happened to the best. But, besides their +general disposition to playfulness, there is a great propensity in them +to become what the jockeys call vicious. High bred, hot in blood, +exercised, fed and dressed so as to bring that heat to perfection, their +tender skins at all times subject to a sharp curry-comb, hard brushing, +and when they take sweats, to scraping with wooden instruments, it +cannot be but that they are frequently and exceedingly irritated. +Intending to make themselves felt and feared, they will watch their +opportunity to bite, stamp, or kick; I mean those among them that are +vicious. Tom, the brother of Jack Clarke, after sweating a gray horse +that belonged to Lord March, with whom he lived, while he was either +scraping or dressing him, was seized by the animal by the shoulder, +lifted from the ground, and carried two or three hundred yards before +the horse loosened his hold. Old Forrester, a horse that belonged to +Captain Vernon, all the while that I remained at Newmarket, was obliged +to be kept apart, and being foundered, to live at grass, where he was +confined to a close paddock. Except Tom Watson, he would suffer no lad +to come near him; if in his paddock, he would run furiously at the +first person that approached, and if in the stable, would kick and +assault every one within his reach. Horses of this kind seem always to +select their favourite boy. Tom Watson, indeed, had attained to man's +estate, and in his brother's absence, which was rare, acted as +superintendent. Horses, commonly speaking, are of a friendly and +generous nature; but there are anecdotes of the malignant and savage +ferocity of some, that are scarcely to be credited; at least many such +are traditional at Newmarket. + +Of their friendly disposition towards their keepers, there is a trait +known to every boy that has the care of any one of them, which ought not +to be omitted. The custom is to rise very early, even between two and +three in the morning, when the days lengthen. In the course of the day, +horses and boys have much to do. About half after eight, perhaps, in the +evening, the horse has his last feed of oats, which he generally stands +to enjoy in the centre of his smooth, carefully made bed of clean long +straw, and by the side of him the weary boy will often lie down; it +being held as a maxim, a rule without exception, that were he to lie +even till morning, the horse would never lie down himself, but stand +still, careful to do his keeper no harm.[225] + +In one of Thomas Holcroft's novels, "Alwyn; or, The Gentleman Comedian," +founded on his own adventures when a travelling actor, he gives the +character of an enthusiast who had conceived the idea of establishing a +humane asylum for animals, the consequences of which he describes. "I am +pestered, plagued, teased, tormented to death. I believe all the cats +in Christendom are assembled in Oxfordshire. I am obliged to hire a +clerk to pay the people; and the village where I live is become a +constant fair. A fellow has set up the sign of the Three Blind Kittens, +and has the impudence to tell the neighbours, that if my whims and my +money only hold out for one twelvemonth, he shall not care a fig for the +king. I thought to prevent this inundation, by buying up all the old +cats and secluding them in convents and monasteries of my own, but the +value of the breeders is increased to such a degree, that I do not +believe my whole fortune is capable of the purchase. Besides I am made +an ass of. A rascal, who is a known sharper in these parts, hearing of +the aversion I had to cruelty, bought an old one-eyed horse, that was +going to the dogs, for five shillings; then taking a hammer in his hand, +watched an opportunity of finding me alone, and addressed me in the +following manner: 'Look you, master, I know that you don't love to see +any dumb creature abused, and so, if you don't give me ten pounds, why, +I shall scoop out this old rip's odd eye with the sharp end of this here +hammer, now, before your face.' Ay, and the villain would have done it +too, if I had not instantly complied; but what was worse, the abominable +scoundrel had the audacity to tell me, when I wanted him to deliver the +horse first, for fear he should extort a further sum from me, that he +had more honour than to break his word. A whelp of a boy had yesterday +caught a young hedgehog, and perceiving me, threw it into the water to +make it extend its legs; then with the rough side of a knotty stick +sawed upon them till the creature cried like a child; and when I ordered +him to desist, told me he would not, till I had given him sixpence. +There is something worse than all this. The avaricious rascals, when +they can find nothing that they think will excite my pity, disable the +first animal which is not dignified with the title of Christian, and +then bring it to me as an object worthy of commiseration; so that, in +fact, instead of protecting, I destroy. The women have entertained a +notion that I hate two-legged animals; and one of them called after me +the other day, to tell me I was an old rogue, and that I had better give +my money to the poor, than keep a parcel of dogs and cats that eat up +the village. I perceive it is in vain to attempt carrying on the scheme +much longer, and then my poor invalids will be worse off than they were +before."[226] + + +A JOKE OF LORD MANSFIELD'S ABOUT A HORSE. + +Lord Campbell[227] tells an anecdote of George Wood, a celebrated +special pleader at the time when Lord Mansfield was Chief-Justice. +Though a subtle pleader, George was very ignorant of _horse-flesh_, and +had been cruelly cheated in the purchase of a horse on which he had +intended to ride the circuit. He brought an action on the warranty that +the horse was "a good roadster, and free from vice." At the trial before +Lord Mansfield, it appeared that when the plaintiff mounted at the +stables in London, with the intention of proceeding to Barnet, nothing +could induce the animal to move forward a single step. On hearing this +evidence, the Chief-Justice with much gravity exclaimed, "Who would have +supposed that Mr Wood's horse would have _demurred_ when he ought to +have _gone to the country_." Any attempt, adds Lord Campbell, to explain +this excellent joke to _lay gents_ would be vain, and to _lawyers_ would +be superfluous. + + +GENERAL SIR JOHN MOORE AND HIS HORSE AT THE BATTLE OF CORUNNA. + +Charles Napier served in Lord William Bentinck's brigade during the +retreat of the truly great and ill-used Moore at the battle of Corunna; +he was covered with wounds, and was carried off a prisoner. In his +"Biography" General Sir William Napier[228] has published a most +interesting description of the part his brother took in that battle, and +written in his own words. I extract a few vivid lines in which Moore and +his horse are brought before you. A heavy French column was descending +rapidly on the British line at the part where Napier was. "Suddenly I +heard the gallop of horses, and turning saw Moore. He came at speed, and +pulled up so sharp and close he seemed to have alighted from the air; +man and horse looking at the approaching foe with an intenseness that +seemed to concentrate all feeling in their eyes. The sudden stop of the +animal, a cream-coloured one, with black tail and mane, had cast the +latter streaming forward, its ears were pushed out like horns, while its +eyes flashed fire, and it snorted loudly with expanded nostrils, +expressing terror, astonishment, and muscular exertion. My first thought +was, it will be away like the wind; but then I looked at the rider, and +the horse was forgotten. Thrown on its haunches the animal came, sliding +and dashing the dirt up with its fore-feet, thus bending the general +forward almost to its neck; but his head was thrown back, and his look +more keenly piercing than I ever before saw it. He glanced to the right +and left, and then fixed his eyes intently on the enemy's advancing +column, at the same time grasping the reins with both his hands, and +pressing the horse firmly with his knees; his body thus seemed to deal +with the animal, while his mind was intent on the enemy, and his aspect +was one of searching intenseness, beyond the power of words to describe; +for a while he looked, and then galloped to the left, without uttering a +word." + + +NEITHER HORSES NOR CHILDREN CAN EXPLAIN THEIR COMPLAINTS. + +Dr Mounsey, the Chelsea doctor, an eccentric physician, who was a great +friend of David Garrick, related to Taylor that he was once in company +with another physician and an eminent farrier. The physician stated that +among the difficulties of his profession, was that of discovering the +maladies of children, because they could not explain the symptoms of +their disorder. "Well," said the farrier, "your difficulties are not +greater than mine, for my patients, the horses, are equally unable to +explain their complaints."--"Ah!" rejoined the physician, "my brother +doctor must conquer me, as he has brought his cavalry against my +infantry!"[229] + + +HORSES WITH NAMES. + +In this country most horses have a name, but in Germany this custom must +be unusual. Perthes, when on his way from Hamburg to Frankfort, remarked +at Boehmte--"It is a pleasing custom they have here of giving proper +names to horses. The horse is a noble and intelligent animal, and quite +as deserving of such a distinction as the dog; and when it has a name, +it has made some advance towards personality."[230] + + +"OLD JACK" OF WATERLOO BRIDGE. + +In building Waterloo Bridge, the finest of Rennie's bridges, the whole +of the stone required was hewn in some fields on the Surrey side. Nearly +the whole of this material was drawn by one horse called "Old Jack," a +most sensible animal. Mr Smiles, in his "Life of John Rennie,"[231] thus +speaks of this favourite old horse--"His driver was, generally speaking, +a steady and trustworthy man; though rather too fond of his dram before +breakfast. As the railway along which the stone was drawn passed in +front of the public-house door, the horse and truck were usually pulled +up, while Tom entered for his 'morning.' On one occasion the driver +stayed so long that 'Old Jack,' becoming impatient, poked his head into +the open door, and taking his master's coat collar between his teeth, +though in a gentle sort of manner, pulled him out from the midst of his +companions, and thus forced him to resume the day's work." + + +SYDNEY SMITH AND HIS HORSES. + +Sydney Smith, when rector of Foston-le-Clay, in Yorkshire, a living +which he got from Lord Chancellor Erskine in 1806, was in the habit of +riding a good deal. His daughter says that, "either from the badness of +his horses, or the badness of his riding, or perhaps from both (in spite +of his various ingenious contrivances to keep himself in the saddle), he +had several falls, and kept us in continual anxiety."[232] He writes in +a letter--"I used to think a fall from a horse dangerous, but much +experience has convinced me to the contrary. I have had six falls in two +years, and just behaved like the three per cents. when they fall. I got +up again, and am not a bit the worse for it any more than the stock in +question." In speaking of this he says, "I left off riding for the good +of my parish and the peace of my family; for, somehow or other, my horse +and I had a habit of parting company. On one occasion I found myself +suddenly prostrate in the streets of York, much to the delight of the +Dissenters. Another time my horse Calamity flung me over his head into a +neighbouring parish, as if I had been a shuttlecock, and I felt grateful +it was not into a neighbouring planet; but as no harm came of it, I +might have persevered perhaps, if, on a certain day, a Quaker tailor +from a neighbouring village to which I had said I was going to ride, had +not taken it into his head to call, soon after my departure, and request +to see Mrs Sydney. She instantly, conceiving I was thrown, if not +killed, rushed down to the man, exclaiming, 'Where is he?--where is +your master?--is he hurt?' The astonished and quaking snip stood silent +from surprise. Still more agitated by his silence, she exclaimed, 'Is he +hurt? I insist upon knowing the worst!'--'Why, please, ma'am, it is only +thy little bill, a very small account, I wanted thee to settle,' replied +he, in much surprise. + +"After this, you may suppose, I sold my horse; however, it is some +comfort to know that my friend, Sir George, is one fall ahead of me, and +is certainly a worse rider. It is a great proof, too, of the liberality +of this county, where everybody can ride as soon as they are born, that +they tolerate me at all. + +"The horse 'Calamity,' whose name has been thus introduced, was the +first-born of several young horses bred on the farm, who turned out very +fine creatures, and gained him great glory, even amongst the knowing +farmers of Yorkshire; but this first production was certainly not +encouraging. To his dismay a huge, lank, large-boned foal appeared, of +chestnut colour, and with four white legs. It grew apace, but its bones +became more and more conspicuous; its appetite was unbounded--grass, +hay, corn, beans, food moist and dry, were all supplied in vain, and +vanished down his throat with incredible rapidity. He stood, a large +living skeleton, with famine written in his face, and my father +christened him 'Calamity.' As Calamity grew to maturity, he was found to +be as sluggish in disposition as his master was impetuous; so my father +was driven to invent his patent Tantalus, which consisted of a small +sieve of corn, suspended on a semicircular bar of iron, from the ends of +the shafts, just beyond the horse's nose. The corn, rattling as the +vehicle proceeded, stimulated Calamity to unwonted exertions; and under +the hope of overtaking this imaginary feed, he did more work than all +the previous provender which had been poured down his throat had been +able to obtain from him." + +He was very fond of his young horses, and they all came running to meet +him when he entered the field. He began their education from their +birth; he taught them to wear a girth, a bridle, a saddle; to meet +flags, music; to bear the firing of a pistol at their heads from their +earliest years; and he maintained that no horses were so well broken as +his! At p. 388 she records, "At ten we always went down-stairs to +prayers in the library. Immediately after, if we were alone, appeared +the 'farmer' at the door, lantern in hand. 'David, bring me my coat and +stick,' and off he set with him, summer and winter, to visit his horses, +and see that they were all well fed, and comfortable in their regions +for the night. He kept up this custom all his life!" + + * * * * * + +Sydney Smith, when at Foston, used to exercise his skill in medicine on +the poor, and often did much good; his daughter gives some instances of +his practice as a farrier. + +"On one occasion, wishing to administer a ball to Peter the Cruel,[233] +the groom, by mistake, gave him two boxes of opium pills in his bran +mash, which Peter composedly munched, boxes and all. My father, in +dismay, when he heard what had happened, went to look, as he thought, +for the last time on his beloved Peter; but soon found, to his great +relief, that neither boxes nor pills had produced any visible effects on +him. Another time he found all his pigs intoxicated; and, as he +declared, 'grunting "God save the King" about the stye,' from having +eaten some fermented grains which he had ordered for them. Once he +administered castor-oil to the red cow, in quantities sufficient to have +killed a regiment of Christians; but the red cow laughed alike at his +skill and his oil, and went on her way rejoicing."[234] + + * * * * * + +Sydney Smith tells a story, or made one, of a clergyman who was rather +absent. "I heard of a clergyman who went jogging along the road till he +came to a turnpike. 'What is to pay?'--'Pay, sir, for what?' asked the +turnpike man.--'Why, for my horse, to be sure.'--'Your horse, sir? what +horse? here is no horse, sir.'--'No horse? God bless me!' said he, +suddenly, looking down between his legs, 'I thought I was on +horseback.'"[235] + + +JUDGE STORY AND THE NAMES HE GAVE HIS HORSES. + +The son and biographer of the eminent American judge, Joseph Story, +relates of him[236]--"To dumb creatures he was kind and considerate, and +indignant at any ill usage of them. His sportive nature showed itself in +the nicknames which, in parody of the American fondness of titles, he +gave to his horses and dogs, as, 'The Right Honourable Mr Mouse,' or +'Colonel Roy.'" + + +WORDSWORTH ON CRUELTY TO HORSES IN IRELAND. + +The Rev. Caesar Otway,[237] in a lecture full of interesting anecdotes, +records:--"I remember an observation made to me by one of the most +gifted of the human race--one of the stars of this generation--the poet +of nature and of feeling--the good and the great Mr Wordsworth. Having +the honour of a conversation with him, after he had made a tour through +Ireland, I, in the course of it, asked what was the thing that most +struck his observation here, as making us differ from the English; and +he, without hesitation, said it was the ill treatment of our horses; +that his soul was often, too often, sick within him at the way in which +he saw these creatures of God abused." + + +USE OF TAIL.--SHORT-TAILED AND LONG-TAILED HORSES. + +In an Irish paper was an advertisement for horses to stand at livery on +the following terms:--"Long-tailed horses at 3s. 6d. per week; +short-tailed horses at 3s. per week." On inquiry into the cause of the +difference, it was answered, that the horses with long tails could brush +the flies off their backs while eating, whereas the short-tailed horses +were obliged to take their heads _from the manger_, and so ate +less.[238] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[215] "Journal of Horticultural Tour," p. 306. + +[216] "Memorials of Angus and the Mearns," by Andrew Jervise (1861), p. +175. + +[217] "History of the Life and Times of Edmund Burke," by Thomas +Macknight, vol. i. p. 160. + +[218] "Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds," &c., by James Northcote, Esq., R.A. +(2d edition), vol. ii. p. 80. + +[219] "Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds," by C. R. Leslie and Tom +Taylor, M.A., vol. ii. p. 219. + +[220] "Lives of Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, and of Bernard +Gilpin," by William Gilpin, M.A. (3d edition), 1780, p. 275. + +[221] _Loc. cit._, p. 284. + +[222] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 39. + +[223] "The Lives of Robert Haldane of Airthrey, and of his Brother, +James Alexander Haldane," by Alex. Haldane, Esq., of the Inner Temple +(1852), p. 223. + +[224] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 318. + +[225] "Memoirs of Thomas Holcroft" (ed. 1852), pp. 40, 41. + +[226] "Memoirs of the late Thomas Holcroft," written by himself (ed. +London, 1852), p. 112. + +[227] "Lives of the Chief-Justices of England" (Lord Ellenborough), vol. +iii. p. 100. + +[228] Vol i. pp. 94-115. + +[229] "Physic and Physicians: a Medical Sketch-Book," vol. i. p. 59. + +[230] "Memoirs of Frederick Perthes," vol. i. p. 309. + +[231] "Lives of the Engineers," vol. ii. p. 185. + +[232] "Memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith," by his daughter, Lady Holland, +vol. i. pp. 172-174. + +[233] A horse which he called so. + +[234] "Memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith," by his daughter, Lady Holland, +vol. i. p. 117. + +[235] Mrs Marcet, in Lady Holland's Memoirs of her Father, the Rev. +Sydney Smith, vol. i. p. 364. + +[236] "Life and Letters of Joseph Story, Associate Justice of the +Supreme Court of the United States, and Dane Professor of Law at Harvard +University," edited by his son, Wm. W. Story, vol. ii. p. 611. + +[237] "The Intellectuality of Domestic Animals: a Lecture Delivered +before the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland," p. 25. Dublin, 1847. + +[238] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 263. + + + + +ASS AND ZEBRA. + + +It is strange that one of the most sagacious of animals should have +supplied us with a by-word for "a fool." Coleridge was conscious of this +when, in writing his address to a young ass's foal,[239] he exclaimed-- + + "I hail thee, brother, spite of the fool's scorn." + +How well has he expressed his love for "the languid patience" of its +face. + +In warmer climes the ass attains a size and condition not seen here, +though when cared for in this rougher climate, the donkey assumes +somewhat of the size and elegance he has in the East. But who can bear +his voice? Surely Coleridge was very fanciful when, in any condition of +asshood, he could write-- + + "Yea, and more musically sweet to me + Thy dissonant, harsh bray of joy would be, + Than warbled melodies that soothe to rest + The aching of pale Fashion's vacant breast." + +The wild ass, as it roams over the plains of Asia, or is seen in the +Zoological gardens along with the gracefully-shaped and prettily-striped +zebra, must be admired by every one. + + +COLLINS AND THE OLD DONKEY OF ODELL, COWPER'S MESSENGER AT OLNEY. + +In July 1823, William Collins, R.A., visited Turvey, in Bedfordshire. +His son remarks--"Besides the attractions presented to the pencil by the +natural beauties of this neighbourhood, its vicinity to Olney, the +favourite residence of the poet Cowper, gave it, to all lovers of +poetry, a local and peculiar charm. Conspicuous among its inhabitants at +the time when my father visited it was 'old Odell,' frequently mentioned +by Cowper as the favourite messenger who carried his letters and +parcels. The extreme picturesqueness and genuine rustic dignity of the +old man's appearance made him an admirable subject for pictorial study. +Portraits of him, in water-colours and oils, were accordingly made by my +father, who introduced him into three of his pictures. The donkey on +which he had for years ridden to and fro with letters, was as carefully +depicted by the painter as his rider. On visiting 'old Odell' a year or +two afterwards, Mr Collins observed a strange-looking object hanging +against his kitchen wall, and inquired what it was. 'Oh, sir,' replied +the old man, sorrowfully, 'that is the skin of my poor donkey. He died +of old age, and I did not like to part with him altogether, so I had his +skin dried, and hung up there.' Tears came into his eyes as he spoke of +the old companion of all his village pilgrimages. The incident might +have formed a continuation of Sterne's exquisite episode in the +'Sentimental Journey.'"[240] + +In his picture of "The Cherry-Seller," painted for Mr Higgins of Turvey +House, old Odell and his donkey are chief figures. + + +GAINSBOROUGH KEPT AN ASS. + +The Rev. William Gilpin, in his "Forest Scenery," refers to the +picturesque beauty of the ass in a landscape Berghem often introduced +it; "and a late excellent landscape-painter (Mr Gainsborough), I have +heard, generally kept this animal by him, that he might have it always +at hand to introduce in various attitudes into his pictures. I have +heard also that a plaster cast of an ass, modelled by him, is sold in +the shops in London."[241] + + +IRISHMAN ON THE RAMSGATE DONKEYS. + +In former times, when excise officers were not so sharp, there was a +good deal of smuggling carried on at Ramsgate. Sir Thomas Dick +Lauder[242] tells an anecdote of an Irishman there, who being asked to +name the hardest wrought creature in existence, replied, "Och! a +Ramsgate donkey, to be sure; for, faith, afthur carrying angels all day, +be the powers he is forced to carry speerits all night." + + +ASS'S FOAL. + +Douglas Jerrold and a company of literary friends were out in the +country. In the course of their walk they stopped to notice the gambols +of an ass's foal. A very sentimental poet present vowed that he should +like to send the little thing as a present to his mother. "Do," replied +Jerrold, "and tie a piece of paper round its neck, bearing this motto, +'When this you see, remember me.'"[243] + + +ASS. + +A judge, joking a young barrister, said--"If you and I were turned into +a horse and an ass, which would you prefer to be?"--"The ass, to be +sure," replied the barrister. "I've heard of an ass being made a judge, +but a horse never."[244] + +Ammonianus, the grammarian, had an ass which, as it is said, when he +attended the lectures upon poetry, often neglected his food when laid +before him, though at the same time he was hungry, so much was the ass +taken with the love of poetry.[245] + + +WARREN HASTINGS AND THE REFRACTORY DONKEY. + +The fondness of the first Governor-General of India for horse exercise, +and indeed for the horse itself, was quite oriental, as his biographer +relates.[246] He was a fine rider, and piqued himself on his abilities +in this way. + +"Nothing pleased him," continues Mr Gleig, "more than to undertake some +animal which nobody else could control, and to reduce it, as he +invariably did, to a state of perfect docility. The following anecdote, +which I have from my friend Mr Impey, himself an actor in the little +drama, may suffice to show the extent to which this passion was carried. +It happened once upon a time, when Mr Impey was, with some other boys, +on a visit at Daylesford, that Mr Hastings, returning from a ride, saw +his young friends striving in vain to manage an ass which they had found +grazing in the paddock, and which one after another they chose to mount. +The ass, it appears, had no objection to receive the candidates for +equestrian renown successively on his back, but budge a foot he would +not; and there being neither saddle nor bridle, wherewith to restrain +his natural movements, he never failed, so soon as a difference of +opinion arose, to get the better of his rider. Each in his turn, the +boys were repeatedly thrown, till at last Mr Hastings, who watched the +proceedings with great interest, approached. + +"Why, boys," said he, "how is it that none of you can ride?" + +"Not ride!" cried the little aspirants; "we could ride well enough, if +we had a saddle and a bridle; but he's such an obstinate brute, that we +don't think even you, sir, could sit him bare-backed." + +"Let's try," exclaimed the Governor-General. + +Whereupon he dismounted, and gave his horse to one of the children to +hold, and mounted the donkey. The beast began to kick up his heels, and +lower his head as heretofore; but this time the trick would not answer. +The Governor-General sat firm, and finally prevailed, whether by fair +means or foul, I am not instructed, in getting the quadruped to move +wheresoever he chose. He himself laughed heartily as he resigned the +conquered thistle-eater to his first friends; and the story when told, +as told it was, with consummate humour, at the dinner-table, afforded +great amusement to a large circle of guests. + + +NORTHCOTE, THE ROYAL ACADEMICIAN, AN ANGEL AT AN ASS. + +Fuseli, the artist, was a most outspoken man. His biographer[247] says +that he never concealed his sentiments with regard to men, even to their +faces. + +"Every one knows," writes Mr Knowles, "who is acquainted with art, the +powers which Northcote displays when he paints animals of the brute +creation. When his picture of 'Balaam and the Ass' was exhibited at the +Macklin Gallery, Northcote asked Fuseli's opinion of its merits, who +instantly said, 'My friend, you are an angel at an ass, but an ass at an +angel.'" + + +SYDNEY SMITH'S ACCOMPLISHED DONKEY, WITH FRANCIS JEFFREY ON HIS BACK. + +Lady Holland[248] gives the following picture of her father's pet +donkey:-- + +"Amongst our rural delights at Heslington was the possession of a young +donkey which had been given up to our tender mercies from the time of +its birth, and in whose education we employed a large portion of our +spare time; and a most accomplished donkey it became under our tuition. +It would walk up-stairs, pick pockets, follow us in our walks like a +huge Newfoundland dog, and at the most distant sight of us in the field, +with ears down and tail erect, it set off in full bray to meet us. +These demonstrations on Bitty's part were met with not less affection on +ours, and Bitty was almost considered a member of the family. + +"One day, when my elder brother and myself were training our beloved +Bitty with a pocket-handkerchief for a bridle, and his head crowned with +flowers, to run round our garden, who should arrive in the midst of our +sport but Mr Jeffrey. Finding my father out, he, with his usual kindness +towards young people, immediately joined in our sport, and to our +infinite delight, mounted our donkey. He was proceeding in triumph, +amidst our shouts of laughter, when my father and mother, in company, I +believe, with Mr Horner and Mr Murray, returned from their walk, and +beheld this scene from the garden-door. Though years and years have +passed away since, I still remember the joy-inspiring laughter that +burst from my father at this unexpected sight, as, advancing towards his +old friend, with a face beaming with delight, and with extended hands, +he broke forth in the following impromptu: + + 'Witty as Horatius Flaccus, + As great a Jacobin as Gracchus; + Short, though not as fat as Bacchus, + Riding on a little jackass.' + +"These lines were afterwards repeated by some one to Mr ---- at Holland +House, just before he was introduced for the first time to Mr Jeffrey, +and they caught his fancy to such a degree that he could not get them +out of his head, but kept repeating them in a low voice all the time Mr +Jeffrey was conversing with him. + +"I must end Bitty's history, as he has been introduced, by saying that +he followed us to Foston; and after serving us faithfully for thirteen +years, on our leaving Yorkshire, was permitted by our kind friend, Lord +Carlisle, to spend the rest of his days in idleness and plenty, in his +beautiful park, with an unbounded command of thistles." + + +SYDNEY SMITH ON THE SAGACITY OF THE ASS; A LADY SCARCELY SO WISE AS ONE. + +The Rev. Sydney Smith[249] writes to Colonel Fox in October 1836:-- + +"MY DEAR CHARLES,--If you have ever paid any attention to the habits of +animals, you will know that donkeys are remarkably cunning in opening +gates. The way to stop them is to have two latches instead of one. A +human being has two hands, and lifts up both latches at once; a donkey +has only one nose, and latch _a_ drops, as he quits it to lift up latch +_b_. Bobus and I had the grand luck to see little Aunty engaged +intensely with this problem. She was taking a walk, and was arrested by +a gate with this formidable difficulty: the donkeys were looking on to +await the issue. Aunty lifted up the first latch with the most perfect +success, but found herself opposed by a second; flushed with victory, +she quitted the first latch, and rushed at the second; her success was +equal, till in the meantime the first dropped. She tried this two or +three times, and, to her utter astonishment, with the same results; the +donkeys brayed, and Aunty was walking away in great dejection, till +Bobus and I recalled her with loud laughter, showed her that she had +two hands, and roused her to vindicate her superiority over the donkeys. +I mention this to you to request that you will make no allusion to this +animal, as she is remarkably touchy on this subject, and also that you +will not mention it to Lady Mary!" + + * * * * * + +Lady Holland relates a practical joke of her father's, which the witty +canon carried out at his rectory of Combe Florey. "Opposite was a +beautiful bank, with a hanging wood of fine old beech and oak, on the +summit of which presented themselves, to our astonished eyes, two +donkeys with deers' antlers fastened on their heads, which ever and anon +they shook, much wondering at their horned honours; whilst the attendant +donkey boy, in Sunday garb, stood grinning and blushing at their side. +'There, Lady ----! you said the only thing this place wanted to make it +perfect was deer; what do you say now? I have, you see, ordered my game +gamekeeper to drive my deer into the most picturesque point of view. +Excuse their long ears, a little peculiarity belonging to parsonic deer. +Their voices, too, are singular; but we do our best for you, and you are +too true a friend of the Church to mention our defects.' All this, of +course, amidst shouts of laughter, whilst his own merry laugh might be +heard above us all, ringing through the valley, and making the very +echoes laugh in chorus." + + +ASSES' DUTY FREE! + +During the debate on Sir Robert Peel's tariff, the admission of asses' +duty free caused much merriment. Lord T., who had just read "Vestiges of +the Natural History of Creation," remarked that the House had, he +supposed, passed the donkey clause out of respect to its +ancestors.--"It is a wise measure," said a popular novelist, "especially +as it affects the importation of food; for, should a scarcity come, we +should otherwise have to fall back on the food of our +forefathers."--"And, pray, what is that?" asked an +archaeologist.--"Thistles," replied Lord T.[250] + + +THACKERAY AND THE EGYPTIAN DONKEY. + +When the English author landed at Alexandria, there were many scenes and +sounds to dispel all romantic notions; among these "a yelling chorus of +donkey boys shrieking, 'Ride, sir!--donkey, sir!--I say, sir!' in +excellent English. The placid sphinxes, brooding o'er the Nile, +disappeared with that wild shriek of the donkey boys. You might be as +well impressed with Wapping as with your first step on Egyptian soil. + +"The riding of a donkey is, after all, not a dignified occupation. A man +resists the offer first, somehow as an indignity. How is that poor +little, red-saddled, long-eared creature to carry you? Is there to be +one for you and another for your legs? Natives and Europeans, of all +sizes, passed by, it is true, mounted upon the same contrivance. I +waited until I got into a very private spot, where nobody could see me, +and then ascended--why not say descended at once?--on the poor little +animal. Instead of being crushed at once, as perhaps the writer +expected, it darted forward, quite briskly and cheerfully, at six or +seven miles an hour; requiring no spur or admonitive to haste, except +the shrieking of the little Egyptian _gamin_, who ran along by asinus's +side."[251] + + +BEST TO LET MULES HAVE THEIR OWN WAY. + +Dr John Moore, in crossing the Alps, found they had nothing but the +sagacity of their mules to trust to. "For my own part," he says, "I was +very soon convinced that it was much safer on all dubious occasions to +depend on theirs than on my own. For as often as I was presented with a +choice of difficulties, and the mule and I were of different opinions, +if, becoming more obstinate than he, I insisted on his taking my track, +I never failed to repent it, and often was obliged to return to the +place where the controversy had begun, and follow the path to which he +had pointed at first. + +"It is entertaining to observe the prudence of these animals in making +their way down such dangerous rocks. They sometimes put their heads over +the edge of the precipice, and examine with anxious circumspection every +possible way by which they can descend, and at length are sure to fix on +that which, upon the whole, is the best. Having observed this in several +instances, I laid the bridle on the neck of my mule, and allowed him to +take his own way, without presuming to control him in the smallest +degree. This is doubtless the best method, and what I recommend to all +my friends in their journey through life, when they have mules for their +companions."[252] + + +ZEBRA.--"_Un ane rayee._" + +A FRENCHMAN'S "DOUBLE-ENTENDRE." + +When, in 1805, Patrick Lattin, an officer of the Irish Brigade, was +residing in Paris, a M. de Montmorency, whose Christian name was Anne, +made his appearance, announcing that he was enabled to return to France, +in consequence of the First Consul having scratched his name on the list +of _emigres_. "_A present donc_," observed Lattin, "_mon cher Anne, tu +es un Zebre--un ane rayee._"[253] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[239] "The Poems of S. T. Coleridge," pp. 26, 27 (1844). + +[240] "Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, R.A.," by his son, W. +Wilkie Collins, vol. i. p. 232. + +[241] Edition of Sir T. D. Lauder, Bart., vol. ii. p. 273. + +[242] "Gilpin's Forest Scenery," vol. ii. p. 275. Edited by Sir T. D. +Lauder. + +[243] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 129. + +[244] Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 307. + +[245] Photius, quoted by Southey in his "Common-Place Book," first +series, p. 588. + +[246] "Memoirs of the Life of the Right Hon. Warren Hastings, compiled +from original papers," by the Rev. G. R. Gleig, M.A., vol. iii. p. 367. + +[247] "The Life and Writings of Henry Fuseli, Esq., M.A., R.A.," the +former written and the latter edited by John Knowles, Esq., F.R.S., vol. +i. p. 364. + +[248] "A Memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith," by his daughter, Lady +Holland, &c., vol. i. p. 152. + +[249] "Memoirs and Letters of Rev. Sydney Smith," vol. ii. p. 393. + +[250] "A Century of Anecdote from 1760 to 1860," by John Timbs, F.S.A., +vol. i. p. 252 (1864). + +[251] "Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo," by Mr M. A. +Titmarsh, p. 177 (1846). + +[252] "View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and Germany," +vol. i. pp. 191, 192 (9th edition). + + + + +CAMEL. + + +Truly the Ship of the Desert, and one that by Lewis and Henry Warren has +afforded the subject of many a pleasing picture. The camel has a most +patriarchal look about him. + + +CAPTAIN WILLIAM PEEL, R.N. REMARKS ON CAMELS. + +Captain William Peel, in his "Ride through the Nubian Desert" (p. 89), +writes--"We met once at a hollow, where some water still remained from +the rains, 2000 camels, all together admirably organised into troops, +and attended by only a few Arabs. On another occasion, we passed some +camels grazing at such a distance from the Nile, that I asked the Arab +attending where they went to drink? He said, he marches them all down +together to the Nile, and they drink every eleventh day. It is now the +cool season, and the heat is tempered by fresh northerly breezes. The +Arab, of course, brings water skins for his own supply. All these camels +were breeding stock. They live on thorns and the top shoots of the +gum-arabic tree, although it is armed with the most frightful spikes. +But very little comes amiss to the camel; he will eat dry wood to keep +up digestion, if in want of a substitute. Instinct or experience has +taught him to avoid the only two tempting-looking plants that grow in +the desert,--the green eusha bush, which is full of milk-coloured juice, +and a creeper, that grows in the sand where nothing else will grow, and +which has a bitter fruit like a melon. I was surprised to learn that the +leopard does not dare to attack the camel, whose tall and narrow flanks +would seem to be fatally exposed to such a supple enemy. Nature, +however, has given him a means of defence in his iron jaw and long +powerful neck, which are a full equivalent for his want of agility. He +can also strike heavily with his feet, and his roar would intimidate +many foes. I never felt tired of admiring this noble creature, and +through the monotony of the desert would watch for hours his ceaseless +tread and unerring path. Carrying his head low, forward, and surveying +everything with his black brilliant eye, he marches resolutely forward, +and quickens his pace at the slightest cheer of the rider. He is too +intelligent and docile for a bridle; besides, he lives on the march, and +with a sudden sweep of the neck will seize, without stopping, the +smallest straw. When the day's march is over, he passes the night in +looking for food, with scarcely an hour to repose his limbs, and less +than that for sleep. He closes the eye fitfully, the smallest noise will +awake him. When lying down for rest, every part of the body is +supported; his neck and head lie lightly along the sand, a broad plate +of bone under the breast takes the weight off his deep chest, and his +long legs lay folded under him, supporting his sides like a ship in a +cradle." + + +A CAPTAIN IN THE ROYAL NAVY MEASURES THE PROGRESS OF "THE SHIP OF THE +DESERT." + +The dromedary has long and deservedly been called "the Ship of the +Desert." A very gallant captain in the Royal Navy, the late Captain +William Peel, son of the Prime Minister, calculated its rate of motion +much after the manner in which he might have measured the path of his +ship. He writes[254]--"In crossing the Nubian Desert I paid constant +attention to the march of the camels, hoping it may be of some service +hereafter in determining our position. The number of strides in a minute +with the same foot varied very little, only from 37 to 39, and 38 was +the average; but the length of the stride was more uncertain, varying +from 6 feet 6 to 7 feet 6. As we were always urging the camels, who +seemed, like ourselves, to know the necessity of pushing on across that +fearful tract, I took 7 feet as the average. These figures give a speed +of 2.62 geographical miles per hour, or exactly three English miles, +which may be considered as the highest speed that camels lightly loaded +can keep up on a journey. In general, it will not be more than two and a +half English miles. My dromedary was one of the tallest, and the seat of +the saddle was 6 feet 6 above the ground." + + +LORD METCALFE ON A CAMEL WHEN A BOY. + +Charles Metcalfe, "first and last Lord Metcalfe," to whose care were +successively intrusted the three greatest dependencies of the British +crown, India, Jamaica, and Canada, and who died in 1846, was sent to +Eton when eleven years old. His biographer relates,[255] that "it is on +record, and on very sufficient authority, that he was once seen riding +on a camel. 'I heard the boys shouting,' said Dr Goodall, many years +afterwards, 'and went out and saw young Metcalfe riding on a camel; so +you see he was always orientally inclined.'" This anecdote will serve as +a comrade to that told by Mr Foss, in his "Lives of the Justices of +England," of Chief-Baron Pollock. When a lad, one of his schoolmasters, +fretted by the boyish energy and exuberant spirits of his scholar, said +petulantly, "You will live to be _hanged_." The old gentleman lived to +see his pupil Lord Chief-Baron, and, not a little proud of his great +scholar, said, "I always said he would occupy an _elevated_ position." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[253] Quoted in Timbs' "Century of Anecdote," vol. i. p. 223 (1864). + +[254] "A Ride through the Nubian Desert," by Captain W. Peel, R.N., p. +49. + + + + +STAGS AND GIRAFFE. + + +The deer family is rather numerous, and found in many different parts of +the world. Reindeers abound in some parts even of Spitzbergen, and with +musk oxen can find their food even under the winter snows of the Parry +Islands. The wapiti and heavy large-headed elk or moose, retreat before +the advancing civilisation of North America. The Indian mountains and +plains have noble races of deer. No species, however, is more celebrated +than our red deer. The giraffe is closely allied to the stag family. The +Arabs name it the seraph, and indeed, that is the origin of its now +best-known English name. Visitors should beware of going too near the +male, for we have seen the dent made by one of the giraffe's bony knobs +on a pannel close to its stall. We have heard of a young lady, who +entered the garden one of those summer days when straw bonnets had great +bunches of ripe barley mingled with artificial poppies as an ornament, +and, going too near the lofty pallisade, found to her confusion and +terror that the long lithe tongue of the giraffe had whisked off her +Leghorn, flowers and all, and had begun leisurely to munch it with +somewhat of the same gusto with which it would have eaten the branch of +a graceful mimosa. + + +EARL OF DALHOUSIE AND THE FEROCIOUS STAG. + +Mr Scrope relates an instance of unprovoked ferocity in a red deer at +Taymouth, in which the present Earl of Dalhousie might have been +seriously injured. + +"In October 1836, the Hon. Mr and Mrs Fox Maule had left Taymouth with +the intention of proceeding towards Dalguise; and in driving through +that part of the grounds where the red deer were kept, they suddenly at +a turn of the road came upon the lord of the demesne standing in the +centre of the passage, as if prepared to dispute it against all comers. +Mr Maule being aware that it might be dangerous to trifle with him, or +to endeavour to drive him away (for it was the rutting season), +cautioned the postilion to go slowly, and give the animal an opportunity +of moving off. This was done, and the stag retired to a small hollow by +the side of the road. On the carriage passing, however, he took offence +at its too near approach, and emerged at a slow and stately pace, till +he arrived nearly parallel with it. Mr Maule then desired the lad to +increase his pace, being apprehensive of a charge in the broadside. + +"The deer, however, had other intentions; for as soon as the carriage +moved quicker, he increased his pace also, and came on the road about +twelve yards ahead of it, for the purpose of crossing, as it was +thought, to a lower range of the parks; but to the astonishment and no +little alarm of the occupants of the carriage, he charged the offside +horse, plunging his long brow antler into his chest, and otherwise +cutting him. + +"The horse that was wounded made two violent kicks, and is supposed to +have struck the stag, and then the pair instantly ran off the road; and +it was owing solely to the admirable presence of mind and sense of the +postilion, that the carriage was not precipitated over the neighbouring +bank. The horses were not allowed to stop till they reached the gate, +although the blood was pouring from the wounded animal in a stream as +thick as a man's finger. He was then taken out of the carriage, and only +survived two or three hours. The stag was shortly afterwards +killed."[256] + + +THE FRENCH COUNT AND THE STAG. + +Mr Scrope, in his "Deer-Stalking," describes a grand deer-drive to +Glen-Tilt, headed by the Duke of Athole. Many an incident of this and +subsequent drives was watched by "Lightfoot," who was present, and whose +pictures, under his name of Sir Edwin Landseer, have rendered the life +of the red deer familiar to us, in mist, amid snow, swimming in the +rapid of a Highland current, pursued and at rest, fighting and feeding, +alive and dead, in every attitude, and at every age. + +In this encounter, the Duke killed three first-rate harts, Lightfoot +two, and other rifles were all more or less successful. A French count, +whose tongue it was difficult to restrain,--and silence is essential to +success in the pursuit,--at last fired into a dense herd of deer. + +Mr Scrope adds,[257] "Everything was propitious--circumstance, +situation, and effect; for he was descending the mountain in full view +of our whole assemblage of sportsmen. A fine stag in the midst of the +herd fell to the crack of his rifle. 'Hallo, hallo!' forward ran the +count, and sat upon the prostrate deer triumphing. '_He bien, mon ami, +vous etes mort, donc! Moi, je fais toujours des coups surs. Ah! pauvre +enfant!_' He then patted the sides of the animal in pure wantonness, and +looked east, west, north, and south, for applause, the happiest of the +happy; finally he extracted a mosaic snuff-box from his pocket, and with +an air which nature has denied to all save the French nation, he held a +pinch to the deer's nose--'_Prends, mon ami, prends donc!_' This +operation had scarcely been performed when the hart, who had only been +stunned, or perhaps shot through the loins, sprang up suddenly, +overturned the count, ran fairly away, and was never seen again. +'_Arretes, toi traitre! Arretes, mon enfant! Ah! c'est un enfant, perdu! +Allez donc a tous les diables!_'" + + +VENISON FAT.--REYNOLDS AND THE GOURMAND. + +Northcote[258] says--"I have heard Sir Joshua Reynolds relate an +anecdote of a venison feast, at which were assembled many who much +enjoyed the repast. + +"On this occasion, Reynolds addressed his conversation to one of the +company who sat next to him, but to his great surprise could not get a +single word in answer, until at length his silent neighbour, turning to +him, said, 'Mr Reynolds, whenever you are at a venison feast, I advise +you not to speak during dinner-time, as in endeavouring to answer your +questions, I have just swallowed a fine piece of the fat, entire, +without tasting its flavour.'" + + +STAG-TRENCH AT FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAINE. + +Goethe was born at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, August 28th, 1749. In his +autobiography[259] he says--"The street in which our house was situated +passed by the name of the Stag-trench; but as neither stags nor trenches +were to be seen, we naturally wished to have the expression explained. +They told us that our house stood on a spot that was once outside the +town, and that where the street now ran had formerly been a trench in +which a number of stags were kept. The stags were preserved and fatted +here, because the Senate every year, according to an ancient custom, +feasted publicly on a stag which was always at hand in the trench for +such a festival, in case princes or knights interfered with the city's +right of chase outside, or the walls were encompassed and besieged by an +enemy. This pleased us, and we wished that such a lair for tame wild +animals could have been seen in our times. Where is there a boy or girl +who could not join in the wish of this man, who has been called the +first European poet and literary man of the nineteenth century?" + + +GIRAFFE. + +"Fancy," said Sydney Smith to some ladies, when he was told that one of +the giraffes at the Zoological Gardens had caught a cold,--"fancy a +giraffe with two yards of sore throat." + +In one of the numbers of _Punch_, published in 1864, the quiz of an +artist has made the giraffes twist their necks into a loose knot by way +of a comforter to keep them from catching a cold, or having a sore +throat. He has very audaciously caused to be printed under his cut, "A +FACT." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[255] "Life and Correspondence of Charles Lord Metcalfe," by John +William Kaye, vol. i., p. 8. + +[256] "The Art of Deer-Stalking," p. 33. + +[257] "Deer-Stalking," p. 229. + +[258] "Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds," vol. i., p. 124. + +[259] "Truth and Poetry from my own Life; the Autobiography of Goethe," +edited by Parke Godwin, part i., p. 3. + + + + +SHEEP AND GOATS. + + +These are animals, at least the former, which seem to have been created +in a domestic state. They are represented on the most ancient +monuments. A head of a Lybian ram of very large size, in the British +Museum, has great resemblance to nature, and there is one slab at least +among the Assyrian monuments where sheep and goats, as part of the spoil +of a city, are rendered with great skill. In the writings of the Ettrick +Shepherd, many curious anecdotes of Scottish sheep are given. + + +HOW MANY LEGS HAS A SHEEP? + +When the Earl of Bradford was brought before the Lord Chancellor to be +examined upon application for a statute of lunacy against him, the +Chancellor asked him, "How many legs has a sheep?"--"Does your lordship +mean," answered Lord Bradford, "a live sheep or a dead sheep?"--"Is it +not the same thing?" said the Chancellor.--"No, my lord," said Lord +Bradford, "there is much difference: a live sheep may have four legs, a +dead sheep has only two; the two fore-legs are shoulders; there are only +_two legs of mutton_."[260] + + +GOETHE ON ROOS'S ETCHINGS OF SHEEP. + +In the "Conversations of Goethe with Eckerman and Soret"[261] in 1824, +he handed me some etchings by Roos, the famous painter of animals; they +were all of sheep, in every posture and position. The simplicity of +their countenances, the ugliness and shagginess of the fleece--all was +represented with the utmost fidelity, as if it were nature itself. + +"I always feel uneasy," said Goethe, "when I look at these beasts. Their +state--so limited, dull, gaping, and dreaming--excites in me such +sympathy, that I fear I shall become a sheep, and almost think the +artist must have been one. At all events, it is most wonderful how Roos +has been able to think and feel himself into the very soul of these +creatures, so as to make the internal character peer with such force +through the outward covering. Here you see what a great talent can do +when it keeps steady to subjects which are congenial with its nature." + +"Has not, then," said I, "this artist also painted dogs, cats, and +beasts of prey with similar truth; nay, with this great gift of assuming +a mental state foreign to himself, has he not been able to delineate +human character with equal fidelity?" + +"No," said Goethe; "all that lay out of his sphere, but the gentle, +grass-eating animals--sheep, goats, cows, and the like--he was never +weary of repeating; this was the peculiar province of his talent, which +he did not quit during the whole course of his life. And in this he did +well. A sympathy with these animals was born with him, a knowledge of +their psychological condition was given him, and thus he had so fine an +eye for their bodily structure. Other creatures were perhaps not so +transparent to him, and therefore he felt neither calling nor impulse to +paint them."[262] + + +LORD COCKBURN AND THE SHEEP. + +Lord Cockburn, the proprietor of Bonaly, that pretty place on the slopes +of the Pentlands, was sitting on the hill-side with the shepherd, and, +observing the sheep reposing in the coldest situation, he observed to +him, "John, if I were a sheep, I would lie on the other side of the +hill." The shepherd answered, "Ay, my lord, but if ye had been a +_sheep_, ye would hae had mair sense."[263] + + +WOOLSACK. + +Colman and Banister, dining one day with Lord Erskine, the +ex-chancellor, amongst other things, observed that he had then about +three thousand head of sheep. "I perceive," interrupted Colman, "your +lordship has still an eye to the woolsack."[264] + + +SANDY WOOD AND HIS PETS, A SHEEP AND A RAVEN. + +Alexander Wood, a kind-hearted surgeon, who died in his native town of +Edinburgh in May 1807, aged eighty-two, is alluded to by Sir Walter +Scott in a prophecy put into the mouth of Meg Merrilees in "Guy +Mannering"--"They shall beset his goat; they shall profane his raven," +&c. + +The editor of "Kaye's Edinburgh Portraits"[265] says that, besides his +kindness of disposition to his fellow-creatures, "he was almost equally +remarkable for his love of animals. His pets were numerous, and of all +kinds. Not to mention dogs and cats, there were two others that +_individually_ were better known to the citizens of Edinburgh--a sheep +and a raven, the latter of which is alluded to by Scott in 'Guy +Mannering.' Willy, the sheep, pastured in the ground adjoining to the +Excise Office, now the Royal Bank, and might be daily seen standing at +the railings, watching Mr Wood's passing to or from his house in York +Place, when Willy used to poke his head into his coat-pocket, which was +always filled with supplies for his favourite, and would then trot along +after him through the town, and sometimes might be found in the houses +of the doctor's patients. The raven was domesticated at an ale and +porter shop in North Castle Street, which is still, or very lately was, +marked by a tree growing from the area against the wall. It also kept +upon the watch for Mr Wood, and would recognise him even as he passed at +some distance along George Street, and, taking a low flight towards him, +was frequently his companion during some part of his forenoon walks; for +Mr Wood never entered his carriage when he could possibly avoid it, +declaring that unless a vehicle could be found that would carry him down +the closes and up the turnpike stairs, they produced nothing but trouble +and inconvenience." + + +GENERAL CARNAC AND HIS SHE-GOAT. + +It is pleasant to see, and not rare to find in men of warlike habits, a +love for animals. The goat or deer that used often to march before a +regiment with the band as they proceeded to a review in Bruntsfield +Links, when the writer and his friends were boys, about 1826 to 1832, he +well remembers. Nor is Edinburgh garrison singular. + +General Carnac, in 1770, communicated to Dr William Hunter some +observations on the keenness of smell and its exquisite sensibility. He +says--"I have frequently observed of tame deer, to whom bread is often +given, and which they are in general fond of, that if you present them a +piece that has been bitten, they will not touch it. I have made the same +observation of a remarkably fine she-goat, which accompanied me in most +of my campaigns in India, and supplied me with milk, and which, in +gratitude for her services, I brought from abroad with me."[266] + + +JOHN HUNTER AND THE SHAWL-GOAT. + +HUNTER'S METHOD OF INTRODUCING STRANGE ANIMALS PEACEFULLY TO OTHERS IN +HIS MENAGERIE. + +It is pleasant to meet with a notice of the pursuits of the great +anatomist, John Hunter, in a rather out-of-the-way book.[267] The +ingenious way in which he introduced strange animals into his menagerie +is worthy of notice. + +"The variety of birds and beasts to be met with at Earl's Court (the +villa of the celebrated and much-lamented Mr John Hunter) is matter of +great entertainment. In the same ground you are surprised to find so +many living animals in one herd, from the most opposite parts of the +habitable globe. Buffaloes, rams, and sheep from Turkey, and a +shawl-goat from the East Indies, are among the most remarkable of those +that meet the eye; and as they feed together in the greatest harmony, it +is natural to inquire, what means are taken to make them so familiar, +and well acquainted with each other. Mr Hunter told me, that when he has +a stranger to introduce, he does it by ordering the whole herd to be +taken to a strange place, either a field, an empty stable, or any other +large out-house, with which they are all alike unaccustomed. The +strangeness of the place so totally engages their attention, as to +prevent them from running at, and fighting with, the new-comer, as they +most probably would do in their own fields (in regard to which they +entertain very high notions of their exclusive right of property), and +here they are confined for some hours, till they appear reconciled to +the stranger, who is then turned out with his new friends, and is +generally afterwards well-treated. The shawl-goat was not, however, so +easily reconciled to his future companions; he attacked them, instead of +waiting to be attacked; fought several battles, and at present appears +master of the field. + +"It is from the _down_ that grows under the coarse hair of this species +of goat, that the fine India shawls are manufactured.[268] This +beautiful as well as useful animal was brought over only last June from +Bombay, in the _Duke of Montrose_ Indiaman, Captain Dorin. The female, +unfortunately, died. It was very obligingly presented by the directors +to Sir John Sinclair, the President of the British Wool Society. It is +proposed, under Mr Hunter's care, to try some experiment with it in +England, by crossing it with other breeds of the goat species, before it +is sent to the north." + +As anything that met with Mr Hunter's approval must have been a +judicious arrangement, I may quote from the same source the passage +about the buildings for his cattle at Earl's Court. + +"Mr Hunter has built his stables half under ground; also vaults, in +which he keeps his cows, buffaloes, and hogs. Such buildings, more +especially the arched byres, or cow-houses, retain a more equal +temperature at all times, in regard both to heat and cold, and +consequently are cooler in summer and warmer in winter; and in +situations where ground is so valuable as in the neighbourhood of +London, are an excellent contrivance. Mr Hunter has his hay-yard over +his buffaloes' stables. The expense of vaulting does not exceed that of +building and roofing common cow-houses; and the vaults have this +essential advantage or preference, that they require no repairs." He +then gives an account of some buffaloes which Mr Hunter had trained to +work in a cart, and which became so steady and tractable, that they were +often driven through London streets in the loaded cart, much, no doubt, +to the astonishment of passers-by. With a glimpse of a very beautiful +little cow at Earl's Court, from a buffalo and an Alderney, which was +always plump and fat, and gave very good milk, we must take leave of +John Hunter's menagerie. + + +COMMODORE KEPPEL "BEARDS" THE DEY OF ALGIERS.--A GOAT. + +Sir Joshua Reynolds, when twenty-five, sailed to the Mediterranean in +1749 with the Hon. Augustus Keppel, then a captain in the navy, and +afterwards Viscount Keppel. In 1750, Commodore Keppel returned to +Algiers to remonstrate with the dey on the renewed depredations of the +Corsairs. The dey, surprised at his boldness, for he anchored close to +the palace, and attended by his captain and a barge's crew, went boldly +into the presence of the Algerine monarch to demand satisfaction, +exclaimed, that he wondered at the insolence of the King of Great +Britain sending him a beardless boy. + +Keppel was only twenty-four, but he is said to have answered, "that had +his Majesty, the King of Great Britain, estimated the degree of wisdom +by the length of the beard, he would have sent him _a goat_ as an +ambassador." Northcote is in doubt of the truth of this speech having +been made, but says, that it is certain Keppel answered with great +boldness.[269] The tyrant is said to have actually ordered his mutes to +advance with the bow-string, telling the commodore that his life should +answer for his audacity. Keppel quietly pointed out to the dey the +squadron at anchor, and told him, that if it was his pleasure to put him +to death, there were Englishmen enough on board to make a funeral pile +of his capital. The dey cooled a little, allowed the commodore to +depart, and made satisfaction for the damage done, and promised to +abstain from violence in future. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[260] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 18. + +[261] Translated from the German by John Oxenford, vol. i., p. 138. + +[262] Roos must have been limited in his powers, unlike our Landseer, +who paints dogs, sheep, horses, cows, stags, and fowls with equal power. + +[263] Dean Ramsay's "Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character," 10th +edition, p. 19. + +[264] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 214. + +[265] There are two copperplates devoted to the figure and portrait of +"lang Sandy Wood," as he was called. + +[266] "Philosophical Transactions," LXI. p. 176 (1771). Paper on +Nyl-ghau, with plate, by George Stubbs, engraved by Basire. + +[267] Baird, "Report on the County of Middlesex," quoted in view of the +agriculture of Middlesex, &c., pp. 341, 342, by John Middleton, Esq. +London: 1798. + +[268] The wool which grows on different parts of their bodies, under +very long hair, is obtained by gently combing them. + +[269] "Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds," vol. i., p. 32. + + + + +CALVES AND KINE. + + +The little anecdote of Gilpin and the three cows illustrates one elegant +use of the subjects of the following paragraphs. What home landscape +like that painted by Alfred Tennyson would be perfect without its cows? +Many anecdotes of them could be collected. The Irish are celebrated for +their "bulls," one of them is not the worse for having "Bulls" for its +subject. Patrick was telling, so the story goes, that there were four +"Bull Inns" in a certain English town. "There are but three," said a +native of the place, who knew them well; "the Black Bull, the White +Bull, and the Red Bull,--where is the fourth?"--"Sure and do you not +know, the Dun Cow--the best of them all?" replied the unconscious +Milesian. + + +A GREAT CALF. + +Sir William B----, being at a parish meeting, made some proposals, which +were objected to by a farmer. Highly enraged, "Sir," says he to the +farmer, "do you know, sir, that I have been at the two universities, and +at two colleges in each university?"--"Well, sir," said the farmer, +"what of that? I had a calf that sucked two cows, and the observation I +made was, the more he sucked, the greater _calf_ he grew."[270] + + +RATHER TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING.--VEAL _ad nauseam_. + +At the table of Lord Polkemmet, when the covers were removed, the +dinner was seen to consist of veal broth, a roast fillet of veal, veal +cutlets, a florentine (an excellent Scotch dish, composed of veal), a +calf's head, calf's foot jelly. The worthy judge observing an expression +of surprise among his guests, who, even in Shetland in early spring +would have had the veal varied with fish, broke out in explanation, "Ou, +ay, it's a cauf! when we kill a beast, we just eat up one side, and down +the tither." + + * * * * * + +Boswell, the friend and biographer of Johnson, when a young man, went to +the pit of Covent Garden Theatre, in company with Dr Blair, and in a +frolic imitated the lowing of a cow; and the universal cry in the +gallery was, "Encore the cow! encore the cow!" This was complied with, +and in the pride of success, Boswell attempted to imitate some other +animals, but with less success. Dr Blair, anxious for the fame of his +friend, addressed him thus, "My dear sir, I would confine myself to _the +cow_."[271] + + +ADAM CLARKE AND HIS BULLOCK PAT. + +The Rev. Adam Clarke, LL.D., after one of his evangelical visits to +Ireland, returned to his home at Millbrook. In writing to his sons he +says--"Not only your mother, sisters, and brother, were glad to see me, +but also my poor animals in the field, for I lost no time in going to +visit them. I found the donkey lame, and her son looking much like a +philosopher; it was strange that even the _bullock_, whom we call _Pat_, +came to me in the field, and held out his most honest face for me to +stroke it. The next time I went to him he came running up, and actually +placed his two fore-feet upon my shoulders, with all the affection of a +spaniel; but it was a load of kindness I could ill bear, for the animal +is nearly three years old; I soon got his feet displaced; strange and +uncouth as this manifestation of affectionate gratitude was, yet with it +the master and his _steer Pat_ were equally well pleased; so here is a +literal comment on 'The ox knoweth his owner;' and you see I am in +league with even the beasts of the field."[272] + + +SAMUEL FOOTE AND THE COWS PULLING THE BELL OF WORCESTER COLLEGE CHAPEL. + +Samuel Foote was a student at Worcester College, Oxford, and when there +he practised many tricks, and soon found out what was ridiculous in any +man's character. + +His biographer[273] records one of these tricks which he played off on +Dr Gower, the provost of the college. "The church belonging to the +college fronted the side of a lane where cattle were sometimes turned +out to graze during the night, and from the steeple hung the bell rope, +very low in the middle of the outside porch. Foote saw in this an object +likely to produce some fun, and immediately set about to accomplish his +purpose. He accordingly one night slyly tied a wisp of hay to the rope, +as a bait for the cows in their peregrination to the grazing ground. +The scheme succeeded to his wish. One of the cows soon after smelling +the hay as she passed by the church door, instantly seized on it, and, +by tugging at the rope, made the bell ring, to the astonishment of the +sexton and the whole parish. + +"This happened several nights successively, and the incident gave rise +to various reports, such as not only that the church was haunted by evil +spirits, but that several spectres were seen walking about the +churchyard in all those hideous and frightful shapes which fear, +ignorance, and fancy usually suggest on such occasions. + +"An event of this kind, however, was to be explored, for the honour of +philosophy, as well as for the quiet of the parish. Accordingly the +doctor and the sexton agreed to sit up one night, and on the first alarm +to run out and drag the culprit to condign punishment. Their plan being +arranged, they waited with the utmost impatience for the appointed +signal; at last the bell began to sound its usual alarm, and they both +sallied out in the dark, determined on making a discovery. The sexton +was the first in the attack. He seized the cow by the tail, and cried +out, 'It was a gentleman commoner, as he had him by the tail of his +gown;' while the doctor, who had caught the cow by the horns at the same +time, immediately replied, 'No, no, you blockhead, 'tis the postman, and +here I have hold of the rascal by his blowing-horn.' Lights, however, +were immediately brought, when the character of the real offender was +discovered, and the laugh of the whole town was turned upon the +doctor." + + +THE GENERAL'S COW. + +At Plymouth there is, or was, a small green opposite the Government +House, over which no one was permitted to pass. Not a creature was +allowed to approach save the general's cow. One day old Lady D---- +having called at the general's, in order to make a short cut, bent her +steps across the lawn, when she was arrested by the sentry calling out +and desiring her to return. "But," said Lady D----, with a stately air, +"do you know who I am?"--"I don't know who you be, ma'am," replied the +immovable sentry, "but I knows you b'aint--you b'aint the _general's +cow_." So Lady D---- wisely gave up the argument and went the other +way.[274] + + +GILPIN'S LOVE OF THE PICTURESQUE CARRIED OUT.--A REASON FOR KEEPING +THREE COWS. + +Lord Sidmouth told the Rev. C. Smith Bird that he was partly educated at +Cheam, by Mr Gilpin, the author of many volumes on "Picturesque +Scenery." He was but a poor scholar, but seems to have been loved by his +pupils. He _carried out_ his regard for the picturesque, as would appear +by the following anecdote[275]-- + +"In visiting the Rev. Mr Gilpin at his house in the New Forest on one +occasion, his lordship observed three cows feeding in a small paddock, +which he knew to be all that Mr Gilpin had to feed them in. He asked Mr +Gilpin how he came to have so many cows when he had so little land? 'The +truth is,' said he, 'I found one cow would not do--she went +dry.'--'Well,' said Lord Sidmouth, 'but why not be content with another? +Two, by good management, might be made to supply you constantly with +milk.'--'Oh, yes,' said the old gentleman, '_but two would not group_.'" + + +KING JAMES ON A COW GETTING OVER THE BORDER. + +In the "Life of Bernard Gilpin," his biographer refers to the +inhabitants of the Borders being such great adepts in the art of +thieving, that they could twist a cow's horn, or mark a horse, so as its +owners could not know it, and so subtle that no vigilance could watch +against them. A person telling King James a surprising story of a cow +that had been driven from the north of Scotland into the south of +England, and escaping from the herd had found her way home; "The most +surprising part of the story," the king replied, "you lay least stress +on--that she passed unstolen through the debateable land."[276] + + +DUKE OF MONTAGUE AND HIS HOSPITAL FOR OLD COWS AND HORSES. + +The Rev. Joseph Spence[277] records that "the Duke of Montague has an +hospital for old cows and horses; none of his tenants near Boughton +dare kill a broken-winded horse; they must bring them all to the +_reservoir_. The duke keeps a lap-dog, the ugliest creature he could +meet with; he is always fond of the most hideous, and says he was at +first kind to them, because nobody else would be." + + +PHILIP IV. OF SPAIN IN THE BULL-RING. + +This king, whose form and features are so well known from the pictures +of Velasquez, was entertained magnificently by his great favourite +Olivares, in 1631. At this festival, which was in honour of the birthday +of the heir apparent, the sports of ancient Rome were renewed in the +bull-ring of Spain. In his life by Mr Stirling,[278] it is recorded that +"a lion, a tiger, a bear, a camel--in fact, a specimen of every +procurable wild animal, or, as Quevedo expressed it in a poetical +account of the spectacle, 'the whole ark of Noah, and all the fables of +AEsop,' were turned loose into the spacious Plaza del Parque, to fight +for the mastery of the arena. To the great delight of his Castilian +countrymen, a bull of Xarama vanquished all his antagonists. The 'bull +of Marathon, which ravaged the country of Tetrapolis,' says the +historian of the day, 'was not more valiant; nor did Theseus, who slew +and sacrificed him, gain greater glory than did our most potent +sovereign. Unwilling that a beast which had behaved so bravely should go +unrewarded, his majesty determined to do him the greatest favour that +the animal himself could have possibly desired, had he been gifted with +reason--to wit, to slay him with his own royal hand! Calling for his +fowling-piece, he brought it instantly to his shoulder, and the flash +and report were scarcely seen and heard ere the mighty monster lay a +bleeding corpse before the transported lieges. Yet not a moment,' +continues the chronicler, 'did his majesty lose his wonted serenity, his +composure of countenance, and becoming gravity of aspect; and but for +the presence of so great a concourse of witnesses, it was difficult to +believe that he had really fired the noble and successful shot.'" + + +SYDNEY SMITH AND HIS CATTLE.--HIS "UNIVERSAL SCRATCHER." + +The Rev. Sydney Smith, when at Foston, used to call for his hat and +stick immediately after dinner, and sallied forth for his evening +stroll. His daughter,[279] who often accompanied him, remarks--"Each cow +and calf, and horse and pig, were in turn visited, and fed, and patted, +and all seemed to welcome him; he cared for their comforts as he cared +for the comforts of every living being around him. He used to say, 'I am +all for cheap luxuries, even for animals; now all animals have a passion +for scratching their back bones. They break down your gates and palings +to effect this. Look! there is my universal scratcher, a sharp-edged +pole, resting on a high and a low post, adapted to every height, from a +horse to a lamb. Even the Edinburgh Reviewer can take his turn. You have +no idea how popular it is. I have not had a gate broken since I put it +up. I have it in all my fields.'" + + +REV. AUGUSTUS TOPLADY ON THE FUTURE STATE OF ANIMALS. + +The Rev. Josiah Bull, in the "Memorials of the Rev. William Bull of +Newport, Pagnel,"[280] the friend of Cowper, the poet, and the Rev. John +Newton, tells the following anecdote, in which a favourite theory of the +author of that exquisite hymn, "Rock of Ages Cleft for Me," is alluded +to, and somewhat comically illustrated by the author of the "Olney +Hymns:"-- + +"Mr Newton had been dining with Mr Bull, and they were quietly sitting +together, following after 'the things whereby they might edify one +another,' and that search aided by 'interposing puffs' of the fragrant +weed. It was in that old study I so well remember, ere it was renovated +to meet the demands of modern taste. A room some eighteen feet square, +with an arched roof, entirely surrounded with many a precious volume, +with large, old casement windows, and immense square chairs of fine +Spanish mahogany. There these good men were quietly enjoying their +_tete-a-tete_, when they were startled by a thundering knock at the +door; and in came Mr Ryland of Northampton, abruptly exclaiming, 'If you +wish to see Mr Toplady, you must go immediately with me to the "Swan." +He is on his way to London, and will not live long.' They all proceeded +to the inn, and there found the good man, emaciated with disease, and +evidently fast hastening to the grave. As they were talking together, +they were attracted by a great noise in the street, occasioned, as they +found on looking out, by a bull-baiting which was going on before the +house. Mr Toplady was touched by the cruelty of the scene, and +exclaimed, 'Who could bear to see that sight, if there were not to be +some compensation for these poor suffering animals in a future +state?'--'I certainly hope,' said my grandfather, 'that all the bulls +will go to heaven; but do you think this will be the case with all the +animal creation?'--'Yes, certainly,' replied Mr Toplady, with great +emphasis, 'all, all!'--'What!' rejoined Mr Newton, with some sarcasm in +his tone, 'do you suppose, sir, there will be fleas in heaven? for I +have a special aversion to them.' Mr Toplady said nothing, but was +evidently hurt; and as they separated, Mr Newton said, 'How happy he +should be to see him at Olney, if God spared his life, and he were to +come that way again.' The reply Mr Toplady made was not very courteous; +but the good man was perhaps suffering from the irritation of disease, +and possibly annoyed by the ridicule cast upon a favourite theory." + + +RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM WINDHAM, M.P., ON THE FEELINGS OF A BAITED +BULL. + +That great parliamentary orator, the Right Honourable William Windham, +lived before the days when humanity to animals was deemed a fit subject +for legislation. + +In his speech against "the bill for preventing the practice of +bull-baiting" (April 18, 1800),[281] he refers to the introduction of +such a measure as follows--"In turning from the great interests of this +country, and of Europe, to discuss with equal solemnity such measures as +that which is now before us, the House appears to me to resemble Mr +Smirk, the auctioneer, in the play, who could hold forth just as +eloquently upon a ribbon as upon a Raphael." He speaks of bull-baiting +as being, "it must be confessed, at the expense of an animal which is +not by any means a party to the amusement; but then," he adds, "it +serves to cultivate the qualities of a certain species of dogs, which +affords as much pleasure to their owners as greyhounds do to others. It +is no small recommendation to bull-dogs that they are so much in repute +with the populace." In a second speech, May 24, 1802, he said that he +believed "the bull felt a satisfaction in the contest, not less so than +the hound did when he heard the sound of the horn that summoned him to +the chase. True it was that young bulls, or those which were never +baited before, showed reluctance to be tied to the stake; but those +bulls which, according to the language of the sport, were called _game +bulls_, who were used to baiting, approached the stake, and stood there +while preparing for the contest, with the utmost composure. If the bull +felt no pleasure, and was cruelly dealt with, surely the dogs had also +some claim to compassion; but the fact was that both seemed equally +arduous in the conflict; and the bull, like every other animal, while it +had the better side, did not dislike his situation--it would be +ridiculous to say he felt no pain--yet, when on such occasions he +exhibited no signs of terror, it was a demonstrable proof that he felt +some pleasure." + +The "sober loyal men" of Stamford, it would seem, had petitioned for the +continuance of their annual sport, which had been continued for a +period of five or six hundred years, and who were displeased with their +landlord, the Marquis of Exeter, for his endeavours to put down their +cruel sport. Windham refers to "the antiquity of the thing being +deserving of respect, for respect for antiquity was the best +preservation of the Church and State!!" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[270] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 36. + +[271] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 111. + +[272] "An Account of the Religious and Literary Life of Adam Clarke, +LL.D., F.A.S.," by a Member of his Family, vol ii., p. 346. + +[273] "Memoirs of Samuel Foote, Esq.," by Wm. Cooke, Esq., vol. i., p. +13. + +[274] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book", p. 246. + +[275] Lord Sidmouth lived near Burghfield, where Mr Bird kept pupils, +and was curate. See "Sketches from the Life of the Rev. Charles Smith +Bird." + +[276] "Lives of Hugh Latimer and Bernard Gilpin," by the Rev. William +Gilpin, p. 271. + +[277] Anecdotes. Supplement, p. 249 (Singer's edition). Spence died in +1768, aged 70. + +[278] "Velasquez and his Works," by William Stirling, p. 62. + +[279] Lady Holland's "Memoirs of her Father, the Rev. Sydney Smith," +vol. i., p. 118. + +[280] "Memorials of the Rev. William Bull of Newport, Pagnel," &c., by +his grandson, the Rev. Josiah Bull, M.A. 1864. + +[281] "Speeches in Parliament of the Right Honourable William Windham, +to which is prefixed some account of his Life," by Thomas Amyot, Esq., +vol. i. pp. 332, 353 (1812). + + + + +WHALES. + + +Last and greatest of the mammalia are the whales. The adventures of +hardy seamen, like Scoresby, in the pursuit of the Greenland whale, or +Beale in the more dangerous chase of the spermaceti, in southern waters, +form the subjects of more than one readable volume. But here we give no +such extracts, but content ourselves with four short skits, having the +cetacea for their subject. + +In these days of zoological gardens, they have succeeded in bringing one +of the smallest of the order, a porpoise, to the Zoological Gardens. His +speedy dissolution showed that even the bath of a hippopotamus or an +elephant was too limited for the dwelling of this pre-eminently marine +creature. But he had begun to show an intelligence, they say, which, +independently of all zoological and anatomical considerations, showed +that he had nothing in common with a fish, but a somewhat similar form, +and an equal necessity for abundance of the pure liquid element. + + +WHALEBONE. + +A thin old man, with a rag-bag in his hand, was picking up a number of +small pieces of whalebone, which lay on the street. The deposit was of +such a singular nature, that we asked the quaint-looking gatherer how he +supposed they came there? "Don't know," he replied, in a squeaking +voice; "but I s'pect some unfortunate female was _wrecked_ hereabout +somewhere."[282] + + * * * * * + +A Scotch lady, who was discomposed by the introduction of gas, asked +with much earnestness, "What's to become o' the _puir whales_?' deeming +their interests materially affected by this superseding of their +oil."[283] + + +VERY LIKE A WHALE. + + The first of all the royal infant males + Should take the title of the Prince of _Wales_: + Because, 'tis clear to seamen and to lubber, + Babies and _whales_ are both inclined to _blubber_.[284] + + +CHRISTOPHER NORTH ON THE WHALE. + +_Tickler._ What fish, James, would you incline to be, if put into +scales? + +_Shepherd._ A dolphin: for they hae the speed o' lichtnin. They'll dart +past and roun' about a ship in full sail before the wind, just as if she +was at anchor. Then the dolphin is a fish o' peace,--he saved the life +o' a poet of auld, Arion, wi' his harp,--and oh! they say the cretur's +beautifu' in death. Byron, ye ken, comparin' his hues to those o' the +sun settin' ahint the Grecian isles. I sud like to be a dolphin. + + * * * * * + +_Shepherd._ Let me see--I sud hae nae great objections to be a whale in +the Polar Seas. Gran' fun to fling a boatfu' o' harpooners into the +air--or, wi' ae thud o' your tail, to drive in the stern posts o' a +Greenlandman. + +_Tickler._ Grander fun still, James, to feel the inextricable harpoon in +your blubber, and to go snoving away beneath an ice-floe with four miles +of line connecting you with your distant enemies. + +_Shepherd._ But, then, whales marry but ae wife, and are passionately +attached to their offspring. There they and I are congenial speerits. +Nae fish that swims enjoys so large a share of domestic happiness. + +_Tickler._ A whale, James, is not a fish. + +_Shepherd._ Isna he? Let him alane for that. He's ca'd a fish in the +Bible, and that's better authority than Buffon. Oh that I were a +whale![285] + + * * * * * + +With these sentences, we conclude this book, as well as our selections +on the whale. In the Museum at Edinburgh may be seen one of the finest, +if not the most perfect, skeleton of a whale exhibited in this kingdom. +Our young readers there can soon see, by examining it from the gallery, +that the whale is no "fish." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[282] Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 122. + +[283] _Ibid._, p. 201. + +[284] _Ibid._, p. 142. + +[285] "Noctes Ambrosianae," Works of Professor Wilson, vol. ii., p. 4. + + + + +INDEX. + + + Addison and Steele on the peculiarities of the natural history collectors, 5-8 + + Albert's horse at Brussels, 256. + + Ammonianus and his ass, 279. + + Androcles and the lion, 167-169. + + Ant-eater, the great, 225-229. + + Arctic fox, 142-148. + + Ass, Sydney Smith on sagacity of, 283. + + Ass and zebra, 276. + + Ass's foal, 278. + + Asses with deers' antlers fastened on heads, 284; + duty free, 284. + + Asylum for animals, 265, 266. + + Austrian general and a bear, 58, 59. + + Aye-aye, its singular structure and habits, 36-38. + + + Baboons, Lady Anne Barnard on, 24, 25. + + Babylon, bas-relief of dog found at, 86, 87. + + Babyrusa, 240. + + Back, Sir George, anecdote of Arctic lemming, 196. + + Badger, 71; + anecdotes of, 72-75. + + Baird, origin of name, 241. + + Barrentz on white or Polar bear, 64. + + Barnard, Lady Anne, pleads for the baboons, 24, 25; + on some rabbits, 222. + + Bats, fantastic faces of, 38, 39. + + Bearable pun, 61. + + Bears, 56, 57; + anecdotes of, 58-70. + + Beechey, Captain, on Polar bear, 63; + on the walrus, 184-186, 187. + + Bell, Professor, on cats, 149. + + Bell, Sir Charles, on the head of a pig, 239. + + Bell-Rock horse, 257. + + Bentham, Jeremy, and his pet cat, 150-152; + and the mice, 205, 206. + + Berwickshire, names of places in, derived from swine, 241. + + Bess, a pet hare of the poet Cowper's, 216. + + Bisset and his trained monkeys, 25, 26; + musical cats, 152, 153; + trained hares and turtle, 221, 222; + learned pig, 250. + + Black Dwarf's cat, 157. + + Blomfield, Bishop, bitten by a dog, 88. + + Boar, wild, 239-245. + + Border, cow getting across, 309. + + Borneo, the home of the orang, 11. + + Boswell imitates the lowing of a cow, 305. + + Bradford, Earl of, on the number of legs of a sheep, 296. + + Bristol, Bishop of, comparing Cambridge freshmen to puppies, 89. + + Brock, or badger, 72. + + Brown, Dr John, "Rab" and "Our Dogs," 78. + + Browning, Mrs Elizabeth Barrett, lines on her dog Flush, 89-93. + + Browning's, Robert, description of rats, 199. + + Bull, an Irish, 304. + + Bull, Rev. Wm., Newton, and Toplady, anecdote of, 312. + + Bull-baiting at Olney, 313; + Windham on, 314. + + Bull-ring, Philip IV. in, 310. + + Bullock and Dr Adam Clarke, 305, 306. + + Burke, Edmund, question when interrupted, 149; + anecdote of his humanity, 257, 258. + + Burns' "Twa Dogs," 81, 82; + the field-mouse, 206-208. + + Bush-pig, 148. + + Bussapa, the tiger-slayer, 162-164. + + Buxton, Sir Thomas Fowell, Bart., and his dog Speaker, 93, 94. + + Byron on his dog, 79; + on Boatswain, a Newfoundland dog, 94, 95; + pets, 26, 27; + bear at Cambridge, 59. + + + "Calamity," a horse of Sydney Smith's, 272. + + Calf, a great, 304. + + Calves and kine, 304. + + Camel, Captain Wm. Peel on, 287-289. + + Campbell, Colonel, account of Bussapa and the tiger, 162-164. + + Canova's sculptured lions and the child, 171-173. + + Carnac and the she-goat, 299. + + Cats, 149-161. + + Cat's letter, by Montgomery, 156. + + Cattle of Sydney Smith, and their universal scratcher, 311. + + Chalmers, Dr, and the guinea-pig, 223, 224. + + _Cheiroptera_, the order which contains the bats, 38, 39. + + Children and horses cannot explain their complaints, 269. + + Chimpanzee, Mr Mitchell on the habits of a young one, 22-42. + + China, roasted pups eaten in, 78. + + _Chiromys Madagascariensis_, its habits, 36-38. + + _Choiropotamus Africanus_, 140. + + Choiseul, Madame de, and her pet monkey and parrot, 33, 34. + + Chunie, the elephant, 230. + + Clare's dog and Curran, 98. + + Clarke, Dr Adam, on Shetland seals, 175, 176; + his bullock Pat, 305. + + Clive's, Lord, handwriting misunderstood, 230. + + Cockburn, Lord, and the sheep at Bonaly, 298. + + Collie at Cultershaw, 82. + + Collins, Wm., R.A., and Sir David Wilkie, 3; + the rat-catcher with the ferret, 76; + his dog Prinny, 96, 97; + paints Odell's old donkey, 277. + + Collins, W. Wilkie, Sir David Wilkie's first remark on him, 3, 4. + + Constant and his cat, 153. + + Cook's sailor, who took a fox-bat for the devil, 40. + + Cooke, Major-General, 189. + + Coon, a gone, 71. + + Couthon and the spaniel, 195. + + Cowper's narrative of his pet hares, 213-219; + dog Beau and the water-lily, 79-81. + + Cows, anecdotes of, 306-311. + + Cross, Edward, of Exeter Change and Walworth, 33. + + Cruelty to horses in Ireland, 275. + + Cunningham, Major, on Ladak dog, 86. + + Curran on Lord Clare's dog, 98. + + Cuvier and the fossil, 236. + + _Cynocephali_, or African baboons, 9, 24, 25. + + + Dalhousie, Earl of, and the ferocious red-deer, 291. + + Dandie Dinmont educates his terriers, 122. + + Davis, Sir George, and the lion, 170, 171. + + Deer family, 290, 291; + their sensibility of smell, 300. + + Dessin Island, rabbits on, blind of one eye, 222. + + Dickens on sellers of bears' grease, 59, 60. + + Dog and the French murderers, 104, 105. + + Dog-cheap, 100. + + Dog-matic, 113. + + Dog-rose, 133. + + Dogs, 77-87. + + Douglas, General, and the rats, 201. + + Dragon-fly exhibited at a show, 61. + + Dresden, Battle of, General Moreau killed at, 113. + + Drew on the instinct of dogs, 98-100. + + Dromedary, Capt. Peel on its rate of motion, 289. + + Dunbar, Rev. Rowland Hill at, 261. + + Durian, an eastern fruit, 14. + + + Earl's Court, Hunter's menagerie at, 300-302. + + Eastern dogs, 84, 85. + + _Echidna aculeata_, 192. + + _Edentata_, 228. + + Edmonstone, Dr, on Shetland seals, 176-182. + + Eglintoun, Countess of, her fondness for rats, 200, 201. + + Elephant and his trunk, 232; + anecdotes of, 234-236. + + _Epomophorus_, a genus of tropical bats alluded to by the poet-laureate, 39. + + Erskine's sheep and the woolsack, 298. + + Esquimaux dogs, 78, 86. + + Ettrick Shepherd's monkey, 27, 28; + on fox-hunting, 139-141; + on whales, 316. + + + Fabricius on Arctic fox, 143. + + Ferret, 75, 76. + + Field mouse turned up by Robert Burns, 206-208. + + Findhorn fisherman and monkey, 29, 30. + + Flush, lines to her dog, by Mrs Browning, 89-93. + + Foote, Samuel, makes cows pull bell at Oxford, 306. + + Forster, Dr, on the fox-bats of the Friendly Islands, 42, 43. + + Fournier on the squirrel, 196. + + Fowler the tailor and Gainsborough the artist, 2, 3. + + Fox, Charles James, on the poll-cat, 77. + + Fox, 138. + + Fox-hunting, from the "Noctes," 139-141. + + Fox-bats, particulars of their history, 41-47. + + Frederick the Great and his Italian greyhounds, 104. + + French count at deer-stalking, 293, 294; + dogs, time of Louis XI., 110; + marquis and his monkey, 30, 31. + + Fry, Mrs, on Irish pigs, 252. + + Fuller, Thomas, on destructive fieldmice, 208, 209. + + Fuller on Norfolk rabbits, 223. + + Fuseli on Northcote's picture of Balaam and the Ass, 281. + + Future state of animals, Toplady on, 312. + + + Gainsborough and Fowler the tailor, 2, 3; + his wife and their dogs, 100, 101; + pigs, countryman on, 252; + kept an ass, 277. + + Garrick and the horse, 259. + + Gell, Sir William, his dog, 101. + + General's cow at Plymouth, 308. + + George III. at Winchester, meets Garrick, 259. + + George IV. visited at Windsor by "Happy Jerry," 32. + + Gilpin's, Bernard, horses stolen and recovered, 260. + + Gilpin's, Rev. Mr, love of the picturesque, 308. + + Gilray's caricature of Fox and Burke as dogs, 724. + + Gimcrack, the widow, her letter to Mr Bickerstaff on her husband's peculiarities, 6-8. + + Giraffe, anecdotes of, 291-295. + + _Glirine_ animals, 195, 212. + + Goats, anecdotes of, 299, 300. + + Goethe on stag-trench at Frankfort, 294; + on Roos's etchings of sheep, 296. + + Good enough for a pig, 251. + + Gordon, Duchess of, and the wolf-dog, 102, 103. + + Gorilla and its story, 9-22. + + Graham, Rev. W., on dogs in the East, 85. + + Grange, the, near Edinburgh, 30. + + Gray compares poet-laureate to a rat-catcher, 204, 205. + + Gray. Dr, gets large specimen of gorilla, 17. + + Greenland seal, 181. + + Grotta del Cane, the poor dog at, 111, 112. + + Guilford, Lord Keeper, and the rhinoceros, 230. + + Guinea pig, Dr Chalmers, 223, 224. + + Gunn, Mr, on tiger-wolf, 192, 193. + + + Haff-fish, the Shetland name for seal, 179. + + Hairs or hares, 220. + + Hall, Robert, and the dog, 106. + + Hamilton, Sir Wm., his definition of man, 1, 2. + + Hanover rats, 202, 203. + + Happy Jerry, the rib-nosed mandrill, 31, 32. + + Hardwicke's lady, sow, 253. + + Hares, Mrs Browning on Cowper's, 212; + petted by Cowper the poet, 213-219. + + Hastings and the refractory donkey, 279. + + Heard, the herald, on the horse of George III., 261 + + Hedgehogs, 48. + + Hill, Rev. Rowland, prayed for his horse, 261, 262. + + Holcroft on race-horses, 263-265. + + Hood's dog Dash, 110. + + Hook and the litter of pigs, 253. + + Hooker's sea-bear in Regent's Park, 175. + + Hospital for old cows and horses, 309. + + Horse, 256; + that carried stones to build Bell-Rock lighthouse, 257. + + Horse exercises, a saying of Rowland Hill's, 263. + + Horsemanship of Johnson the Irishman, 257, 258. + + Horsfield, Dr, on the Javanese fox-bat, 45, 46. + + Hunter, John, and the dead tiger, 165; + his menagerie at Earl's Court, 300, 302. + + Hunters of Polmood, dog that belonged to, 107. + + + Impey, Warren Hastings, and the ass, 279, 280. + + India shawls, 301. + + Inglefield, Capt., on the affection of a Polar bear and her two cubs, 65. + + Irish clergyman and the dogs, 108. + + Irishman on rat-shooting, 203. + + Irving, Washington, and the dog, 108, 109. + + Ivory dust, 233. + + + Jackal, 148, 149. + + Jeffrey on a donkey; Sydney Smith's lines on 281, 282. + + Jekyll treading on a small pig, 251; + on a squirrel, 195. + + Jerrold, Douglas, and his dog, 109. + + + Kangaroo Cooke, 189. + + Kangaroos, Charles Lamb on, 188, 189. + + Keppel, Commodore, and the Dey of Algiers, 303. + + King James, on a cow getting over the Border, 309. + + + Laird of Balnamoon and the brock, 75. + + Lamb, Charles, and the dog, 110; + on Kangaroos, 188, 189; + on the hare, 212. + + Landseer's "Monkeyana," 10; + stags, 293. + + Lap-dogs before the House of Commons, 124. + + Lauder, Sir Thomas Dick, adventures of a monkey in Morayshire, 29, 30. + + Laurillard, Cuvier's assistant, 237. + + Lawyer's horse, 268. + + Lemming, and Arctic voyager, 196; + habits of the Arctic, 197, 198. + + Leifchild, Dr, at Hoxton, 127. + + Leopard, its ferocity when wounded, 161. + + Letter from the gorilla, now in British Museum, 13-17. + + Lightfoot, name for Sir Edwin Landseer, 293. + + Lion and tiger, 166. + + Lion, hunts on Assyrian monuments, 162. + + Lions on monument of Clement XII., 171-173. + + Liston the surgeon and his cat, 153, 154. + + Livingston, Dr, on paralysing effect of lion's bite, 162. + + Luther observes a dog at Lintz, 111. + + Lyon, Capt., on Arctic fox, 144, 145. + + Lytton, Sir Edward Bulwer, on the pets of some of the Revolutionary butchers, 195, 196. + + + Macaulay, Lord, on the last days of King William III., 50-56. + + M'Clintock on Arctic fox, 144. + + M'Dougall on habits of Arctic lemming, 197. + + Macgillivray, John, on a fox-bat from Fitzroy Island, 45. + + Mackenzie, Mrs Colin, on the habits of the apes at Simla, 35, 36; + on the tiger being worshipped, 166. + + Man, Professor Owen on his position, 1; + definition of, by Linnaeus, 12; + defined in the Linnaean manner, 4. + + Mandrill and George IV., 31, 32. + + Mansfield's, Lord, joke about a horse, 267. + + Marat, the citizen, and his doves, 196. + + Markham, Mr Clement, on the Polar bear, 69. + + _Marsupialia_, 188-191. + + Mastiff and the soldier, 97. + + Matthews, Henry, on the Grotta del Cane, 112. + + Mayerne, Dr, and his balsam of bats, 47. + + Metcalfe, when a boy, on camel, 290. + + Miller, Hugh, on badger-baiting in the Canongate, 72-74. + + Miscellaneous eating about a pig, 238. + + Mitchell, D. W., on the habits of a young chimpanzee, 22-24. + + Mitchell's antipathy to cats, 155. + + Model dog of the artist Collins, 96, 97. + + Mole, its habits, 49. + + Monkey revered by Hindoos, 35. + + Monkeys, 9; + liable to lung disease in British islands, 22; + Rev. Sydney Smith on, 34, 35; + poor relations, 34. + + Montagu, Duke of, and his hospital for old cows, &c., 309. + + Montgomery, James, his translation of a definition of man, 4; + and his cats, 155, 156. + + Moore, General, and his horse at Corunna, 268. + + Moore on Gilpin and Boatswain, two dogs, 95, 96. + + Moore, Dr John, sketch of a French marquis and his monkey, 30, 31. + + More, Hannah, on dog of Garrick's, 105. + + Moreau and his greyhound, 113. + + Moses, a dog of Mrs Schimmelpenninck's, 122. + + Moth larvae eating at night, 37. + + Mounsey, anecdote of, 269. + + Mouse that amused Baron von Trenck, 209, 210. + + Mules should have their own way, 286. + + Museum of John Hunter, 164, 165. + + Musical cats, 152, 153. + + Musk rat, 200. + + _Myrmecophaga jubata_, 225-229. + + + Names given to horses, 270-274. + + Napier, Charles, and the lion in the Tower, 173. + + Natural history collectors of the days of Addison and Steele, 5, 8. + + Neill, Dr Patrick, 5. + + Nelson and the Polar bear, 67-69; + in Arctic seas, 186. + + Newfoundland dog, 126. + + N'Geena, or gorilla, 18. + + Nicol, George, the bookseller and hunter, 165. + + Norfolk, Duke of, and his spaniels, 114. + + North, Sir Dudley, visits the rhinoceros, 231. + + North, Lord, and the dog, 115. + + Northcote's Balaam and the Ass, 281. + + Norton, Hon. Mrs, address to a dog, 83. + + + Odell and his old donkey, 277. + + Old Jack, a horse that drew stones for building Waterloo Bridge, 270. + + Old lady and the beasts on the mound, 173. + + Ommaney, Capt., and the Polar bear, 70. + + Opossum, 190. + + _Ornithorhynchus_, the duck-bill, 192. + + Owen, Professor, on the gorilla, 18; + on the aye-aye, 36. + + + Parasols, how ladies used them at Cross's menagerie, 33. + + Parrot and monkey, anecdote of two pets, 33, 34. + + Parry, Capt., on flesh of Polar bear, 66. + + Paton, Sir J. Noel, has studied physiognomies of bats, &c., 38. + + Peale, Titian, on a tame fox-bat, 44. + + Peccaries of South America, 240. + + Peel, Capt. Wm., on camel, 287-289. + + _Peracyon_, 19. + + Perchance, a lap-dog, 96. + + Perthes derives hints from his dog, 115. + + Peter the Great and his dog Lisette, 161, 117. + + _Phascolomys vombatus_, 193. + + Philip IV. in bull-ring, 310. + + Phillips, Sir Richard, eats jelly of ivory dust, 233. + + _Phoca barbata_, 180; + _vitulena_, 177. + + Pied Piper of Hamelin, extract from, 199. + + Pig, monument to, 239. + + Pigs and silver spoons, 254. + + Plants liked by hares, 218. + + Polar bear, its history, 61-70. + + Poll-cat, Fox and the, 77. + + Polkemmet, Lord, a dinner on veal, 305. + + Polson and the last Scottish wolf, 135-137. + + Ponsonby and the poodle, 118. + + Porpoise in Zoological Gardens, 315. + + Pope on dogs, 95. + + Porcupine ant-eater, 192. + + Postman and carrier dog at Moffat, 113. + + Postmen, Capt. Osborn, on Arctic foxes as, 146. + + _Potamochoerus_, 240, 245. + + Prinny, a pet dog of Collins the artist, 96, 97. + + Prison mouse, 209, 210. + + _Pteropus conspicillatus_, 44; + _medius_, 45. + + Puss, a pet hare of the poet Cowper's 214, 215. + + + _Quadrumana_, 9-38. + + Queen of Charles I. and the lap-dog 107. + + Quixote Bowles fond of pigs, 251. + + + Rabbits, a family all blind of one eye, 222. + + Raccoon, 71. + + Race-horses, Holcroft's anecdotes of, 263-265. + + Ramsgate donkeys, Irishman on, 278. + + Rats and mice, 198. + + Rats' whiskers good for artists' brushes, 204. + + Ravages of rats, 203. + + Raven, pet of Wood the surgeon, 299. + + Red-deer at Taymouth, 291, 292. + + "Relais," a dog belonging to Louis XII., 111. + + Revolutionary butchers and their pets, 195, 196. + + Rhinoceros and elephant, 229. + + Richardson, Sir J., on Arctic fox, 143. + + River pig, 245. + + Rodent animals, 195, 212. + + Rodney, Lord, and his dog Loup, 119. + + Rogue elephant, skull of one, 230. + + Roos's etchings of sheep, Goethe on, 296, 297. + + Ross, Sir James, on Arctic fox, 142, 145. + + Rowan berries, dog that fetched, 128. + + Ruddiman and his dog Rascal, 119. + + + Sand liked by hares, 218. + + Schimmelpenninck, Mrs, her fondness for dogs, 121. + + Scott, Sir Walter, when a boy, saw Burns, 84; + his fondness for his dogs, 122; + on a fox, 138; + visit to the Black Dwarf, 157. + + "Scratcher" of Sydney Smith, 311. + + Scriptures, dogs mentioned in the, 84, 103, 106. + + Seals, their intelligence, 174-182. + + _Semnopithecus Entellus_, an Indian monkey, 35. + + Sergent and his spaniel, 196. + + Shaved bear at Bristol, 61. + + Shawl-goat at John Hunter's menagerie, 301. + + Sheep, anecdotes of, 295-298; + and goats, 295; + pet, of Alex. Wood the surgeon, 299. + + Shepherd dogs, 82. + + Sheridan and the dog, 109; + on the dog-tax, 123. + + Shetland seals, 174-182. + + Sidmouth, Lord, educated by the Rev. Mr Gilpin, 308. + + Skins of rabbits, 223. + + Sloth, Sydney Smith on, 224. + + Smith, Rev. Sydney, on the differences between man and monkeys, 34, 35; + his answer to Landseer, 78; + remark on a dog, 88; + his dislike of dogs, 124, 125; + on pigs, 254; + and his horses, 271-274. + + Smith and the elephant, 234. + + Sorrel, the horse of William III., 51. + + Southey and his critics, 48; + on dogs, 126; + loved cats, 158-160. + + Sow and swine, 238-255. + + Spencer, Lord, and Rev. Sydney Smith, 124, 125. + + _Spermophilus Parryi_, 197. + + Sportsmen, exaggeration of some, 221. + + Squirrel, 195. + + Stags, anecdotes of, 291-293. + + Stag-trench at Frankfort, 294. + + Stanhope, Earl, on Jacobites calling adherents of Court "Hanover rats," 202, 203; + on the poet Cowper's tastes, 220. + + Stapelia, a plant at the Cape, 25. + + Stirling Castle, "Lion's den" at, 162. + + Stokes, Capt. Lort, on the red-necked fox-bat, 43. + + Story, Judge, names he gave his horses, 274. + + Sturge and the pigs, 255. + + Surgeon, an enthusiastic fox-hunting, 138. + + Swinton, origin of name, 241. + + Sykes, Colonel, on the flesh of a fox-bat, 45. + + Syria, wild boar in, 244. + + + Tail, short-tailed and long-tailed horses, 275. + + Tailor and the elephant, 235. + + _Tamandua_, or ant-eater, 226. + + Tennyson, lines on man, and modern systems, 10; + lines describing tropical bats, 39. + + Thackeray on the Egyptian donkey, 285. + + _Thalassarctos maritimus_--the polar bear, 61-70. + + _Thylacinus Harrisii_, 191. + + Tibetan mastiff, 86, 87. + + Tiger and lion, 161. + + Tigers' claws and whiskers regarded as charms, 165. + + Tiger-wolf of Tasmania, 190-194. + + Tiney, a pet hare of Cowper's, 216. + + Toplady on future state of animals, 312. + + Tonton, Walpole's pet dog, 129, 130. + + Trained monkeys, 26. + + Trenck and the tame mouse in prison, 209. + + _Trichechus rosmarus_, 183. + + True, on dog being a good judge of eloquence, 127. + + + Ulysses and his dog, 133. + + _Ursus lotor_, why raccoon was so called, 71. + + + Veal _ad nauseam_, 304 + + Venison fat, 294. + + _Vulpes lagopus_, 142. + + + Walker, Dr David, on Polar bear, 62. + + Wallace, Alfred, on orang-utan, 11; + on great ant-eater, 227. + + Walpole, Horace, the young lady's pet monkey and her parrot, 33, 34; + pet dog Rosette, lines on, 129. + + Walrus, history of, 182-188. + + Waterton, Charles, letter from, on young gorilla, 18-20; + letter to Mrs Wombwell on her young gorilla, 21; + "Hanover rats," 202. + + Watt, James, on rats' whiskers, 204. + + Wellington's story of musk rat, 200. + + Whalebone, 315. + + Whales, 315, 317. + + Whateley, Archbishop, and his dogs, 131, 132; + on a cat that rung the bell, 160. + + Wild boar, 239-245. + + Wilkie, Sir David, and the baby, 3, 4; + and the puppy, 133. + + William III., his death, as related by Lord Macaulay, 49-56. + + Wilson, the American ornithologist, and the mouse, 211. + + Windham, Right Hon. William, on Capt. Phipps's Arctic expedition, 67, 68; + on the feelings of a baited bull, 313. + + Wolf, 135. + + Wolf-dog, Hungarian, anecdote of, 102, 103. + + Wombat, 193. + + Wood, Sandy, and his pets, 298, 299. + + Wordsworth on cruelty to horses in Ireland, 275. + + + Zebra, Lattin's joke, 287. + + Zoological Gardens, 249. + + +THE END. + + +PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY + +EDINBURGH AND LONDON + ++------------------------------------------------------------------+ +|Transcriber's note: | +| | +|"The Aye-Aye, or Cheiromys of Madagascar (_with a Plate_)" | +| | +|Unfortunately no plate could be found for this particular section.| +|Reference to it was removed from the Table of Contents. | ++------------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Heads and Tales, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEADS AND TALES *** + +***** This file should be named 25918.txt or 25918.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/9/1/25918/ + +Produced by Julia Miller, Janet Blenkinship and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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