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diff --git a/old/69886-0.txt b/old/69886-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 6d71877..0000000 --- a/old/69886-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5846 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Famous pets of famous people, by -Eleanor Lewis - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Famous pets of famous people - -Author: Eleanor Lewis - -Release Date: January 27, 2023 [eBook #69886] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Fiona Holmes 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.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMOUS PETS OF FAMOUS -PEOPLE *** - - -Transcriber’s Notes - -Hyphenation has been standardised. - -The spellings of Durer and Dürer are being left unchanged. -The spellings of Etretat and Etretât are being left unchanged. -Page 190.png changed other to another - -In this text version, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_. - - - - -[Illustration: MAUD HOWE.] - - - - - FAMOUS PETS - - _OF FAMOUS PEOPLE_ - - BY - - ELEANOR LEWIS - - [Illustration: “MOUCHE”, VICTOR HUGO’S CAT.] - - _ILLUSTRATED_ - - BOSTON - D. LOTHROP COMPANY - WASHINGTON STREET OPPOSITE BROMFIELD - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1892, - BY - D. LOTHROP COMPANY. - - - PRESS OF - Rockwell and Churchill - BOSTON - - - - - TO - - Maud Howe Elliott - - WHOSE DEVOTION TO HER OWN PETS CONSTITUTES HER - THE FRIEND OF EVERY OTHER, THIS BOOK - IS APPRECIATIVELY INSCRIBED - BY THE AUTHOR - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - I. - - SOME SCOTCH CELEBRITIES 15 - - - II. - - A SELECT COMPANY 37 - - - III. - - PETS IN LITERARY LIFE 53 - - - IV. - - “THE UPPER TEN” 75 - - - V. - - A NOTABLE CANINE TRIO 119 - - - VI. - - PETS IN ARTIST LIFE 135 - - - VII. - - PUSSY IN PRIVATE LIFE 173 - - - VIII. - - AN ODD SET 189 - - - IX. - - MILITARY PETS 209 - - - X. - - ANIMALS AT SCHOOL 231 - - - XI. - - A MENAGERIE IN STONE 247 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. - - - Miss Maud Howe and her dog Sambo _Frontis._ - - Statue of Sir Walter Scott, in Edinburgh 17 - - Sir Walter Scott and his bull-terrier, Camp 21 - - Rab 25 - - “Baby Rab” 26 - - “Pity the sorrows of us homeless dogs” 27 - - Dr. John Brown, Dr. Peddie, and Dandie 28 - - Drinking-fountain monument to Greyfriars’ Bobby, Edinburgh 29 - - Greyfriars’ Bobby 31 - - Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe at home 38 - - Mrs. Stowe’s dog Punch 40 - - Mrs. Stowe’s dog Missy 41 - - Mrs. Phelps’s dog Daniel Deronda 42 - - Mrs. Jane Welsh Carlyle and Nero 45 - - Lord Byron and his dog Lyon 56 - - Sir Horace Walpole and Patapan 59 - - Charles Dickens’s pet raven, Grip 62 - - Bushie, the favorite dog of Charlotte Cushman 66 - - Mouche, Victor Hugo’s cat 68 - - General Muff, Miss Mary L. Booth’s cat 69 - - Nelly, the dog of Edmund Yates 71 - - Frederick the Great and his sister Wilhelmina 78 - - Prince Bismarck and his dogs 81 - - Queen Elizabeth in her peacock gown 86 - - Mary, Queen of Scots, at the age of ten 87 - - Lady Margaret Lenox, mother of Lord Darnley 88 - - Children of Charles I. with spaniels 90 - - Children of Charles I.; Prince Charles and his mastiff 91 - - James Stuart, Duke of Richmond, son of Esme Stuart 95 - - Princess Elizabeth, eldest daughter of James I., - and her pets 98 - - Princess Mary, daughter of Charles I. 101 - - Charles II. and pet spaniel, at Dawney Court, Bucks, - seat of the Duchess of Cleveland 104 - - Princess Amelia and her dog 105 - - Princess Augusta, daughter of George III.} - Princess Amelia, daughter of George III. } 107 - - A favorite at Marlborough House 109 - - Pet spaniel of Louis XVI., companion of his daughter - “Madame Royale,” in prison 111 - - Pet Italian greyhound of Marie Louise 112 - - Carlo Alberto and his favorite horse 113 - - Victor Emmanuel and his dog 115 - - Prince Henry, eldest son of James I. 120 - - Prince Rupert with his white dog Boy 127 - - Puritan caricature of the death of Prince Rupert’s - white hound Boy 131 - - Miss Bowles 136 - - “Friends now, Pussy!” 137 - - The painter Hogarth and his dog Trump 139 - - Portrait of Albrecht Dürer at thirteen 141 - - Hare drawn by the boy Albrecht Dürer 142 - - Two Venetian ladies and their pets 143 - - Section of dome 145 - - Ducks 146 - - Fragment 147 - - Hens and chickens 147 - - Two of Gottfried Mind’s cats 148 - - The Cavalier’s pets 149 - - The dustman’s dog 151 - - Countess, the sleeping bloodhound 151 - - The critics 152 - - Paul Pry, a member of the Humane Society 153 - - An old monarch 155 - - Wasp, Rosa Bonheur’s pet terrier 157 - - The horse fair 158 - - The lion at home 159 - - Glen and his master at Etretât 160 - - Glen 161 - - Mr. Chase and Kat-te 162 - - Lilla, Cruikshank’s little dog 163 - - Lady Tankerville, who hid her kittens in the head of - Story’s statue of Peabody 165 - - Entrance and window of the sculptor Ezekiel’s studio in Rome 168 - - Bimbo, one of the sculptor Story’s pets 169 - - Cat-headed Egyptian goddess, Bast or Bubastis 174 - - Bas-relief of Whittington and his cat 175 - - Cardinal Richelieu, front face and sides 179 - - The two-legged cat that belonged to Dr. Hill of Princeton - College 183 - - Sally 193 - - Cowper’s tame hares 199 - - Helix Desertorum 204 - - Bobby, the dog who would be a soldier 211 - - The deer that marched ahead 220 - - The Welsh Fusileers’ goat 221 - - Old Abe 223 - - Love leading the orchestra 232 - - The elephants of Germanicus 232 - - The cat showman 233 - - Pinta and his mule Marco 234 - - Help, the railway dog of England 235 - - Prof. Bonnetty’s troupe 237 - - The Brighton Cats 239 - - A cat with a conscience 241 - - “Tell me thy secret, Beppo” 242 - - Sculpture of greyhounds in the Vatican 248 - - Sculpture of thieving monkey in the Vatican 249 - - Stag in alabaster in the Vatican 250 - - Pliny’s doves; a mosaic in the Capitol at Rome 251 - - Patrician or plebeian? 253 - - The chimera; Etruscan sculpture in the Bargello at Florence 254 - - - - -_I._ - -_SOME SCOTCH CELEBRITIES._ - - -FAMOUS PETS. - - - - -I. - -SOME SCOTCH CELEBRITIES. - - -Beautiful Edinburgh, her gray warmed into gold by the summer sunshine, -lies half-asleep at the foot of her Castle Rock, and dreams, through -the peaceful present, of her stormy, impetuous past. Each grain of dust -there is historic. The traveler’s every footstep wakes some memory -of old days. Over castle and palace, broad way and narrow close, -over Canongate, Grassmarket, Arthur’s Seat, over hills that environ -and streams that link, a magician has cast his spell--so intimately -blending past and present, that we cannot look upon the one without -remembering the other. - -To-day in sculptured marble, as erstwhile in life, the weaver of the -spell yet guards his time-worn city, like the good genius of its -fate. Passionless, mute, he sits brooding--the bustle of existence -all around him--while the hound at his side gazes up at him, in rest -unbroken as his own. The Scott monument--that is what rises before -us; and the broad-browed, deep-eyed enchanter within, that--as every -schoolboy knows--is the great Sir Walter Scott, the good, well-loving, -dearly-loved Sir Walter. - -“What has he not done for every one of us?” writes the historian -of Rab. “Who else ever, except Shakespeare, so diverted mankind, -entertained and entertains a world so liberally, so wholesomely?” Who, -indeed? And, in truth, we owe him far more than mere diversion, however -liberal and wholesome; and may count it not least among his gifts to -the world that, from the height of his fame, he set it example of a -wise, distinguishing regard for animals. - - “He prayeth well who loveth well - Both man and bird and beast”-- - -might stand for the motto of his life. From babyhood to old age the -power of loving enriched him, and won from “all things, great or -small,” a warm response. - -The most conversible, attachable, and hence, dearest, among his humble -friends were, naturally, horses and dogs. He liked, however, almost -everything that breathes; and poultry, cattle, sheep, or pigs, cats -and birds--all shared, to greater or less degree, in his good-will. An -old gray badger lived, hermit-like, in a hole near Abbotsford for many -years under his protection. A hen and a pig formed ardent attachments -to him; and a pair of little donkeys would trot like puppies at his -heels whenever they got the chance. - -Carlyle tells the story of a Blenheim cocker in Edinburgh, the most -timid and reserved of its race, which shrank from all attention save -that of its mistress, until one day on the street it made a sudden -spring towards a tall, halting stranger, and fawned upon him in an -ecstasy of delight. This was, of course, our own Sir Walter, whose -great heart, like a magnet, drew to it all other hearts, whether bold -or shy. - -[Illustration: STATUE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT, IN EDINBURGH.] - -His horses all fed from his hand, and preferred his attendance to that -of the grooms; while, until lameness obliged him, in later years, -to give up walking, he would never ride on Sunday, believing that “all -domestic animals have a full right to their Sabbath of rest.” If his -four-footed dependants were ill, he nursed and prescribed for them. -When little Spice, an asthmatic terrier, was following the carriage, he -would carry it over the brooks, that it might not get wet. In fine, he -was always what too few are--“a gentleman, even to his dogs.” - -Pets were so numerous at Abbotsford that their record must be brief. -The long list of pet horses opens in his childhood with a Shetland -pony called Marion--a dwarfish creature that fed from his hand, and -ran in and out of the house like a dog. The pair were close friends, -and passed hours together exploring the hills. In his twentieth year, -or thereabouts, Lenore is mentioned as doing him good service, but ere -long was succeeded by Captain, coal-black and full of mettle. Next came -Lieutenant, and then Brown Adam, a special favorite, who would let none -but his master ride him, and who, when saddled and bridled, would trot -out of the stable by himself to the mounting-stone, and wait there -for Sir Walter. Daisy, next in order, was “all over white, without -a speck, and with such a mane as Rubens delighted to paint.” His -temper, unfortunately, was less perfect than his mane, and eventually -Sir Walter sold him. Daisy was succeeded by the original of Dandie -Dinmont’s “Dumple,” in the shape of a sober cob named Sybil Grey; and -the list closes with a staid old horse known indifferently as Donce -Davie and the Covenanter. - -In 1803, the canine favorite was Camp, a fine bull-terrier, “very -handsome, very intelligent, and naturally very fierce, but gentle as a -lamb among the children.” It is this dog that appears in the painting -by Raeburn. He had considerable intellect in his way, and understood -much that was said to him. Once he bit the family baker, and was -severely punished for it--his offense being at the same time explained -to him, says Scott. After this, “to the last moment of his life, he -never heard the least allusion to the story, in whatever voice or tone -it was mentioned, without getting up and retiring into the darkest -corner of the room, with great appearance of distress. Then if you -said, ‘The baker was well paid,’ or, ‘The baker was not hurt after -all,’ Camp came forth from his hiding-place, capered, and barked, and -rejoiced.” - -He lost none of his brightness, although strength began to fail him in -1808, so that he could no longer accompany Sir Walter on his rides. -But still when as evening drew on, the servant would say, “Camp, the -shirra’s comin’ hame by the ford,” or “by the hill,” Camp would patter -stiffly to the front door or back, as the direction might imply, and -there await the master whom he could no longer follow. He died the -ensuing year, in January, and was buried in the garden of Scott’s -Edinburgh house, where even yet the place is pointed out. The whole -family stood in tears around the grave, while Sir Walter himself, -with sad face, smoothed the turf above his old companion. He had been -invited to dine from home that night, but excused himself on account -of the death of a dear old friend; and none wondered when they learned -that the friend was Camp. - -Contemporary with Camp were the two greyhounds, Percy and Douglas, who, -though far less dear, were much petted. It is on record that despite -Lady Scott’s fear of robbers, a window was always left open for these -dogs to pass in and out. They lie buried at Abbotsford with other of -their doggish kin. Percy, in particular, is honored by a stone of -antique appearance, and this inscription, befitting some valiant knight: - -“Cy git le preux Percie.” - -[Illustration: SIR WALTER SCOTT AND HIS BULL-TERRIER, CAMP. - -(_From the painting by Raeburn._)] - -Poor Camp went over to the majority of dogs in January; in July, Sir -Walter wrote to a friend that he had filled the vacant place with a -shaggy terrier-puppy of high pedigree, and named it Wallace--its donor -being a descendant of that famous Scotchman. Somewhat later the family -was enlarged by a smooth-haired kintail terrier called Ourisque, which, -if attending the master on his rides, would sometimes pretend fatigue, -and whine to be taken up on horseback, where it would sit upright, -without any support, in great state. - -But of all Sir Walter’s pets, the most famous was Maida, a gift in 1816 -from his Highland friend Glengarry. He describes it with enthusiasm, -as “The noblest dog ever seen on the Border since Johnny Armstrong’s -time, ... between the wolf and deer greyhound, about six feet from -the tip of the nose to the tail, and high and strong in proportion.” -Captain Thomas Brown, who knew Maida well, says, “So uncommon was -his appearance, that he used to attract great crowds in Edinburgh to -look at him whenever he appeared on the streets. He was a remarkably -high-spirited and beautiful dog, with black ears, cheeks, back and -sides, ... the tip of his tail white, ... his hair rough and shaggy; -... that on the ridge of his neck, he used to raise like a lion’s mane, -when excited to anger.” - -Maida was uniformly gentle except--aristocrat that he was!--to the -poorly-dressed and to artists. His detestation of the latter may be -explained by the number of times he had been obliged to pose for -them;--the mere sight of a brush and palette was at last enough to make -him run. His bark was deep and hollow; and sometimes, says Sir Walter, -“he amused himself with howling in a very tiresome way. When he was -very fond of his friends he used to grin, tucking up his whole lips -and showing all his teeth, but it was only when he was particularly -disposed to recommend himself.” - -Once he got hung by the leg, in trying to jump a park paling, and began -to howl. But seeing his friends approach, “he stopped crying, and -waved his tail by the way of signal, it was supposed, for assistance.” -Luckily he was not much hurt, and most grateful for his rescue. - -The pleasant Irish authoress, Miss Edgeworth, was also fond of animals; -and Scott’s correspondence with this lady is full of allusions to their -mutual canine friends. In April, 1822, he tells her that Maida can -no longer follow him far from the house, and adds: “I have sometimes -thought of the final cause of dogs having such short lives; and I am -quite satisfied that it is in compassion to the human race; for if we -suffer so much in losing a dog after an acquaintance of ten or twelve -years, what would it be if they were to live double that time?” - -We can well imagine his grief when finally (October, 1824) Maida passed -away painlessly, in his straw. They buried him at Abbotsford gate -where he had so long kept watch and ward, with his own marble likeness -for monument,--and for epitaph-- - - “Beneath the sculptured form which late you wore, - Sleep soundly, Maida, at your master’s door.” - -He still lives, however, in the story of Woodstock, as Bevis, the -gallant hound of Alice Lee. - -Nimrod and Bran succeeded Maida, and although they could not replace -him, were fine fellows. There was also a black greyhound, Hamlet, who -usually “behaved most prince-like,” but when Washington Irving visited -Abbotsford, got into mischief and killed a sheep. Nimrod, too, was -occasionally naughty, but the master never failed to befriend his dogs -when they were in trouble, preferring to pay damages rather than lose -them. - -Besides the large dogs, there was a whole retinue of smaller ones, -among them Finette, a sensitive, lady-like spaniel, greatly favored -by Lady Scott; and a number of Dinmont terriers. The latter all bore -“cruet names,” there being in the house at one time a Pepper, Mustard, -Ginger, Catchup, Soy and Spice. Spicie was a warm-hearted, affectionate -little creature, and is often mentioned, especially to Miss Edgeworth. -Her little friend--Scott once assured her--is recovering from an -asthmatic attack, and is active, though thin, “extremely like the -shadow of a dog on the wall.” - -Other dogs there were, but where is the space to chronicle them or -their deeds? A few lines must be kept for Hinsefeldt, the large black -family cat that usually lay on the top stair of the book-ladder in -Sir Walter’s study, coming down if Maida left the room, to guard the -footstool until he should return. Irving saw Pussy at Abbotsford, and -describes her clapper-clawing the dogs--an act of sovereignty which -they took in good part. Scott was by nature not very fond of cats, but -Hinse reconciled him to the race, so that even in a dull London hotel, -he could enjoy the society of a “tolerably conversible cat, that ate a -mess of cream with him each morning.” - -In 1825 a great business crash involved Sir Walter in a debt, to pay -which he wore out the remnant of his life. Just before, he had been -planning a return to Abbotsford. “But now,” he writes, “my dogs will -wait for me in vain.... I feel their feet on my knees, I hear them -whining and seeking me everywhere. This is nonsense, but it is what -they would do could they know how things may be.” Two or three years -later, being asked to write something for a Manual of Coursing, he -refused sadly:--“I could only send you the laments of an old man, and -the enumeration of the number of horses and dogs which have been long -laid under the sod.” - -Indeed, for master as for petted friends, the end was now approaching. -He grew each day more sad and feeble, until at last even his -staghound’s rough caress was more than his spent frame could bear. As a -last hope he was taken on a voyage; but the remedy was powerless, and -he hurried home to die. Half-wild with joy at seeing the old familiar -scenes once more, he finally reached Abbotsford, and sank exhausted in -his chair. There the dogs gathered around him; “they began to fawn upon -him and lick his hands; and he alternately sobbed and smiled over them -until sleep oppressed him.” This sleep ere long deepened into a slumber -more profound, and death came between Sir Walter and his friends on -earth. - -Contemporary with Scott was Prof. John Wilson, so well-known to all -as Christopher North. He, too, was passionately fond of animals, and -his daughter, Mrs. Gordon, has left a delightful account of his pets. -Of Grog, chestnut-brown in color, meek and tiny, “more like a bird -than a dog,” with “little comical, turned-out feet, a cosey, coaxing, -mysterious, half-mouse, half-birdlike dog,” who crept noiselessly out -of life one morning, and was found dead on his master’s bed. Of Brontë, -the beautiful Newfoundland, all purple-black, save the white star on -his breast, who daily walked to and from the college with his master, -but at last was cruelly poisoned, and died, leaving “no bark like his -in the world of sound.” - -[Illustration: RAB. - -(_By permission of David Douglass, publisher of “Rab and His -Friends.”_)] - -Of O’Brontë, Brontë’s son, with “the same still, serene, smiling and -sagacious eyes.” Of Rover, the best beloved, whose master stood beside -him when he died, “trying to soothe and comfort the poor animal. A very -few minutes before death closed his fast-glazing eye, the professor -said, ‘Rover, my poor fellow, give me your paw.’ The dying animal made -an effort to reach his master’s hand; and so thus parted my father with -his favorite, as one man taking leave of another.” - -Of Charlie, Fido, Tip, and Fang, Paris and many more, not to mention -his friendly canine friends, Neptune, Tickler, Tory, Wasp, and Juba, -who graciously kept him on their visiting-list. Should any one wish to -know more of these dogs, he will find plenty to interest him in the -writings of Christopher North, especially in that pleasant miscellany -called the _Noctes Ambrosianæ_. - -[Illustration: “BABY RAB.” - -(_Sketch by Dr. John Brown._)] - -But the pet most singular and most fairy-like of all, was a sparrow, -that for eleven years inhabited his study, dwelling with him in an -intimacy so entire that the family declared it was developing both in -size and character by the association, and if it lived, would in time -become an eagle. To think of the tiny creature fluttering around great -Christopher, nestling in his waistcoat pocket, carrying stray hairs -from his shoulders to its cage, with nest intentions; perching on his -inkstand, even pecking at his pen! What familiarity, what audacity -with genius! And supposing the nest actually had been made, with those -precious hairs inwoven, how relic-hunters would be seeking it to-day! - -The intimacy between this strangely dissimilar pair is only one more -proof that - - “The brave are aye the tenderest - The loving are the daring;” - -and I cannot but think that if his books should be forgotten, the -legend of the sparrow would still keep Wilson’s memory green. - -A friend and brother-author of Scott and Wilson was the Ettrick -Shepherd, James Hogg. To judge from his own account, and from that -in the _Noctes_, his liking for dogs must have equaled theirs. His -perception of canine character was acute; and through his description -we feel well acquainted with Hector, the Collie. According to the -Shepherd, Hector had a sense of humor matched only by his politeness, -and once even, when intensely amused by a conversation between his -master and a friend, “louped o’er a stone wa’,” that he might laugh -unseen behind it. Maida used to grin; why not Hector? - -With these three lovers of the canine race must be grouped a fourth, -the good physician, Doctor John Brown of Edinburgh. He has written -about dogs as only Landseer has painted them--sympathetically, -lovingly, with intuitive comprehension of dog-nature. “Rab and his -Friends” is an idyl that brings tears for sole applause; “Our Dogs” -is a Shakespearean comedy, over which we smile or softly laugh. We -remember them as we remember only the intensely alive. Still we see -that night procession where the living guides homeward the beautiful -dead, with faithful Rab slow-following behind. - -[Illustration: PITY THE SORROWS OF US HOMELESS DOGS] - -Then the scene changes, and “Our Dogs” frolic over the stage. A daring -little fellow leads them--the one that begged admission to the band by -a look that said _Cur non_? Here is Toby the Tyke, with his unequaled -tail and moral excellence; here Wylie, the collie, blithe, beautiful -and kind; and here Rab himself, whose baby outlines are imagined in a -funny sketch by Dr. Brown. Here is Wasp, the dog-of-business; here, -Jock, “insane from his birth,” as might be expected of a dog whose -mother was called Vampire, and whose father, Demon. Enter the Dutchess, -of wee body and great soul; enter Crab, John Pym, and Puck; pass as -enter Dick and Peter, Jock and Bob. In fact, Bob closes the list, and -his character was thus briefly summed up for me in a room in Edinburgh -made sacred by mementoes of his master. - -“Bob,” said my informant, “was the last dog we had, and really he was -too much for us all. He was very pure-bred,--so pure, that my brother -used to say it had driven the wits from him. He had no discretion -whatever, yet at the same time so much energy that he was always -getting both himself and us into trouble. He became very grubby at -last,--oh! very grubby, indeed, and we were obliged to dispose of him.” - -[Illustration: Dr. JOHN BROWN, DR. PEDDIE, AND DANDIE. - -(_From photograph, by permission of Mr. Moffat, Edinburgh._)] - -The Edinburgh refuge for lost dogs found a warm advocate in Dr. Brown; -his sketch of two little terriers supporting a hat for contributions -appeals to us still to pity the sorrows of homeless dogs. Even more -vividly does it recall the artist--that kindest gentleman and friend -who spent his life in caring for the needy, sick, and sad. Here in the -picture you see him--the same kind presence as in life--seated with Dr. -Peddie, and Dr. Peddie’s Dandie. This photograph was taken in 1880. -Dandie belonged to Dr. Peddie, but was a great favorite with Dr. John -whom (as both gentlemen lived on the same street) he visited daily, -never seeming content until his regular call was made. - -[Illustration: DRINKING FOUNTAIN MONUMENT TO GREYFRIARS’ BOBBY, -EDINBURGH.] - -Very unlike the homeless, boneless paupers of Dr. Brown’s Plea, is -an Edinburgh dog now living, to whose luxurious habits the following -anecdote, given me by one acquainted with its truth, bears witness. - -Edinburgh, though nominally on the Firth of Forth, lies really some -miles from the sea. In summer, a bather’s train is run sufficiently -early to enable gentlemen to reach their offices in good time. Mr. -Thomas Nelson (of the publishers’ firm Nelson & Co., Edinburgh, London, -New York, etc.) was in the habit of availing himself of this early -train, accompanied by a favorite dog, who enjoyed a sea-bath as much -as did his master. On one occasion Mr. Nelson was away from home for -three weeks, and on his return was surprised to receive a bill from the -railway company for three weeks’ first-class dog fares. On inquiry, he -found that during his absence, the dog had gone daily, as hitherto, by -train, taken the usual bath, and then returned to town--exactly as he -had been used to doing in his master’s company. - -[Illustration: GREYFRIARS’ BOBBY.] - -All will agree, I fancy, that this anecdote bears witness to the dog’s -neat and gentlemanly habits, as well as to his master’s indulgence. - -Just off High Street in Edinburgh, beyond George IV. Bridge, is a -little drinking-fountain with a trough for dogs attached. It is a point -of interest to more than the thirsty--being unique both in subject -and design. Seated on a pedestal is the image of a shaggy, large-eyed -terrier, whose averted gaze continually seeks Greyfriars’ churchyard, -across the intervening houses of the street. Beneath are the words: - - GREYFRIARS’ BOBBY. - _From the life, just before his death_, - -and below this, the following inscription: - - _A Tribute - To the affectionate fidelity of_ - GREYFRIARS’ BOBBY. - _In 1858 this faithful dog followed - The remains of his master to Greyfriars’ - churchyard, and lingered - near the spot until his death in 1872. - With permission, - Erected by the - Baroness Burdett-Coutts._ - -The story of leal Bobby has been often told, but is well worth telling -once again. While life sits warm at our hearts, we should remember this -other little heart, so constant and loving. He has been sculptured, -painted, sketched, memorialized, as though he were royal. - -One gloomy day I passed the memorial fountain, and turned in at -Greyfriars. It was already closing time, still the old curator let me -in, and while searching for a “potograph” as he called it, of Bobby, -told me what he could about him. Bobby lies buried in a flower-bed -in front of the church. For more than a dozen years he made his -master’s grave his home--a grave unmarked until his own devotion -became its monument. The curator tried at first to drive him away, but -without success, and ended by letting him do as he would. A friendly -restaurant-keeper gave him food; every body indeed was kind, and in his -doggish heart he must have felt their kindness; yet outwardly he drew -near to none. Why should he when his real life lay deep down in six -feet of earth? - -“Here’s the potograph at last, ma’am,” said the old curator, “and -here’s his collar, if you’d like to see it.” - -I touched reverently the half-worn band of leather, remembering how -near it had once lain to a faithful little heart. - -“They tried to get his body from me,” continued Bobby’s friend, “that -they might stuff the skin, and keep it in the museum. But I said to -myself, ‘No, sirs; you mean it well, but it ain’t what Bobby ‘d ‘a’ -wanted, and he’s the first call to be axed.’ I meant to do the fair -thing by him, dead or alive. He’d never ‘a’ lain here thirteen year, -wet weather or dry, cold or warm, summer and winter, unless he’d meant -it. You see, ma’am, I naturally knew it wa’n’t right for his skin to be -that far from his master’s; so when he died, I just quietly took my own -way, and got him under ground before them as wanted him knew rightly he -was dead. And there he is,”--pointing to the flower-bed--“all that’s -left of him.” - -A soft Scotch rain had been falling while we talked, but now slackened; -and a misty beam of sunlight pierced the clouds low-piled in the west. -Its pale gold lit up Bobby’s resting-place, under-scoring, as it were, -the epitaph just spoken, then glanced along the gray front of the -church, and brought into relief an ancient slab, where a skeleton, -fantastically poised, appeared to be keeping guard. A little robin -hopped lightly to a bush in the flower-bed, whence soon its clear -vespers thrilled the air. Death was there, alas! yet overcome by life; -since love is the only real life, and by right of loving Bobby lives -forever. - - - - -_II._ - -_A SELECT COMPANY._ - - - - -II. - -A SELECT COMPANY. - - -In the Life and Correspondence of the Rev. Lyman Beecher, under the -far-away date of 1819, is this item: - - “Last week was interred Tom junior, with funeral honors, by the side - of old Tom of happy memory. What a fatal mortality there is among the - cats of the Parsonage! Our Harriet is chief mourner always at their - funerals. She asked for what she called an epithet for the gravestone - of Tom junior, which I gave as follows: - - ‘Here lies our kit, - Who had a fit, - And acted queer. - Shot with a gun, - Her race is run, - And she lies here.’” - -The small mourner at this small funeral has since then had many a pet -to love and mourn. Hardly a child but knows the dogs whose stories were -told in Our Young Folks some twenty years ago: Carlo, the poor, good, -homely, loving mastiff; the Newfoundland Rover, who, like Christopher -North’s Brontë, met a cruel death by poison; Stromion, the ‘pure -mongrel,’ Prince and Giglio; lady-like Florence; Rag, the Skye, and -Wix, the Scotch terrier; all these are familiar names. Then, too, -there were cats, as we have just seen; there were birds; there were -accidental, happen-so pets; and, in fine, when we think of Harriet -Beecher Stowe, it is not only as the friend of her race, but also as -the friend and advocate of the great world of animals all around us. - -Prominent among her pets to-day are Punch and Missy, as you see them -here; photographed from life. Excellent sitters they must have been, -even the tip of their impetuous tails being subdued into quiet for the -time. The result is an accurate likeness except in the case of Missy, -whose ears were, unfortunately, so far in the foreground, that they -appear twice their proper size. - -[Illustration: MRS. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE AT HOME. - -(_By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co._)] - -Punch was a present to Mrs. Stowe, and after being selected with great -care, at a noted dog fancier’s in Boston, was sent by express from that -city to Hartford, Conn., in the fall of 1881. “I shall never forget,” -says one of the family, “how droll and cunning he looked in his slatted -crate, trying every aperture with his funny blunt nose, for a way -of escape. He soon, however, made friends with us all, after being -released from his small wooden prison, and was treated by all with the -consideration of a young prince.” - -For two winters Punch made an almost royal progress to Florida--his -mistress, so named, in his train; and was the recipient of most -delicate attentions on board the steamer from officers and crew, not to -speak of mere passengers. He was allowed free access to the captain’s -private room. I am not sure, indeed, but he came to regard it as his -own state apartment, and its crimson plush sofa as his appropriate -seat. Certain it is, that he would often growl, and dispute mildly, its -possession with the captain. - -In the main, however, he was a dog of great politeness. It is on -record that when a lady-passenger kept giving him sugared almonds, he -was too well-bred to express his dislike of them, or pain the giver -by a refusal. So he noiselessly carried almond after almond under the -sofa, until quite a pile was accumulated; the young lady, meanwhile, -supposing he had eaten them. This was done so adroitly, and with such -evidently polite motive, that the by-standers were much amused. - -Punch was very catholic in his tastes; not only the captain’s plush -sofa found favor in his sight, but also the leather cushion in the -pilot-house, where he spent much of his time, apparently over-seeing -the man at the wheel. It was his habit in pleasant weather to take -long constitutionals around the deck-house, keeping close to its side, -through fear of the sea. Rough weather was sure to send him into -retirement under a sofa in the saloon, whence occasionally he would -creep out to inspect the sea--retiring again with a growl of disgust if -the waves were high. - -He was greatly admired in Savannah and Jacksonville, especially by the -darkies, who often asked Miss Stowe if she would not give them “her -pup.” One candid person of color remarked: “Lady, I like your pup; he -looks like he could fight!” But this very popularity brought disaster -in its train. Like the famous thief whose admiration for diamonds led -him always, when possible, to remove them from their ignorant owners -into his own enlightened possession--so somebody--unknown--admired -Punch to the degree that he appropriated him. After two triumphant -years with Mrs. Stowe, in September, 1883, he was stolen; and although -advertised, although rewards were offered, nothing was heard from him -until 1885. In March of this year, he was recognized at a dog-show -in New Haven, and claimed, to the equal delight of himself and his -friends. He had forgotten neither mistress nor home, and his joy in -getting back was unmistakable. - -[Illustration: MRS. STOWE’S DOG PUNCH.] - -In the meantime, his place had been taken, although not filled, by -Missy, a gift from the same gentleman who had previously sent Punch. -Unlike Punch, however, she was a foreigner, having been imported from -England. Miss Stowe says: “It is a disputed point as to which is the -finer dog--I myself think it six of the one to half a dozen of the -other.” - -To Punch’s other claims to distinction, may be added that seal of -public approval--a prize at a dog-show. Both dogs have collars, -bells, and harness in abundance. They wear them when out walking, and -thus--merrily tinkling across the stage--exit Missy, exit Punch to find -behind the scenes, the warm, safe shelter of home! - - * * * * * - -It was probably a strong sense of contrast that led Miss Elizabeth -Stuart Phelps to call her pet terrier Daniel Deronda! He was, however, -so thoroughly lovable and whole-hearted, that on this account, if no -other, he deserved the name. Was, I say--for alas! he has been gathered -to the dust now many months, and only the memory remains of his doggish -prettiness and affectionate heart. Like Punch, he came from a dog-store -in Boston; but unlike him, was of mingled blood, being blue Skye and -King Charles. One of his merits was that excellent thing--in dogs as in -women--a low, soft voice; and on this gentle “barkter,” as suited to a -lady’s establishment, the fancier laid particular stress. - -[Illustration: MRS. STOWE’S DOG MISSY.] - -It added greatly to the appearance of gentleness and simplicity in his -character, that he would readily accept the attentions of strangers, -and walk with almost any one who asked him. This however was the -amiability of good breeding, and did not interfere with the fact that -his heart belonged solely to his mistress. Such wisdom as he had was -of the heart and not the head. He knew no tricks to win attention, -he was not particularly intellectual; but by way of counterpoise, he -was very religious, and quite unsectarian in his views. He had an -actual mania for going to church; Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, -what not--he patronized all with that same fine disregard of lesser -distinctions that characterized George Eliot’s Deronda. - -[Illustration: MRS. PHELPS’S DOG DANIEL DERONDA.] - -Once he ran away three miles from home, to attend services at a Baptist -church--being recognized there by different persons. When the service -was over he started to return. But the road was long, he was already -tired, and time passed slowly. When, as the hours went by, the truant -was still absent, his mistress grew alarmed; and finally, having put -the police to search, set out herself. By good fortune she had not gone -far before, in the middle of the street, she saw the truant himself, -coming wearily homeward, hot, dusty and bewildered. She called him -by name, and when he heard the familiar voice, and realized that his -dearest friend was near, his look of relief and recognition was most -wonderful. - -Accidents come to all, and one day, when Daniel was out walking with -his mistress, he somehow involved himself with a carriage, and the -wheels passed over his neck. He was picked up, a limp, inert little -body. Remedies were applied, though with small hope of success; but at -last, to the astonishment of all, he revived, and erelong was as much a -dog as ever. - -He was well-known in Gloucester, and I believe it was humorously -proposed at one time, to make him assistant janitor of the East -Gloucester Temperance Club. Gentler little assistant there had never -been; but the suggestion was not carried out. And soon he passed -away from his friends. He met with another accident, and, after much -suffering, was mercifully put out of pain. - -“He loved me, and I loved him,” said his mistress. What better epitaph -could he have? - - * * * * * - -From Daniel Deronda to George Eliot; the transition is easy and -natural. She herself maintained that she was “too lazy a lover of -dogs, to like them when they gave her much trouble”; but this was mere -theory, and the actual possession of a pet brought her to that pass of -mingled affection and resignation which most owners of animals reach. -A fine bull-terrier, of great moral excellence, was given her; and -soon, with the readiness of a large mind, she adapted herself to the -new-comer’s whims and ways, noting them all with the same clear insight -she gave to the characters in her books. It was not lost upon her, -that he grew positively “radiant with intelligence, when there was a -savory morsel in question.” This, she thought, spoke well for him; she -distrusted intellect where there was “obtuseness of palate.” - -The good impression Pug made at first, was justified by his -after-conduct; and several weeks’ experience enabled his mistress to -write that he daily developed new graces. He was affectionate, he was -companionable, he was all that a dog should be! In the matter of voice, -he went a step further than his American cousin at Gloucester; for -whereas Daniel Deronda had a very small bark, Pug had no bark at all! -“He sneezed at the world in general, and looked affectionately” at his -mistress. - -Nothing could be more satisfactory than this state of things--devotion -on Pug’s part, answering regard and sympathy on that of George Eliot. -Her feelings, you will notice, were very different from those of -Shakespeare, to whose mighty intellect her own is so often compared. -This great man, who had something to say on almost every subject, had -nothing good to say about dogs, and very little about cats. Probably he -detested the one, and tolerated the other; at any rate, it seems very -doubtful if he cared for them as a man and an author should. Luckily -for all concerned, the world’s authors avoid his bad example and, -almost without exception, have their pets. - - * * * * * - -The Carlyles, for instance: Thomas Carlyle wrote the lives of Cromwell -and Frederick, and Schiller, and Sterling; he told us about heroes -and demigods; he busied himself with the signs of the times, and the -remains of the past--with Chartism in England, and a Revolution in -France; he had loads and piles of books to be read, hidden facts to -search out, crabbed writings to decipher; his brain and his hours were -full--what possible room could there be for anything else? But room -there was, and to spare, and years after its death, he could still -remember the dog whose little life had cheered him; he was fond of -Fritz, his horse; he could pause to notice Pussy, or fling a seed to -Chico, the canary. - -[Illustration: MRS. JANE WELSH CARLYLE AND NERO. (_From photograph by -Prætorius, West Brompton, England._)] - -And Mrs. Carlyle--to judge of her feeling for these little friends, -you must read her letters, and see for yourselves how large a space -their ways and doings fill. - -It is true, there was some question in the family at first, whether a -dog could be tolerated. Mr. Carlyle was busy writing, and nervous--how -would it affect him? But in 1849, the little creature came, found its -place, and filled it; was “a most affectionate, lively little dog, -though otherwise of small merit, and little or no training”; was happy, -and, in turn, made others happy. For the next ten years, Nero and his -master had many walks together, and “a good deal of small traffic, poor -little animal, so loyal, so loving, so naïve, and true with what of dim -intellect he had.” - -Undoubtedly he was a trouble at times, as what mortal thing is not; -yet, on the whole, he was far more of a comfort than trouble. Sometimes -he was stolen, sometimes he strayed away, and then they would suffer -“the agonies of one’s dog lost,” until the missing one again appeared; -for they “could have better spared a better dog.” - -Once, when Carlyle was away from home, the prettiest, wittiest letter -imaginable was sent him, in Nero’s behalf, by Mrs. Carlyle. She was -kind enough to translate it from Can-ese into English, and also to -write it out--he being equal only to Nero + his mark. - - DEAR MASTER--(thus it reads)-- - - I take the liberty to write to you myself (my mistress being out of - the way of writing to you, she says) that you may know Columbine [the - black cat] and I are quite well, and play about as usual. There was - no dinner yesterday to speak of; I had for my share only a piece of - biscuit that might have been round the world; and if Columbine got - anything at all, I didn’t see it. I made a grab at one of two small - beings on my mistress’s plate; she called them heralds of the morn; - but my mistress said, “Don’t you wish you may get it?” and boxed my - ears. I wasn’t taken to walk on account of its being wet. And nobody - came but a man for burial rates, and my mistress gave him a rowing, - because she wasn’t going to be buried here at all. Columbine and I - don’t care where we are buried.... - - (Tuesday Evening.) - - My mistress brought my chain, and said “Come along with me while it - shined, and I could finish after.” But she kept me so long in the - London Library and other places, that I had to miss the post. An old - gentleman in the omnibus took such notice of me! He looked at me a - long time, and then turned to my mistress, and said, “Sharp, isn’t - he?” And my mistress was so good as to say “O, yes!” And then the old - gentleman said again, “I knew it! Easy to see that!” And he put his - hand in his hind pocket, and took out a whole biscuit, a sweet one, - and gave it me in bits. I was quite sorry to part with him, he was - such a good judge of dogs.... No more at present from your - - Obedient little dog, NERO. - - -Poor Nero was run over by a butcher’s cart, in October, 1859, and, -though not killed outright, was never well again. His mistress nursed -and petted him--his master could not do enough; but neither care nor -love could avail. Four months later he died, and was buried in the -garden, with a small headstone to mark his blameless dust. “I could not -have believed,” said Carlyle, “my grief, then and since, would have -been the twentieth part of what it was.” And “nobody but myself,” said -Nero’s mistress, “can have any idea of what that little creature has -been in my life; my inseparable companion during eleven years, ever -doing his little best to keep me from feeling sad and lonely. Docile, -affectionate, loyal, up to his last hour.” - -I happened once to pass the closed house in Chelsea, where the Carlyles -lived so long. Just a little way from it, is a bronze statue of -Carlyle, with kind, melancholy face--a fit memorial, in fitting place, -to one who, whatever his faults, is yet among the greatest spirits of -our age. Not long before he was walking this very path; now we passed -from the voiceless statue to the desolate house, as from silence unto -silence. The windows were closed, like eyes with sealed lids; the -hospitable door was grimly shut, and the knocker, as we tried it, sent -a hollow echo through the hall within. - -But the noonday sunlight fell hot and cheery on the doorstep, where, -comfortably ensconced in a corner, lay a black-and-white cat. It -blinked lazily at us, but was too well off, and I am sure too secure, -also, of our friendliness, to move. - -So the house which Mrs. Carlyle’s friends used jestingly to call -“a refuge for stray dogs and cats,” still offered them some slight -shelter--although master and mistress, and little Nero, all were gone! - - - - -_III._ - -_PETS IN LITERARY LIFE._ - - - - -III. - -PETS IN LITERARY LIFE. - - -The pets and authors of the past may be briefly glanced at on our way -to those of to-day. We may begin with the learned Justus Lipsius, -erstwhile professor at Louvain. This worthy went daily to his -lecture-room with a retinue of dogs, whose portraits, each with a -commemorative description, adorned the walls of his study. Three have -been individualized for posterity as Mopsikins, Mopsy and Sapphire. - -Tarot, Franza, Balassa, Ciccone, Musa, Mademoiselle and Monsieur, were, -in their long-vanished life-time, companions to Agrippa, the astrologer -and scholar. The knowing little Monsieur was permitted, as special -favorite, to sleep upon his master’s bed, eat from his plate, and lie -upon the table beside his papers, while he wrote. He may even have -suggested to Goethe the black poodle in Faust, since, like Rupert’s -hound Boy, and Claver’s battle-horse, he was commonly supposed to be a -fiend. - -The creator of Faust’s demon-poodle could not endure dogs in real life, -and was always scolding about their “_ungeheure Ton_.” As to their -character, he even committed himself in this very unpleasant epigram: - - “Wundern kannes mich nicht dass - Menschen die Hunde so lieben; - Denn ein erbärmlicher Schuffist, wie - Der Mensch, so der Hund,” - -which has been rendered: - - “It cannot surprise me that men love dogs so much, - For dog, like man, is a pitiful, sneaking rogue.” - -Such a disagreeable sentiment as this--one so unworthy both of man and -author--requires an antidote. We find one in these lines of Herrick to -his spaniel Tracy: - - “Now thou art dead, no eye shall ever see - For shape and service spaniel like to thee. - This shall my love doe, give thy sad fate one - Teare, that deserves of me a million.” - -This is all we know of Tracy, but it suffices enough. A faithful dog, a -fond master--in these words his story is told. - -Bounce--named most suggestive--belonged to Alexander Pope; Bean, to -the gentler poet, Cowper. Goldsmith had a dog, of course, and equally -of course it was a poodle. No creature less comic would serve his -turn. Sir Joshua Reynolds tells a story of the pair which reads like a -fragment from the Vicar of Wakefield: how one morning he called on the -improvident author, rather expecting to find him in low spirits, and -found him, instead, at his table, alternately writing a few words, and -looking over at the poodle which he had made stand on its hind legs in -a corner of the room. - -In this fashion the impecunious one was amusing himself; and the great -artist looked on, no less amused in truth, and pleasantly sympathetic. -If only he had painted the scene, one wishes. - -Very different in temperament was Lord Byron. Practically, he agreed -with Mme. de Staël in liking dogs the better, the more he knew of men. -He seems to have had as friendly a feeling for the animal world as his -contemporary, Scott, although showing it in a more whimsical fashion. -Scott would never have traveled with a private menagerie, but Byron -carried with him from England to Italy, “ten horses, eight enormous -dogs, three monkeys, five cats, an eagle, a crow and a falcon.” - -Dogs were his favorites; they were friends whose affection could be -trusted, and whose criticism he had not to fear. Boatswain is almost -as widely known as his master. No one visits Newstead without seeing -his picture in the dining-room, and in the grounds his grave, with the -famous epitaph: - - 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, NOV. 18, 1808. - -As this dog was the friend of his youth, so Lion was the companion of -his later days in Greece. Major Parry says that “riding, or walking, or -sitting, or standing,” they were never apart. “His most usual phrase -was, ‘Lyon, you are no rogue, Lyon,’ or ‘Lyon,’ his lordship would say, -‘thou art an honest fellow, Lyon.’ The dog’s eyes sparkled, and his -tail swept the floor as he sat with his haunches on the ground. ‘Thou -art more faithful than men, Lyon; I trust thee more.’ Lyon sprang up -and barked, and bounded round his master, as much as to say, ‘You may -trust me.’” - -Faithful to the last, he watched over Byron’s death-bed, and then went -to England, where he lived and died, an honored pensioner, in the house -of Mrs. Leigh. - -[Illustration: LORD BYRON AND HIS DOG LYON.] - -Mrs. Radcliffe, whose novels delighted and terrorized our -grandmothers, had two dogs, called Fan and Dash. Fan had been a mangy, -poverty-stricken beast, condemned by its rustic owner to be hung. In a -lucky hour the novelist happened by, purchased the guiltless criminal -for half a crown; and Fan, cured of the mange, grown plump and silky, -became so beautiful a dog that Queen Charlotte, when out walking with -her brood of young princesses, would stop to notice her. On one of -these occasions Fan and one of the royal spaniels caught simultaneously -the ends of a long bone; and for some distance this foundling of the -people and the pet of royalty pranced on amicably together, holding -the bone between them! - -Dash was a poor street dog whose leg had been run over and broken. -He was taken in a coach to the doctor’s, the leg was set, health and -strength returned, and Dash was more than himself again, for now he was -“Mrs. Radcliffe’s dog.” - -Another Dash lived first with Thomas Hood, then with Charles Lamb; he -made such a slave of the latter, that finally Miss Lamb wrote to Mr. -Patmore, entreating him to remove the dog, “if only out of charity; for -if we keep him much longer, he will be the death of Charles.” - -The transfer took place, and the late victim’s spirits rose to -high-water mark soon afterwards in this whimsical, charming letter: - - DEAR PATMORE: - - Excuse my anxiety, but how is Dash?... Goes he muzzled or _apesto - ore_? Are his intellects sound, or does he wander a little in his - conversation? You cannot be too careful to watch the first symptoms - of incoherence. The first illogical snarl he makes, off with him to - St. Luke’s.... Try him with hot water: if he won’t lick it up, it - is a sign he does not like it. Does his tail wag horizontally or - perpendicularly? That has decided the fate of many dogs in Enfield. - Is his general deportment cheerful? I mean, when he is pleased--for - otherwise there is no judging. You can’t be too careful. Has he bit - any of the children yet? If he has, have them shot, and keep him for - curiosity, to see if it was the hydrophobia.... You might pull out his - teeth (if he would let you), and then you need not mind if he were as - mad as Bedlamite.... I send my love in a ---- to Dash. - - C. LAMB. - -A great contrast to this tyrant was Mouse, the loving, jealous little -terrier of Douglas Jerrold. A source of much gentle mirth while her -master was well and strong, she did her utmost to comfort his dying -hours. Once more, as she nestled beside him, his thin hand rested on -her head; once more, and for the last time, he called her faintly by -name; then they removed her, and in a few hours Mouse was masterless. - -Horace Walpole’s dogs furnished many an amusing item for his letters, -and diverted his friends no less than himself. “Sense and fidelity,” -said he, “are wonderful recommendations; when one meets with them ... I -cannot think the two additional legs are any drawback.” - -Tory, Patapan, Rosette, Touton and a host of others, were the living -illustrations in his home of this belief. - -Tory, the “prettiest, fattest, dearest” King Charles, might have been -leaner with advantage to himself, for a wolf snapped him up as he was -waddling behind his master’s carriage in the Alps. - -Patapan is the little aristocrat whom you see beside Mr. Walpole in the -picture. The whims of “His Patapanic Majesty” were all indulged, his -tastes consulted; his master idolized, and royalty itself caressed him; -finally his vanity, already large, was puffed out like a balloon, by -Mr. Chute’s poem in his praise. Thus it sums up his perfections: - - “Patá is frolicsome, and smart - As Geoffrey once was--(oh! my heart), - He’s purer than a turtle’s kiss, - And gentler than a little miss; - A jewel for a lady’s ear, - And Mr. Walpole’s pretty dear.” - -When the pretty dear was frisking through Strawberry Hill, he may very -likely have brushed in his frolics against a great bowl of blue and -white china occupying a place of honor in one of the rooms. - -[Illustration: SIR HORACE WALPOLE AND PATAPAN.] - -But the label would not have told him, as it does us, that this was the -veritable “Tub of Gold Fishes” in which the favorite cat of Thomas -Grey was drowned. “Demurest of the tabby kind”--Selima gazed at the -fish, and longed; extended “a whisker first and then a claw;” and then-- - - “The slippery verge her feet beguiled, - She tumbled headlong in.” - -She may have found some comfort--since drown she must--in the vase -being genuine old china; just as Clarence preferred drowning in Malmsey -wine to water; but her best comfort--had she known it--was the poem -to be written on her fate, the poem which still points her morals and -adorns her tale. - -No one, in this group of literary people, was so intimate with cats as -Southey. He delighted in them, he admired them, he understood them, and -he thought no house quite furnished unless it had a baby and a kitten! - -It was to his little daughter Edith that this author dedicated his -history of the cats of Greta Hall, which he intended to supplement -by the Memoirs of Cats’ Eden. Unfortunately for us all, the last was -never finished. The most delightful of philofelists--to use his own -coinage--he tells the story of his cats _con amore_; from the fate -untimely of Ovid, Virgil, and Othello, to the merited honors heaped -upon Lord Nelson, a great carrot-colored cat promoted by him to the -highest rank in the peerage, through all its degrees, under the titles -of His Serene Highness, the Archduke Rumpelstilzchen, Marquis Mac-Bum, -Earl Tomlemagne, Baron Raticide, Waswlher and Skaratchi. Felicitous -titles, are they not? - -But how the list lengthens! Only a word can be given to Emily Brontë -with her faithful, sullen mastiff Keeper; to Charlotte Brontë, with her -black-and-white curly-haired Flossy; to Bulwer, with his Newfoundland -Terror, and his better loved Andalusian horse; to Mrs. Bulwer--herself -a beautiful spoiled child--with her beautiful spoiled Blenheim, Fairy, -described by Disraeli as “no bigger than a bird of paradise, and quite -as brilliant”--a Fairy that had its own printed visiting cards, and -paid fashionable calls with its mistress; to Charles Reade, of keen -wit and large heart, who petted squirrels, hares, and deer, as well as -dogs, who wept when the exigencies of Never too Late to Mend required -him to kill Carlo, and who humorously advised Ouida to name one of her -dogs Tonic, as he was “a mixture of steal and w(h)ine.” - -[Illustration: CHARLES DICKENS’S PET RAVEN, GRIP.] - -Charles Kingsley’s pets, and those of Charles Dickens, have been so -often and so fully described, that any further description seems -superfluous. Timber, Turk and Linda, Mrs. Bouncer, Bumble and Sultan, -were only a few of his many dogs; while Dick the canary--“best of -birds”--a succession of kittens, an eagle, and various ravens, were -among the pets that kept matters lively at Gadshill. - -Of the ravens, the most famous was Grip, who sat for his portrait in -Barnaby Rudge, and whose stuffed body still exists. - -There are no brighter letters, no finer poems in literature, than those -which “Flush, my Dog,” called out from Mrs. Browning--letters and verse -so vivid, so delicately discriminative, that they amply supply the -lack of other portraiture, and in them Flush still lives. Listen: - - “Like a lady’s ringlets brown, - Flow thine 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, - Alchemize its dullness; - When the sleek curls manifold - Flash all over into gold, - With a burnished fullness. - - “Leap! thy broad tail waves a light; - Leap! thy slender feet are bright, - Canopied in fringes. - Leap! those tasseled ears of thine - Flicker strangely fair and fine - Down their golden inches.” - -How clearly we see him with that gentlest mistress, bathed in the warm, -sweet sunshine of the past! But there were other than sunny days--long, -weary days in a sick-room, where-- - - “This dog only waited on, - Knowing that when light is gone, - Love remains for shining. - - “Other dogs in thymy dew - Tracked the hares, and followed through - Sunny moor or meadow-- - This dog only crept and crept - Next a languid cheek that slept, - Sharing in the shadow.” - -What wonder that she returned his love with-- - - --“more love again - Than dogs often take of men”? - -Flush was a gift from Miss Mitford, another authoress devoted to -dogs; and the rival claims of these ladies for their pets, may still -pleasantly amuse us. “How is your Flushie?” inquires Miss Mitford. -“Mine becomes every day more and more beautiful, and more and more -endearing. His little daughter Rose is the very moral of him, and -another daughter (a puppy four months old, your Flushie’s half-sister) -is so much admired in Reading that she has already been stolen four -times--a tribute to her merit which might be dispensed with; and her -master having offered ten pounds reward, it seems likely enough that -she will be stolen four times more. They are a beautiful race, and that -is the truth of it.” - -Now hear Miss Barrett (as she was at this time) telling Mr. Horne: - - “Never in the world was another such dog as my Flush. Just now, - because after reading your note, I laid it down thoughtfully without - taking anything else up, he threw himself into my arms, as much as to - say, ‘Now it’s my turn. You’re not busy at all now.’ He understands - every thing I say, and would not disturb me for the world. Do not tell - Miss Mitford--but her Flush, (whom she brought to see me) is not to be - compared to mine! quite animal and dog--natural, and incapable of my - Flush’s hyper-cynical refinement.” - -“My Flush,” she writes elsewhere, “my Flush, who is a gentleman.” - -Our next glimpse of this well-bred favorite is due to Mr. Westwood, -a friend and correspondent of the lady. “On one occasion,” he says, -“she had expressed to me her regret at Flush’s growing plumpness, and -I suppose I must have been cruel enough to suggest starvation as a -remedy, for her next letter opens with an indignant protest: - - “Starve Flush! Starve Flush! My dear Mr. Westwood, what are you - thinking of?... He is fat, certainly--but he has been fatter ... and - he may, therefore, become thinner. And then he does not eat after the - manner of dogs. I never saw a dog with such a lady-like appetite. To - eat two small biscuits in succession is generally more than he is - inclined to do. When he has meat it is only once a day, and it must - be so particularly well cut up and offered to him on a fork, and he - is so subtly discriminative as to differences between boiled mutton - and roast mutton, and roast chicken and boiled chicken, that often he - walks away in disdain, and will have none of it.... - - “My nearest approach to starving Flush is to give general instructions - to the servant who helps him to his dinner, ‘not to press him to eat.’ - I know he ought not to be fat--I know it too well--and his father - being, according to Miss Mitford’s account, ‘square,’ at this moment, - there is an hereditary reason for fear. So he is not to be ‘pressed.’” - -Flush left England with his mistress after her marriage, and lived to -a good old age in her Italian home. His doggish heart was never torn -by seeing younger, more agile pets preferred to himself. Secure in the -only affection he valued, he passed quietly out of life; and nothing -now remains of his mortality save a lock of hair, which was treasured -by Robert Browning. - -One word more of Miss Mitford. Her chief favorite was the greyhound -Mossy, who died in 1819. She wrote an account of his death which no -one ever saw until it was found, after her own death, sealed in an -envelope, together with some of his hair. It repeats the well-known -burden of the faithful lamenting the faithful: “No human being was ever -so faithful, so gentle, so generous, and so fond. I shall never love -anything half so well.” - -Robert Browning declared himself a partisan of cats and owls--tastes -which have suggested different gifts from friends. An owl inkstand on -his desk seemed to be brooding over the thoughts whisked out of it by -Browning’s pen; an owl paper-weight steadied these same thoughts when -transferred to paper. Stuffed owls, pictured owls, looked down upon him -as he wrote. With regard to cats, who have much secret affinity with -owls, his opinions were equally liberal, and he notes with the eye of -an artist their wonderful grace and beauty. - -A friend of the Brownings in Florence, Miss Isa Blagden, had many pets -of her own, charitably gathered from the ranks of the distressed. She -is probably best known to American readers by her poem to Bushie, the -favorite dog of Charlotte Cushman. - -[Illustration: BUSHIE, THE FAVORITE DOG OF CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN.] -Sensitive, nervous and loving was Bushie, her greatest pleasure being -the society of her mistress, her greatest grievance being left at -home when the family went out riding. In this case Bushie’s grief was -hysterical, and required careful soothing ere it abated. - -After giving, in her fourteen years of life, “the minimum of trouble -and the maximum of pleasure,” Bushie died in Rome, in 1867, and was -buried in the garden of Miss Cushman’s house. On the broken column -which marked the spot were cut the words: - -BUSHIE, COMES FIDELLISSIMA. - -If further epitaph be needed, this verse from Miss Blagden’s poem will -suffice: - - “From all our lives some faith, some trust, - With thy dear life is o’er; - A lifelong love lies in thy dust: - Can human grave hide more?” - -Landor and his dogs made another well-known group in Florence. Of -Landor, Lowell says that, “there was something of challenge even in the -alertness of his pose, and the head was often thrown back like that of -a boxer who awaits a blow.” This fine, defiant old head was often seen -lovingly bent towards Parigi, Pomero, and Giallo--dogs of pedigree and -sense, who cheered his solitude, or adorned his social hours. - -Pomero, a Pomeranian, with feathery white hair and bright eyes, lived -in England with Landor, in the town of Bath. All knew him there, and -saluted him, while he in return barked sociably to all. “Not for a -million of money would I sell him,” cried Landor. “A million would not -make me at all happier, and the loss of Pomero would make me miserable -for life.” - -This loss nevertheless soon came. “Seven years,” wrote his master, “we -lived together, in more than amity. He loved me to his heart--and what -a heart it was! Mine beats audibly while I write about him.” Over his -“blameless dust” was inscribed this epitaph, so tender and sweet in its -Latin, that translation seems a wrong: - - “O urna! nunquam sis tuo ernta portuls: - Cor intus est fidele, nam cor est canis. - Vale, portule! ætemumque, Pomero! vale. - Sed, sidatur, nostri memor.” - -Giallo, also a Pomeranian, was a gift from the sculptor Story. He -became a great favorite with his master, who would often talk doggerel -to please him, and maintained that he was the best critic in Italy. -“Giallo and I think” so and so, he would often say; or, “I think so, -and Giallo quite agrees.” That he was quite fit for heaven, was another -belief with his master. Who knows? Perhaps he was! - -Victor Hugo’s happy family comprised both cats and dogs. There was -Chougna, the watch-dog, and Sénat, the greyhound, whose collar bore the -inscription: “I wish some one would take me home. Who is my master? -Hugo. What’s my name? Sénat.” There were the Angora kittens, Gavroche -I. and Gavroche II., and Mouche, the great black-and-white cat; the -latter, according to an intimate friend, was “_silencieuse, défiante, -ténébreuse, sinistre_--the cat of the prison, and of exile”--attributes -confirmed by her portrait. - -[Illustration: MOUCHE, VICTOR HUGO’S CAT.] - -From sheer force of contrast, both Mouche and Hugo must have -enjoyed--had they known him--General Muff, the stately and affable -favorite of an American authoress (Miss Mary L. Booth). I called upon -this lady one day to request of her an introduction to the General; -but he took matters into his own paws, as it were, and introduced -himself before she could appear. Exquisitely dignified and urbane, his -composure was not ruffled by the very wildest gambols of a Persian -kitten, who darted, glanced and flashed hither and thither in the room -like flame. - -He wore the famous Fayal collar in which he was photographed. He wore -it because of artistic preference, I suppose--certainly not because he -had nothing else to wear; for I saw in his own particular wardrobe -collars of all kinds and colors, from dainty ribbon to Russia leather. - -May it be long before Muff’s gracious personality requires an epitaph! -but when that time comes, the following lines will apply to him as -fitly as to the one for whom they were written--the poet Whittier’s -cat, Bathsheba: - - “Whereat - None said ‘Scat!’ - Better cat - Never sat - On a mat, - Or caught a rat, - Than this cat. - Requiescat!” - -[Illustration: GENERAL MUFF, MISS MARY L. BOOTH’S CAT.] - -All who are familiar with the poem by Matthew Arnold, on Geist’s Grave, -or another, on Kaiser, Dead, know the story, told as he alone could -tell it, of this great author’s pets. - -The dachshund Geist lived four brief years, then “humbly laid” him -“down to die.” Dearly loved, remembered always--often and often would -his friends recall his “liquid, melancholy eye,” his wistful face at -the window, the scuffle of his feet upon the stair, and his “small, -black figure on the snow.” But “there is no photograph of poor little -Geist,” says Mr. Arnold, “except one taken after his death, which gives -pleasure to us, but could give it to no one else. There is, however, -an excellent portrait of another dog of mine, Max, in a birthday book -from my poems, but it is weighted by a very bad portrait of his master.” - -This was the Max of the poem, who “with downcast, reverent head” had -looked upon “Kaiser, dead”--“Kaiser,” once the blithest, happiest of -dogs, supposed at first to be pure dachshund, until at length with-- - - “The collie hair, the collie swing, - The tail’s indomitable ring, - The eye’s unrest-- - The case was clear; a mongrel thing - ‘Kai’ stood confest.” - -All the same-- - - “Thine eye was bright, thy coat it shone; - Thou hadst thine errands off and on; - In joy thine last morn flew; anon, - A fit! All’s over; - And thou art gone where Geist hath gone, - And Toss and Rover.” - -It is the fashion of mortality to pass away--but that does not alter -the sadness of it--of losing what we love. As surely as we have friends -or pets, so surely shall we know the pain of loss--fortunate only -if there has been between us such true love that the memory thereof -abides. Such love there was between Mr. Edmund Yates and Nelly, the -story of whose life he told me in the following letter of September, -1887: - -“Your letter finds me mourning the loss of the one pet animal of my -life. In the year 1878, having taken a country place, and being in want -of an animal as companion, I went to the Dogs’ Home at Battersea, -and on visiting the kennels, was at once struck with the piteous and -earnest expression on the face of a female collie, looking up, with -many others, through the wire netting; an expression which said, as -plainly as possible, ‘Take me out of this, for Heaven’s sake, and -I will be loving and true.’ I could learn nothing of her previous -history, but I paid a sovereign for her, and took her away with me in a -cab; and from that hour to the day of her death, just two months ago, -Nelly, as I called her, was the light of my household, and won the -admiration and love of all who saw her. - -[Illustration: NELLY, THE DOG OF EDMUND YATES.] - -“Under kind treatment she developed into a very handsome dog, never -large, but wonderfully graceful, leaping and bounding like a deer. -Her back was a reddish-brown, her chest and paws beautifully white; -she looked bright and intelligent, and her eyes had a certain wistful -expression, which is well reproduced in the accompanying photograph. -She was not particularly clever. She seemed to say, like one of -Tennyson’s heroines: - -“‘I cannot understand, I love.’ - -“She was always with me, and in places which I frequent, she was -thoroughly well-known; she lay opposite me in the carriage, on the deck -of my steam-launch, with her nose up in the air, sniffing the fresh -breeze to windward. (‘See the kind-eyed old collie; on the deck, in the -sunshine, she loves to recline,’ sang my friend Ashby-Sterry of her in -one of his pretty Lazy Minstrel Lays.) - -“She followed me in my long rides on horseback, over down and through -wood, ranging far away on her own business, but ever and anon coming -back to see how I was getting on. She lay at my feet in my library, -and slept on a couch at the bottom of my bed. About eighteen months -before her death, she developed signs of failing sight, and gradually -grew totally blind. This blindness was the cause of an accident on -which I do not care to dwell, but which necessitated her destruction; -and on the twenty-seventh of July she passed away without a pang. She -lies buried in the garden here, at the foot of a flag-staff, and on her -prettily turfed grave is the following inscription: - - HERE LIES - NELLY - A COLLIE DOG; - FOR NINE YEARS A MUCH LOVED FRIEND, - GENTLE, AFFECTIONATE, AND TRUE. - DIED JULY 27TH, 1887. - E. Y., L. K. Y., A. M. B., W. W. - -“This is the history of Nelly, whose memory is so dear to me that I -will never have another pet.” - -_Vorbei! vorbei_--past and gone!--says Andersen in telling the -fir-tree’s story. It is also _vorbei!_ with these pets--with Mouche and -Dash and Kaiser, with Geist and Nelly and Flush. - - - - -_IV._ - -“_THE UPPER TEN._” - - - - -IV. - -“THE UPPER TEN.” - - -Biography is so genial nowadays, and full of easy gossip, that we -cannot help wondering a little at her former stiffness. Nothing is -below her notice now, but the personalia of earlier times slip into her -pages more by accident than design. This, no doubt, is the reason why -she referred so seldom or so briefly to the pet animals of royalty. -There was a divinity in monarchs then, and she treated them with such -ceremonious respect that if we had only her account to look to, we -should know but little of their real selves. - -Fortunately for us, letters have been written in every age, and -countless private journals. From these sources come the anecdotes, the -jests, the bits of gossip which recall the past more vividly, and make -these old rulers seem life-like even yet. In this way many a simple, -natural trait has been preserved to relieve the court background of -formality and grandeur; many a little incident is told that proves our -common blood. Kings and queens loved and hoped, or grieved and feared, -even as ourselves who wear no crowns; and while the soft afterglow of -years falls on royalty surrounded by its pets, we realize anew how one -touch of nature can make the whole world kin. - -About the beginning of the seventeenth century, there might have -been seen in India at the magnificent court of Jehangir, a favorite -of unusual intelligence and size, whose story has come down to us in -memoirs written by the Emperor himself. It reads like a page from the -Arabian Nights. - -“Among my brother’s elephants,” he says, “was one of which I could -not but express the highest admiration, and to which I gave the name -of Indraging (the elephant of India). It was of a size I never beheld -before--such as to get upon his back required a ladder of fourteen -steps. It was of a disposition so gentle and tractable that under the -most furious incitements, if an infant then unwarily threw itself in -its way, it would lay hold of it with its trunk, and place it out of -danger with the utmost tenderness and care. The animal was at the same -time of such unparalleled speed and activity that the fleetest horse -was not able to keep up with it; and such was its courage that it would -attack with perfect readiness a hundred of the fiercest of its kind. - -“Such in other respects, although it may appear in some degree tedious -to dwell upon the subject, were the qualities of this noble and -intelligent quadruped, that I assigned a band of music to attend upon -it; and it was always preceded by a company of forty spearsmen. It had -for its beverage every morning a Hindostany maun (twenty-eight pounds) -of liquor; and every morning and evening there were boiled for its meal -four mauns of rice, and two mauns of beef or mutton, with one maun of -oil or clarified butter. From among all the others this same elephant -was selected for my morning rides, and for this purpose there was -always upon its back a howdah of solid gold. Four mauns of gold were -moreover wrought into rings, chains, and other ornaments for its neck, -breast and legs; and lastly, its body was painted all over every day -with the dust of sandal-wood.” - -There is something quite captivating in the idea of all this oriental -pomp enshrining the favorite of an emperor--in its careful tendance, -its perfumes, jewels and musicians--the latter, in particular, being an -attention as delicate as unusual. - -One would like to know its after-history--whether it survived so -magnificent a patron, and whether, in that case, its splendor remained -undiminished to the end. But the story of the Elephant of India stops -with Jehangir. - -About the same time that this liberal-minded monarch ascended the -throne of the East, there died in Genoa another imperial favorite--the -hound Roldarno, which had belonged to Charles V., and was by him given -to Andrea Doria. Such at least is the common version; but it is also -stated that Roldarno belonged to a later Doria, and did not die until -nine years after the old Admiral was in his grave. In either case, he -was a notable dog, and received the final honor of interment at the -foot of a statue of Jupiter--to the end “that Roldarno still might -guard a king.” His life-size portrait may be seen in the Doria palace. - -This same Emperor had an almost feminine liking for birds and flowers; -and he who would not lift a finger to keep his heretic subjects from -the flames, once ordered his tent to be left standing in the camp, -otherwise dismantled, simply because a swallow had nested in its folds. - - “And it stood there all alone, - Loosely flapping, torn and tattered, - Till the brood was fledged and flown, - Singing o’er those walls of stone - That the cannon-shot had shattered.” - -In the last years of his life at Yuste, he made great pets of a cat and -parrot. After his death, they were transferred to his daughter, the -Princess Juana, who with true Spanish courtesy, dispatched a litter -for them in charge of a faithful servant. In due time they reached -Valladolid, well and happy, having traveled together a number of days -without one single recorded peck or scratch. - -Charles’s contemporary, William of Orange, liked dogs--and with -reason--for he owed his life to a pet spaniel. It roused him from sleep -just in time to escape by one door as the enemy entered the other. - -[Illustration: FREDERICK THE GREAT AND HIS SISTER WILHELMINA. - -(_From the painting by Antoine Pesne._)] - -Either this dog, or another of the same race, after William was -murdered, detected the assassin beneath a pile of rubbish. Having done -this act of justice, he refused food, and died upon the corpse of -his master. William’s monument at the Hague represents him in armor, -reclining under a marble canopy, with the faithful dog at his feet. -Bunsen says that as he looked at it he could not help hoping the two -friends were buried together. Why not? - -A monarch who not only liked dogs, but much preferred them to men, was -Frederick the Great of Prussia. His grim father, who curtailed all -the son’s amusements, his freedom, friendships, and food, was probably -unaware of his fondness for animals, or he would have curtailed them -also. The moment Frederick became his own master, a crowd of Italian -greyhounds began to caper at his side across the historic stage. He was -never without a half dozen at the least to divert his leisure moments. -When they were not at their sport, they occupied the blue satin -chairs and couches in his room. Leather balls were supplied for their -amusement, but in spite of this precaution they kept the furniture -ragged. - -“How can I help it?” said the king; “if I should get the chairs mended -to-day, they would be as badly torn to-morrow; so it is best to bear -with the inconvenience.” - -He was found one day upon the floor with a platter of fried meat, from -which he was feeding his dogs. He kept order among them by means of -a little stick--now driving back an over-greedy applicant, and now -shoving a choice morsel towards some special favorite. - -He was apt to dislike any one whom they disliked, and to favor those -they favored. If his pets were ill, he sought medical advice, and -nothing more enraged him than to find--as he several times did--that -the physicians considered it beneath their dignity to prescribe for an -animal. - -The best beloved, the Joseph among his dogs, was Biche. The story -goes that when reconnoitering one day during the campaign of 1745, he -was pursued by the enemy, and concealed himself under a bridge, with -Biche in his arms. Discovery was imminent--the least whine or snuffle -would have betrayed them; but the nervous little creature crouched -motionless, almost breathless, and the pair escaped. - -It was this dog, which along with the king’s baggage, was captured at -Sohar, and at whose return he wept with joy. An elaborate monument at -Sans Souci commemorates its virtues. All his dogs lie buried there, -at either end of the terrace, under flat stones inscribed with their -names. Frederick wished to be buried with them, but his successor was -unwilling, and interred the great king with his ancestors. In his last -illness he would sit for hours together on the sunshiny terrace--averse -as ever to the society of his kind, but always with a chair at his side -for a dog, and a feeble hand ready to pat its head. A few hours before -he died, he bade the attendant throw an extra quilt--not over his own -chill form--but over a shivering greyhound at his feet! What a tragic -contrast to the joyous little drummer shown in the painting by Pesne. - -No less fond of dogs than Frederick, is Prince Bismarck to-day. It -is his ardent wish that they too may live on in another world, so -that death need not separate us from them. One noble hound twice -saved his life, and--trustiest of confidants--accompanied him to the -conference between the Emperors of Germany and Austria--behaving there -with a diplomatic courtesy and reserve that would have done credit to -Metternich. - -Sultel, or Sultan, a remarkably intelligent animal, was poisoned in -1877, at his master’s country-seat. He died, after some hours of -intense suffering, throughout which Bismarck watched by his side. He -has been long and deeply mourned. The princess offered a life pension -to any one who would point out the assassin--but in vain; the wretch is -still undetected. - -[Illustration: PRINCE BISMARCK AND HIS DOGS. - -(_From life photograph._)] - -It is said that Prince Bismarck feeds his dogs himself, and (whisper -it low!) that he actually feeds them at table! No unpleasant “Off -with you!” reminds his four-footed friends that they are not as men -and brothers, and hence, as diners-out. Admitted to an honorable -intimacy, the companions of their master’s walks and meals, the -habitués of his study--they live with him on terms of mutual respect, -and show by their stately bearing how truly they are dogs of -distinction. - -Statesmen are very apt to make friends of animals, for they realize -that no intimates are so safe as those who cannot betray them--who -understand, but never repeat. Daniel Webster had his favorite horses, -and Randolph of Roanoke his dogs, who traveled with him wherever he -went, and were served at table with clean plates, choice beefsteaks -and new milk--anything less excellent than the best being, in their -master’s opinion, unworthy of himself and them. Henry Fawcett had -Oddo, who was promoted from the post of house-dog to be his companion, -and Lord Eldon had the inimitable Pincher. The latter reached a good -old age, contrary to all expectations, since in the matter of diet -he lived “not wisely but too well.” In the character of a sitter he -made acquaintance with Sir Edwin Landseer, who pronounced him “a very -picturesque old dog, with a great look of cleverness in his face.” He -figured with his master in several other portraits and drawings, was a -faithful, amusing little friend, and as such was remembered by name in -Lord Eldon’s will. When he died, in 1840, he was buried in a peaceful -garden, where, to this day, his tombstone may be seen. - -Among the powers that were, who had their pets, Peter the Great must be -included--the Czar whose evil-tempered monkey was a terror to all the -attendants at court, obliged as they were to endure without resenting -its malice. A much more agreeable favorite was Lisette, an Italian -greyhound presented to Peter by the Sultan. Once she saved a life, and -her Victoria Cross is the record in history of this achievement. A poor -fellow had been condemned, for some small error, to the knout. All -intercession had failed, and the hour of execution was at hand, when -his friends bethought them of fastening a petition to Lisette’s collar -and sending her with it to the Czar. This was done, and what he had -refused to his loyal subjects he granted to little Lisette. Not without -reason is the skeleton of this timely advocate still preserved in the -city where she lived! - -The Norman kings of England were for the most part sturdy soldiers, -with a passion for the chase in their leisure hours. Very naturally, -therefore, such pets as they possessed came under the head of knightly -belongings, and were either horse and hound or hawk. In truth, they -were too stern a race to spend much time in endearments of any kind. -We can hardly imagine them tending a “fringie-pawe,” or toying with -“spaniels gentle.” The aristocratic greyhound was their favorite -instead, and they spared no pains to develop its peculiar excellencies. -Old Wynken de Worde tells us in a rather bald rhyme, that the -thorough-bred greyhound should be: - - Headed lyke a snake, - Neckyed lyke a drake, - Footyed lyke a catte, - Taylled lyke a ratte, - Syded lyke a teme - And chyned lyke a beme;-- - -while another rough-edged rhyme bears witness to the fact that dogs as -well as ancestors came over with the Conqueror. Thus it runs: - - William de Conigsby - Came out of Brittany, - With his wyfe Tiffany, - And his maide Manfas, - And his dogge Hardigras. - -Richard Cœur de Lion was called an excellent judge of a hound, a -characteristic remembered by Scott in his novel of “The Talisman”; but -a life of crusading left him small leisure for canine friendships. His -brother John is thought to have given the famous Gellert to Llewellyn, -but this is far from certain. Perhaps, as modern authorities seem to -think, the pathetic story of this hound is only a myth, but in any case -it is too well-known for repetition, and we pass on to the hound of -Richard II. - - “It was informed me,” says Froissart, “that Kynge Richard had a - grayhounde, who always wayted upon the kynge, and wolde knowe no man - els. For whensoever the kynge did ryde, he that kept the grayhounde - dyd lette hym lose, and he wolde streyght runne to the kynge, and faun - uppon hym, and lepe with his fore-fete uppon the kynge’s shoulders. - And as the kynge and the Erle of Derby talked togyder in the courte, - the grayhounde, who was wonte to leape uppon the kynge, left the - kynge, and came to the Erle of Derby, Duke of Lancastre, and made hym - the same friendly countenance and chere he was wonte to do to the - kynge. The Duke, who knew not the grayhounde demanded of the kynge - what the grayhounde wolde do; ‘Cosin,’ quod the kynge, ‘it is a greate - goode token to you and an evyl sygne to me.’ ‘Sir, how know ye that?’ - quod the Duke. ‘I know it well,’ quod the kynge; ‘the grayhounde - maketh you chere this day as king of Englaunde, as ye shal be, and - I shal be deposed. The grayhounde hath this knowledge naturally, - therefore take hym to you: he will followe you and forsake me.’ The - Duke understood well these words, and cheryshed the grayhounde, who - wolde never after followe Kynge Richard, but followed the Duke of - Lancastre.” - -Such is the tragic legend whose embroidery does not hide the underlying -fact. It is easy to see that, with crown, and queen, and life itself in -the balance, the king had yet another pang to endure, when his own dear -hound turned from him, and fawned upon his rival. - -Of the hapless princes who were murdered in the tower, little is known. -There is a picture of them, however, painted long years afterward by -Paul Delaroche, which everybody knows. Seated on the antique bed, they -have been looking together at a book, when, all at once, speech and -motion are arrested by the sound of a stealthy step, or it may be a -whisper in the passage outside their room. With tense gaze and bated -breath they listen; meanwhile, their little spaniel peers around the -corner of the bed, in an attitude of keen attention. Like his masters, -he is aware of danger, if indeed he was not the first to detect it. And -thus united by a common fear, the three remain--a tragic, listening -group--immortal forever on the painter’s canvas. - -[Illustration: QUEEN ELIZABETH IN HER PEACOCK GOWN. - -(_From the painting by Zucchero, at Hampton Court._)] - -Several English kings kept a menagerie, Henry I. having formed one at -Woodstock, and Henry III. at the Tower, while their successors kept -up and amplified the collections already formed. In this connection -an unpleasant story is told of Henry VII., a story that proves him no -lover of the canine race. It seems that a lion from the royal menagerie -was baited one day for the king’s amusement, its opponents being four -noble English mastiffs. The struggle was long and severe, but in the -end the mastiffs conquered. Then Henry, who feigned to believe that -the lion was lawful king over other beasts, caused the four luckless -victors to be hung, as traitors to their lord. In this way he pointed -a moral for the use of his turbulent nobles. - -A pleasanter story concerns his parrot. It fell from a window in -Westminster Palace into the Thames. “A boat! twenty pounds for a boat!” -screamed Polly at this dreadful crisis; and twenty pounds the king -actually paid to the waterman who restored his pet. This was doing -pretty well for a parsimonious king. - -[Illustration: MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, AT THE AGE OF TEN. - -(_From the painting in Lord Napier’s collection._)] - -Baitings, whether of bull, bear, or lion, were greatly in vogue during -his reign. Henry VIII. also enjoyed them, but preferred the chase, -and his account-books are full of items referring to hawk and hound. -Spaniels, mastiffs, greyhounds; their muzzles, collars and chains; -their keeper’s salary; the cost of their transportation in accompanying -the king from place to place--all these items help to swell the bill -of His Majesty’s personal expenses. Occasionally, too, they get into -mischief, killing some poor fellow’s sheep or cow, a loss invariably -paid for, and as duly chronicled in the account-book. Dogs are often -given to the king, who of course does not fail to reward the donor. -One man presents him with a mastiff that has been taught to fetch and -carry, and gets twenty shillings for his gift. Another time four -shillings, eight pence are paid “to one that made the dogges draw -water.” A poor woman gets “four shillings, eight pence in rewarde for -bringinge of Cutte, the kynge’s dog.” He had been lost at least once -before, as is proved by an entry of ten shillings “for bringing back -Cutte, the kynges spanyell.” Other five shillings went for restoring -“Ball, that was lost in the forreste of Walltham.” - -From this and similar evidence we may infer that the dogs of yesterday -comported themselves very much like the dogs of to-day; that they -learned tricks, and were skilled in field-sports; that occasionally -they poached; that they were lost, and again found--after the -time-honored fashion of dogs. - -[Illustration: LADY MARGARET LENOX, MOTHER Of LORD DARNLEY. - -(_In the Hampton Court Collection.--From a rare print._)] - -About this time, there seems to have been a growing attachment on the -part of the court ladies to “lytel dogges” as pets. When Catherine -of Aragon was queen, each maid of honor to Her Majesty was allowed -one maid, and _a spaniel_. Anne Boleyn followed the example of her -predecessor--at least where dogs were concerned. The tell-tale -account-books name several of her favorites, but refer most often to a -greyhound, Urian, which, owing to an unruly disposition, was often in -trouble. Once it killed a cow, but Henry recompensed the cow’s owner -by a present of ten shillings. - -This was in Anne’s day of prosperity, when she and hers could do no -wrong in the king’s sight. A few years later, when the son she had -hoped for was born dead, and Henry’s dislike was apparent to all; when -ill, sad and apprehensive, we see her once more with her dogs. The king -is away, taking his pleasure, and she mopes alone at Greenwich Palace. -Here, in what was called the Quadrangle Court, we are told that she -“would sit for hours in silence and abstraction, or seeking a joyless -pastime playing with her little dogs, and setting them to fight each -other.” - -A few weeks more, and the curtain fell on poor Anne with her -short-lived royalty; erelong, too, on Henry himself, his sickly son, -and unhappy daughter Mary; and now, amidst general rejoicing, Elizabeth -mounted the throne. This remarkable queen, in whose character blended -some very masculine traits with others equally feminine, revealed her -twofold nature in amusements as well as in more serious affairs. She -was fond of singing-birds, of apes, and little dogs; but much fonder of -the chase and bear or lion baitings. Her greatest pet was the famous -wardrobe which at her death numbered three thousand dresses, and of -which a queer specimen is shown in a painting by Zucchero at Hampton -Court. He has depicted her in a loose short robe, figured with birds -and flowers, and wearing an Oriental cap. Her expression is decidedly -ill-tempered, and rather vain. One cannot help congratulating her many -suitors on their lack of success. - -As in dress, so in other things--Elizabeth liked to be thought -original; and her fancy for the tiny hunting-dogs called beagles, made -them the fashion during her reign. It is to this whim that Dryden’s -lines refer: - - “The graceful goddess was array’d in green-- - About her feet were little beagles seen - That watched with upward eye the - Motions of their queen.” - -But it is not until the time of the Stuarts that we find something like -the modern feeling for pets--a feeling based on genuine kindly regard -for the animal race. Some of them carried it to excess, no doubt, but -still it is a trait that adds to our liking for these luckless kings--a -pleasant feature in the story of lives that were continually passing -from mirth to tears, from poetry to prose, and from a throne to the -cushionless seat of a Pretender. There is no sadder lesson in history -than this of the Stuart kings, who began with so much, and ended with -nothing. They had beauty, talent, high estate, devoted friends, and -good intentions; yet somehow, what they touched did not prosper, their -good gifts did not avail them. - -[Illustration: CHILDREN OF CHARLES I., WITH SPANIELS. - -(_From a painting by Vandyke._)] - -Beneficent fairies were present at their birth, and brought priceless -gifts; but all was counteracted by one fatal oversight, since the -malevolent fairy, uninvited, came only to punish the slight. - -[Illustration: CHILDREN OF CHARLES I.; PRINCE CHARLES AND HIS MASTIFF. - -(_From a painting by Vandyke._)] - - “What boots it thy virtue? - What profit thy parts? - If one thing thou lackest-- - The art of all arts?” - -Something--whatever it might be--they assuredly lacked, and atoned for -the lack by their misfortunes. Meanwhile they enjoyed life, and in many -ways made it pleasant, exhibiting wit, ready courtesy, and a good-will -that, as before said, extended to both animals and men. - -James I., like his Tudor predecessors, was extremely fond of the chase. -Contemporary writers give queer accounts of his awkward, headlong -riding, and disgusting eagerness for the trophy. “The King of England,” -says one, “is merciful except in hunting, where he appears cruel. When -he finds himself unable to take the beast, he frets and storms, and -cries ‘God is angry with me, but I will have him for all that!’” - -Dogs were a prominent feature in the royal establishment, and one hound -named Jewel, Jowel, or Jowler, is often mentioned. Almost his first -appearance in history is in the character of a petitioner. Royal visits -in these earlier days were luxuries expensive to the host, however -welcome. Letters yet exist that prove how much they were dreaded. -Elizabeth bestowed many such marks of honor on her subjects, and no -matter how great the inconvenience, her involuntary entertainers dared -not hint it. That a hint on the matter was once given to James, may be -taken as a proof of his good nature. - -He had gone with his retinue to Royston, where, erelong, the presence -of so many guests made a deep hole in their host’s larder and purse. -Therefore--but this part of the story is best told in a letter written -at the time by Edmund Lascelles, a groom of the Privy Chamber. - -He says: “One day, one of the king’s special hounds, called Jowler, was -missing. The king was much displeased at his absence; he went hunting -notwithstanding. The next day, when they went to the field, Jowler came -in among the rest of the hounds; the king was told, and was glad of -his return, but, looking on him, spied a paper about his neck. On this -paper was written. ‘Good Mr. Jowler, we pray you speak to the king (for -he hears you every day, and so he doth not us), that it will please His -Majesty to go back to London, for else the country will be undone; all -our provision is spent, and we are unable to entertain him longer.’” - -This plain hint was not taken amiss--in fact, it was not taken at all; -and His Majesty staid on at Royston until it quite suited him to leave, -which was not until some days later. - -Poor Jewel’s end was untimely. The court was at Theobalds, and Queen -Anne, who liked hunting as well as James, went out to shoot deer. -“She mistook her mark,” writes Sir Dudley Carleton, “and killed -Jewel, the king’s most principall and special hound, at which he -stormed exceedingly a while; but after he learned who did it, was soon -pacified; and, with much kindness, wished her not to be troubled with -it, for he should love her never the worse; and the next day he sent -her a diamond worth two thousand pounds, as a legacy from his dead dog.” - -How vividly the scene rises before us--the richly dressed huntress -and courtiers, the too confident aim, the brief suspense then the -horror-struck certainty that no deer, but a hound is the victim--even -Jewel, “most speciall” to the king! And then, it may be, an embassy -was sent to break the news; and we can imagine how cautiously it was -done. But still, there follows a bad half-hour, for the king raves and -storms, until at last the embassador ventures to say, “The queen is -full of grief at her mischance.” - -“The queen, ye rogues!” he shouts, “was it her mischance? Why not have -said so before?” - -The storm is over, and kind-hearted James hurries off to comfort his -wife. - -[Illustration: JAMES STUART, DUKE OF RICHMOND, SON OF ESME STUART. - -(_From a painting by Vandyke._)] - -He does not appear in so amiable a light on all occasions, and often -tried the patience of his friends by asking for such of their dogs or -hawks as happened to particularly please him. A royal request was in -the nature of a command, and our former kings were not very nice in the -matter. It was assumed as a matter of course that people would be only -too happy to gratify their wishes; so they asked for what they wanted, -and rarely failed to get it. - -Besides this indirect levy, King James was at considerable pains to -import valuable hawks and hunting-dogs. There is extant a letter of his -to the Earl of Mar, asking him to send for three or four couples of -Earth-Dogs, as terriers were then called. - -“Have a special care,” he urged, “that the oldest of them be not -passing three years of age;” and again, “Send them not all in one ship, -but some in one ship, some in another, lest the ship should miscarry.” - -It was customary in these days, when the king visited a school or -university, for some of the students to hold a disputation in his -presence, that he might see their facility in logic, and that they -might do credit to their college. Well, King James once visited -Cambridge, and the Philosophy Act, as it was called, was kept before -him. The subject to be disputed was, “whether dogs were capable of -syllogisms.” Gravely was it argued, gravely did King James listen -(perhaps with a memory of Jowler) and great was the applause when young -Matthew Wren maintained that just as the king was mightier and wiser -than other men, so also, by virtue of their prerogative, were the -king’s dogs more gifted, and more capable than other dogs, even in the -matter of syllogisms. The royal listener was wonderfully pleased with -this bit of logic; and we may add that the logician rose high in his -favor, becoming eventually Bishop Wren. - -The children of James and Anne inherited their love of animals, if -indeed they did not derive it from a source more remote. We know that -their unfortunate grandmother, Mary Stuart, had pets: and no more -piteous tale has ever been told than that of the little creature who -staid with her on the scaffold. It was a long-haired Skye terrier, -Bébé by name. When she knelt at the block, he lay concealed in the -folds of her dress; but after the fatal stroke, while the executioners -were despoiling the body, he crept out, and placed himself between the -severed trunk and head. There he was found by Jane Kennedy, and there -he clung, wet with his mistress’s blood, until removed by force. Who -can measure the agony of that faithful little heart, when, all in a -moment, its world of affection had shrunk to a lump of irresponsive -clay! One would fain know of Bébé--whether, as some say, he died of -grief, or, as others maintain, lived several years, well cared for by -a noble lady. And where, when death came, was he buried? Fidelity like -his deserves a memorial, and doubtless had it at the time, although -history is silent on the point. And after all, it does not matter, for -we do not forget him. - -One of the most charming figures in this connection, is the Princess -Elizabeth, daughter of James I. As is usually the case with royal -children, she was educated apart from her parents. They sent her with -six little companions to Combe Abbey, to be under the charge of Lord -and Lady Harrington. Through the park of this pleasant country-seat, -flowed a river, and in the river was a tiny island which they gave -to the princess for her very own. A house was built upon it for the -manager of the small farm, and the farm itself was stocked with cattle, -equally diminutive. An aviary was also given her, netted over with -gilt wire, and filled with birds of gay plumage or musical throats. -Furthermore, there was a garden, in which grew flowers for pleasure, -and herbs “for ye animalls’ helth.” It was as nearly a child’s paradise -as anything can be; and I fancy that many a time the discrowned Queen -of Bohemia looked back with longing to the “Fairy Farm” of her youth. - -Lord Harrington’s account-books are often and amusingly enlivened by -such items as: so much “to shearing her Hieness’ great rough dog;” to -making cages for her birds, or, to supplying cotton for her monkey’s -bed, etc. A further evidence of her tastes is the childish portrait -preserved at Combe Abbey, which represents her surrounded by her pets. -And many another proof is given, her whole life through, in the -presents of animals her friends sent her, in her own pleasant mention -of her pets, and in her correspondence. Here, for instance, is an -amusing note, dated 1618: - - “To Sir Dudley Carleton, from the fair hands of Mrs. Elizabeth Ashley, - chief gouvernante to all the monkeys and dogs. The monkeys you sent - came hither very well, and are now grown so proud that they will come - to nobody but her Highness, who hath them in her bed every morning, - and the little prince. He is so fond of them that he says he desires - nothing but such monkeys of his own.” - -All of Elizabeth’s children inherited her fondness for pets, but most -of all, Prince Rupert, whose devotion to Boy became a by-word among the -Roundheads. - -[Illustration: PRINCESS ELIZABETH, ELDEST DAUGHTER OF JAMES I., AND HER -PETS. - -(_Sketch from painting._)] - -As a child Charles I. liked animals, but little is said of his -favorites, after he became king. The times were too serious, a -revolution was seething, and writers were busy with larger themes. -Still, a few anecdotes have reached us. “Methinks,” says Sir Philip -Warwick, “because it shows his dislike of a common court vice, it is -not unworthy the relating of him, that one evening his dog scratching -at the door, he commanded me to let in Gipsy; whereupon I took the -boldness to say, ‘Sir, I perceive you love a grayhounde better than you -do a spanell.’ ‘Yes,’ says he, ‘for they equally love their masters, -and yet do not flatter them so much.’” - -Not long before his execution, Charles bade farewell to his dogs and -had them sent to the queen, lest their presence might distract him -from more solemn thoughts. Of this queen, Henrietta Maria, a charming -story is told, which, though it says little for her prudence, bears -ample witness to her affectionate heart. On her return from Holland, -she landed at Burlington, and staid there over night. Before daybreak -the Parliamentary forces were at hand, and she with her ladies fled -in haste. They had not gone very far when she noticed that Mitte, her -lap-dog, had been left behind. Madame de Motteville calls it “an ugly -old dog,” but adds that the queen was extremely fond of it. So it would -seem, for heedless of remonstrance, back she rushed, caught up Mitte, -who was still dozing on her bed, and once more sped away--in safety. - -It may be added that there was formerly, in Holyrood Palace, a painting -of Charles and Henrietta, surrounded by their dogs. Prominent among -these is a white Shock, which some think to be the identical Mitte of -Burlington fame. - -Of the little dogs petted in former reigns, numerous specimens may be -seen in pictures and engravings. A rare print of Lady Margaret Lenox, -the mother of Darnley, shows one of them playing at her feet, with a -dapper air that contrasts amusingly with her dignified appearance. - -It was reserved for Charles II. to bring the “Comforter” cult to its -highest development, and win thereby much sarcastic notice from the -writers of the time. Old Dr. Carns, who lived in Elizabeth’s reign, was -particularly severe on this folly, but he could not have dreamed to -what lengths it would reach a few years later. We might, with a little -change of spelling, apply his words directly to the pug and terrier -craze of fashionable ladies to-day. Speaking of the “spaniells gentle, -or comforters,” he says: - -“These dogges are little, pretty, proper, and fyne, and sought for to -satisfie the delicateness of daintie dames, instrumentes of folly for -them to play and dally withal, to tryfle away the treasure of time, to -withdraw their mindes from more commendable exercises.” - -Sarcasm and good advice alike were wasted. Where a king set the -fashion, fine gentlemen and ladies delighted to follow, and lap-dogs -became as necessary to their equipment as lace ruffles or brocades. -Charles II. and his brother, James II., always liked dogs; and some -fine canvases by Vandyke remain, in which the royal children are -grouped with their four-footed friends. In one painting, Prince Charles -is the central figure; one hand hangs idly at his side; the other -rests on the head of a huge mastiff, near which frisks a tiny spaniel. -The same spaniel probably, and another that might be its twin, act as -“supporters” in a second painting to the three oldest children. - -When, after many vicissitudes, Charles finally reached the throne, -his devotion to pets was more marked than ever, and he gave them a -good deal of attention that by rights belonged elsewhere. Under date -of September 4, 1667, Repys notes in his Diary that he “went by coach -to Whitehall, to the Council Chamber. All I observed there is the -silliness of the king’s playing with his dog all the while, and not -minding the business.” - -As a matter of course, contemporary wits and playwrights are not -silent, and have many a squib too at this foible of Charles: - - “His dogs would sit at Council Board, - Like judges in their furs; - We question much which had most sense,-- - The Master, or the Curs.” - -[Illustration: PRINCESS MARY, DAUGHTER OF CHARLES I. - -(_From etching by Modgin of painting by Sir Peter Lely, in the Hampton -Court Collection._)] - -John Evelyn, another diarist, speaks with some disgust of the lengths -to which Charles’ affection for his pets led him. The king would have -them always about him, and allowed them to consider his bedroom and -study their kennels. - -That dogs were lost and stolen with modern frequency, that rewards were -offered for their return, is shown by notices like the following: - -“Lost out of the Mews, on the 6th of the present month (March, 1667) -a little brindled greyhound belonging to His Majesty; if any one has -taken her up, they are desired to bring her to the Porter’s Gate at -Whitehall, and they shall have a very good content for their pains.” - -The king might often be seen when the weather was fine, sauntering -along in St. James Park, his dogs beside him; and stopping every -now and then to feed the ducks in the water. It is a pleasant -picture--one we like to remember, and more creditable to Charles than -most other scenes in his life. Such as we see him here, good-natured, -kind-hearted, self-indulgent, just so he passed from the scene of the -world. He had enjoyed the last gleam of prosperity that was to fall on -the Stuart race. Their good fortune died with him, and with him, too, -passed the golden age of the “Comforter.” - -With William of Orange came in pugs; and for a long time their odd -ugly faces might be seen in all establishments of rank. Garnished with -orange ribbons, in compliment to the king, they were known as Dutch -pugs, and commanded high prices in the market. - -The Georges divided their royal favor impartially between spaniels, -terriers and pugs. The Princess Charlotte, a sister of George III., -was particularly fond of terriers, and had herself painted with a -long-haired darling of the species in her arms. The Duchess of York -(wife to a son of George III.) was such a lover of dogs as to have -forty at one time, of different varieties. All her favorites were -buried at Oatlands, where even yet some sixty or more tombstones may be -seen. The Duchess herself wrote most of their epitaphs, of which the -following may serve as a specimen: - - “Pepper, near this silent grotto, - Thy fair virtues lie confest; - Fidelity thy constant motto,-- - Warmth of friendship speaks the test.” - -[Illustration: CHARLES II. AND PET SPANIEL, AT DAWNEY COURT, BUCKS, -SEAT OF THE DUCHESS OF CLEVELAND. - -(_From old and rare print._)] - -Little Princess Amelia, the darling of all who knew her, petted every -thing that came in her reach--her family, her servants, her horses, -kittens, dogs and birds. One painting represents her as a chubby, -winsome baby, playing with a King Charles; another shows her as a merry -little girl with her pet bird. When she had grown up into a young -lady, her sister Augusta gave her a bird which she greatly prized. Two -days after her death it was brought by an attendant to the donor. The -Princess Amelia had so ordered it, she said, requesting only that it -should not be returned the day of her death, nor yet the day after, -lest its presence might affect her sister too deeply in those first -hours of sorrow. - -[Illustration: PRINCESS AMELIA AND HER DOG. - -(_From painting by Hoppner, in St. John’s Palace._)] - -Both Victoria and Prince Albert had many favorites, which in being -painted by Landseer have established a claim to immortality. The artist -Leslie tells a pretty story of the young queen on her coronation day. -The ceremony took an unconscionable time, and when she returned from -it, she heard her pet spaniel barking wildly in the room where he was -shut up. “Oh! there is Dash,” she cried, and hastened to lay off her -splendid robes so that she might give him his long-deferred bath. There -is a burial-place on the terrace at Windsor, as at Sans-Souci, and in -one sunny corner rest the bones of this early favorite. - -Eos and Cairnach, Prince Albert’s dogs, were painted together by -Landseer, and form a most dignified, graceful group. Islay, one of the -Queen’s terriers, was painted with a mackaw and several love-birds, -which reveals another trait of his royal mistress. She is very fond -of birds, and in the fowl-house, in the Home Park, are preserved the -bodies of various feathered pets who have paid their last debt to -nature. The most celebrated is a dove, which many years ago, when she -visited Ireland with Prince Albert, was thrown into her carriage--a -living message of good will. She cherished it to the end of its life; -and its descendants still flutter around the towers of Windsor. - -Her stables, too, contain favorites. Prince Albert’s horse survived, an -honored inmate, until quite lately; and the cream-colored Herrenhausen -horses dream their lives away here in luxurious ease, being used by Her -Majesty only on state occasions. - -“A favorite at Marlborough House” indicates clearly one taste at least -of the exquisite princess who rouses so much enthusiasm in English -hearts; and emphasizes a little speech she made at a meeting of the -Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. “If,” said she, “I have -saved even one cat from misery, I shall feel that I have done some good -in the world.” - -If the cats at Windsor and Marlborough House have anything to -complain of, it can only be over-indulgence. The bill for their silk -throat-ribbons and silver bells is a large one, even at the most -moderate estimate; they have their own special cushions and attendants; -they often go out riding with their royal mistresses, and when the -latter leave one palace for another, _Messieurs et Mesdames Les Chats_ -travel with them, in such state and comfort as befit the possessions of -royalty. - -But now let us turn from England to France, and glance at a few pets -there. A pleasant memory remains of Louis XIII.--his intercession, when -a child, for the poor cats that were to be burned as witches on St. -John’s Day. It availed not only for those particular cats, but for all -their race henceforth in France. - -[Illustration: PRINCESS AUGUSTA, DAUGHTER OF GEORGE III. - -PRINCESS AMELIA, DAUGHTER OF GEORGE III. - -(_By permission of Messrs. Macmillan & Co._)] - -One of his predecessors, Henry III., used to carry a daintily-lined -basket suspended from his neck by a silken cord. As he languidly -talked with his guests or courtiers, he would at intervals, with -hands delicate as a woman’s, sparkling with rings, caress the tiny, -long-haired dogs which occupied the basket. - -[Illustration: A FAVORITE AT MARLBOROUGH HOUSE.] - -Louis XIV. petted himself more than any living creature; yet he had -some sympathy to spare for his numerous dogs; he even had their -portraits painted, at a considerable cost; and he also, presumably, had -a favorite cat--if the story in Swift’s Memoirs is one to be relied -upon. This story is to the effect that during the reign of Queen Anne, -a Miss Nelly Bennet, a young lady who took prestige as a great beauty, -visited the French court. - -She traveled in the care of witty Dr. Arbuthnot, who in a letter to -the Dean, describes the outbursts of admiration that greeted his fair -charge. - -“She had great honours done her,” he remarks, then adds, “and the -hussar himself was ordered to bring her the king’s cat to kiss.” - -When this important bit of news came to be reported in England, a wit, -now unknown, wrote a poem on the event, describing how-- - - “... When as Nelly came to France - (Invited by her cousins), - Across the Tuileries each glance - Killed Frenchmen by whole dozens. - The king, as he at dinner sat, - Did beckon to his hussar, - And bid him bring his tabby-cat - For charming Nell to buss her.” - -Louis XVI. had a favorite spaniel, playful and intelligent, like -all its race. It accompanied him to the prison which he was only -to exchange for the scaffold, and was bequeathed by him as a last -remembrance to his daughter. Through four years of imprisonment it -was her only friend and companion, and when upon her release “Madame -Royale” went to her relatives in Austria, it was not left behind. -But when, in 1801, the royal exiles were in Warsaw, the poor little -favorite fell from a balcony in the Poniatowsky Palace, and was -instantly killed. - -The first Napoleon cared little for any animal--except his war-horses. -Cats, indeed, he detested; and of Fortune (a pet dog of the Empress -Josephine) he was always jealous, and could not bear to see his wife -caress it. But age, they say, brings wisdom; and in his case, it -certainly brought toleration--of one dog at least. Here is the story: - -The seventeen-year-old Marie Louise, who was to be his second wife, -had a favorite Italian greyhound which accompanied her on her way into -France. Her Austrian suite was replaced at the frontier by a French -one; and at Munich her last Austrian attendant was dismissed, together -with the dog--a thing never intended by Napoleon, and only effected -by intrigue. We can imagine the young girl’s grief, and can readily -believe, as the historian says, that “the acquisition of a colossal -empire did not console her for the loss of a little dog.” - -[Illustration: PET SPANIEL OF LOUIS XVI., COMPANION OF HIS DAUGHTER -“MADAME ROYALE,” IN PRISON.] - -Fortunately for all concerned, the story found its way to Napoleon. -At once he rubbed his Aladdin’s lamp (an article all emperors -possess), and when he met his bride a few days later at Compiègne, he -led her--not to a grand state-chamber, but to a cosey room, with a -strangely familiar look. Her husband was a stranger; it was a new land, -a new language, and new faces everywhere. But--what was that hysterical -bark and scramble that greeted her on the threshold? What was that -frantic little figure bounding up into her arms? What but her own -little greyhound brought there with other familiar objects from her old -home, by Napoleon’s thoughtful care! She welcomed her pet with a cry of -delight; then turning, thanked, with wet eyes, the husband who was no -longer a stranger. - -A few years later, and the wheel of fortune suddenly turned. Napoleon -was an exile, and Louis XVIII. (uncle to the Prisoners of the Temple) -was king. About the time when his royal brother was guillotined, there -also perished a M. de Vieux Pont, whose only crime was the possession -of a parrot which said _Vive le roi!_ The bird came very near sharing -the fate of its master, but citizeness Lebon promised, if its life -was spared, to teach it better sentiments, and was allowed to take -it home. This happened in the Reign of Terror; but now when the Fat -King reigned, a worse fate, through him, befell a parrot of Napoleonic -sympathies. A dog had comforted Madame Royale in her prison; but -neither she nor her uncle, when they arrived at power, had any pity for -Napoleonists. - -[Illustration: PET ITALIAN GREYHOUND OF MARIE LOUISE.] - -The parrot’s mistress had fled from her home in Ecouen on the approach -of the Royalists, leaving the bird locked up in the closet of her room, -with plenty of food and water. Now it so chanced that Louis XVIII. -spent the night in Ecouen, on his way to Paris, and was lodged in this -very room. In the midst of his slumbers, he was suddenly startled by -a shrill cry, close to his ear, of _Vive l’empereur!_ Nothing could -be seen, yet again and again was the cry repeated. At last the poor, -insulted, gouty king managed to pull the bell-rope and summon his -attendants. After considerable search, they found a door behind the -tapestry, and forced it open. There sat the criminal, chuckling to -herself, and still shouting at intervals, _Vive l’empereur!_ Poor -Polly! her triumph was short. It was _A bas!_ with Napoleonists now; -in a moment her neck was wrung, and a limp little feathered body bore -silent witness that the Bourbons had returned. - -[Illustration: CARLO ALBERTO AND HIS FAVORITE HORSE. - -(_After the painting by Vernet._)] - -Far, far more pleasant is a story told of the young Duchesse de Berri. -On the day of her marriage to Louis’ nephew, she retired to her room -after the ceremony, and was supposed to be resting. After a while -her husband entered. Fancy the surprise, the amusement with which he -witnessed his pretty bride’s diversion. She yet wore her magnificent -marriage robes--a white brocade heavily embroidered with silver, and a -diamond coronet surmounted by white ostrich plumes; but the enormous -train--six yards long--she had twisted several times over her arm. Thus -disencumbered, she was singing blithely, and dancing to her song with -a pet spaniel she had brought from Naples, and which she held by the -forepaws. - -[Illustration: VICTOR EMMANUEL AND HIS DOG. - -(_From life photograph._)] - -Another turn of the wheel, a few years later, seated a third Napoleon -and Eugénie upon the throne. The latter was particularly fond of a -Mexican parrot called Montezuma. When, in 1870, the Empire came to an -end, and she fled to England, all her possessions were left behind in -her hurried flight from the Tuileries. It was not until the imperial -family was settled at Chiselhurst, that, remembering Montezuma, she -sent a trusty attendant to France, to search for him. Almost a year -passed by before he was found, exposed for sale in a shop! Then he was -re-bought; he crossed the Channel in safety; a few hours more, and -the ex-empress was petting him as of old. But not as of old did he -respond to her endearments, nibble the sweetmeats she offered, and say -with flattering approval, _Vive l’impératrice!_ No, all was changed. -Sullenly he declined sugar, pineapple, sweet biscuit; sullenly he -withdrew from her caressing touch; and sullenly at last he spoke: _Vive -la république!_ Truly the empire had passed away. - -The princes of Savoy have always entertained a soldierly liking for -horse and hound; and with war for their occupation, and hunting -for diversion, they have had abundant opportunity to test the good -qualities and friendship of these animals. There is a museum in -Turin where many of their favorite horses--stuffed and mounted--are -preserved. Especially interesting is the “Favorito Cavallo” of Carlo -Alberto, which, according to the inscription, was his chosen mount in -peace, and which bore him safely through the campaign of 1848-49. It -accompanied him into exile, and finally (1866) died in Turin, at the -age of thirty years. - -Several horses in the museum belonged to Victor Emmanuel. This -patriotic and jolly king was “_innamorato dei cani_,” especially of -four hounds, the companions of his hunting trips. He was never so -happy as when off on one of these expeditions. Often he would dismount -and stretch himself on the ground beneath a tree, his horse and dogs -grouped around him. Then, with a sigh of luxurious comfort, he would -say: “Ouf! how happy am I here, and thus! What a beastly trade, what a -pig-occupation, is this of being a king!” (_Che porco mestiero è quello -di fare il Re!_) - -And again: “How well off should I be if I only always could live -quietly, at ease among these friends!” patting, as he spoke, first -one dog, then another. Poor king! he had given a United Italy to his -people; to himself he could grant few hours of ease. - - - - -_V._ - -_A NOTABLE CANINE TRIO._ - - - - -V. - -A NOTABLE CANINE TRIO. - - -In almost every library where the owner has an antiquarian taste may -be found a pair of stout, leather-bound volumes, bearing a kind of -“important-facts” appearance which the title, stamped in gilt, airily -contradicts. _Nugæ antiquæ_, it reads. Trifles, in fine; anecdotes, -memoranda of things passed by. - -The writer of the _Nugæ_ was Sir John Harrington--a man of literary -tastes, witty, vivacious, warm-hearted and sarcastic. He put into his -collection a little about a good many things. There are items of secret -or curious history; there are good stories about “King Elizabeth and -Queen James,” as some witty person entitled them; there are letters; -and there is one letter, above all, full of interest and feeling, -“concerninge his dogge, Bungey.” It was written to the young Prince -Henry, King James’s oldest son; and Sir John evidently thought it worth -while to make a copy, before sending away the original. It is only a -trifle in the great sum of history--yet a trifle that means much. The -brilliant Sir John comes very near us as we read; and none of his wit -pleases us so well as this simple and affectionate tribute to the dog -he had lost. - -One or two facts “concerninge” Bungey’s owner may not be amiss before -giving the letter. - -[Illustration: PRINCE HENRY, ELDEST SON OF JAMES I. - -(_From rare print by Crispin Pass._)] - -When Elizabeth of England was a simply-dressed princess instead of the -elaborately got-up potentate into which she afterwards developed, she -had the ill-luck to be suspected of aiming at her sister’s throne. In -consequence, not only was she herself put into the Tower, but various -friends of hers were arrested, among them a gentleman named Harrington. -He was heavily fined, besides being imprisoned. When, however, a -few years later, Elizabeth became queen, she did not forget her old -adherent, and among other marks of favor, stood godmother to his son -John, afterwards Sir John Harrington. The fortunate baby grew up into a -handsome and entertaining young man, with such an aptitude for saying -bright things that his reputation spread far and wide. A maid-servant -at an inn waited very carefully on him, for fear that if he were -neglected, he “would make an epigram of her.” Even the Queen used to -speak of him as her “witty godson.” She probably had no idea his wit -ever turned on her own foibles, as well as those of other people. That -it did so, however, appears from his journal. - -One item, remembering Elizabeth’s three thousand dresses, is especially -amusing: - - “On Sunday, my Lorde of London preachede to the Queene’s Majestie, - and seemede to touch on the vanitie of deckinge the bodie too finely. - Her Majestie tolde the Ladies that if the Bishope helde more discorse - on such matters, she wolde fit him for Heaven, but he shoulde walke - thither withoute a staffe, and leave his mantle behinde him; perchance - the Bishope hathe never soughte her Highnesse wardrobe, or he wolde - have chosen another texte.” - -The same hobby that led her to number her own dresses by the thousand, -and her wigs by the hundred, led her also to interfere with the clothes -of her subjects. One gentleman wore a suit she did not like, and she -spit upon it, to show her aversion; “Heaven spare me such jibinge!” -says poor Sir John. In fact, although the Queen’s godson, he had to -tread carefully at court! and King James’s easy rule must have been a -relief to him. Especially did he enjoy the friendship of Prince Henry, -to whom, in 1608, he wrote the famous letter about “Bungey.” - -“Having good reason,” he says, “to thinke your Highnesse had goode will -and likinge to reade what others have tolde of my rare dogge, I will -even give a brief historie of his goode deedes and strannge feates; -and herein will I not plaie the curr myselfe, but in good sooth relate -what is no more nor lesse than bare verity. Although I meane not to -disparage the deedes of Alexander’s horse, I will match my dogge -against him for good carriage; for if he did not bear a great prince -on his back, I am bold to saie he did often bear the sweet wordes of a -greater princesse on his necke. - -“I did once relate to your Highnesse after what sorte his tacklinge -was wherewithe he did sojourn from my house to the bathe to Greenwiche -Palace, and deliver up to the Courte there such matters as were -entrusted to his care. This he hath often done, and came safe to the -bathe, or my howse here at Kelstone, with goodlie returnes from such -nobilitie as were pleasede to emploie him; nor was it ever tolde our -ladie queene that this messenger did ever blab ought concerninge his -highe truste, as others have done in more special matters. Neither must -it be forgotten as how he once was sente withe two charges of sack wine -from the bathe to my house, by my man Combe; and on his way the cordage -did slackene, but my trustie bearer did now bear himselfe so wisely as -to covertly hide one flasket in the rushes, and take the other in his -teeth to the howse, after which he wente forthe, and returnede with -the other parte of his burden to dinner; hereat your Highnesse may -perchance marvel and doubte, but we have livinge testimonie of those -who wroughte in the fields, and espiede his worke.... - -“I need not saie how muche I did once grieve at missinge this dogge, -for on my journiee towardes Londone, some idle pastimers ... conveyed -him to the Spanish ambassador’s, where in a happie houre after six -weekes I did heare of him; but such was the Courte he did pay to the -Don, that he was no less in good likinge there than at home. Nor did -the howsehold listen to my claim ... till I rested my suite on the -dogge’s own proofs, and made him performe such feates before the nobles -as put it past doubt that I was his master. I did send him to the halle -in the time of dinner, and made him bringe thence a pheasant out the -dish, which created much mirthe, but muche more when he returnede at -my commandment to the table again, and put it again in the same cover. -Herewith the companie was well content to allowe me my claim, and we -both were well content to accept it, and came homewardes.... - -“I will now saie in what manner he died. As we travelled towards -the bathe, he leapede on my horse’s necke, and was more earneste in -fawninge and courtinge my notice than what I had observed for time -backe, and after my chidinge his disturbing my passinge forwards, he -gave me some glances of such affection as movede me to cajole him; but -alass he crept suddenly into a thorny brake, and died in a short time. - -“Thus I have strove to rehearse such of his deedes as maie suggest -much more to youre Highnesse’ thought of this dogge. Now let Ulysses -praise his dogge Argus, or Tobite be led by that dogge whose name doth -not appeare, yet could I say such things of my Bungey, for so he was -styled, as might shame them bothe, either for good faith, clear wit, -or wonderful deedes; to saie no more than I have said of his bearing -letters to London and Greenwiche more than an hundred miles. As I -doubte not but your Highnesse would love my dogge if not myself, I have -been thus tedious in his story, and againe saie, that of all the dogges -near your father’s courte, not one hathe more love, more diligence to -please, or less pay for pleasinge, than him I write of.... - -“I now reste your Highnesse’ friend in all services that maye suite him. - -“P. S. I have an excellent picture (of Bungey) curiously limned, to -remain in my posterity.” - -Of this excellent picture I have been unable to find any trace; but the -word-picture is wonderfully vivid, and Bungey will live as long as the -letter survives to tell his story. - -Not long before it was written, Sir John had noted in his journal that -“My man Ralphe hathe stolen two cheeses from my dairy-house. I wishe -he were chokede herewyth--and yet, the fellowe hath five childerne: -I wyll not sue him if he repentethe and amendethe.” Kind-hearted Sir -John! Small wonder that Bungey loved him, or that when, some four years -later, he died, he left behind him many friends, and hardly an enemy. - - * * * * * - -During the next reign, in another county of England, lived another -dog, the opposite of Bungey in appearance and manners, but who, -nevertheless, has attained a wide fame. He was no dog of the courts, -graceful and dapper; he knew no tricks to enchance the value of a -faithful heart; in fact, he was only a large, ungainly mastiff, whose -merits as a watch-dog were all that recommended him. He belonged to -old Sir Henry Lee of Ditchley, and the way in which his name became -notable, is this: - -He was a “yard-dog,” and of course slept outside of the house. One -night, however, he persisted in following the master to his bedroom. -Blows and persuasion were alike useless to drive him away. The Italian -valet shut the door upon him, and then the animal sat down outside and -howled. Probably Sir Henry reflected that at this rate he would get -no sleep at all. At any rate, as the least of two evils, he ordered -the door to be opened. In walked the mastiff, silenced at last, and -content; for “with a wag of the tail, and a look of affection at his -lord,” he crawled under the bed and lay down. Matters being thus -peaceably adjusted, the valet left the room, and Sir Henry settled -himself for sleep. About midnight, the quiet was broken by a sudden -disturbance and uproar. The mastiff had sprung from his ambush, and -seized some one by the throat. When the half-strangled victim, through -Sir Harry’s interference, was released, it proved to be no other than -the amiable Italian who had exerted himself a few hours before to -drive the dog from the room. Now, under the influence of fright, and -the fear of prosecution, he confessed that his object was the murder -and robbery of his master. - -By this time, I take it, the house was roused. One can readily imagine -the scene: Sir Harry in his laced night-gear, the frightened servants, -the scared yet sullen criminal, still held in check by an occasional -low growl from his late assailant. And the mastiff himself--can you -not see the uncouth, powerful, sagacious figure, his whole attention -centered on the would-be-thief, and quite unaware that he himself is -the hero of the hour? - -But such he was, and Sir Harry Lee of Ditchley--a just man and gallant -soldier--knew how both to appreciate and reward his fidelity. We set -up statues to our great men, or, in Sir Harry’s own England, valor and -genius find memorial in Westminster Abbey. - -To commemorate then, in like manner, the heroic deed of his mastiff, -Sir Harry had a painting made by Johnson, an artist of note. It -represents the old soldier wrapped in a leather cloak that harmonizes -well with his powerful frame and look of activity. Beside him is the -mastiff, and, at the bottom of the picture, this inscription: - -“More Faithful than Favoured.” - - “Reason in man cannot effect such love - As Nature doth in them that Reason want: - Ulysses true and kind his dog did prove - When Faith in better friends was very scant. - My travels for my Friends have been as true - Tho’ not as far as Fortune did him bear; - No friends my Love and Faith divided knew, - Tho’ neither this nor that once equall’d were, - But in my dog, whereof I made no store, - I find more love than them I trusted more.” - -About this time, King Charles had a nephew sufficiently famous to make -all his belongings noteworthy; and no account of famous dogs would be -complete without some sketch of Prince Rupert’s white hound Boy. A -beautiful lad this young prince must have been, as Vandyke has painted -him, with Boy at his side. Always adventurous and daring, but with a -dash and fire in his daring quite beyond the usual soldierly courage, -he won something like adoration from his troopers. After a manhood of -war, his last years were very quiet, and being of a scientific turn, he -spent much time in experiments. The art of engraving owes him a large -debt, and “Prince Rupert’s Drops,” still commemorate his name. And as -to his character, whatever faults he might have, he was still, as one -writer tells us, “so just, so beneficent, so courteous, that his memory -remained dear to all who knew him. This I say of my own knowledge, -having often heard old people in Berkshire speak in raptures of Prince -Rupert.” - -Many, indeed, are the stories told about this beautiful and daring -boy, of his headlong courage, his warm heart, his kindness and pluck. -Once he was out hunting, and the fox took to the earth. “A dog which -the Prince loved, followed, but returning not, His Highnesse, being -impatient, crept after, and took hold of his legs, which he could not -draw out by reason of the narrowness of the hole, until Mr. Billingsby -(the Prince’s tutor) took hold of His Highnesse’s heels; so he drew out -the Prince, the Prince the dog, and the dog the fox.” - -When a mere lad, Rupert was taken prisoner, and detained for nearly -three years in the Castle of Lintz, on the Danube. Time hung heavy -on his hands here, but part of it he whiled away with pets. He even -succeeded in taming a hare, so that it would trot after him like a -spaniel, and perform little tricks at his command. - -[Illustration: PRINCE RUPERT WITH HIS WHITE DOG BOY. - -(_From the painting by Vandyke._)] - -But his chief companion and diversion was Boy, a hound given him by -Lord Arundel, to lighten his captivity. It was of “a breede so famous -that the Grand Turk gave it in particular injunction to his ambassadour -to obtaine him a puppie thereof.” When Rupert was released, Boy shared -his freedom, and became an inseparable friend. - -Many an old lady in those hard days was suspected of being a witch, and -holding secret confabs with the Devil, after a midnight tide through -the air on a broomstick. If she had a cat, especially a black one, -poor Pussy was considered a go-between, and was liable to be burned. -Dogs, too, fell under suspicion now and then; and as Prince Rupert was -thought by the Puritan faction to act under the Devil’s guidance, so -Boy was supposed to run on messages between the unholy allies. In the -Bodleian Library there is carefully preserved an old pamphlet of 1642, -entitled “Observations on Prince Rupert’s dogge, called Boye,” which -amusingly details the different views about him. - -“I have kept a very strict eye,” says the writer, “upon this dogge, -whom I cannot conclude to be a very dounright divell, but some Lapland -ladye, once by nature a handsome white ladye, but now by art a handsome -white dogge. They have many times attempted to destroye it by poyson, -and extempore prayer (!) but they have hurt him no more than the plague -plaister did Mr. Pym.” In fact-- - - ’Twas like a Dog, yet there was none did knowe - Whether it Devill was, or Dog, or no. - -Every squib or broadside of abuse directed against the prince must also -hit poor Boy, and in several he figures very cleverly. One of the most -amusing is “A Dialogue between Prince Rupert’s Dogge, whose name is -Puddle, and Tobie’s Dog, whose name is Pepper.” It bears date 1643, and -opens with a sledge-hammer contest of wits between the Royalist and -Puritan dogs, under whose names are but thinly veiled the two great -parties of the day. - -Prince Rupert’s dog opens the parley with great disdain: - -“What yelping, whindling Puppy-Dog art thou?” And honest Tobie’s dog -retorts the question: - -“What bauling, shag-hair’d Cavallier’s Dogge art thou?” - -“Pr. R. D. Thou art a dogged sir, or cur, grumble no more but tell me -thy name.” - -“T. D. I was called Tobie’s house-dog ... my name is Pepper.” - -“P. R. D. Though your zeal be never so hot, you shall not bite me, -Pepper.” - -“T. D. I’ll barke before I bite, and talke before I fight. I heare you -are Prince Rupert’s white Boy.” - -“P. R. D. I am none of his white Boy, my name is Puddle.” - -“T. D. A dirty name indeede; you are not pure enough for my company, -besides I heare on both sides of my eares that you are a Laplander, or -Fin-land Dog or, truly, no better than a witch in the shape of a white -Dogge.” - -Hereupon Prince Rupert’s dog calls the other “a Round-headed Puppy -that doth bawle and rayle;” and Tobie’s Dog retorts that Puddle is -“a Popish, profane dog, ... more than half-divell. It is known,” he -says, “that at Edgehill you walked invisible, and directed the bullets -who they should hit, and who they shoulde misse, and made your Mister -Prince Rupert shott-free.” - -And so on, through several amusing pages. It is a pleasant and -fun-inspiring jest; but other productions of the time strike a note of -savage hate, strange enough, as applied to an innocent dog. - -Boy’s fate befitted a soldier’s dog: on the fatal field of Marston -Moor, where many a gallant cavalier was slain, he also fell, shot to -the heart. As The More True Relation, a Puritan statement, says: “Here -also was slain that accursed cur which is here mentioned by the way, -because the Prince’s dog hath been so much spoken of, and was prized by -his master more than creatures of much more worth.” - -[Illustration: PURITAN CARICATURE OF THE DEATH OF PRINCE RUPERT’S WHITE -HOUND BOY. - -(_From old pamphlet in British Museum._)] - -Even his master’s grief at his loss was a subject of derision; and -shortly after Boy’s death a squib appeared, called: “A Dogge’s Elegie, -or Rupert’s Teares for the late defeat given him at Marston Moor neere -York ... where his beloved Dogge, named Boye, was killed by a valliant -souldier who had skill in Necromancy.” (He is said to have used a -silver bullet, Boy being proof against leaden ones.) - -An old pamphlet contains a queer woodcut, representing his death, and -then several lines of doggerel, beginning: - - “Sad Cavaliers, Rupert invites you all - That doe survive, to his Dog’s Funerall.” - -So lived and perished Boy, his master’s well-loved friend, his master’s -enemies’ aversion--and almost the only instance in history of an animal -being the object of violent party-hate. - -Prince Rupert had other pets, both dogs and horses, but none so dear -as his white hound. Perhaps the most affecting instance of his feeling -after Boy’s death, is shown in a letter to Will Legge, written in 1661. -It bears “the dolefull news that poor Royall at this time is dying, -after being the cause of the death of many a stag. By heaven,” he -bursts out, “I had rather lose the best horse in my stable!” - -With this--as a last pleasant memory of Rupert--we will leave him. - - - - -_VI._ - -_PETS IN ARTIST LIFE._ - - - - -VI. - -PETS IN ARTIST LIFE. - - -For the artist pets have a peculiar value. Not only are they companions -and live playthings--they are also “properties.” Portrait and landscape -painters use them as accessories; animal painters and sculptors find in -them their models. They live in close companionship with their human -friends, and the tie between them is usually warm and lasting. An -exception might be the cat whose fur was sacrificed to the early genius -of Benjamin West. In default of brushes, the lad used first the long -hairs from her tail, then the shorter ones from her body--until she was -half-shorn. True, one of his biographers assures us that he laid hold -of her “with all due caution, and attention to her feelings”; but this -is clearly a post-mortem statement--he had never interviewed Pussy! - -Fox, a beautiful Pomeranian dog belonging to Gainsborough, occasionally -served as model; but his most important office was to act as peacemaker -between the artist and his wife. Sometimes, “as through the land at -eve they went,” they would fall out; and then the dignified restraint -between them would be first broken by one or the other writing some -words of reconciliation, and giving the note to Fox. Off he would -bound with it to the other party, and a messenger so charming always -proved irresistible. - -[Illustration: MISS BOWLES. - -(_From the painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds._)] - -Sir Joshua Reynolds’ many dogs, to all of whom he was much attached, -can be traced in regular order through his portraits, especially -those of children. The Italian greyhound, the Scotch terrier, the -silky-haired spaniel or setter, are as well-known as his own features. -A specially attractive picture represents little Miss Cholmondely -carrying her dog over a brook. The pretty anxiety of the child and the -unconcern of her pet are amusingly contrasted. Hardly less charming -are the portraits of Miss Bowles with a spaniel, and an unknown Felina -hugging a kitten. - -Of a favorite macaw which often appeared in his pictures, a story is -told almost as wonderful, Sir Joshua thought, as that of the painted -grapes which deceived the birds. For this bird instantly recognized the -portrait of a servant whom he hated, and tried to bite the pictured -face. Dr. Johnson and Oliver Goldsmith came several times to see this -performance, and Reynolds declared that, in his opinion, “birds and -beasts were as good judges of pictures as men are.” - -[Illustration: “FRIENDS NOW, PUSSY!” - -(_From the painting by Angelica Kauffmann._)] - -There remains to us an affecting last glimpse of this famous painter -after he had lost his sight and could no longer pursue the art he -loved. In this premature night he found much comfort with a tame bird, -until one morning the window was left open, and it flew away. His -grief, though deep, was happily of short duration. Death came to his -relief, and he escaped from the body, even as the bird from the house. - -[Illustration: THE PAINTER HOGARTH AND HIS DOG TRUMP.] - -One of his favorite pupils, Angelica Kauffmann, painted a charming -picture called “Friends now, Pussy.” It depicts a radiant little girl -holding in her arms a kitten whose contented purr we cannot fail to -hear, so perfectly is it suggested. - -Hogarth was the painter of human life as it is; of people good, bad and -indifferent--noble or base. But wherever man is, there also is the dog; -and so throughout this artist’s work we find him--now a drawing-room -pet, and now a vagabond; now man’s companion and now his victim. -Hogarth’s own dog, Trump, surveys us rather sourly from the same canvas -with his master. Very likely it was the curly tip of his tail that -suggested the famous sketch in three lines of a sergeant with his pike -going into a house, and his dog following him. Hogarth executed the -picture thus: - -[Illustration] - -To be understood, however, it is certainly best to place design and -explanation side by side. - -Mrs. Hogarth also had a dog, which eventually was buried at the end of -a filbert walk in her yard at Chiswick. A stone marked the grave, and -Hogarth himself cut the epitaph: - -“Life to the last enjoyed, here Pompey lies.” - - -I tried not long ago, though without success, to find some trace -of this grave. In the oldest, quaintest part of Chiswick stands -Hogarth’s house, still bearing his name, and probably, as to stone -and mortar, much the same as when he lived there. But the once -beautiful garden is now in part a vegetable plot, and in part an -untidy barnyard. A venerable mulberry-tree and some gnarled old yews -are still standing--“sole relics of a finer past”; but of the filbert -walk there remains only a row of little stumps with here and there a -straggling branch. No trace of Pompey anywhere, unless in tradition; -“she had heard,” said the mistress of the house, “that a dog had been -buried somewhere there.” And--final touch--two pigs looked out from -the doorway, squealing shrilly as we passed! It seemed a pity that -Hogarth should not see them; no one would have sooner appreciated the -humor of the scene. But--life to the last enjoyed--he lies in Chiswick -churchyard. - -Famous among Middle Age painters was Paolo Uccello--Paul of the -Birds--who won this sobriquet by his extreme delight in birds. They -were his ruling passion, and appeared in his pictures both in and out -of season. - -[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF ALBRECHT DURER AT THIRTEEN. - -(_Drawn by himself._)] - -More famous was the eccentric Bazzi, who, according to the pleasant old -gossip, Vasari, “was fond of keeping in his house all sorts of strange -animals--badgers, squirrels, cat-a-mountains, dwarf monkeys, horses, -racers, little Elba ponies, jackdaws, bantams, doves of India, and -other creatures of this kind, so many as he could lay his hands on.” -Over and above, he had a raven which had learned to talk and to imitate -its master’s voice, especially in answering a knock at the door. “His -house was like nothing more than a Noah’s ark,” adds Vasari. - -Of Vittore Carpaccio’s likes and dislikes little is known, but Ruskin -praises as one of the finest paintings in the world, a Venetian -interior by him, representing two fair dames surrounded by animals. -Two dogs--one small, one large--a peacock, doves, a turtle and a -lizard--such were the pets these ladies kept to amuse their leisure -hours. - -Albrecht Dürer found special pleasure in studying hares. One hardly -knows which is quainter, the thirteen-year-old artist as drawn by -himself, or the hare which his childish fingers sketched. A later study -is the charming Bunny, apparently pausing after a pleasant nibble to -look at his artist _vis-à-vis_. In some of his pictures, Dürer painted -angel children playing with little hares--surely a gentle companionship! - -[Illustration: HARE DRAWN BY THE BOY ALBRECHT DURER.] - -But a still greater name in art is that of Raphael, to whom we owe not -only Madonnas and saints, but some wonderfully delicate and realistic -designs of animals and birds. Not much is said in his biographies to -show that he was fond of animals, but that he studied them closely is -evident. It is infinitely sad to pass now through his Loggia at the -Vatican, once glowing with the master’s touch, now faded and in part -defaced. Still, worn as they are, they express Raphael. In the Stanze, -and his other great paintings, we know that his brush worked seriously -in accordance with a plan already conceived. But in the Loggia, with -the bright Italian sun shining in upon him as he worked, he laid aside -all serious intent, and gave himself up to merry play. Under his facile -fingers, the arched ceilings became covered with vines in luxuriant -tangled growth, with interspaces of blue sky, and clusters of grapes -which droop apparently with their own luscious weight, and tempt the -birds on every side. - -[Illustration: TWO VENETIAN LADIES AND THEIR PETS. - -(_From the painting by Vittore Carpaccio, in the Correo Gallery, -Venice._)] - -[Illustration: SECTION OF DOME. - -(_From Raphael’s frescoes in the Loggia of the Vatican._)] - -In one compartment, the vines cluster so close as to admit but small -glimpses of the sky. On the lowest bar but one of the trellis, sits -a fine fierce hawk, so absorbed in his own reflections that he does -not notice a monkey reaching up from below to pull his tail feathers. -A parrot on the bar above is less indifferent, and looks on with -mischievous amusement. Little birds flit about in the higher branches, -and a squirrel is making his way to one of the finest grape-clusters. - -The number of creatures that Raphael carefully studied and depicted, -is wonderful. Lizard, mouse and squirrel; tiny snake and bee and snail; -goldfish swimming in glass vases half-wreathed with swaying water -plants; love-birds cuddling together; long-tailed rats scampering along -the scroll-work; pretty voracious ducks with bulging crops; a motherly -hen hovering her chicks--all these and more, may still be seen, the -work of one masterly hand. Really, the painted scenes appear alive; and -I do not know who can look at them without loving the artist who so -well understood the happy natural life of plant and bird and beast. - -[Illustration: DUCKS. - -(_From Raphael’s frescoes in the Loggia of the Vatican._)] - -As Paolo Uccello loved birds, so Gottfried Mind loved cats and became -their special artist. He was born near the middle of the last century, -in the town of Berne. There he lived, and there, in 1814, he died. Of -poor and mean appearance, crabbed to all human kind, he was keenly -alive to the ways and feelings, the tricks and graces of cat-kind. -Bears, too, he liked, and for a while frequented the bear pit of Berne -to study them. But cats were his first and abiding love, and to them -he returned. Whatever their moods, whether sulky, grave or gay; in -repose or in action, at every age--he reproduced them upon paper; and -with such marvelous fidelity that he seems to have given Pussy a tenth -and immortal life. His favorite cat used to sit for hours together upon -his knee or shoulder, while he--if such were her pleasure--would remain -motionless, so as not to disturb her rest. - -[Illustration: FRAGMENT. - -(_From Raphael’s frescoes in the Loggia of the Vatican._)] - -In our own time, two artists, more than all others, have been famous -for their delineation of animal life; and both of these artists, one is -glad to know, were genuinely fond of the creatures they painted. These -two are, of course, Sir Edwin Landseer and Mlle. Rosa Bonheur. - -[Illustration: HENS AND CHICKENS. - -(_From Raphael’s frescoes in the Loggia of the Vatican._)] - -Landseer studied every animal he saw, but preferred dogs, horses, and -deer, especially dogs. Fuseli, his master, used to speak of him as “my -little dog-boy.” Pet after pet had its features transferred to canvas, -and fine dogs were brought to him to be painted, exactly as their -owners might go to Millais or Watts. They became in his hands something -more than canine types; he saw in them individuals with characters and -stories of their own. There is the Dog in High Life, and the Dog in -Low Life; the tranquil big dog as Dignity, the impetuous little dog as -Impudence. - -[Illustration: TWO OF GOTTFRIED MIND’S CATS. - -(_Plate II. from “Der Katzen-Raphael.”_)] - -Here a fine hound waits for the Countess (this dog, by the -way, belonged to Lady Blessington, and was given to her by the at that -time King of Naples); here, by a plain coffin, a collie waits for the -master who will never return; and here two tiny silken spaniels guard a -plumed hat and pair of gloves. These spaniels, which belonged to Robert -Vernon, had an equally tragic fate--the Blenheim being killed by a fall -from a table, and the King Charles by a fall through the staircase -rails. Their picture is now in the National Gallery of London, where -many a one lingers before it, admiring the great lustrous eyes, silken -coats, and delicate, whimsical physiognomies of “The Cavalier’s Pets.” - -[Illustration: THE CAVALIER’S PETS. - -(_From the etching by Leon Richeton, after Sir Edwin Landseer, R. A._)] - -Very near them hangs a painting called “The Sleeping Bloodhound.” -The beautiful animal rests so easily that few would imagine her repose -to be the sleep of death--yet so it is. Countess, as they named her, -belonged to an old friend of Landseer, and running too eagerly one -night to meet him, fell from a height and was killed. The next day he -carried her to the studio; and the fine picture, now so familiar to -all, commemorates both her own beauty and her master’s love. - -[Illustration: THE DUSTMAN’S DOG. - -(_Drawn by Landseer when a child._)] - -Brutus, Vixen and Boxer--all pets of the artist--appear in “The -Ratcatchers;” Paul Pry, another intimate, figures as “A Member of -the Humane Society.” As thoroughly appreciative of dog character in -the extremes of poverty and ease, are two other pictures called “The -Dustman’s Dog,” and “The Critics.” One is a mere sketch (drawn when Sir -Edwin was as yet the child Eddie) of a faithful, homely, hard-worked -cur; the other is a portrait of himself at work, with a noble canine -friend at each shoulder, inspecting the result of his toil. - -[Illustration: COUNTESS, THE SLEEPING BLOODHOUND. - -(_After Landseer’s painting._)] - -He had a liking--as what painter of animals has not?--for lions; and -those in Trafalgar Square which guard the Nelson Monument, prove how -well he understood them. - -“They are not bumptious,” he said, “nor do they swagger; but look (I -hope) as though they might be trusted ... and are all gentleness and -tranquillity till Nelson gives the word.” - -There is no doubt that Landseer’s memory will live. As man and -artist his claims are great. He deserves to be counted among the -world’s benefactors for the impulse his work has given to the right -appreciation and treatment of the dog. If as great and widely known an -artist had patronized Pussy, we should find her better treated to-day, -and certainly better understood. Mind painted her with wonderful -fidelity, but he lacked the dramatic instinct of Landseer. Pussy was -Pussy to him--he never imagined in other situations than those he saw. -It was not in him to create a feline Diogenes and Alexander. - -[Illustration: THE CRITICS. - -(_Landseer’s portrait of himself._)] - -Sir Edwin has passed from us, but Rosa Bonheur still lives, and -still occupies her serene life with the art she loves. There is a -well-known and charming picture of her earlier self, with the dark -hair tossed back from a bright, courageous face, and one arm resting -in calm assurance of mutual good-will on the neck of a shaggy steer. -This indicates a preference both personal and artistic. She has always -delighted in painting cattle; and the patient oxen of the Nivernais, no -less than the picturesque, long-haired cattle of the Scotch Highlands, -attest her loving study of their ways. Deer, too, she enjoys painting, -and horses; while Wasp, the terrier, will hold his own even beside -Landseer’s canine portraits. - -[Illustration: PAUL PRY, A MEMBER OF THE HUMANE SOCIETY. - -(_After Landseer’s painting._)] - -Mlle. Bonheur’s home at Fontainebleau is fairly alive with pets; sheep, -horses, goats and dogs; creatures with pedigree and without it; -creatures famous for their beauty or remarkable for their rarity. Not -only does she entertain peaceable, home-loving animals, but also such -fierce inmates as lions and tigers. From one of the former was painted -her magnificent “Old Monarch,” which fronts squarely the spectator -like one “every inch a king.” Her “Tiger” is the faithful likeness of -a pet brought to her as a cub from the jungles of Bengal. Nero was -his well-bestowed name--a name appropriate to the latent power and -ferocity which might become terribly apparent should he ever have the -chance or wish to exert them. But this has never happened. Temptations -to naughtiness are carefully removed from his path, his will is rarely -crossed, his tastes are consulted. Roomily lodged, amply fed, he is -probably the most civilized tiger in existence. - -Mlle. Bonheur is convinced of his affection, but it is doubtless as -fortunate for the world as for herself that she never entered his cage. -This superb favorite cost about three thousand dollars, and as His -Majesty’s meat diet is also very expensive, he may be accounted in more -ways than one a dear pet. - -Several wild horses were at one time added to the studio “properties”; -and lately a Russian nobleman presented Mlle. Bonheur with a couple of -magnificent Russian bears, to which she is said to be much attached. - -Paris is a city dear to artists, and almost every nationality is -represented in its salons. Henry Bacon, for instance, is American; -and among the paintings and sketches that fill his studio, are many -reminiscences of his far-off home. In no way, moreover, is he so -genuinely American as in his devotion to pets. It is a pity that in -many cases their beautiful portraits are all of themselves that remain -to him. Most notable among them, and perhaps also best beloved, was -Glen, a black-and-tan collie from Aberdeenshire, born in 1879, whose -parents, Jock and Miss, had both obtained prize medals. - -[Illustration: AN OLD MONARCH. - -(_After the painting by Rosa Bonheur._)] - -Miss made a rather careless mother--often allowing her puppies to -wander out of sight; but this was pure absent-mindedness--for when -in their rovings beyond the kennel they came to grief, she appeared -conscious of her maternal short-comings, and employed all her -intelligence to serve her little ones. - -[Illustration: WASP, ROSA BONHEUR’S PET TERRIER. - -(_After Rosa Bonheur’s painting._)] - -The farmer who had charge of the kennels, stepped out of his cottage -one morning into the first snow of the season, to be met by Miss in -a state of terrible excitement. She jumped upon him, pulled at his -coat, and neither caress nor threat could quiet her. At last, having -thoroughly attracted his attention, she made a dash down the avenue, -looking back over her shoulder as she ran. The farmer, being versed in -“canese,” understood that he was expected to follow--and followed! - -Without diverging to right or left, or running in curves, as is the -habit of shepherd dogs, Miss preceded him through the fresh-fallen -snow down the avenue and across a field, stopped at the edge of a large -post-hole, and after looking down rushed back to hurry up the help she -was bringing. Her favorite pup, Glen, had gone out on an early morning -voyage of discovery, had fallen into this hole, and would have perished -there but for this timely aid. - -Nor does the story end here. After Glen was pulled out, and on his way -home under the farmer’s great-coat--for he was only a little thing, -not yet a month old--Miss staid behind, and with much scratching -and barking filled in the hole, being of opinion, probably, that -post-holes, like barn doors, should be closed after an accident has -happened. - -[Illustration: THE HORSE FAIR. - -(_After the painting by Rosa Bonheur._)] - -A few months later Glen went to live in Tunbridge Wells, England, with -his brother Jock, and if they had not quarreled, would still be, in all -likelihood, a British subject; but owing to their many disputes, Glen -was sent abroad. The next summer, and indeed each summer of his life, -has been passed on the Normandy coast at Etretât. From what he knows -of Glen’s character, Mr. Bacon does not think him entirely to blame in -these family quarrels. Besides, his brother Jock’s short life was not -exemplary, for it was reported that he bit a child; and although the -child recovered from the bite, “it was the dog that died.” - -[Illustration: THE LION AT HOME. - -(_After the painting by Rosa Bonheur._)] - -Glen, being a shepherd dog, is delighted when he encounters upon the -downs a flock of sheep, and if not called off, will instantly herd -them into a compact, frightened mass, much to the distress of their -guardian and his dog. When he cannot find sheep, he will amuse himself -by gathering together the hens and chickens he finds in an orchard; -and once, in default of these, while his master was sketching on the -sands of Mont-Saint-Michel, he herded the fishermen’s children who were -playing at low tide beyond the town. Unheeded by his master, he had -made a wide circle round the children, frightening them together like a -flock of sheep; and when discovered, he was capering round the group as -though the task had been set him of keeping them together. - -Glen is well remembered at Mont-Saint-Michel, for besides this -performance, and besides leaping from the battlements when in his hurry -he could not find the stairway--he showed what seems to be his only -ambition--that of whipping a dog of twice his own size. After several -days’ premeditation, he attacked a big fellow brought from Newfoundland -by one of the fishermen, and--as usual--was unsuccessful, although he -evidently thought he might have succeeded if he had not been pulled off. - -[Illustration: GLEN AND HIS MASTER AT ETRETAT.] - -Glen is as fond of the water as any spaniel, and will bathe in the -breakers, leaping clear of the surf on the crest of the waves, and has -been very useful in shipwrecks of toy boats--rescuing and bringing them -safe to land to the great joy of their youthful owners. - -[Illustration: Glen - -Born in Aberdeenshire - -Oct. 29 1879] - -Every evening before he and his master retire for the night, they take -a walk. It often happens that his master has a friend spending the -evening with him, who, in Glen’s opinion, stays later than he should -stay. In this case, when the clock has struck the half-hour after ten, -Glen becomes uneasy, rises from his rug before the fire, stretches -himself, looks around, and, creeping up to the visitor, gives him a -gentle poke under the elbow. Of course he is ordered to lie down by -his master; but if the visitor is not acquainted with the ways of the -household, he is charmed with the dog’s attention, gives him a friendly -pat, and declares that Glen does not bother him. Shortly afterwards, -the guest is surprised to find the dog again beside him, sitting up on -his haunches, and gently scratching his sleeve with his paw; and he -does not discontinue his impolite hints so long as the visitor stays. -If the visitor is an _habitué_, when Glen begins his caresses he looks -at his watch, and in spite of his host’s apologies, promises Glen -that he will go in a few minutes. Often, when alone, the master will -be occupied in the evening with book or pen until, feeling a gentle -nudge at his elbow, he looks up to find the large brown eyes of his dog -fixed upon him. This is a friendly hint as to the hour, and one which -certainly prevents unduly late hours for both master and dog. - -A well-known artist in New York, Mr. F. S. Church, makes frequent and -delightful studies of animals and birds--although not so much for their -own sake, perhaps, as for that of some thought to which they are the -fit accessories. Now it is a maiden wandering in desert places, alone, -save for the savage beasts her innocence has tamed. Now it is an Alpine -shrine where rain and snow have beaten against the patient Christ upon -the cross. But still the pent-roof of the shrine affords some shelter; -and beneath it, along the outstretched arms, or nestling close to -the thorn-crowned head, is a flock of birds. The storm-beaten little -wanderers have found refuge where many a one has come before--with the -Christ, at the cross. - -[Illustration: MR. CHASE AND KAT-TE.] - -Here a group of feathered mourners singing a dirge for the last rose of -summer; there a witch’s daughter in mystic converse with an owl. - -Decidedly more realistic is the sketch called “At Rest,” of a monkey -extended in that hopeless rigidity which can never be mistaken for -life. There is something curiously touching in the stiffened form--a -look of almost human protest against fate--as though death had arrested -him at the very moment when he was about to become a man. - -Another sketch represents a stray cat which thrust its head into the -studio one day, and stared for a moment at its occupant, with great, -astonished, yellow eyes. From mingled motives of humanity and art he -tried to detain her, but in vain. As silently as she had come she -vanished, although--like the grin of the cat in Wonderland--her stare -remained after her head had disappeared, thus enabling the artist to -transfer it to paper. - -[Illustration: _Lilla Cruikshank’s little dog._] - -It will be guessed from all these possible pets that Mr. Church had no -actual ones. Such is the case, and a great pity it is that this petless -master and a few masterless pets cannot meet! His loss, however, is -somewhat balanced by the gain in a neighboring studio, which belongs -to Mr. William M. Chase. It is rich in artistic bric-à-brac and -paintings, but the special decoration when I saw it, was a Russian -deer-hound named Kat-te. The magnificent, snow-white fellow lay upon a -Turkish rug, whose rich tints set off to perfection his own Northern -fairness. He rose, at his master’s request, to shake hands and exhibit -his beautiful form in its height and length. He even condescended to -lay upon my palm for a moment his clean-cut, delicate muzzle, but soon -wearied of exhibition, and went back to his _dolce far niente_ on the -rug. - -Kat-te was found by Mr. Chase in Harlaem, and, at that time, spoke -Dutch, as a dog may. It required some time to teach him English; -nevertheless, he now understands that language also. And yet more, when -he met a party of Russians on the street one day, and was addressed by -them in their own language, he showed the greatest delight and emotion. -He tried to follow them home, he was restless, he was excited, and thus -evinced in canine fashion, not only his philological attainments, but -also his faithful Russian heart. Some idea of his noble proportions may -be gained from the accompanying picture. - -The caricaturist Cham had a dog called Azor, as well-known as himself; -and Du Maurier’s Chang, a very beautiful, sagacious dog, figured, while -living, in many of his master’s sketches, and by his death grieved all -who knew him. - -George Cruikshank’s Lilla was a docile, affectionate little creature, -and, like most studio pets, figures occasionally in his master’s -work. The drawing given here is from the original in Madame Tussaud’s -exhibition. It is well stuffed and mounted, and purports to be the -veritable Lilla; but although its history was inquired into both by the -artist who sketched it, and myself, we failed to get even the smallest -crumb of information. Its identity, therefore, must be left an open -question. - -Dante Rossetti had a collection of pets which, in its whimsical -variety, can only be likened to that of the naturalist Buckland. -Armadillos and wombats were included, but decidedly the most notable -was the zebu. One of the artist’s biographers gives an amusing account -of the creature. It was an intractable subject for petting, and put -an end to all attempts in that direction by one day tearing up by the -roots the little tree to which it was tethered, and chasing its owner -all round the garden. After this exploit, it was given away; Mr. Knight -says that Rossetti, when discussing his pets, past and present, was not -much given to talk of the zebu. - -[Illustration: LADY TANKERVILLE, WHO HID HER KITTENS IN THE HEAD OF -STORY’S STATUE OF PEABODY.] - -Roman studios are as well supplied with live “properties” as American -or English ones. Will the visitor who has once seen it ever forget that -charming staircase, vine-wreathed, flowery and musical, which, although -in the busy Piazza di Termini, still keeps an air of forest seclusion? -It is the passage to a studio equally retired, fashioned like a nest in -the ruined baths of Diocletian. Paintings, bits of tapestry, etc., form -a background for various marble inmates, whose serenity is interfered -with neither by cat nor dog. It is the staircase, covered with wire -netting, that holds the favorites. Pigeons inhabit the upper part, -and keep up a continual flutter at the latticed window, their wings -gleaming silver in the sunshine. Lower down are musical blackbirds; I -remember especially among the latter one beautiful fellow, who shrank -back, mute, at the approach of our party, but answered his master’s -call at once, and perched, lightly as thistledown, upon his arm. - -This master, the sculptor Ezekiel, like most bird-lovers, does not -allow cats in his home. He might possibly train Pussy into tolerance, -and so have a happy family--only--he does not like cats! which, to -a cat lover, seems queer. However, even if unconsciously, he must -have some secret understanding of their nature; for in his studio is -a marble Judith with arm raised to strike, who, in her magnificent -fierceness, recalls, far from ignobly, the feline race. - -Elihu Vedder’s pets might be expected to wear a rather tragic and noble -air, appropriate to the illustrations of the Rubaiyat; but on the -contrary, they have a commonplace appearance of well-being. The studio -pet one year was an asthmatic small dog, who had thrown himself upon -the artist’s compassion--a grateful, subdued, unassuming object, which, -after each spasm of coughing, would look around with a deprecatory -expression, as if to apologize for the disturbance. Some intelligent -cats, and another small dog, in this instance possessed of vivacious -health and spirits, keep the artist’s home lively, and compete with one -another for his favor. - -A third studio in Rome is that of the sculptor Story. Many famous -statues have here been “born in clay and resurrected in marble”--among -them that of George Peabody. The marble is now in London, but a -colossal plaster-cast remains in the studio. - -The philanthropist is seated--a position which allows various -projections, or ledges, within the hollow cast--of which a high-minded -cat once took advantage. - -[Illustration: ENTRANCE AND WINDOW OF THE SCULPTOR EZEKIEL’S STUDIO IN -ROME.] - -Before reading further, look at her picture. Is she not very much like -some dainty young lady in ball-dress? See how deftly she has disposed -her train, how fastidiously she glances over her shoulder! A cat of -distinction--that is evident at the first glance! She came originally -from Walton-on-Thames, in England, was a present to Mrs. Story, and, in -memory of the donor, named Lady Tankerville. Having an artistic bias, -she chose the studio in preference to boudoir life, and was oftenest to -be found there. - -After a while she was known to be the proud mother of kittens, but -where she kept them remained a mystery until several weeks later, -when they were found in--of all places!--the head of George Peabody. -It was a delightfully retired situation, and probably there never were -happier kittens. As an instance of post-mortem philanthropy, it is, I -am convinced, unequalled. - -[Illustration: BIMBO, ONE OF THE SCULPTOR STORY’S PETS.] - -A fine pug called Bimbo must be added to the favorites that have gone -before. A spoiled but intelligent darling, he sits up for his picture -on a velvet chair, with an air of snug contentment quite irresistible. -His mistress holds him in loving memory; and, since his death, contents -herself with a bisque “puggery,” whose inmates, if liable to breakage, -are nevertheless more easily replaced. - -One other pet must close this chapter--a pet already old, but likely -to live many more years without appearing perceptibly older. It is a -tortoise, Babbo by name, which belonged to the sculptor Hiram Powers. -I had the honor of frequent interviews with Babbo some summers past; -and Mr. Longworth Powers did his best to photograph him. A crumb of -moistened biscuit was placed on the broad stone step and Babbo beside -it. No use at all; he either got into a bad position or shuffled out -of focus. Juicy cabbage leaves were brought, but although usually -susceptible to their charm, he now turned from them in scorn. He was -gently coaxed, he was thumped down hard, he was entreated, he was -scolded--all in vain. A good tortoise ordinarily, the bare idea of a -photograph seemed to render him frantic; and after three plates were -spoiled, we were compelled to let him go. - -“Mr. Powers’ Babbo,” writes Babbo’s mistress, “always came to the -inner studio door if hungry or thirsty, and scratched at it to attract -attention. Then my husband would take him up, hold him in the water -until he had quite satisfied his thirst, when the creature would waddle -off, perfectly contented. If hungry, he would give him a bit of bread -dipped in wine and water.” - -The kind master has gone, but Babbo remains, and still has shelter, -drink and sup in the pleasant Florentine garden. - - - - -_VII._ - -_PUSSY IN PRIVATE LIFE._ - - - - -VII. - -PUSSY IN PRIVATE LIFE. - - -No animal has known greater vicissitudes than our pleasant little -house-familiar, Pussy. He had his day of glory in the far past, when -armies retreated before him; his day of divinity, too, as the mighty -basalt cat-headed goddesses in many a museum still testify. And then, -having had in his life-time all that heart of cat could wish, after -death he became a mummy and received funeral honors. - -Just how it happened, no one knows, but a few thousand years later we -find Pussy no longer reverenced. Instead of a divinity he was regarded -as the accomplice of witches, and burned in holocaust on St. John’s -Day, or tormented for the amusement of such evil kings as Philip II. of -Spain. Later still, and final stage of his decadence, he was valued in -direct proportion to his usefulness--becoming now a mere drudge, and -now a joyless plaything for children. Could Egyptian heart have dreamed -it? - -But Pussy’s fortunes are again rising. He is no longer a stale -divinity, but he is becoming--what is far better in this age of -progress--a social power! Even in his worst estate he had always warm -friends and admirers; now, he has a party. For, “you either love cats, -or you do not love them,” says a witty author; and statistics go to -prove that those who love cats are the majority to-day. - -[Illustration: - - CAT-HEADED EGYPTIAN GODDESS, BAST OR BUBASTIS. - -(_From a bronze in the British Museum._)] - -Pussy has also been fortunate in having two strings to his -bow--personal beauty and utility. No other creature so dainty, so -artistically delightful; a thing of beauty, and--to the appreciative--a -joy forever; no other creature so dexterous in pursuit of mice, so -self-supporting, so acute! Throughout the ages, therefore, through -prosperity and adversity, Pussy, like the Jews, has flourished. The -honors of divinity did not turn his handsome head, and persecution has -failed to uproot his race from the soil. - -What a small bit of life he is; yet when absent, how we miss him! Only -think of Wales, in good King Howel’s time; when rats were rampagious, -when a kitten, even before it could see, was worth a penny, and heavy -fines were imposed on whoever should hurt or kill a cat. Think of -Varbach, that little German town where mice ran riot, until at last a -cat was obtained. Think of Whittington; how with a cat in his arms he -sailed to a country where cats were not, and made his fortune--through -the cat! There are skeptics, of course, who call this pretty story a -myth; and very possibly, like some other good old stories, it has put -on with time some of the colors of a fairy tale; but that little Dick -had a cat, and a valued one--so much, at least, may well be true. -The queer bas-relief at Guildhall Museum in London has an appearance -of verity; and as it was found in a house which once belonged to the -Whittington family, and had been occupied in the famous Lord Mayor’s -life-time by his nephew, it not improbably commemorates some actual -fact in the great man’s history. - -One of the earliest pet cats on record is that of Prince Hana, an -Egyptian notability who lived several thousand years ago, and between -the stone feet of whose statue was placed the statuette of his cat, -Bouhaki. The latter may still be seen in the Louvre, sitting erect in a -dignified attitude, squarely confronting posterity, so to say, with a -gold collar around its neck, and ear-rings in its ears! - -[Illustration: BAS-RELIEF OF WHITTINGTON AND HIS CAT. - -(_At the Guildhall Museum, London._)] - -Early in history, also, and more famous than Bouhaki is Muezza, the cat -of Mahomet. Every one knows how the Prophet sat reading one day, with -the favorite curled up in peaceful slumber on the wide sleeve of his -robe; and how, rather than disturb her, when obliged to go, he gently -cut off the sleeve. No wonder, with such an example before them, that -Mahommedans still honor cats. - -From Mahomet to Petrarch is quite a step--not only in point of time, -but of character. Nevertheless, these great men had one thing in -common--their affection for cats. Laura was not enough for the poet; -he must also have his little white “micino,” holding it second only -to the lady of his heart, and so mourning its death as to have it -embalmed. This veritable cat may be seen to-day in Petrarch’s house -at Arquà--at least the guide assures us it is the same. For my own -part, I have no more doubt of its identity than of the blood-spot in -Holyrood. I take the one to be Rizzio’s blood; I take the other to be -the immortal poet’s equally immortal cat--and thank my stars I am not -so skeptical as some people! - -Lovers of Petrarch all visit Arquà, and, if literary, are very apt to -commemorate the visit with their pen. Such an one was Tassoni, whose -charming verse may be roughly rendered as follows: - - “Now rises the lovely hill of Arquà - Which pleases, seen from mountain or from plain, - Where lies he in whose writings - The soul expands like a plant in the sun; - And where his embalmed cat just as when alive - Still guards the illustrious threshold against mice. - - “To this cat Apollo granted the privilege - Of remaining intact in spite of time, - And of having its manifold honors - Made eternal in a thousand songs;-- - So that the sepulcher of mighty kings - Is surpassed in glory by an unburied cat!” - -Several hundred years after Tassoni, an American pilgrim went to Arquà, -and added his own pleasant tribute to the thousand songs; protesting -that-- - - “we cannot well figure to ourselves Petrarch, sitting before that - wide-mouthed fire-place, without beholding also the gifted cat that - purrs softly at his feet, and nestles on his knees; or with thickened - back and lifted tail, parades loftily around his chair, in the haughty - and disdainful manner of cats.” - -Tasso also had his pet; sad, hapless poet that he was, there was need -of all the comfort he could get. Doubt not but that often his tears -fell warm on Pussy’s fur; and that in her companionship he found solace -when other solace there was none. To this little friend he addressed a -sonnet, begging her, since lamps were denied in his prison, to light -him with her eyes. - -Other famous Italians have shared the taste of these poets; among whom, -probably, may be included Andrea Doria. Some writers assure us that -he detested cats, and kept one only to remind him of the conquered -Fieschi, whose badge it was. Be this as it may, the animal who sits -beside him in the ancient portrait at Genoa has an undeniable air of -well-being. If an enemy, it has been treated with respect; if a friend, -it is also an equal, and returns the old admiral’s gaze with proud -directness. - -St. Dominic’s hatred of cats is more than offset by the affection which -various popes have shown them. Gregory the Great had a much-indulged -favorite, and Leo XII. had a number. One big cat of grayish-red called -Micetto he presented to another friend of the feline race, the famous -Chateaubriand, as a mark of his esteem. - -Pius IX. also had his pet--a superb “_gato soriano_,” which was always -present at his frugal meals, sitting beside him, and claiming its full -share both of food and attention. A very pleasant sight it must have -been, to see this benign old pontiff taking his _passegiata_ in the -gardens of the Vatican, with Pussy sedately pacing at his side. When, -after a while, the link of companionship was broken, and Pussy paced -from this world to another, no pet succeeded him. “I am too old for new -friendships,” said his master; “moreover, death may come to me next, -for my cat and I have both grown old in the Vatican.” - -A still more ardent cat-lover in Italy was the aged Archbishop of -Taranto, who died about the beginning of this century. His pets had -their regular meals corresponding with his own; and a guest was once -much amused by hearing him ask a servant during dinner whether the -cats had been served. “Yes, monsignore,” the man gravely answered, -“but Desdemona prefers waiting for the roasts.” Desdemona was a white -Persian, both in color and disposition a complete contrast to her huge -black mate, Othello. - -When the archbishop was eighty-six years old, a friend called upon -him rather earlier than usual one morning, and was rewarded by this -pretty scene: the venerable, white-haired old man in dressing gown and -slippers, seated at the breakfast-table, with two great tortoise-shell -cats on chairs beside him, alertly watching his hand for bits of bread, -and purring in the most affectionate manner between mouthfuls. - -Cardinal Richelieu was devoted to kittens, rather than cats, finding in -their companionship the relaxation he needed after toil. They lived in -his room, in handsomely lined and cushioned baskets, so that he might -see them whenever he chose. But no sooner were they three months old, -than he had them removed and a new supply brought in. One white Angora -passed the fatal period and retained her place as favorite-in-chief so -long as she lived. Her usual lounging-place was His Eminence’s table, -among his books and papers. In the picture painted by Champaigne, there -are three different views of the famous cardinal, and one can easily -fancy the delicate, sarcastic countenance bent towards his pets, and -occasionally relaxing into a smile at some extra kittenish gambol. - -[Illustration: CARDINAL RICHELIEU, FRONT FACE AND SIDES. - -(_From the painting by Philippe de Champaigne._)] - -Our English Cardinal Wolsey also had a fondness for cats, and more -than once was found by some great dignitary amusing himself with -a kitten. One favorite was sometimes seen with him in the Council -Chamber; and it may well have entered into the final sum of his -offenses that he preferred the society of intelligent cats to that of -empty-headed bigwigs! - -In the last century there was a Mlle. Dupuy living in France, of whom -few people now know anything; but who, nevertheless, in her own day had -a reputation as an exquisite performer on the harp. Furthermore, she -possessed a cat who had also some claim to be called an authority in -harpistry. Before a performance in public, Mlle. Dupuy would rehearse -privately before him. He always listened with critical attention, and -if any notes displeased, would growl. Such notes she always amended, -trying them over until he ceased growling. The lady never married, and -when in course of time she died, her will was found to provide, among -other bequests, for the maintenance of this little friend and critic. -Sad to relate, however, the will was set aside by grasping relatives, -and Pussy’s fate is unknown. - -Fourier had a magnificent cat--a great pet--in his house at Lyons; and -it is recorded of this rather grim philosopher, that he could never see -a pretty cat or kitten on the street without stopping to caress it. - -Lord Eldon, the jurist, had a room full of cats, and once when, owing -to some bone of contention, they grew extremely noisy, went into the -room and solemnly read the Riot Act--with what effect we are not told. - -Lord Chesterfield gave all his cats--and they were many--a life -pension, that they might not suffer, after his death, from some other -master’s indifference. More fortunate than Mlle. Dupuy, his will was -carried out. - -A very famous cat, indeed, is the one that befriended Sir Henry Wyatt -in his hour of need. According to the epitaph on his monument, this -gentleman “was imprisoned and tortured in the Tower, in the reign of -Richard III.,” where he “was fed and preserved by a cat.” In manuscript -family papers the story is more fully told, as follows: - -“He was imprisoned often; once in a cold and narrow tower where he had -neither bed to lie on, nor clothes sufficient to warm him, nor meat -for his mouth. He had starved there, had not God, who sent a crow to -feed his prophet, sent this his and his country’s martyr a cat both to -feed and warm him. It was his own relation unto them from whom I had -it. A cat came one day down into the dungeon unto him, and, as it were, -offered herself to him. He was glad of her, laid her in his bosom to -warm him, and by making much of her won her love. After this she would -come every day unto him divers times, and, when she could get one, -would bring him a pigeon. He complained to his keeper of his cold and -short fare. The answer was ‘he durst not do it better.’ ‘But,’ said Sir -Henry, ‘if I can provide any, will you promise to dress it for me?’ ‘I -may well enough,’ said the keeper, ‘you are safe for that matter’; and -being urged again, promised him, and kept his promise, dressed for him -from time to time such pigeons as his caterer, the cat, provided for -him. Sir Henry, in his prosperity, for this would ever make much of -cats, as other men will of spaniels or hounds; and perhaps you shall -not find his picture anywhere but--like Sir Christopher Hatton with his -dog--with a cat beside him.” - -It is a charming, bright little story for those dark days. - -A reverse story to that of Sir Henry Wyatt belongs to our own days; -the story of a nameless cat saved from starvation by Henry Bergh. Many -have been the deeds of heroism in the world, many have been the medals -awarded for such deeds; but when all are duly weighed in the balance -this deed too shall have its reward of fame. - -[Illustration: THE TWO-LEGGED CAT THAT BELONGED TO DR. HILL OF -PRINCETON COLLEGE.] - -A kitten had been walled up by the workmen, in an iron girder at -the base of a building, and the walls had been laid to the second -story, when Mr. Bergh heard what had happened. First, he pleaded for -the innocent victim, but without avail; then, appealing to the law, -he compelled the walls to be taken down, and thus Pussy at last was -removed from what--without his interference--would have proved her -living grave. - -It is worth recording in this connection that a few years ago the -Albert Medal was presented to a seaman who rescued various lives from a -sinking ship. The last one saved was the ship’s cat--the brave sailor -crying as he swung her into the boat: - -“Life before property!” - -Animals have had their full share indeed, of human misadventure at -sea, and have added many a tragic element to the always tragic tale of -wreck. A few years ago, for instance, the Black-eyed Susan was lost at -Scarborough. The wreck was several hours in going to pieces, during -which time they rescued the crew in the life cradle. One man was six -hours in the rigging before he could be got off. And (a friend tells me -this, who heard it from an eye-witness of the scene) the first thing he -did upon reaching the shore was to draw from his bosom a little kitten -which had been his especial pet. The man wept like a child when he -found that his little friend had perished in spite of all his care. A -woman from the same ship brought off a dog successfully. - -Turning to “scientific” patrons of cats, we find that Sir Isaac -Newton--if history tells no fibs--not only had Diamond, the little dog -who upset a lighted candle among his manuscripts, but also a cat, and -at least one kitten. So much is certain, for to give them means of exit -and ingress, he cut two holes in his barn door--a big hole for the -cat, a little hole for the kitten! One really hopes this story may be -true--it is so delightfully unsophisticated for a philosopher. - -Another man of science, Sir David Brewster, began life with a great -dislike of cats. In later years there were so many mice in his house, -that after her promise never to let Pussy appear in the study, he -permitted his daughter to give the trap a feline assistant. Pussy, -however, was no party to this contract, and, knowing what utter -nonsense it was, took matters into her own claws. - -Writes this daughter, Mrs. Gordon: - - “I was sitting with my father one day and the study door was ajar. - To my dismay, Pussy pushed it open, walked in, and with a most - assured air put a paw on one shoulder, and a paw on the other, and - then composedly kissed him. Utterly thunderstruck at the creature’s - audacity, my father ended by being so delighted that he quite forgot - to have an electric shock. He took Pussy into his closest affections, - feeding and tending her as if she were a child.” - -When after some years she died, both master and mistress grieved -sincerely, and never had another pet. - -And finally, grave Princeton College has had a pet, which was also a -phenomenon, in the shape of a two-legged cat--biped from birth--but -a most cheerful, healthy, engaging little creature, dark maltese in -color, with a white star on her breast. Her fashion of walking was -queer, but lively, as the sketch by Dr. F. C. Hill of Princeton will -show. - -Brought from a New York village to this college town, she adapted -herself to her new home with the ready pliability of youth, became -everybody’s pet in general, her master’s in particular, and was in all -ways a thoroughly charming, though whimsical baby-cat. Her virtues -were all her own, while her faults, like those of other kittens, were -doubtless due to there being no kittychism. Such is the reason a modern -writer assigns for feline errors, and it carries with it conviction. As -the kitten is bent, the cat will certainly be inclined. - -Pussy’s course in life was destined to be brief as brilliant. In the -spring of ‘77, Dr. Hill was absent a fortnight. He came back to find -his small friend dead. He had left her vivacious and merry--now she was -only “a body.” “Poor Kitty,” he wrote, “was well and happy while I was -with her. I really think she pined and died as much from loneliness as -anything else.” - -To say that she was missed, is idle; it could not be otherwise with so -bright and loving a creature. Love wins love, the world over, and where -love comes, love follows. Our poor little Pussy’s heart was all her -master’s; it resulted that in his heart was a corner all her own. - -Her body was sent, in the interests of science, to Prof. Ward of -Rochester, N. Y., and by him the skeleton was prepared and mounted. It -is now in the museum at Princeton College; so that Pussy remains as -serviceable after death as it was her warm will to be in life. - - - - -_VIII._ - -_AN ODD SET._ - - - - -VIII. - -AN ODD SET. - - -Our exclusive world is apt to choose its pets like its garments--in -accordance with the fashion of the day. Still, there are always a few -people who prefer choosing for themselves; and from this independence -queer intimacies often result. Accident, too, not infrequently cuts the -knot of custom; while, furthermore, it is true of all that propinquity -works wonders. We come by degrees to like what we live with; and -discover merits on long acquaintance that a shorter one would not -reveal. - -White rats and mice, for instance; they make delightful pets. Thomas -Bailey Aldrich says that he--no--that little Tom Bailey had white mice, -and that Miss Abigail couldn’t bear them. It was lucky the thought -never occurred to him of taming the common brown rats, or Miss Abigail -would have had convulsions. Anything more uncanny, more utterly at -variance with civilization, it would be hard to imagine. To see them, -reconnoitering in cellar or back yard, so homely, fierce and shrewd, -so seemingly untamable, full of device as the Old Serpent, and, like -him, inspired with a wicked intelligence, is to feel half doubtful -of their right to exist. And yet they can be tamed, and often have -shown genuine affection for their tamers. They are fond of music, -too--a trait of which the Pied Piper took advantage, to coax them out -of Hamelin Town. In quite another way they were persuaded to leave -Stilf--an exodus quite as strange as that from Hamelin, although less -widely known, through lack of a Browning to put it in rhyme. The story -is this: - -In 1519, in Tyrol (a time and place very credulous towards magic), -lived a well-to-do peasant called Simon Fluss--that is, he formerly -was well-to-do. Now, his prosperity had received a check--his crops -were destroyed by field-rats. They ate the seeds, the young stems, the -developed grain, until the farmer found himself face to face with ruin, -and was fairly badgered into self-defense. Not, however, by traps or -terriers did he uphold his rights; no, he brought the matter into a -court of law. Notice was served duly, and a time appointed for hearing -the case. Advocates were chosen for each side, witnesses were examined, -and finally--all legal forms having been observed--judgment was passed -to this effect: - -“Those noxious animals called field-rats, must, within two weeks, -depart, and forever remain far aloof from the fields and meadows of -Stilf.” - -Those who, from extreme youth or illness, were unable to travel so -soon, had another two weeks allowed them. Where the rats went to, no one -knows. - -The most remarkable friend of rats on record, is Susanna, Countess of -Eglintoune, who died more than a hundred years ago, at the great age of -ninety-one. She had a brilliant youth; natural distinction, beauty and -wit combined to make her the brightest star in the society where she -moved. In old age, still beautiful and witty, she tried the effect of -her charms on rats, as before on human beings, and with equal success. -A sliding panel was constructed in the oak wainscot of her dining-room; -and the great feature of the day was when, at a certain stage of the -dinner, she would first tap loudly on the panel, then open it. Obedient -to the signal, a dozen fat, comfortable rats would emerge, and join her -at table. After a bountiful meal of such things as are dear to rats, -the tap would be repeated, the panel opened, and back would go her -long-tailed guests, even as they had come, with perfect decorum. - -One rat lived a long time with the naturalist Buckland, and became -quite domesticated, wandering at will around the study, examining books -and papers, and helping himself from the sugar-bowl. As he was too -modest, or too shy to eat before folks, and as a space of nearly two -feet separated the table with the sugar from the mantel where stood -his cage, Mr. Buckland put up a little ladder. The rat easily learned -to climb it, even when loaded with plunder. Judy, a small marmoset, -inhabited the same mantel, and the pair had a reprehensible fashion of -stealing each other’s food. - -Buckland’s pets being as various as his interests, the house was full -of them, and a queer lot they were! Joe, a pet hare, also occupied the -study, but being averse to civilization, he would hide by day, and -only come out at night, hopping across the room--if he thought himself -unobserved--to the fire-place, where he would sit up on his legs, so as -“to warm his white waistcoat.” - -Tiglath-Pileser was a bear, who for a short period attended college -with his master, went boating with him, and to parties, and like him -wore cap and gown. He once was present at a meeting of the British -association in Oxford, and had the honor of being introduced to Sir -Charles Lyell, and the Prince of Canino. After so brilliant a career, -it is doubly sad to relate that Tiglath-Pileser fell under the ban of -the college authorities, and was rusticated for an indefinite period. -He died some years ago at the Zoölogical Garden in London. - -Jenny (from Gibralter) and Jacko the Capuchin (from South America) -were monkeys, and an unfailing source of diversion to Buckland and his -friends. Jacko was very delicate, and each year, as winter approached, -was provided by his master with a warm close-fitting dress. In spite -of this care, he one year grew sickly and thin. Oil was prescribed for -him, but refused, until by a happy thought he was allowed to steal -it. Even theft, from a commonplace, safe saucer, grew monotonous; and -erelong he was detected thieving his medicine at the risk of his life -from a lighted lamp. - -Other interesting, if less amusing pets--an eagle, a jackal, countless -marmots, dormice, squirrels, etc.--evince the interest felt by -this lovable scientist in the objects of his study--an interest as -affectionate as scientific. Indeed, it is very reassuring to find -scientific people more often than otherwise the possessors of hearts as -well as brains. Occasionally something happens to make us doubt their -humanity, like the experiment of a modern physiologist, who, after -teaching a dog to regard him as its friend, had it killed, and the -blood of another dog transfused into its arteries. “No sooner was it -injected,” we are told, “than the inert head became animated, the eyes -opened, and on the Professor calling the dog by its name, it attempted -to answer with a caressing look.” Surely, as with Desdemona, that -last look of ill-rewarded affection will rise in judgment against the -experimenter! - -[Illustration: SALLY. - -(_Zoölogical Gardens, London._)] - -A greater physiologist, Professor Agassiz, would not have pets. He -must experiment, and he said that when he came to feel for an animal -the affection of intimacy, experiment became impossible. And then, when -it was a question of experiment, a good fortune, peculiar to himself, -attended him--whatever he wanted was sure to turn up, whether a rare -specimen or common one; whether bird or insect, fish or reptile. Birds, -indeed, were his familiar friends, and he had a faculty of taming them -not unlike that of Madame George Sand. Snakes, too, were friendly; and -I have myself seen him put his hand in the water, and a little fish -move tranquilly back and forth between his outspread fingers. If he -had lived in the time of those great primeval creatures--mammoths, -pterodactyls, and the like--he certainly would have been on friendly -terms with them. - -It may be said in passing that the first skeleton of a pterodactyl ever -seen was discovered by an English woman--Mary Anning of Lyme-Regis. -She became a capital geologist, and made many important “finds.” Her -assistant, although devoted, and, to her, invaluable, is not so well -known, being only--a little dog! He was, so long as he lived, the -companion of her walks; and when she found a valuable specimen embedded -in the rocks, would stand guard until she could get it removed, sharing -faithfully in her toil, and grudging her none of the glory. - -Very little appreciated in general are pigs! Pork is one thing, the pig -another. The merits of pork are well understood; the merits of Piggy -doubtful. Charles Lamb could sing with delicious enthusiasm the praises -of roast pig--that “young and tender suckling, under a moon old, -guiltless as yet of the sty”; but if he had been asked to take Piggy, -unroasted, alive, into his good graces, he probably would have declined -with a shrug. - -But still, to a degree, the pig is appreciated. Jerrold’s sketch, -called “The Manager’s Pig,” had a foundation in fact. The manager of -a London theater, anxious for novelty, had a play written expressly -to bring a pig upon the stage. It was very successful, and after a -run of forty nights, it was suggested that the principal actor should -be prepared for the manager’s table, and the other actors invited to -partake. Whether this was done I cannot learn. A poor reward, indeed, -for Piggy--the glory of being eaten! - -The old poet, Robert Herrick, had a pet pig, and did not find his -affection for it at all inconsistent with writing lovely verses to -violets, daffodils, roses and fair maidens. Sir Walter Scott had a -similar pet; so had Miss Martineau, and so had Lord Gardenstone, of -legal fame, who cultivated his favorite’s society to a degree quite -unusual. In its pigdom it followed him everywhere, and even shared his -bed. But, says Chambers, “when it attained the mature years and size -of swinedom, this, of course, was inconvenient. However, his lordship, -unwilling to part with his friend, continued to let it sleep in the -same room, and, when he undressed, laid his clothes upon the floor as a -bed for it. He said that he liked it, for it kept his clothes warm till -the morning!” - -This was even outdoing Mr. Hawker, the clergyman, whose eccentric -ways have been so delightfully described by Baring-Gould. Gyp, a -black Berkshire pig, was one of his eccentricities. Being daily -washed and curried, it grew up cleanly and intelligent, and followed -its master exactly like a dog. It even followed him into ladies’ -drawing-rooms--not always to the satisfaction of those present. In this -case, he would order it to go home, and it would obey, slinking off -with an air of conscious disgrace, and its tail hanging limply, out of -curl. - -Gyp was not the only pet at the vicarage; birds, horses, a pair of -stags and a family party of nine cats added considerable variety to -the good clergyman’s life. Especially the cats! They convoyed him, like -a bodyguard, to and from church, and either frisked in the chancel -during service, or, rubbing up against him, purred an accompaniment to -his prayers. One black-letter Sunday the best-loved cat of all yielded -to temptation--forgetful of the day, she caught a mouse! Never again -was this sinner allowed to enter the church its conduct had disgraced; -hereafter, eight cats only formed their master’s escort--the ninth -staid at home in solitary shame. - -How delighted Mr. Hawker would have been with a squirrel which was once -chronicled in the New York Tribune. Its owner is a member of the great -family Anonymous, but, thanks to his humorous, sympathetic observation, -the personality of his(?) pet is more distinct. “He began life,” says -the Unknown, “by tumbling out of the nest when an infant. He fell into -the hands of my nephew, then at Harvard, and lived in his pockets. He -could be put to sleep at any moment if made to stand on his head--which -was odd but convenient. He always went to recitation, which must have -been very gratifying to the professors.” - -The little fellow had a moral nature as well as keen wits, and knew -perfectly well when he was doing wrong. - -“His chief sin was tearing off slivers of wall-paper. I would then pick -him up and say, ‘Oh, you naughty squirrel! what have you been doing?’ -and carry him round the room. When I got near the place, his guilty -conscience invariably compelled him to shriek. Then I would flick his -nose, and say, ‘Go away, naughty squirrel!’ and he would fly to a -corner of the room, and fling himself on his stomach, with his fore and -hind legs stretched out to their extreme length, and his bushy tail -curled over his back and down his nose, to conceal his shame.” - -Once he was ill for several weeks, and his teeth grew so long that in -order to save his life it became necessary to take him to a dentist. He -kicked furiously, but the operation was successful. “Although not much -hurt, his rage and indignation at the whirligig thing dentists use were -unbounded, and his shrieks brought people in from the streets to know -what was happening.” - -The fate of this amusing patient we are not told. - -From the squirrel to the despised skunk is no very long step, nor is it -an unpleasant one--popular prejudice to the contrary. One gentleman, -at least, has had the courage to study its habits, and to introduce a -number of young skunks into his home. At different times he had ten. -From some he removed the scent-bags, but the majority retained them, -and behaved with the utmost propriety. They were coaxing, kittenish -little creatures, and responded to his caresses with delightful -readiness. - -Crowley--late favorite in Central Park--was a chimpanzee of enlarged -culture. He was often photographed, and once was painted by the artist -J. H. Beard. He “took his reg’lar meals,” used spoon and napkin with -propriety, understood the meaning of plate and cup, drank from a glass, -and when his meal was ended, would assist digestion by a series of -gymnastics, before which the feats of Milo pale. Like royalty of old, -he dined in public, and a crowd was always present to witness the -ceremony. - -Sally, who adorned the London “Zoo,” had not been so well trained in -table refinements; but in other respects was quite as remarkable as -Crowley. She seemed to understand every look and tone of her keeper; -she performed many knowing little tricks, had a keen sense of humor, -and crowned her achievements one day by sitting for her photograph. I -remember her in exactly this pose, mutely examining with great critical -eyes the crowd of visitors, and I could not help wishing I knew her -thoughts. But she kept them to herself, and only by an occasional -snicker did she betray the fact that we amused her. - - * * * * * - -Among the famous people who have interested themselves in hares may -be mentioned the dashing Prince Rupert (Boy’s master), and the shy, -melancholy poet, Cowper. The association was doubtless accidental -with the Prince; but with Cowper it was the result of strong natural -sympathy between himself and these timid creatures of the woodland. -He contributed to the Gentleman’s Magazine, I believe, a delightful -account of his pets; and was almost childishly pleased by the present -of their picture, drawn for him by a friend. - -[Illustration: _Cowper’s Tame Hares._] - -“They look exactly like other hares,” said an undiscriminating lady; -but the poet did not agree with her; for him each had its differing -ways and whims, its own individuality. Little Puss, for instance, -grew quite tame, was affectionate, and grateful for kindness; while -Tiney would not suffer the slightest caress--being gruff and surly, a -little Diogenes in fur; and Bess never had to be tamed, but was docile -from the first, and took a humorous delight in playing tricks on her -companions. Bess died young, surly Tiney lived nine years; and Puss, -the best beloved of all, died of a hare’s old age when within a month -of completing his twelfth year. Deep was his master’s grief; long and -sincere his mourning. - -The slow tortoise has had almost as many friends as the agile hare, but -none more famous than Mr. Gilbert White of Selborne. In 1770, while -visiting an old friend, he observed in her garden a land tortoise, -which had been there, she told him, for the last thirty years. Timothy, -the pet’s name, spent nearly half of his life in retirement, but in the -other half had learned to recognize his mistress and to come at her -call. On her death, some ten years later, he passed into the possession -of Mr. White; and in March was dug out of the ground to accompany his -new master to Selborne. He took the transfer in high dudgeon; so much -so that immediately on arriving he went into winter quarters again, -and staid there until May. The fourteenth of this month he walked out -in the garden, and found it more to his mind than he expected, with -nice paths, soft, short grass, and plenty of succulent vegetables. He -gained rapidly in health and spirits, and after a few months was able -to dictate a letter for Miss Mulso, a letter almost as good as that of -little Nero to Carlyle. - -After telling her that by birth he was a Virginian, and that he had -been kidnapped into England, he speaks of his happy life with the -lady now deceased, as contrasted with the disquietude he suffers in -having a naturalist for a master, and being all the time a subject -for experiments. “Your sorrowful reptile, Timothy,” he concludes. -What became of him eventually, I cannot say. Turtles are proverbially -long lived; but if Timothy is dead let us trust that he left a small -reptilian ghost, still to wander through the garden of his fame. - -Quite famous in their day were the chameleons of Mlle. de Saudéry, a -seventeenth century novelist. One of the kindest-hearted women in -France, she was continually giving to the poor, or appealing for the -distressed; so that her fame to-day rests rather upon her charities -than her writings. Her chameleons excited much curiosity, and strangers -went to see them, as one of the sights of the city. The last glimpse we -get of them in history is a post-mortem one, in 1698, when Dr. Martin -Lister visited Paris, and called upon the venerable novelist--then in -her ninety-first year. She made herself very agreeable, and finally, -he says, took him to her closet and showed him “the skeletons of two -chameleons which she had kept near four years alive. In winter she -lodged them in cotton, and in the fiercest weather kept them under a -ball of copper filled with hot water.” - -The good lady would have sympathized with Antonia, Mark Antony’s -beautiful daughter, who petted the murenæ in her fish-ponds, and of one -in particular became so fond that she fastened gold ear-rings to its -head--a favor the poor fish could well have spared. - -Washington Irving upheld the right of harmless snakes to live in peace; -and a pretty story is told of his preventing a guest from killing -a little striped adder--pointing the lesson of tolerance by gently -stroking his protégé. - -The great Goethe was in full accord with this feeling. He kept a -snake for some months, feeding it himself, and caring for it, until -his interest, scientific at first, became personal and affectionate. -The creature became quite friendly, and would uprear its head in -recognition, whenever the master approached. - -The poet’s mother once alluded to his favorite--rather femininely--as -“a nasty thing.” “Oh,” said her son, “if the snake would but spin -himself a house, and turn into a butterfly to oblige her, we should -hear no more about ‘nasty things.’ But we can’t all be butterflies.... -Poor snake! they should treat you better. How he looks at me! how he -rears his head! Is it not as if he knew that I was taking his part?” - -Perhaps, however, even Irving and Goethe, despite their theories, would -have shrunk from the extraordinary pet which Sir Joseph Banks kept in -his library, much to the horror of unsuspecting guests. It was, in -fact, a boa-constrictor! - -People of contemplative habits, who enjoy a quiet life among their -books, and hate mortally the intrusion of broom or duster, are very apt -to be interested in spiders. These insects have the same meditative -disposition, and an equal aversion to housemaids. The wise Spinoza -spent his odd moments in training them to recognize signals, and to -have little combats with each other. Magliabecchi, the old Florentine -librarian, had a similar fancy. From morning till night, from night -till morning, year in, year out, he might be found reclining in a sort -of wooden cradle, immovably fixed among piles of books and manuscripts; -and which, in course of time, was further anchored to the surrounding -objects by strands of cobweb. Here he lived, reading volume after -volume with insatiable zeal, eating quantities of hard-boiled eggs, and -cautioning whoever called upon him not to trouble his dear spiders! - -Such intimacy would never have suited Fourier, who was horribly -frightened one morning as he lay in bed, by seeing a small spider -on the ceiling above him. Up he sprang; but instead of dressing, -or dislodging the intruder with a broom, he ran from room to room, -screaming for help. “Quick! hurry!” cried the poor reformer; “do -somebody take it away quick!” - -The most famous, and undoubtedly the best-known patrons of spiders, are -Mahomet and Robert Bruce. Of the former it is told that he once fled, -hotly pursued by foes, and concealed himself in a cave. Straightway, -an obliging spider threw his web across the entrance; so that when the -enemy came up, seeing it, they said, “No one has been here--for behold -the unbroken web!” and carried the search elsewhere. Thus the Prophet -escaped, and good Mahometans have honored the race of Webspinner since -that day. - -The story of Bruce is equally pleasant. The weary king was about to -give up the struggle for his rights, when encouraged by the efforts of -a patient little spider, to “try again,” he did so--this time saving -both life and kingdom. - -In the Cricket on the Hearth, Charles Dickens spread the fame of that -friendly little creature far and near. But long before his day, the -eccentric Lord Byron (uncle to the poet) had diverted his bitter old -age by the study of its ways. Human society, except that of a few -servants, he would none of; but for hours together would lie upon the -ground, playing with the crickets he had tamed, making them perform -tricks, and--if they displeased him--whipping them with little wisps of -hay. - -From so moody and misanthropic an old gentleman, it is a pleasure to -turn to a lady now living--an artist--who cultivates crickets on social -principles, and reaps duly a large social reward. - -The following account of her pets has been sent by a friend. - -“The crickets of Miss C----’s studio days were considered such a -curiosity that she had letters from California and all over the -country, asking about them and the care of them. Her end and aim was -to raise crickets from the eggs, laid in glass globes in the studio, -that would sing in the winter, when all the summer crickets were -frozen up in the fields, beneath the snow; crickets to sing to her all -through the long winter nights, when the wind would be howling down the -chimney, and the sleet beating against the windows. - -“Years and years gave no success, beyond a few, that were sure to -die before the end of January; but at last, just the winter before -she married, there was one sweet singer which made music for her all -winter long, and which she trained to sing in the ruffle of her neck. -Better yet, it liked to sit and sing in the ruffle at her left wrist, -while the hand kept very quiet, holding the mahl-stick at the easel. -Meanwhile, Toodles, the immense maltese trained cat, would sing an -accompaniment from the rug before the open grate fire.” - -Now is not that a picture of cheery cosiness and comfort! I trust the -lady will pardon her separation from other artists and their pets, in -consideration of the pleasant glow her open studio door lets shine upon -the Odd Set. - -[Illustration: Helix Desertorum] - -Who would ever think of a snail becoming famous? Such is the case, -however; and in the Museum of Natural History, at South Kensington, the -very hero may be seen of whom we write. Also his portrait, together -with his story, enlivens the pages of Dr. Woodward’s Manual of the -Mollusca, under the heading of _Helix Desertorum_. He was brought with -other specimens, in 1846, from Egypt; and having so withdrawn into his -shelly house that it seemed empty, was gummed to a piece of cardboard, -numbered, named, and placed in the museum. Here he lay for four years, -in a kind of Rip Van Winkle slumber, his very existence unknown, until -in 1850 he woke, and tried to walk off from the card. But to do this, -he must have abandoned his well-gummed house, and such a sacrifice -was not to be thought of. So he snoozed again, until an inquisitive -scientist noticed his footprints, immersed him in warm water, and thus -at length released him from “durance vile.” His picture was drawn, his -history noted, and then--no higher distinction being possible for a -snail--he was disposed of, let us say. He ceased to be, and only his -shell remains. - -A yet more wonderful pet has lately died in Edinburgh at the age of -certainly sixty years, and very possibly more. Its name was Granny, -and it was a sea-anemone. Found on the wild Berwickshire coast, in -Scotland, in 1828, it remained with its discoverer until 1854, and then -passed into the care of Prof. Flemming. By him it was placed in the -Botanic Garden of Edinburgh, and there lived a peaceful if monotonous -life. Every two weeks it was given half a mussel, which was the only -food it required. But lack of incident was no drawback to fame; and, -like “Helix desertorum,” Granny was sketched, described, and visited. -More wonderful yet, it possessed an album, wherein famous visitors -inscribed their names, and whose autographic treasures will long -commemorate the tranquil fascinations of Granny! - -With these odd characters may be counted Sir John Lubbock’s wasp. -We usually think of wasps, in the language of a modern humorist, as -little creatures, very inflammable in their nature, and hasty in -their conclusions, or end. The wasp in question seems to have been -gentler-tempered or milder-mannered than the majority of her race; and -came to be on sociable terms with her scientific friend. Like so many -pets, she was short-lived. “In her last hours,” says Sir John, “she -would take no food, though she still moved her legs, wings and abdomen. -The following day, I offered her food for the last time, but both head -and thorax were dead or paralyzed; she could but wag her tail. So far -as I could judge, her death was quite painless, and she now occupies a -place in the British Museum.” - -The quaintest, most pathetic pet in history, I take it, was the fly, -which set out--very gaily, no doubt--with other flies, in a ship bound -to Spitzbergen. One by one, with the increasing cold, his companions -perished, until at last he was left alone. It was no great comfort -that the sailors cherished him as never fly was cherished before; and -erelong, despite the tenderest care, he turned over on his back and -died. He was honored with burial, and even with tears, as the last -frail link, at home’s antipodes, with home. - -To conclude this Odd Set, there can hardly be anything odder than the -story of a toad with which formerly I was well acquainted. His summer -residence was the shady, cool brick floor of a kitchen porch, with a -cistern conveniently set in one corner. He was a portly, contemplative -fellow, and had no objection to receiving flies from the human race. It -was his habit to come out from retirement towards evening, and sitting -on the well-curb, imbibe the evening air and insects. On one of these -occasions he was seen by a grave college professor and a student of -strong experimental bias who--noticing the June fireflies sparkling all -around--were seized with the desire to give him a light meal. - -It was quite to his taste, and he swallowed a number of flies. But even -his capacious stomach had a limit, and when it could accommodate no -more, he sat motionless and pensive on the curb. And then there was a -curious sight. He had absorbed the fireflies so rapidly, that though -imprisoned, they were still alive; and, beginning to glow, they turned -their captor into a kind of Chinese lantern. Actually, he was lit up -from within, and a soft luminousness shone through his thin membranous -throat. Erelong the glow ceased--the “slaves of the lamp” were dead. It -was an uncanny, goblin-like sight; but my own sympathies, I confess, -were rather with the lights than the lantern. - - - - -_IX._ - -_MILITARY PETS._ - - - - -IX. - -MILITARY PETS. - - -Ælian tells us that among the Greeks at Marathon fought one soldier who -had a favorite hound. As the two were friends and fellow-soldiers in -life, so in death they still lay side by side upon that immortal battle -field. And, says Ælian, their effigies were placed together on the -memorial tablet, to the end that their fame might live long after their -bodies were dust. - -Was it not finely done--to commemorate with the man that died for his -country the animal that died for his master? - -There have been many similar instances of canine devotion; yet it -must be confessed that with dogs as with men, less lofty motives -occasionally lead them into war. A restless, happy-go-lucky turn of -mind has inspired many a four-footed one with the wish to be a soldier, -and carried him with credit through the campaigns. - -Pure adventurousness animated Bobby, a pet of the Scotch Fusileers, and -gave him a fame out of all proportion to the small body now preserved -in the United Service Museum in London. - -In this curious and little known collection there are many interesting -objects--from the sword which Cromwell used with such fatal energy at -Drogheda, to a petticoat once worn by Queen Elizabeth. Why the latter -should be in a military museum it is hard to say, unless, indeed, it is -regarded in the light of feminine armor. But Bobby’s right to be there -is indefeasible. A dog of war, he can rest better nowhere than amidst -the military surroundings so dear to him in life. Very sagacious he -looks, seated dog-fashion on his haunches, and gazing alertly forward -with a knowing cock of the head. - -Of low degree--a mere butcher’s dog--he nevertheless, like Napoleon, -possessed a great soul in a little body. All he needed to rise from -the ranks was an opportunity, and erelong it came. When, in the spring -of 1853, a battalion of the Scots Fusileer Guards was stationed at -Windsor, Bobby began to haunt the barracks. The butcher, his master, -came for him several times and took him home, only to find his place -vacant again the next day. He yielded at last to the inevitable, and -Bobby went his way without hindrance. A soldier he would be; a soldier -he was; and, as his True History relates, never failed to be first on -parade, and was always ready to forage. In 1854 he embarked on the -Simoon with his friends for the Crimea. The first day out, he came near -being thrown overboard as a vagrant, but being claimed by the entire -battalion, was allowed to stay. - -[Illustration: BOBBY, THE DOG WHO WOULD BE A SOLDIER.] - -He served at Malta, Scutari and Varna; was returned as missing from the -Alma, but reappeared in time for the wild battle storm of Balaklava. -Surviving this, he was heard of next at Inkermann, where he proved his -courage by chasing spent cannon balls over the bloody field. A medal -rewarded this feat, and was worn by him suspended from a collar of -Fusileer buttons linked together in a chain. He was present at several -other battles; and when, after the fall of Sebastopol, the battalion -returned to England, Bobby marched into London at its head--the -observed of all observers. - -And now it might be supposed that he would rest on his laurels and grow -old in peace. Alas! he had escaped from Balaklava only to meet destiny -in London. In 1860 he was run over by a cart, and instantly killed. -Some say it was a butcher’s cart--which would imply a certain prosaic -justice in his fate--the profession he had scorned thus avenging itself. - -The poodle Moustache enhanced the glories of the Consulate and Empire. -He was present at Marengo and at Jena; he once detected a spy; he saved -several lives; and finally, at Austerlitz, when the standard-bearer -of his regiment fell mortally wounded, he sprang forward, seized the -colors from the very grasp of the enemy, and bore them in triumph to -his fellow-soldiers. It was the deed of a hero, and its recompense -was such as heroes love. Maréchal Lannes received Moustache upon the -field of battle, praised him, thanked him in the name of all, and then, -bending down, fastened to his neck--the cross of the Legion of Honor! - -Another dog of war was Pincher, who accompanied the Forty-second -Highlanders. In the days when Napoleon’s empire hung trembling in the -balance, this valiant terrier threw his own small influence into the -scale against him, and gallantly barked and capered at Quatre Bras -until wounded by a ball. Even then he refused to leave, and waited -on the field for his friends. Somewhat later he charged with the -Forty-second at Waterloo, came off unhurt from that tremendous field, -entered Paris with the allies, and in 1818 brought his laurels home -to Scotland. As in Bobby’s case, accident closed the life which the -chances of war had spared: while out rabbit-hunting, poor Pincher by -mistake was shot. - -Then there was Dash, who served in the Royal African Corps, and made -it his special mission to examine the sentry rounds, and wake up any -sentinel who might be napping at his post. Many a drowsy soldier had -occasion to thank him, and he remained chief favorite with the corps -until his death. - -Dogs have distinguished themselves in the navy as well as on land. Sir -John Carr tells the story of a Newfoundland on the English ship Nymph. -During an engagement with the French ship Cleopatra, the men at first -tried to keep their pet below. In vain; he escaped them, and ran up -on deck, barking furiously, with every sign of warlike rage. When the -Cleopatra struck her colors, he was among the foremost to board her, -and promenaded her deck with a proud and lofty air, as one who felt -that his share in the victory was not small. - -Another Newfoundland, well named Victor, served on the Bellona, in the -battle of Copenhagen. So courageous and cheerful was his mien amidst -flying balls and smoke and roar of cannon, that the men could not -refrain from cheering him, even in the hottest of the action. After -peace was signed at Amiens and the troops were paid off, the men of the -Bellona had a farewell dinner on shore. - -Honorably mindful of their four-footed comrade, seat and plate were -kept for Victor at the table. And there he sat, dignified and sedate, -among the veterans, sharing their roast beef and plum-pudding. They -drank his health, too, and doubtless he responded in his own fashion to -the toast. Finally, the bill was made out in his proper name, and--but -here the parallel with human “diners out” ceases. It was settled by an -adoring crowd of friends. - -Another naval hero was Admiral Collingwood’s Bounce, who barked -stoutly through various battles, and who to undoubted courage joined -no inconsiderable amount of vanity. After his master was raised to -the peerage, Bounce put on all the airs which the sensible admiral -had dispensed with--behaving, said the latter, as though he, too, had -become a “right honorable.” - -But the most delightful dog of war within my knowledge is little Toutou -of the French Zouaves. Once upon a time, when they were to leave France -for Genoa, an order was passed, forbidding dogs on shipboard. Fancy -the dismay of these pet-loving soldiers! What could be done? Each man, -as his name was called, had to pass into the ship by a narrow gangway, -with officers stationed at each end; and to conceal a dog under such -circumstances was clearly impossible. At this crisis some inventive -genius suggested unscrewing the drums, and concealing within them as -many as possible of their pets. No sooner thought of than done; and so -far, well. But now, like a thunderbolt out of a serene sky, came the -horrid order: “Let the regiment embark to the sound of fife and drum!” - -There was no escape; the drums must be beat, and they were. -Simultaneously with the sound, and smothering it, arose a lengthened, -ear-piercing howl. - -“What! Where!” cried the officers in consternation. - -No sign of a dog anywhere, yet the louder the drums resounded the -louder swelled the canine chorus. At last a spaniel fell out of an -imperfectly screwed drum, and the stratagem was revealed. Then, amidst -roars of laughter, each drummer was obliged to advance alone, and beat -his instrument. If there was an answering howl, the drum was at once -unscrewed and its occupant ejected. - -Only one dog ran the gauntlet successfully, and this was Toutou. Again -and again the drum was struck in which he lay concealed, but only its -own reverberations answered, and the drummer passed unsuspected. Once -fairly out at sea, his pet was released. He remained with the Third -Zouaves throughout the war; and when at its close they entered Paris, -who should be seen proudly marching at their head but Toutou, the dog -whom the drum-taps could not scare! - -A dog-loving soldier in our own army was the Hungarian General -Asboth, a man of indomitable fire and courage. “Stilled, saddened, -but not bitter,” says Mrs. Frémont, “he held fast to his faith in the -progress of liberty. It was only natural that stray dogs should meet -with kindness from him.” Two special favorites, York and Cream, were -afterwards left by him to this lady’s care. Anything canine was dear to -his heart: - - “Mongrel, puppy, whelp and hound, - And cur of low degree,” - -and it came to be well understood in camp that all stray dogs were -to be brought to the general. He was a noticeable figure, riding the -rounds in a suit of white linen and great cavalry boots, with a noisy -four-footed retinue at his heels. - -From an eye-witness comes the following story. General Asboth returned -one day from a scouting expedition with a bullet through his shoulder; -and as there had been little fighting up to this time, the accident was -a great event. There happened to be in camp a young volunteer captain -of engineers on “detached duty.” Swelling with a pleasant sense of his -own importance, he thought proper at this crisis to call and offer his -services. The old general thanked him: “Mine own officers are very -good,” said he; “they do everythings for me. But, Captain, there is -a thing; if you would go through the camp and find my little dog-pup -which was stole, I would be so much obliged.” - -This chance of distinction was not appreciated. “At last accounts,” -said my informant, “he had not yet begun to search for the ‘little -dog-pup,’ and the remarks he made in private were quite frightful to -hear.” - -From Asboth to Frémont is a natural transition. They were friends and -comrades; they had in common the traits of courage and enthusiasm; they -had a like disdain of pettiness, and capacity for silent endurance; and -they had also, as you might expect in natures so sound at core, a great -affection for animals. - -“For ourselves,” writes Mrs. Frémont, “dogs have always been part -of the family. I do not know, indeed, how boys can be happy without -them.... To the General some of ours were friends and companions, -especially a noble staghound, Thor. They walked together, they could -talk together; a sort of Indian sign-language belonging with old -experiences made Mr. Frémont proficient in sign and eye language, and -Thor knew that. - -“Thor’s father, Thor the First, belonged to Charlotte Cushman, and for -years was part of the hunt in the Campagna around Rome. She brought her -dog home, and thinking death near her, gave it to a friend of mine who -had a beautiful Scotch deer-hound of pure breed, Sheila by name. Sheila -had been given to my friend’s brother-in-law, an officer on duty in -Arizona, at Yuma, by an Englishman who came there intending to hunt. -Fancy hounds coursing over that cactus! - -“Our Thor was son to the traveled Sheila and Miss Cushman’s dog, who -had traveled also, but in civilized places. We took him with us to -Arizona, and there he died, of fever partly, partly of old age, for -he was eleven, and hounds give out young. He was nearly human in -intelligence--more than human in loyal attachment and undeviating -memory. He and Pluto, a thorough-bred coursing hound, were the two who -were longest with and closest to the whole family. - -“Pluto was own cousin to Master Magrath, the famous hound. He was a -gentler nature every way than Thor, who was grand, dignified, without -attachments or associates except in his (our) own family; reserved, and -withdrawing himself from all attentions--even those of our friends. -Yet he had intense devotion to the General, to both my sons, and to -my daughter, and was very fond of me too, but in an indulgent sort of -way, because I belonged with the rest. He had sense and a faithful -heart. The latter gave him great pain; for to a dog you cannot explain -that a parting is not necessarily final; and it was saddening to see -his distress when the General would go away in Arizona. And when -after weeks or months he returned, there was always a general rush to -move small tables, etc., out of range, for Thor would go wild over -him, leaping up to lick his face, jumping wildly about him, putting -his great paws on the General’s shoulders, and rubbing his grizzled -muzzle against the General’s face, with cries almost human, and -painful, hysterical joy. Everything had to give way to him. He had -to be petted and quieted down like an excited baby; but even in his -sleep, afterwards, he would cry out and quiver all over, and the waking -would be a subdued repetition of the first joy. Thor’s name is never -carelessly mentioned even now, six years after his death.” - -Mrs. Frémont has also commemorated, in her “Story of the Guard,” a -little terrier named Corporal, which belonged to the band of gallant -young men known as General Frémont’s Body-Guard. He was not pure-bred, -but that did not matter--sense and fidelity being happily independent -of birth. He had joined the Guards while they were in camp at St. -Louis, became a general favorite, and when they made their splendid -charge at Springfield, Mo., charged with them. The wild dash over, he -remained on the field all night with a wounded soldier, sped away for -help when morning dawned, coaxed and pulled until he persuaded a man to -follow, and thus succeeded in saving his friend’s life. In memory of -this brave deed the men bought him a collar, bright as red leather and -silver could make it, with the inscription: - - CORPORAL, - THE BODY-GUARD’S DOG. - Springfield, Oct., 1861. - -But although dogs are such good soldiers, they are no braver than -horses; while Pussy, their hereditary rival, keeps fairly abreast with -them in war as in peace. The Grenadiers’ Cat was contemporary with -Bobby, a courageous sharer in several hard-fought battles, and one -of the lamented slain at Balaklava. Another regimental cat was found -by Colonel Stuart Wortley, after the storming of the Malakoff, with -one foot pinned to the earth by a bayonet. He took her to a surgeon, -who dressed the wounded paw; and after her recovery, adopting her -preserver, she used to follow the colonel “all over the camp, with her -tail carried stiff in the air.” - -Deer, and even lambs, have served in the army with credit, we are told. -One military deer “liked biscuit. But he always knew if a biscuit had -been breathed on, and if it had he would not touch it. He was very fond -of music, and used to march in front of the band. Sometimes a person -would come in between him and the band, and he would seem to be quite -cross about it.” - -An unusual pet, which like the king never dies, is the goat of the -Royal Welsh Fusileers. When one goat ceases to be, another immediately -succeeds him. The incumbent now, alas! deceased, and whose portrait -is given here, was a fine white Billy from the royal herd at Windsor, -presented to the regiment by the queen. Apropos of his decease, an -officer wrote at some length in the London Graphic concerning these -famous goats. He quoted from the Military Antiquities of Grose, showing -them to be an ancient institution. - -“The Royal Regiment of Welsh Fusileers has the privileged honor of -passing in review preceded by a goat with gilded horns and adorned with -ringlets of flowers; and although this may not come immediately under -the denomination of a reward of merit, yet the corps values itself much -on the ancientness of the custom. - -[Illustration: THE DEER THAT MARCHED AHEAD.] - -“Every first of March, being the anniversary of their tutular saint, -David, the officers give a splendid entertainment to their Welsh -brethren; and after the cloth is taken away a bumper is filled round to -H. R. H. the Prince of Wales, whose health is always drunk the first on -that day; the band playing the old tune of ‘The Noble Race of Shenkin,’ -when a handsome drummer-boy, elegantly dressed, mounted on the goat, -richly caparisoned for the occasion, is led thrice round the table in -procession by the drum-major. - -“It happened in 1775, in Boston, that the animal gave such a spring -from the floor that he dropped his rider upon the table, and then -bounding over the heads of some officers, he ran to the barracks with -all his trappings, to the no small joy of the garrison.” - -The officer goes on to say that “the same goat which threw the drummer -accompanied the regiment into action at Bunker’s Hill, when the Welsh -Fusileers had all their officers except one placed _hors de combat_. -What became of the Bunker’s Hill goat, we do not know; nor can we -say how many successors he had between the years 1775 and 1844. In -the latter year the regimental goat died, and to compensate the -Twenty-third for its loss, Her Majesty presented the regiment with -two of the finest goats belonging to a flock--the gift of the Shah of -Persia--in Windsor Park. Since that date the queen has continued to -supply the Royal Welsh Fusileers with goats as occasion has required. -Billy--‘Her Majesty’s Goat,’ as he is styled--bears between his horns a -handsome silver shield or frontlet, surrounded by the Prince of Wales’ -plumes and motto, with the inscription: ‘The gift of Her Majesty, Queen -Victoria, to the Royal Welsh Fusileers. A. D., MDCCCXLVI. _Duw a Cadwo -y Frenhines._’ - -[Illustration: THE WELSH FUSILEERS’ GOAT.] - -“Billy always marches at the head of his battalion, alongside of the -drum-major.” - -From this account, it would almost seem as though Billy had a share in -placing all his officers but one _hors de combat_ at Bunker’s Hill. -If such was the case, then he undoubtedly contributed to the American -victory on that occasion, and I do not see why a grateful nation should -not place his portrait in the Old South. Billy as a corner-stone of -American Independence--that is certainly a new side-light upon history! - -Of all creatures, the most unfit for war appear to be birds; yet they, -too, have had their share of military vicissitudes and military fame. -Geese have shown a genuine vocation for soldiering, and often have been -seen waddling over a battle field with derisive composure, as though -it were no more than a quarrelsome barnyard. The Romans honored them -hardly less than their national eagle, ever after the geese of the -Capitol gave the alarm, and enabled them to drive back the Gauls. If -Rome was saved, to the geese was the glory! - -A modern goose for twenty-three years accompanied an Uhlan regiment, -and yet another, Jacob by name, joined the Coldstream Guards in Canada. -He had been living in the usual barnyard retirement of fowls when one -evening, as he was returning home from a little trip outside, a fox -gave chase. All would soon have been over with Jacob had he not spied -a sentry near by and taken refuge between his feet. The fox was shot, -and henceforth, so long as a sentry was stationed at this place, the -grateful bird would join him on his beat. - -Some two months later he repaid his preserver by saving the latter’s -life, when he in turn was attacked. Flying at the enemy, and beating -his wings in their faces, he so disconcerted them that his friend was -enabled to kill part and beat off the rest. - -A gold collar, with suitable inscription, was his reward; and Jacob, in -high favor with all, accompanied the battalion to England. In London he -shared its barracks and had a sentry-go of his own, until one luckless -day he was run over by a cart and killed. - -A great contrast to Jacob, morally, was the raven Ralph, which Thomas -Campbell saw in garrison at Chatham. He was one of those clever, -swaggering, disreputable, yet kind-hearted rascals who so often enlist; -who are always in hot water, and who, nevertheless, make many friends. -Ralph had a fluent tongue, and his “Attention, Corporal!” “Turn out, -Guard!” and “Sentry go!” often cheated the listeners. His wings had -been clipped, but in other respects he enjoyed all the freedom his own -reckless habits permitted; and when in an excess of curiosity he fell -over into a water-butt and was drowned, there was general lamentation, -as though he had been a very upright bird instead of an extremely -depraved one. - -[Illustration: OLD ABE.] - -A pleasanter story is that of the little bantam cock which perched on -the poop of Lord Rodney’s ship during a great battle with the French, -flapping his wings and crowing shrill defiance. It is a pleasure to -know that this tiny hero never figured on the dinner-table, but was -carefully provided for so long as he lived, by the admiral’s special -orders. - -There has been no more famous pet in our own military history than Old -Abe, the eagle of the Eighth Wisconsin Regiment. From being at first -the pet of a company, he rose to be the pet of a regiment, and finally -of the nation, being supported at the public expense from the close of -the war until his death. He has been photographed and painted; he has -had his biography written; has been exhibited for the benefit of the -Sanitary Commission, and was an honored guest in Philadelphia at the -Centennial. More lucky in one respect than human celebrities--he was -never annoyed by requests for his autograph! - -It is tame to say that in war he stood fire like a veteran; in truth, -he thrilled with a wild excitement in battle. Its smoke and roar and -carnage were his proper element. Borne always next to the regimental -colors, his perch was seamed with bullets; and why he was not, the -enemy’s sharpshooters could never tell. Sometimes he would soar high -above the fighting, and, poised in mid-air like one of Homer’s deities, -survey the fearful scene. He shared all the battles of the regiment, -and died full of years and honors. - -Always beautiful and picturesque in his best estate, the horse is never -more so than in connection with war. Here, more than elsewhere, except -on the race-course, he has fame and a career. His interests no longer -conflict with those of his master; the honor of each reflects credit on -the other. As under different circumstances he might be an excellent -carriage-horse, so now he is an excellent soldier, and knows “the keen -delight of battle with his peers.” - -Achilles had his Chestnut, his Dapple, and his Spry; Hector, too, had -his favorites--Whitefoot and Firefly; but far more famous and certainly -more authentic, is Bucephalus, the horse of Alexander. Plutarch relates -the whole beautiful story: how Philip of Macedon paid a great sum for -the horse, only to find it quite unmanageable. Just as he was ordering -its removal, the young Alexander, who had been watching the futile -efforts of the grooms, begged leave to try his hand. By a method -similar to Rarey’s--by gentleness, confidence and a firm hand--he won -Bucephalus. Henceforth, the two were fast friends and fellow-soldiers. -They fought together in Asia, accompanied part of the time at least by -Peritas, a great Molossian hound. Once Bucephalus was captured by a -party of barbarians, but they wisely surrendered him in time to avert -the king’s vengeance. - -Wounded in the great battle with Porus, and worn out by age, this noble -horse died in India on the banks of the Hydaspes. His monument was -a city, built on the spot where he died, and named after him by his -master. The pair are commemorated in various ancient works of art, of -which the most notable is a great mosaic, now in Naples, representing -the battle of Issus. - -Next to Bucephalus might be placed the black horse which Cæsar rode -during his campaigns in Gaul. It had curiously divided hoofs, whence -the augurs predicted good fortune to its rider; and, as though to -preserve that fortune for one alone, it would let no one mount but -Cæsar. Its after-fate is uncertain--except that the master of the world -was not ungrateful, and placed the statue of his good servant before -the temple of Venus in Rome. Possibly its history is summed up in the -story Suetonius tells--that Cæsar ordered the horses which had served -him in Gaul to be consecrated and maintained without labor the rest of -their lives. Among them, it is more than likely, was the nameless steed -of good augury. - -A thousand years later we find the famous Cid in Spain riding Bavieca -to victory, and mindful of his horse’s welfare even in the hour of -his own death. “When ye bury Bavieca, dig deep!” says Ruy Diaz, “for -shameful thing were it that he should be eat by curs.”--“And this good -horse lived two years and a half after the death of his master, and -then he died also, having lived, according to the history, full forty -years.” - -Yet another group of centuries, and what equine hero is this, standing -firm as a rock, small, but deep-chested, in color a rich chestnut, -and gazing at us with large velvety eyes?--who but Copenhagen, the -war-horse of Wellington! - -A grandson of the great racer, Eclipse, he had wonderful powers of -endurance, and combined good temper with sagacity. The Duke rode -him for eighteen consecutive hours at Waterloo; and then, says he, -“thinking how bravely my old horse had carried me all day, I could -not help going up to his head, to tell him so by a few caresses. But, -hang me, if when I was giving him a slap of approbation on the hind -quarters, he did not fling out one of his hind legs with as much vigor -as if he had been in stable for a couple of days!” - -After the war was over he was taken to Strathfieldsaye, the Duke’s -country-seat; and there, an object of general interest, spent the rest -of his days in honorable leisure. It is true that this distinction had -its drawbacks. Young ladies would entreat the “kind duke” or the “dear -duchess” for a little of Copenhagen’s hair to set in a ring; until -finally, his neck growing bare of mane, and his tail threatening to -become a mere stump, his admirers were forced to content themselves -with such stray hairs as might fall. A fine paddock was assigned him, -with a summer house at one corner, opening into it by means of a -wicket. Here he would come daily to receive bread and gentle petting -from the duchess. - -With age his eyesight partially failed, and his teeth grew so poor -that he could not eat oats unless they were broken up beforehand. He -was twenty-seven years old when he died, in 1835. He was buried in -his paddock, with military honors, and a small circular railing still -marks the spot. Some person--unknown--stole one of his hoofs, which -poor memorial is now preserved in the same museum as Bobby, together -with the skeleton of Marengo, the horse of Wellington’s great rival, -Napoleon. - -Various horses have served with credit in America; but more renowned -than any--glorious as Roland “who brought good news from Ghent”--is the -one that bore Sheridan to Winchester, and enabled him to turn defeat -into victory. He was coal-black save for a small white star in the -forehead, beautifully formed, and full of fire. From 1862 until the end -of the war, he was present in ninety battles, and several times, but -not seriously wounded. The climax of his fame was that wild ride when-- - -“With foam and with dust the black charger was gray.” - -It roused a storm of enthusiasm at the time; nor will a memory soon die -which like this has received such splendid praise in art and song. So-- - - “Hurrah, hurrah for horse and man! - And when their statues are placed on high, - Under the dome of the Union sky-- - The American soldiers’ temple of fame-- - There, with the glorious general’s name, - Be it said in letters both bold and bright: - ‘Here is the steed that saved the day - By carrying Sheridan into the fight - From Winchester--twenty miles away!’” - - - - -_X._ - -_ANIMALS AT SCHOOL._ - - - - -X. - -ANIMALS AT SCHOOL. - - -A good deal of time is devoted, especially of late years, to the -education of animals and birds. The simplest form of training is that -which adapts them to our service, and teaches them to recognize and -obey the different words of command. - -Sir Miles Fleetwood would have been poorly off indeed if his horse had -not understood the meaning of whoa! and had the discretion to obey it. -A London magistrate under James I., he was, according to Aubrey, “a -severe hanger of highwaymen, and the fraternity were for revenge.” They -caught him riding alone one night, set him on horseback beneath the -gallows, with his hands tied behind him, fastened one end of a rope to -the gallows’ arm, the other being noosed around his neck, then left him -to his fate. - - “So he cried ‘Ho, Ball! Ho, Ball!’ and it pleased God that his horse - stood still until somebody came along, which was a quarter of an hour - or more. He ordered that this horse should be kept as long as he - should live, which was so; he lived till 1646.” - -The history of animals abounds in examples of their intelligence and -docility; and probably no one who has a favorite animal has failed to -notice some such instance for himself. - -[Illustration: LOVE LEADING THE ORCHESTRA. - -(_After painting by A. Gill._)] - -The idea of teaching animals to perform tricks is certainly a very -old one. The trained horses, dogs and elephants of our modern circus -had their predecessors more than two thousand years ago, in Roman -amphitheaters. - -We learn from historians that, when Tiberius was emperor, his kinsman -Germanicus exhibited a play in which the actors were elephants. They -were dressed in regular garments, danced, performed various tricks, -and finally, at a given signal, seated themselves around a table on -couches spread with velvet, and concluded the performance by eating -and drinking with perfect propriety. A modern artist has amusingly -represented this ancient bit of comedy. - -Plutarch mentions a trained dog which was exhibited before Vespasian, -in the theater of Marcellus, and which won great applause from that -jolly emperor. - -[Illustration: THE ELEPHANTS OF GERMANICUS.] - -Coming down to the middle of the seventeenth century, we have a print -of “The Cat Showman” surrounded by a cat orchestra in a state of -high performance; we have also the famous “chestain-coloured naig,” -Morocco, which was exhibited in Scotland; and which “being trained up -in dancing, and other conceits of that kind, did afford much sport and -contentment to the people, but not without gain, for none was admitted -to see the dancing without two pence the piece, and some more.” His -master Banks, to borrow Anderson’s entertaining account, would ask-- - - “from twenty or thirty of the spectators a piece of gold or silver, - put all in a purse, and shuffle them together; thereafter he would bid - the horse give every gentleman his own piece of money again. He would - cause him to tell by so many pats with his foot, how many shillings - the piece of money was worth. He would say to him: ‘I will sell you to - a carter’; then he would seem to die. Then he would say, ‘Morocco, a - gentleman has borrowed you, and you must ride with a lady of court.’ - Then would he most daintily hackney, amble, and ride a pace, and - trot.... By a sign given him, he would back for the King of Scots, and - for Queen Elizabeth, and when ye spoke of the King of Spain, would - both bite and strike at you--and many other wonderful things. I was a - spectator myself in those days.” - -[Illustration: THE CAT SHOWMAN. - -(_Fac-simile of a print of the seventeenth century._)] - -The mule Marco, whose tricksy, sagacious countenance confronts us in -the photograph along with that of his master, Pinta, was the delight -of little Florentines and Romans, not to mention their elders. His -tricks were the ordinary ones, but whatever he did was rendered -original by the indescribable air of humorous intention with which it -was performed. He had always the air of voluntarily combining with his -friend Pinta to play a practical joke upon the spectators; and it was -impossible not to enjoy the situation, when after some particularly -knowing performance, Marco would slightly turn his head over his -shoulder, and glance at the audience out of the tail of his eye, as if -to say: “You are great fools to be taken in with so little; I could do -bigger things if I cared to try.” - -[Illustration: PINTA AND HIS MULE MARCO.] - -The poor shoemaker, Bisset, a contemporary of Sir Walter Scott, -succeeded after a year and a half of patient effort, in teaching his -pig to perform a number of tricks. Not only would it answer to his -name, obey signals, kneel down, stand erect on its hind legs, and bow, -but it would pick out certain letters with its foot, and form them -into words. Still “curiouser and curiouser,” to quote Miss Alice, it -would add up a column of figures, and put the correct sum total below. -So wonderful were its feats, that both master and pig came near being -killed by an excited audience, as the possessors of unholy wisdom. - -The education of dogs is in itself a profession, and has opened -multifarious employments to those intelligent creatures. The collie -will convoy a flock of sheep to pasture, guard them all day, drive them -into shelter if storms arise, and guide them home to the fold at night. -The dogs of the St. Bernard hospice have been devoted for centuries to -the task of saving life amid Alpine wastes; and they perform this duty -with a patience, zeal and sagacity that no human being could surpass. -Old Barry saved forty-two persons--a record unequaled in any records. - -There are firemen’s dogs, who in most cases volunteer for the service, -apparently from pure adventurousness, but have often saved life and -property in the way of their profession. Not least among deeds of -daring was that splendid rush of “Bob, the London Fireman’s Dog” into a -blazing building, whence he brought out alive a poor cat! - -[Illustration: HELP, THE RAILWAY DOG OF ENGLAND.] - -Help, a collie, has been trained to collect money; is an accredited -agent, in fact, for the “Society of Railway Servants.” “I am Help,” -says the inscription on his collar, “the railway dog of England, and -traveling agent for the orphans of railway men who are killed on duty. -My office is at 306, City Road, London, where subscriptions will be -thankfully received.” In three years this dog collected five hundred -pounds. One can hardly resist the mute, dignified appeal with which -this noble collie approaches you, looks up gravely into your face, -then after waiting long enough for you to inspect his credentials, and -contribute if you like, passes on to another. - -Some dogs, like that of Allan Pinkerton, show an aptitude for -detective business, and become valuable auxiliaries; others, in the -service of dishonest owners, become smugglers. Immense ingenuity has -been expended in training them for the latter business, with results -highly satisfactory to their owners, “Le Diable”--so named by French -custom-officers, from his cleverness and daring--in this way made his -master a rich man, and--guiltless outlaw that he was--was killed at -last while smuggling a packet of costly lace. - -A more honorable outlet for canine activity has been found in -the Prussian army, where a “Watch-Dog Battalion” is formed. Its -members--usually collies--are trained to carry dispatches, hunt up -stragglers on a march, look for the wounded, and do outpost duty; all -of which they do so well that no soldier could possibly do better. - -But it has been reserved for the present decade, and for Sir John -Lubbock, to train a dog to converse. He says that he was struck first -by the applicability to animals of the deaf-mute system (as used by -Dr. Howe with Laura Bridgman), and began to test it on his black -poodle Van. After preparing a number of cards, printed in large clear -letters, with such words as “water,” “tea,” “bone,” “food,” “out,” -etc., he by degrees associated them in the dog’s mind with the objects -they represented, and in a few weeks succeeded in teaching Van their -meaning. When the little fellow wished to go out, he would bring the -card with that word, if food, then that card, and so on; selecting the -desired card from a number of others with evident discrimination, and -greatly pleased with his own success. - -Lately too, Prof. Bonnetty and his troupe of feline actors have come -to the fore in Paris, where they have aroused immense enthusiasm. The -professor takes his cats at random from gutters, streets or roofs, as -chance may have it, and for about three months leaves them at perfect -liberty in a large room, quietly observing their dispositions and -manners. At the end of this time he begins to train them--in no case -compelling them by fear. Their education usually requires a year and a -half. - -[Illustration: PROF. BONNETTY’S TROUPE.] - -Master and pupils are on the best possible terms with each other. Their -“hours in school” are short, their quarters exquisitely tidy, and their -food--of milk, bread and liver--invariably the best and freshest of its -kind. - -They are really cats of high culture; the best proof whereof is -the simplicity and ease with which they do difficult things. No -circus-rider ever jumped through hoops, walked ropes, climbed poles or -waltzed over chairs, with greater agility. They sheathe their claws -to live and play in amity with birds and mice. They are “cats with -a conscience,” as the professor says, and their helpless, confiding -little associates have no more fear of them than of one another. - -Juno, Sjenni, Maor, Tommek, Blanc, Cæsar, Brutus, Paris, Bruxelles, -Henderik, Swart and Gora were the members of the troupe some years -past--together with Boulanger, a tiger-marked kitten who displayed -“little fear and a great thirst for fame,” and Tyber, the star-actor. -The latter was a wonderful performer, evincing a fine intellect, and, -says De Biez, would certainly have been a god in Egypt! - -A parallel may be found for these clever French felines in the Brighton -cats of England. They are more discriminatingly chosen than Prof. -Bonnetty’s actors; but their performances, although different in some -respects, are no more wonderful. One of them, a white Angora, rides a -bicycle with much grace. When fairly started she becomes enthusiastic, -and urges her two-wheeler rapidly along, with an evident enjoyment -that the by-standers find contagious. The tabbies do housework to -perfection, scrub little handkerchiefs or towels in a tub, hang up the -washing, preside over the roast beef of Old England, or the tea things, -skate on rollers, and all with such blithe content and spirit, that -they seem like little witches masquerading in fur. - -[Illustration: THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY. - -FIVE O’CLOCK TEA. - -A FAVORITE DIVERSION. - -“A SPIN.” - -(_The Brighton Cats._)] - -One of the most notable efforts at educating Pussy has been -made recently by a Russian, Prince Krapotkine. This gentleman’s -revolutionary sentiments landed him one day in a prison, where he had -plenty of leisure to educate anything he could find. The anything in -this case proved to be the prison cat. His fellow-prisoner, M. Emile -Gautier, being already educated, was a disinterested observer of the -experiment. He reports among other things, that Pussy became very -expert at the game of hide-and-seek. He adds: - - “I ought to tell you, besides, that Nature has ornamented my head with - a luxurious mass of hair. Krapotkine, on the other hand, is extremely - bald.... It has often happened when playing with her, that she softly - passed her paw over our respective heads, as if to ascertain that - her eyes did not deceive her. This inspection concluded, and the - visual notions confirmed by touch, her physiognomy took the air of - comic surprise. The variety of sensations perplexed her. Nearly every - evening the scene was gone through, to our great edification, as you - may imagine.” - -[Illustration: A CAT WITH A CONSCIENCE. - -(_One of Prof. Bonnetty’s Troupe._)] - -The birds which act with these different troupes have been -comparatively unimportant, except in connection with their feline -companions. Nevertheless, birds, too, can be trained, and are. There is -a charming pathetic story of a little Sardinian, Francesco Micheli, who -turned his liking for birds to account in earning money for his family. -He trained sparrows, thrushes, linnets, canaries--whatever feathered -creature came within his reach. Some he taught to pipe simple tunes, -others to play hide-and-seek with his white Angora cat; a nest of young -partridges, under his teaching, embraced the military profession, -learned to drill, hold little swords, fire off little cannon, pretend -to be killed, and then come to life again. One of these intelligent -partridges, Rosolotta, grieved with a human grief when her dear master -died, and is said--like “Greyfriars’ Bobby”--to have watched over his -grave so long as she lived. - -[Illustration: “TELL ME THY SECRET, BEPPO.” - -(_The Roman Bird Girl._)] - -I was reminded of this little Sardinian and his pets by a scene I -witnessed one morning in Rome. A crowd of people had gathered near -the broad base of the Antonine column, watching the performance of -four pigeons and three canaries. The little maid with the pigeons was -charming--and so were they--as she bid them tell her their secrets, and -in response they fluttered up her shoulders, and cooed into her ear. -But the true interest of the entertainment--its dramatic part--began -with the canaries. The little actors were sitting in a row on top of -their cage, demurely waiting for orders. Their mistress talked to them -meanwhile, now praising their talents, now admiring their beauty, they -following each motion of her lips with keen, inquisitive glances. - -“Thou, Beppo, art a bird of great character, _un gran carattere_! -Really, thou art wonderful! Zirlo, my fine fellow” (to the second), -“what a bird art thou! Who like thee can climb the _scaletta_ (little -ladder)! No one, in truth, and they are base _ladroni_ that deny thy -merits; eh Pippa?” (to the third). “Dost thou hear? _Bellissima!_ One, -two, three, come then, my Pippa, kiss me.” She extended a finger. Pippa -transferred herself to it from the perch, and climbing the arm to her -face, gave a fluttering little salute first to one cheek, then to the -other. After which, hopping back to the finger, she made a droll little -bow, and returned to the perch. - -Then it was Zirlo’s turn; and this enterprising bird not only climbed -the _scaletta_, but finding a gun at the top, shouldered it, pulled -the trigger with an infinitesimal claw, and--bang!--who should tumble -from his perch but poor Beppo, and lie perfectly rigid on the ground. -Zirlo’s fit of anger was quenched at this piteous sight; carefully -he examined the stiff figure and at last, picking up an inch-square -pocket-handkerchief with one foot, applied it to his eyes, and wept -bitterly. Then up jumped Beppo, who had only been feigning, and the -two touched bills in token of reconciliation, and waltzed--wing in -wing--fraternally off the stage. - -It was a pretty scene--the sunshine, the people, the tiny performers -below, and the mighty column towering high above them--the grandeur of -old Rome looking down upon the present thus lightly amusing itself. - - - - -_XI._ - -_A MENAGERIE IN STONE._ - - - - -XI. - -A MENAGERIE IN STONE. - - -In Rome there is always something to stir the fancy and quicken the -pulse--always something to recall to the Present the magnificent Past. -Now it is a column or statue, now a ruined palace, and now the vast -fabric of an amphitheater. But the ruins are weighted with such tragic -memories of by-gone Cæsars--their wars, their triumphs, their funeral -pomp--as to be almost oppressively solemn. Let us then leave them -for once, and go where the Past will suggest itself in some simpler, -happier fashion--let us visit a Roman “Zoo.” - -No day could be better for the purpose than this sunny one; for the Zoo -has its home in the Vatican, and we need all the sunshine we can get to -counteract its chill. Besides, no matter with how definite a purpose we -set out, once within that marble world we are sure to linger--so many -are the objects that claim the eye. It is only after a lingering stroll -that we at last reach the _Sala degli Animali_, or Hall of the Animals. - -An odd world it is, suggesting the pictures of Paradise before the -dispersion of species; a world that includes creatures wild and -tame, familiar and suppositious--birds, harpies, dragons, reptiles, -quadrupeds, Minotaur, insects and fish. Three patrons of the chase -preside, Diana and Hercules at one end of the hall, the imperial hunter -Commodus at the other. - -[Illustration: SCULPTURE OF GREYHOUNDS IN THE VATICAN.] - -The longer we gaze the stronger grows our feeling that it is in truth -a menagerie, surviving somehow from early days. Only, how very silent! -The last party of tourists has passed on, we are quite alone, save for -these many shapes all around us--and it is hardly in nature that no -faintest sound or movement should be heard. Those graceful greyhound -puppies play with each other in perfect silence; not a footfall nor -crackling twig betrays the flight of yonder deer. - -And so, gradually, it dawns on us that although this is life, it is -life long turned to stone. Some Arabian Nights’ enchantment has been -at work, arresting these varied forms in their prime of activity; and, -doubtless, on some future day, at the true wizard’s touch, they will -turn back again from marble into breathing flesh. But that will not -happen to-day, nor yet to-morrow, so we may as well take advantage of -the stillness to see what the menagerie contains. - -[Illustration: SCULPTURE OF THIEVING MONKEY IN THE VATICAN.] - -A dun cow, not far from Diana, stands snuffing the fresh air with -upraised head; and a horse which once was roan--at least the marble -still bears traces of reddish paint--looks inquiringly toward her. -Near these peacefully-inclined animals crouches a lion, in readiness -to leap upon his prey. In the next group the victim is secured; it -represents a horse pulled down by a lion. Note the relentless grasp of -the one, the helpless agony of the other. Wonderful as a work of art, -it is nevertheless too painful to linger before; we are glad to turn -away. Similar in character are two groups of deer seized by hounds, and -another of a panther devouring its prey. - -Here is a wild boar, here the ugly phiz of a camel; here an alligator, -to whose neutral character an existence in marble seems peculiarly well -adapted; and here, at a respectful distance from his jaws, are a cock, -a goose, a pelican, several peacocks and an eagle. The dignity of the -latter is worth noting--its calm, imperial reserve, so indicative of -the Rome whose emblem it was. - -Of the monkey hard by it can only be said that he is as perfect as -monkeyish a monkey as ever breathed. He has been stealing fruit, -probably from some old Roman garden, and has made off to this corner to -eat it on the sly, glancing over his shoulder every now and then to -make sure that no one will interrupt. - -[Illustration: STAG IN ALABASTER IN THE VATICAN.] - -A goat, a rhinoceros and a hyena come next, and then we approach a -most remarkable bust of the Minotaur, that bull-headed, human-bodied -terror which demanded a yearly tribute of youths and maidens, and was -finally slain by Theseus, to the great relief of the Athenian world. -What brutal, pitiless life, what fierce joy in the anticipated victims, -looks out from his eyes and dilates his nostrils! It is a relief to -turn away from the brute and examine instead his near neighbors, a crab -and a green-gray dolphin rising from waves of white marble. - -The queer object just beyond is an armadillo with stone scales scarcely -harder than real ones; while every one will recognize at first glance -the jolly little rabbit beside him, and the two hares nibbling at a -bunch of grapes. The next animal is a historic one--the famous white -sow of Alba. She reclines among part, not all of her thirty pigs, for -the artist seems to have given out in exhaustion after carving the -first dozen. - -[Illustration: PLINY’S DOVES: A MOSAIC IN THE CAPITOL AT ROME.] - -In the neighborhood of Commodus are several panthers and lions; a -leopard, whose black spots have been inserted, like mosaic; a stag, -whose dappled skin is represented by the natural venation of the -alabaster from which it is carved; an eagle with her young; a craw-fish -and a porphyry frog. - -[Illustration: PATRICIAN OR PLEBEIAN?] - -There are also a number of dogs, in every way admirable, and probably -the exact portraits of some fair Roman lady’s pets. Nothing could be -more natural or charming than the two greyhound puppies frolicking with -each other; nothing more graceful or aristocratic than the full-grown -greyhound which sits upon its haunches, and offers a paw. They are -patrician to their very toes and tail-tips, just as the honest mastiff -hard by, growlingly protecting her puppies, is plebeian. - -The shaggy dog who looks up at you in friendly fashion, and whose -portrait appears above, is also decidedly a patrician, if the -conjecture is right that he represents the famous Molossian breed. - -Such, in barest outline, is the Vatican menagerie--the work of the -Baryes, Bonheurs and Landseers of days past. It has overflowed its -bounds to some extent, and a number of fine specimens must be sought -in other collections. In the Capitol, for instance, are “Pliny’s -Doves,” whose gurgling coo we quite expect to hear, until closer -inspection proves them--a mosaic! They are called the doves of Pliny, -not because they belonged to that delightful letter-writer, but because -he described them in terms so accurate that we cannot help knowing the -mosaic of the Capitol is the same he looked at almost nineteen hundred -years ago. “There is a dove,” he says, “which is greatly admired, in -the act of drinking, and throwing the shadow of his head upon the -water, while other doves are present, sunning and pluming themselves on -the margin of a drinking-bowl.” - -Pliny was an excellent judge of art matters, and certainly these doves -are no less admired to-day than in his time. - -But more famous than any bird or beast in Italy, is the bronze wolf -of the Capitol. Its age is great, as the Etruscan workmanship alone -would prove; and many believe it to be the identical statue struck by -lightning during the consulship of Cæsar and Bibulus. In confirmation, -they point to the jagged rent in one of its hind legs, which may have -been caused by such an accident. This, if true, would make it the most -notable sculpture in existence. However, whether Cæsar saw it or not, -it is still venerable enough to command attention, and few tourists -fail to pay it their respects. - -[Illustration: THE CHIMERA; ETRUSCAN SCULPTURE IN THE BARGELLO AT -FLORENCE.] - -The nurse of Romulus and Remus is also commemorated by a living wolf -which resides in the triangular patch of garden between the steps to -the Capitol, and those which lead up to Ara Cœli. The present incumbent -is a sleek gray fellow from Monte Maietta in the Abruzzi. A live eagle -separated by a netting bears him company, but these caged emblems are -but shabby reminders of the glory of old Rome. - -Ancient as the brazen she-wolf, and like it of Etruscan make, is -the Chimera of the Bargello at Florence. It is a comically terrific -creature, whose three heads are all busily engaged--one biting its -neighbor head, and the third roaring at the injury. In the Bargello -also is a superb turkey-gobbler of bronze, credited to Gian da Bologna, -and some capital turtles in marble. Admirable as they are, however, -they are forgotten when, on entering a small room in the Uffizi, the -famous Florentine boar and Molossian hound meet our gaze. Every line -of their softly yellowed marble reveals the patient, loving touch -of sculptors whose work alone survives--whose names and stories are -unknown. They aimed at perfection, and were doubtless content to be -forgotten, if only their works might live. - -They, indeed, are the sole, the true enchanters, whose touch petrified -for posterity this menagerie in stone. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMOUS PETS OF FAMOUS -PEOPLE *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ -concept and trademark. 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