HEADS AND TALES,
 
 PRINTED BY BALLANTVNE AND COMPANY 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON
 
 HEADS AND TALES; 
 
 OR, 
 
 CHIEFLY CONNECTED WITH INCIDENTS IN THE 
 HISTORIES OF MORE OR LESS DISTINGUISHED MEN. 
 
 COMPILED AND SELECTED BY 
 
 ADAM WHITE, 
 
 LATE ASSISTANT IN THE ZOOLOGICAL, DEPARTMENT, BRITISH MUSEUM. 
 
 <C*Dition. 
 
 LONDON : 
 JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET. 
 
 MDCCCLXX.
 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 IN this work, a part of which is, so far as it extends, a 
 careful compilation from an extensive series of books, the 
 great order mammalia, or, rather, a few of its subjects, is 
 treated anecdotically. The connexion of certain animals 
 with man, and the readiness with which man can subdue 
 even the largest of the mammalia, are very curious sub- 
 jects of thought. The dog and horse are our special 
 friends and associates ; they seem to understand us, and 
 we get very much attached to them. The cat or the 
 cow, again, possess a different degree of attachment, and 
 have " heads and hearts " less susceptible of this educa- 
 tion than the first mentioned. The anecdotes in this book 
 will clearly show facts of this nature. In the_Letter of the 
 Gorilla, under an appearance of exaggeration, will be found 
 many facts of its history. We have a strong belief that 
 natural history, written as White of Selborne did his 
 Letter of Timothy the Tortoise, would be very enticing and 
 interesting to young people. To make birds and other 
 animals relate their stories has been done sometimes, and 
 generally with success. There are anecdotes hinging, 
 however, on animals which have more to do with man than 
 the other mammals referred to in the little story. These 
 stories we have felt to be very interesting when they occur 
 in biographies of great men. Cowper and his Hares, 
 Huygens and his Sparrow, are tales at least the former 
 
 2081 205
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 full of interesting matter on the history of the lower 
 animal, but are of most value as showing the influence 
 on the man who amused himself by taming them. We 
 like to know that the great Duke, after getting down from 
 his horse Copenhagen, which carried him through the 
 whole battle of Waterloo, clapped him on the neck, when 
 the war-charger kicked out, as if untired. 
 
 We could have added greatly to this book, especially in 
 the part of jests, puns, or cases of double entendre. The few 
 selected may suffice. The so-called conversations of " the 
 Ettrick Shepherd " are full of matter of this kind, treated 
 by " Christopher North " with a happy combination of rare 
 power of description and apt exaggeration of detail, often 
 highly amusing. One or two instances are given here, 
 such as the Fox-hunt and the Whale. The intention of 
 this book is primarily to be amusing ; but it will be 
 strange if it do not instruct as well. There is much in 
 it that is true of the habits of mammalia. These, with 
 birds, are likely to interest young people generally, more 
 than anecdotes of members of orders like fish, insects, or 
 molluscs, lower in the scale, though often possessing mar- 
 vellous instincts, the accounts of which form intensely 
 interesting reading to those who' are fond of seeing or 
 hearing of " the works of the Lord," and who " take 
 pleasure " in them.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 MAMMALIA.* 
 
 PAGE 
 
 MAN 1 
 
 Gainsborough's Joke Skull of Julius Caesar when a b)y 2 
 
 Sir David Wilkie's simplicity about Babiee . . 3 
 James Montgomery translates into verse a description of 
 
 Man, after the manner of Linnaeus . . 4 
 Addison and Sir Eichard Steele's Description of Gimcrack 
 
 the Collector ..... 5 
 
 MONKEYS ....... 9 
 
 The Gorilla and itf Story ... 9 
 The Orang-Utan . . . . .11 
 
 The Chimpanzee .... .12 
 
 Letter of Mr Waterton ..... 20 
 
 Mr Mitchell and the Young Chimpanzee . . 22 
 
 Lady Anne Barnard pleads for the Baboons . . 24 
 
 S. Bisset and his Trained Monkeys ... 25 
 
 Lord Byron's Pets ..... 26 
 
 The Ettrick Shepherd's Monkey ... 27 
 
 The Findhorn Fisherman and the Monkey . . 29 
 " We ha'e seen the Enemy / " . . . .29 
 
 The French Marquis and his Monkey ... 30 
 George IV. and Happy Jerry. Mr Cross's Rib-nosed 
 
 Baboon at Exeter Change .... 31 
 
 The Young Lady's pet Monkey and the poor Parrot . 33 
 
 Monkeys " poor relations " .... 34 
 
 Sydney Smith on Monkeys .... 34 
 
 Mrs Colm Mackenzie on the Apes at Simla . . 35 
 
 The Aye Aye, or Cheiromys of Madagascar (with a Plate) 36 
 
 * There are many anecdotes in this book not included in this list, which gives 
 however, the principal.
 
 Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 BATS ........ 38 
 
 One of Captain Cook's Sailors sees a Fox-Bat, and de- 
 scribes it as a devil . . . .39 
 
 Fox Bats (with a Plate) . . . .41 
 
 Dr Mayerne and his Balsam of Bats . . . 47 
 
 HEDGEHOG ....... 48 
 
 Kobert Southey to his Critics .... 48 
 
 MOLE ....... 49 
 
 Mole, cause of Death of William III. ... 49 
 
 BROWN BKAK ....... 56 
 
 The Austrian General and the Bear "Back, rascal, I 
 
 am a general ! " . . . . .58 
 
 Lord Byron's Bear at Cambridge ... 59 
 
 Charles Dickens on Bear's Grease and Bear-keeperg . 59 
 
 A Bearable Pun ..... 60 
 
 A Shaved Bear ...... 61 
 
 POLAR BEAR ....... 61 
 
 General History and Anecdotes of Polar Bear, as ob- 
 served on recent Arctic Expeditions (with a Plate) 61 
 Nelson and the Polar Bear . . . . 67 
 
 A Clever Polar Bear ..... 67 
 
 Captain Ommaney and the Polar Bear ... 70 
 
 RACCOON ....... 71 
 
 "A Gone Coon" 71 
 
 BADGER ....... 71 
 
 Hugh Miller sees the " Drawing of the Badger " . 72 
 
 The Laird of Balnamoon and the Brock . . 75 
 
 FERRET ....... 75 
 
 Collins and the Rat-catcher, with the Ferret . . 76 
 
 POLE-CAT ....... 76 
 
 Fox and the Poll-Cat 77 
 
 DOG ........ 77 
 
 Phrases about Dogs ..... 77 
 
 Cowper's Dog ...... 79 
 
 Co wper and his dog Beau . . . .81 
 
 Burns's " Twa Dogs " . . . . .81 
 
 Dog of Assyrian Monument .... 86 
 
 Bishop Blomfield bitten by a Dog ... 88
 
 CONTENTS. ix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 DOG (continued.) 
 
 Sydney Smith's Remark on it . . . 88 
 
 Bishop of Bristol " Puppies never see till they are nine 
 
 days old " . . . . . .88 
 
 Mrs Browning, the Poetess, and her dog Flush . 89 
 
 Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart., and his dog Speaker . 93 
 
 Lord Byron and his dog Boatswain ... 94 
 
 Lady's reason for calling her dog Perchance . . 96 
 
 Collins the Artist and his dog Prinny the faithful 
 
 Model 96 
 
 Soldier and Dog . . . . .97 
 
 Bark and Bite ! Curran on Lord Clare and his Dog . 98 
 
 Mrs Drew and the two Dogs . ... 98 
 
 Gainsborough and his Wife and their Dogs . . 100 
 
 Sir William Gell's Dog, which was said to speak . 101 
 
 The Duke of Gordon's Wolf-hounds . . .102 
 
 Frederick the Great and his Italian Greyhounds . 104 
 
 The Dog and the French Murderers ... 104 
 Hannah More on Garrick's Dog . . . 105 
 
 Rev. Robert Hall and the Dog .... 106 
 A Queen (Henrietta Maria) and her Lap-Dog . . 106 
 
 The Clever Dog that belonged to the Hunters of Polmood 107 
 The Irish Clergyman and the Dogs . . . 108 
 
 Washington Irving and the Dog . . .108 
 
 Douglas Jerrold and his Dog .... 109 
 Sheridan and the Dog ..... 109 
 Charles Lamb and his dog " Dash " . . 110 
 
 French Dogs of Louis XII. .... 110 
 Martin Luther observes a Dog at Lintz . . Ill 
 
 Poor Dog at the Grotta del Cane . . . Ill 
 
 Dog a Postman and Carrier .... 113 
 South and Sherlock Dog-matic . . .113 
 
 General Moreau and his Greyhound . . . 113 
 
 Duke of Norfolk and his Spaniels . . . 114 
 
 Lord North and the Dog .... 115 
 
 Perthes derives Hints from his Dog . . .115 
 
 Peter the Great and his dog Lisette . . . 116 
 
 The Light Company's Poodle and Sir F. Ponsonby . 118
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOS 
 
 Doo (continued.) 
 
 Admiral Rodney and his dog Loup . . . 119 
 
 Ruddiman and his dog Rascal .... 119 
 Mrs Schimmelpenninck and the Dogs . . .120 
 
 Sir Walter Scott and his Dogs . . . .122 
 
 Sheridan on the Dog-Tax . . . .123 
 
 Sydney Smith dislikes Dogs. An ingenious way of get- 
 ting rid of them ..... 124 
 Sydney Smith on Dogs . . . . .125 
 
 Sydney Smith. " Newfoundland Dog that breakfasted 
 
 on Parish Boys " . . . . .126 
 
 Robert Southey on his Dogs .... 126 
 A Dog that was a good judge of Elocution. Mr True 
 
 and his Pupil ..... 127 
 
 Dog that tried to please a Crying Child . . 128 
 
 Horace "Walpole's pet dog Rosette . . .128 
 
 Horace Wai pole. Arrival of his dog Tonton . . 1 29 
 
 Horace Walpole. Death of his dog Tonton . . 130 
 
 Archbishop Whateley and his Dogs . . .131 
 
 Archbishop Whately on Dogs . . . .132 
 
 Sir David Wilkie. A Dog-Rose . . . 133 
 
 Ulysses and his Dog . . . . .133 
 
 WOLF . . . _ . . . .135 
 
 Poison and the Last Wolf in Sutherlandshire . . 135 
 
 "If the tail break, you '11 find that" . . .137 
 
 Fox ........ 138 
 
 An Enthusiastic Fox-hunting Surgeon . . . 138 
 
 Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, on the Pleasures of Fox- 
 hunting, and the gratification of the Fox . 139 
 Arctic Foxes converted into Postmen, with Anecdotes 
 
 (with a plate) . . . . .142 
 
 JACKAL ....... 148 
 
 Burke on the Jackal and Tiger . . . .149 
 
 CAT . . . . . . . .149 
 
 Jeremy Bentham and his pet cat " Sir John Langborn" -* 150 
 S. Bisset and his Musical Cats . . . .152 
 
 Constant, Chateaubriand, and their Cats . . 153 
 
 Listen, the Surgeon, and his Cat . . .153
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CAT (continued. ) 
 
 The Banker Mitchell's Antipathy to Kittens . .154 
 
 James Montgomery and his Cats . . .155 
 
 David Ritchie's Cat ..... 157 
 Sir Walter Scott's Visit to the Black Dwarf . . 157 
 
 Southey, the Poet, and his Cats . . . 158 
 
 Archbishop Whateley and the Cat that used to ring the 
 
 Bell 160 
 
 TIGER AND LION . . . . . .161 
 
 Bussapa, the Tiger-slayer, and the Tiger . . 162 
 
 John Hunter and the Dead Tiger . . . 164 
 
 Mrs Mackenzie on the Indian's regard and awe for the 
 
 Tiger ...... 165 
 
 Jolly Jack-tar on Lion and Tiger . . . 166 
 
 Androcles and the Lion . . . .167 
 
 Sir George Davis and the Lion . . .170 
 
 Canova's Lions and the Child . . . .171 
 
 Admiral Napier and the Lion in the Tower . . 173 
 
 Old Lady and the Beasts on the Mound . . 173 
 
 SEALS ....... 174 
 
 Dr Adam Clarke on Shetland Seals . . .175 
 
 Dr Edmonstone and the Shetland Seals . . 176 
 
 The "Walrus or Morse (with a Plate) . . . 182 
 
 KANGAROO ....... 188 
 
 Charles Lamb on its Peculiarities . . ' . 188 
 
 Captain Cooke's Sailor and the first Kangaroo seen . 189 
 Charles Lamb on Kangaroos having Purses in front . 189 
 Kangaroo Cooke . . . . .189 
 
 TIGER WOLF ....... 190 
 
 SQUIRREL, &c. .... 194 
 
 Jekyll on a Squirrel ..... 195 
 Pets of some of the Parisian Revolutionary Butchers . 195 
 Sir George Back and the poor Lemming . . 196 
 
 M'Dougall and Arctic Lemming . . . 197 
 
 RATS AND MICE ...... 198 
 
 Duke of Wellington and Musk-Rat . . . 200 
 
 Lady Eglinton and the Rats .... 200 
 
 General Douglas and the Rate .... 201
 
 XU CONTENTS. 
 
 TAOB 
 
 HATS AND MICE (continued.) 
 
 Hanover Rats ...... 202 
 
 Irishman Shooting Rats .... 203 
 
 James Watt and the Rat's Whiskers . . . 204 
 
 Gray the Poet compares Poet-Laureate to Rat-catcher 204 
 
 Jeremy Bentham and the Mice .... 205 
 
 Robert Burns and the Field Mouse . . . 206 
 
 Fuller on Destructive Field Mice . . . 208 
 
 Baron Von Trenck and the Mouse in Prison . . 209 
 Alexander Wilson, the American Ornithologist, and the 
 
 Mouse . . . . . .211 
 
 HARES, RABBITS, GUINEA-PIG . . . 212 
 William Cowper on his Hares . . . .213 
 
 Lord Norbury on the Exaggeration of a Hare-Shooter 220 
 
 Duke of L. prefers Friends to Hares . . . 221 
 
 S. Bisset and his Trained Hare and Turtle . . 221 
 Lady Anne Barnard on a Family of Rabbits all blind of 
 
 one eye ...... 222 
 
 Thomas Fuller on Norfolk Rabbits . . .222 
 
 Dr Chalmers and the Guinea-Pig . . . 223 
 
 SLOTH . . . . . . 224 
 
 Sydney Smith on the Sloth a Comparison . . 224 
 
 THE GREAT ANT-EATER (with a Plate) . . . 225 
 
 ELEPHANT ..... . 229 
 
 Lord Clive Elephant or Equivalent ? . . 230 
 
 Canning on the Elephant and his Trunk . . 232 
 
 Sir R. Phillips and Jelly made of Ivory Dust . . 233 
 
 J. T. Smith and the Elephant .... 234 
 
 Sydney Smith on the Elephant and Tailor . . 235 
 
 Elephant's Skin a teacher put down . . 236 
 
 FOSSIL PACHYDERMATA ..... 236 
 
 Cuvier's Enthusiasm over Fossils . . 236 
 
 Sow ........ Si38 
 
 " There 's a hantle o' miscellaneous eatiu' aboot a Pig " 238 
 "Pig- Sticking at Chicago" . . . .238 
 
 Monument to a Pig at Luneberg . . . 239 
 
 WILD BOAB (with a Plate) ..... 239
 
 CONTENTS. Xiii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE RIVER PIG (with a Plate) .... 245 
 
 S. Bisset and his Learned Pig .... 250 
 
 Quixote Bowles fond of Pigs .... 251 
 
 On Jekyll's treading on a small Pig . . . 251 
 
 Good enough for a Pig ..... 251 
 
 Gainsborough's Pigs ..... 252 
 
 Theodore Hook and the Litter of Pigs . . . 253 
 Lady Hardwicke's Pig her Bailiff . . .253 
 
 Pigs and Silver Spoon ..... 253 
 
 Sydney Smith on Beautiful Pigs . . . 254 
 
 Joseph Sturge, when a boy, and the Pigs . . 255 
 
 RHINOCEROS ...... 229 
 
 The Lord Keeper Guildford and the Rhinoceros in the 
 
 City of London ..... 230 
 
 HORSE . . ..... 256 
 
 Horse shot under Albert .... 256 
 
 Bell- Rock Lighthouse Horse .... 257 
 
 Edmund Burke and the Horse .... 257 
 
 David Garrick and his Horse, "A horse! ahorse! my 
 
 kingdom for a horse ! " . . . . 258 
 
 Bernard Gilpin's Horses stolen and recovered , 260 
 The Herald and George III.'s Horse . . .261 
 Rev. Rowland Hill and his Horse . . .261 
 Holcroft on the Horse , 263 
 Lord Mansfield, his Joke about a Horse . . 267 
 Sir John Moore and his Horse at Corunna . . 268 
 Neither Horses nor Children can explain their Com- 
 plaints ...... 269 
 
 Horses with Names ..... 270 
 
 Rennie the Engineer and the Horse Old Jack . . 270 
 
 Sydney Smith and his Horses .... 271 
 
 Sydney Smith. He drugs his Domestic Animals . 273 
 
 Horseback, an Absent Clergyman . , . 273 
 
 Judge Story and the Names he gave his Horses . 274 
 Short-tailed and Long-tailed Horses at Livery, difference 
 
 of Charge ...... 275
 
 xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 TADS 
 
 Ass AND ZEBRA ...... 276 
 
 Coleridge on the Ass . 276 
 Collins and the old Donkey at Odell . . .276 
 
 Gainsborough kept one to Study from . . . 277 
 
 Irishman on the Ramsgate Donkeys . . . 278 
 
 Douglas Jerrold and the Ass's Foal . . . 278 
 
 The Judge and the Barrister ... 279 
 
 Ass that loved Poetry ..... 279 
 
 Warren Hastings and the refractory Donkey . . 279 
 
 Northcote, an Angel at an Ass .... 281 
 
 Sydney Smith's Donkey with Jeffrey on his back . 281 
 
 Sydney Smith on the Sagacity of the Ass . . 283 
 Sydney Smith's Deers, how he introduced them into 
 
 his Grounds to gratify Visitors . , . 284 
 
 Asses' Duty Free ..... 284 
 Thackeray on Egyptian Donkey . . .285 
 
 Zebra, a Frenchman's double- entendre . . . 287 
 
 CAMELS ....... 287 
 
 Captain William Peel, R.N., on Camel . . 287 
 Captain in Royal Navy measures the progress of the 
 
 Ship of the Desert ..... 289 
 
 Lord Metcalfe on a Camel when a Boy . . 290 
 
 RED DEEB ....... 291 
 
 Earl of Dalhousie and the ferocious Stag . . 291 
 
 The French Count and the Stag . . . 293 
 
 FALLOW DEEB ...... 294 
 
 Venison Fat, Reynolds and the Gourmand . . 294 
 
 Goethe on Stag-trench at Frankfort-on-Maine . 294 
 
 GIRAFFE . . . . . . . 295 
 
 " Fancy Two Yards of Sore Throat 1" . . .295 
 
 SHEEP AND GOAT ...... 295 
 
 How many Legs has a Sheep ? ... 296 
 
 Goethe on Roos's Etchings of Sheep . . . 296 
 
 Lord Cockburn and the Sheep .... 298 
 
 Erskine's Sheep an Eye to the Woolsack . . 398 
 
 Sandy Wood and his Pet Sheep and Raven . . 298
 
 CONTENTS. XV 
 
 PAGE 
 
 SHEEP AND GOAT (continued.) 
 
 General Carnac and She-goat .... 299 
 
 John Hunter and the Shawl-goat ... 300 
 
 Commodore Keppel beards the Dey of Algiers . 303 
 
 Ox 304 
 
 Irish Bulls ...... 304 
 
 A great Calf ! " The more he sucked the greater Calf he 
 
 grew ! " . . . . . 304 
 
 Veal ad nauseam! too much of a good thing . . 304 
 
 James Boswell should confine himself to the Cow . 305 
 
 Rev. Adam Clarke and his Bullock Pat . . 305 
 Samuel Foote and the Cows pulling the Bell of Worcester 
 
 College ...... 306 
 
 The General's Cow at Plymouth . . .308 
 
 Gilpin's Love of the Picturesque carried out a reason 
 
 for keeping three Cows .... 308 
 
 King James on a Cow getting over the Border . 309 
 Duke of Montague and his Hospital for Old Cows and 
 
 Horses ...... 309 
 
 Philip IV. of Spain in the Bull-ring . . . 310 
 
 Sydney Smith and his " Universal Scratcher " . 311 
 Eev. Augustus Toplady on the Future State of Animals 
 
 the Rev. William Bull . . . .312 
 
 Windham on the Feelings of a Baited Bull . . 313 
 
 WHALE ....... 315 
 
 A Porpoise not at Home .... 315 
 
 Whalebone . . . . . .315 
 
 " What 's to become o' the puir Whales ?" . . 316 
 
 Very like a Whale !..... 316 
 
 Christopher North on the Whale . . 316
 
 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 M A N. 
 
 IN this collection, like Linnaeus, we begin with man as 
 undoubtedly an animal, as opposed to a vegetable or mineral. 
 Like Professor Owen, we are inclined to fancy he is well 
 entitled to separate rank from even the Linnaean order, 
 Primates, and to have more systematic honour conferred 
 on him than what Cuvier allowed him. That great French 
 naturalist placed man in a section separate from his four- 
 handed order, Quadrumana, and, from his two hands and 
 some other qualities, enrolled our race in an order, Bimana. 
 Surely the ancients surpassed many modern naturalists of 
 the Lamarckian school, who would derive him from an 
 ourang, a chimpanzee, or a gorilla. One of them has 
 nobly said 
 
 " Os homini sublime dedit, ccelumque tueri." 
 
 Our own Sir William Hamilton, in a few powerful words 
 has condensed what will ever be, we are thankful to sup- 
 pose, the general idea of most men, be they naturalists or 
 not, that mind and soul have much to distinguish us from 
 every other animal : 
 
 " What man holds of matter does not make up his per- 
 
 A
 
 2 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 sonality. Man is not an organism. He is an intelligence 
 served by organs. They are HIS, not HE." 5 
 
 As a mere specimen, we subjoin two or three anecdotes, 
 although the species, Homo sapiens, has supplied, and 
 might supply, many volumes of anecdotes touching on his 
 whims and peculiarities. As a good example of the Scottish 
 variety, who is there that does not know Dean Ramsay's 
 " Reminiscences 1 " Surely each nation requires a similar 
 judicious selection. Mr Punch, especially when aided by 
 his late* admirable artist, John Leech, shows seemingly 
 that John Bull and his family are as distinct from the 
 French, as the French are from the Yankees. 
 
 THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH THE ARTIST, AND THE TAILOR. 
 
 Gainsborough, the painter, was very ready-witted. His 
 biographer* records the following anecdote of him as 
 very likely to be authentic. The great artist occa- 
 sionally made sketches from an honest old tailor, of 
 the name of Fowler, who had a picturesque counte- 
 nance and silver-gray locks. On the chimney-piece of 
 his painting-room, among other curiosities, was a beauti- 
 ful preparation of an infant cranium, presented to the 
 painter by his old friend, Surgeon Cruickshanks. Fowler, 
 without moving his position, continually peered at it 
 askance with inquisitive eye. " Ah 1 Master Fowler," 
 said the painter, " that is a mighty curiosity." " What 
 might it be, sir, if I may be so bold 1" "A whale's eye," 
 replied Gainsborough. " Oh ! not so ; never say so, 
 
 * Life of Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. By the late George 
 Williams Fulcher. Edited by his Son. P. 157.
 
 MAN. 3 
 
 Muster Gainsborough. Laws! sir, 'it is a little child's 
 skull !" " You have hit upon it," said the wag. " Why, 
 Fowler, you are a witch ! But what will you think when 
 I tell you that it is the skull of Julius Caesar when he was 
 a little boy?" "Do you say so!" exclaimed Fowler, 
 " what a phenomenon !" 
 
 This reminds us of a similar story told of a countryman, 
 who was shown the so-called skull of Oliver Cromwell at 
 the museum in Oxford, and expressed Ins delight by say- 
 ing how gratifying it was to see skulls of great men at 
 different ages, for he had just seen at Bath the skull of the 
 Protector when a youth ! 
 
 SlR DAVID WlLKIE AND THE BABY. 
 
 A very popular novelist and author of the present day 
 tells the following anecdote of the simplicity of Sir David 
 Wilkie, with regard to his knowledge of infant human 
 nature : 
 
 On the birth of his first son, at the beginning of 1824, 
 William Collins,* the great artist, requested Sir David 
 Wilkie to become one of the sponsors for his child.t The 
 painter's first criticism on his future godson is worth 
 recording from its simplicity. Sir David, whose studies 
 of human nature extended to everything but infant human 
 nature, had evidently been refreshing his faculties for the 
 occasion, by taxing his boyish recollections of puppies and 
 
 * Memoir of the Life of William Collins, R.A. By W. Wilkie 
 Collins. I., p. 235. 
 
 t The future author of The Woman in White " and " The Dead 
 Secret," and many other works of celebrity.
 
 4 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 kittens ; for, after looking intently into the child's eyes as 
 it was held up for his inspection, he exclaimed to the 
 father, with serious astonishment and satisfaction, "He 
 sees!" 
 
 MAN DEFINED SOMEWHAT IN THE LlNN-ffiAN MANNER. 
 
 One who is partial to the Linnaean mode of characteris- 
 ing objects of natural history has amused himself with 
 drawing up the following definition of man : " Simla 
 sine cauda; pedibusposticisambulans; gregarius,omnivorus, 
 inquietw, mendax, furax, rapax, salax, pugnax, artium 
 variarum capax, animalium reliquorum hostis, sui ipsius 
 inimicus acerrimus" 
 
 Montgomery translated the description thus : 
 
 Man is an animal unfledged, 
 A monkey with his tail abridged ; 
 A thing that walks on spindle legs, 
 With bones as brittle, sir, as eggs ; 
 His body, flexible and limber, 
 And headed with a knob of timber ; 
 A being frantic and unquiet, 
 And very fond of beef and riot ; 
 Eapacious, lustful, rough, and martial, 
 To lies and lying scoundrels partial ! 
 By nature form'd with splendid parts 
 To rise in science shine in arts ; 
 Yet so confounded cross and vicious, 
 A mortal foe to all his species ! 
 His own best friend, and you must know, 
 His own worst enemy by being so !"* 
 
 * Memoirs of James Montgomery. By Holland and Everett. I., 
 p. 283.
 
 MAN. 5 
 
 ADDISON AND STEELE ON SOME OP THE PECULIARITIES OP 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTORS OF THE DAY. 
 
 In one of the early volumes of Chambers' s Edinburgh 
 Journal, there was a very curious paper entitled " Nat 
 Phin." Although considerably exaggerated, no one who 
 had the happiness of knowing the learned, amiable, and 
 excellent Dr Patrick Neill, could fail to recognise, in the 
 transposed title, an amusing description of his love of 
 natural history pets, zoological and botanical. The fun 
 of the paper is that "Nat" gets married, and, coming 
 home one day from his office, finds that his young wife 
 has caused the gardener to clear out his ponds of tadpoles 
 and zoophytes. 
 
 Addison or Sir Eichard Steele, or both of them, in the 
 following paper of the Taller (No. 221, Sept. 7, 1710), 
 has given one of those quietly satiric pictures of many a 
 well-known man of the day, some Petiver or Hans Sloane. 
 The widow Gimcrack's letter is peculiarly racy. Although 
 old books, the Taller and Spectator still furnish rare mate- 
 rial to many a popular magazine writer of the day, who 
 sometimes does little more than dilute a paper in these 
 and other rare repertories of the style and wit of a golden 
 age. We meditated offering various extracts from Swift 
 and Daniel Defoe ; but our space limits us to one, and the 
 following may for the present suffice. 
 
 " From my own Apartment, September 6. 
 " As I was this morning going out of my house, a little 
 boy in a black coat delivered me the following letter. 
 Upon asking who he was, he told me that he belonged to
 
 6 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 my Lady Gimcrack. I did not at first recollect the name, 
 but, upon inquiry, I found it to be the widow of Sir 
 Nicholas, whose legacy I lately gave some account of to 
 the world. The letter ran thus : 
 
 " ' MR BICKERSTAFF, I hope you will not be surprised 
 to receive a letter from the widow Gimcrack. You know, 
 sir, that I have lately lost a very whimsical husband, who, 
 I find, by one of your last week's papers, was not altogether 
 a stranger to you. When I married this gentleman, he had 
 a very handsome estate ; but, upon buying a set of micro- 
 scopes, he was chosen a Fellow of the Royal Society from 
 which time I do not remember ever to have heard him speak 
 as other people did, or talk in a manner that any of his 
 family could understand him. He used, however, to pass 
 away his time very innocently in conversation with several 
 members of that learned body : for which reason I never 
 advised him against their company for several years, until 
 at last I found his brain quite turned with their discourses. 
 The first symptoms which he discovered of his being a 
 virtuoso, as you call him, poor man ! was about fifteen 
 years ago ; when he gave me positive orders to turn off an 
 old weeding woman, that had been employed in the family 
 for some years. He told me, at the same time, that there 
 was no such thing in nature as a weed, and that it was his 
 design to let his garden produce what it pleased ; so that, 
 you may be sure, it makes a very pleasant show as it now 
 lies. About the same time he took a humour to ramble 
 up and down the country, and would often bring home 
 with him his pockets full of moss and pebbles. This, you 
 may be sure, gave me a heavy heart ; though, at the same 
 time, I must needs say, he had the character cf a very
 
 MAN. 7 
 
 honest man, notwithstanding he was reckoned a little weak, 
 until he began to sell his estate, and buy those strange 
 baubles that you have taken notice of. Upon inidsummer- 
 day last, as he was walking with me in the fields, he saw 
 a very odd-coloured butterfly just before us. I observed 
 that he immediately changed colour, like a man that is 
 surprised with a piece of good luck ; and telling me that 
 it was what he had looked for above these twelve years, he 
 threw off his coat, and followed it. I lost sight of them 
 both in less than a quarter of an hour ; but my husband 
 continued the chase over hedge and ditch until about sun- 
 set ; at which time, as I was afterwards told, he caught 
 the butterfly as she rested herself upon a cabbage, near 
 five miles from the place where he first put her up. He 
 was here lifted from the ground by some passengers in a 
 very fainting condition, and brought home to me about 
 midnight. His violent exercise threw him into a fever, 
 which grew upon him by degrees, and at last carried him 
 off. In one of the intervals of his distemper he called to 
 me, and, after having excused himself for running out his 
 estate, he told me that he had always been more indus- 
 trious to improve his mind than his fortune, and that his 
 family must rather value themselves upon his memory as 
 he was a wise man than a rich one. He then told me that 
 it was a custom among the Romans for a man to give his 
 slaves their liberty when he lay upon his death-bed. I 
 could not imagine what this meant, until, after having a 
 little composed himself, he ordered me to bring him a flea 
 which he had kept for several months in a chain, with a 
 design, as he said, to give it its manumission. This was 
 done accordingly. He then made the will, which I have
 
 8 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 since seen printed in your works word for word. Only I 
 must take notice that you have omitted the codicil, in 
 which he left a large concha veneris, as it is there called, 
 to a Member of the Royal Society, who was often with him 
 in his sickness, and assisted him in his will. And now, 
 sir, I come to the chief business of my letter, which is to 
 desire your friendship and assistance in the disposal of 
 those many rarities and curiosities which lie upon my 
 hands. If you know any one that has an occasion for a 
 parcel of dried spiders, I will sell them a pennyworth. I 
 could likewise let any one have a bargain of cockle-shells. 
 I would also desire your advice whether I had best sell my 
 beetles in a lump or by retail. The gentleman above men- 
 tioned, who was my husband's friend, would have me make 
 an auction of all his goods, and is now drawing up a cata- 
 logue of every particular for that purpose, with the two 
 following words in great letters over the head of them, 
 Auctio Gimcrackiana. But, upon talking with him, I 
 begin to suspect he is as mad as poor Sir Nicholas was. 
 Your advice in all these particulars will be a great piece 
 of charity to, Sir, your most humble servant, 
 
 " ' ELIZABETH GIMCRACK.' 
 
 " I shall answer the foregoing letter, and give the widow 
 my best advice, as soon as I can find out chapmen for the 
 wares which she has to put off."
 
 MONKEYS. 9 
 
 MONKEYS. 
 THE GORILLA AND ITS STORY. 
 
 IN the British Museum, in handsome glass cases, and on 
 the floors of the three first rooms at the top of the stairs, 
 may be seen the largest collection of the skins and skele- 
 tons of quadrupeds ever brought together. In the third, 
 or principal room, will be found a nearly complete series 
 of the QUADRUMANA or four-handed Mammalia. Monkeys 
 are quadrumanous mammalia. The resemblance of these 
 animals to men is most conspicuous, in the largest of 
 them, such as the gorilla, orang-utan, chimpanzee, and 
 the long-armed or gibbous apes. Such resemblance is 
 most distant in the ferocious dog-faced baboons of Africa, 
 the Cynocephali of the ancients. It is softened off, but 
 not effaced, in the pretty little countenances of those 
 dwarf pets from South America, the ouistities or mar- 
 mosets, and other species of new-world monkeys, some of 
 which are not larger than a squirrel. 
 
 They are well called MONKEYS, Monnikies, Mannikies 
 little men, " Simice quasi bestice hominibus similes," "mon- 
 keys, as if beasts resembling man," or " mon," as the word 
 man is pronounced in pure Doric Saxon, whether in York 
 or Peebles. 
 
 " Monkey ! you very degraded little brute, how much 
 you resemble us ! " said old Ennius, without ever fancying 
 that the day would come when some men would regard 
 their own race as little better than highly-advanced mon- 
 keys.
 
 10 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 Let us never for a moment rest in such fallacious 
 theories, or accept the belief of Darwin and Huxley, with 
 a few active agitating disciples, that animals, and even 
 plants, may pass into each other. 
 
 " I think we are not wholly brain, 
 Magnetic mockeries ; . . . 
 Not only cunning casts in clay ; 
 Let science prove we are, and then 
 What matters science unto men, 
 At least to me ! I would not stay : 
 Let him, the wiser man who springs 
 Hereafter, up from childhood shape 
 His action, like the greater ape, 
 But I was born to other things." 
 
 In Memoriam, cxix. 
 
 Darwin and Huxley cannot change nature. They may 
 change their minds and opinions, as their fathers did 
 before them. It is, we suspect, only the old heathen 
 materialism cropping out, 
 
 " Our little systems have their day 
 They have their day and cease to be. 
 They are but broken lights of Thee, 
 And Thou, Lord ! art more than they." 
 
 In Memoriam. 
 
 No artists or authors have ever pictured or described 
 monkeys like Sir Edwin Landseer and his brother Thomas. 
 Surely a new edition of the Monkeyana is wanted for the 
 rising generation. Oliver Goldsmith, that great writer, 
 who was most feeble in knowledge of natural history 
 from almost total ignorance of the subject, over which lie 
 threw the graces of his charming style, noticed, as remark- 
 able, that in countries " where the men are barbarous and 
 stupid, the brutes are the most active and sagacious." He
 
 MONKEYS. 1 1 
 
 continues, that it is in the torrid tracts, inhabited by bar- 
 barians, that animals are found with instinct so nearly 
 approaching reason. Both in Africa and America, accord- 
 ingly, he tells us, " the savages suppose monkeys to be 
 men ; idle, slothful, rational beings, capable of speech and 
 conversation, but obstinately dumb, for fear of being com- 
 pelled to labour." 
 
 For the present, I shall suppose that the gorilla, largest 
 of all the apes, can not only speak, but write ; and is speak- 
 ing and writing to an orang-utan of Borneo. Even a 
 Lamarckian will allow this to be within the range of 
 possibility. Were it possible to get Gay or Cowper to 
 write a new set of fables, animals, in the days of post- 
 offices and letters, would become, like the age, epistolary. 
 But a word on the imaginary correspondent. 
 
 The orang, as the reader knows, is the great red- 
 haired " Man of the Woods," as the name may be rendered 
 in English. My old friend, Mr Alfred Wallace, lately in 
 New Guinea, and the adjoining parts, collecting natural 
 history subjects, and making all kinds of valuable obser- 
 vations and surveys, sent to Europe most of the magnifi- 
 cent specimens of this " ugly beast " now in the museum. 
 He has detailed its habits and history in an able account, 
 published some years ago in " The Annals and Magazine of 
 Natural History." 
 
 Its home seems to be the fine forests which cover 
 many parts of the coast of Borneo. The home of the 
 gorilla and chimpanzee are in the tropical forests of the 
 coasts of Western Africa. 
 
 There would seem to be but three or four well estab- 
 lished species of these apes, though there are, as in man
 
 12 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 and most created beings, some marked or decided varieties. 
 These apes are altogether quadrupeds, adapted for a life 
 among trees. The late Charles Waterton, of Walton Hall, 
 whom I deem it an honour to have known for many years, 
 personally and in his writings, has well shown this in his 
 " Essays on Natural History." Professor Owen, with his 
 Osteologies, and old Tyson, with, his anatomies, have each 
 demonstrated that draw what inferences the followers of 
 Mr Darwin may choose monkeys are not men, but quad- 
 rupeds. 
 
 The structure of chimpanzee, orang, and gorilla con- 
 siderably resembles that of man, but so more distantly 
 does a frog's, so does Scheuchzer's fossil amphibian in the 
 museum, so does a squirrel's, so does a parrot's. Yet, 
 because parrots, squirrels, frogs, and asses have skulls, a 
 pelvis, and fore-arms, they are not men any more than fish 
 are. Linnaeus has given the real specific, the real class, 
 order, and generic character of man, unique as a species, 
 as a genius, as an order, or as a class, as even the greatest 
 comparative anatomist of England regards him ; " Nosce 
 teipsum:" T*uOi e;av" KNOW THYSELF. Man 
 alone expects a hereafter. He is immortal, and antici- 
 pates, hopes for, or dreads a resurrection. Melancholy it 
 is that he alone, as an American writer curiously remarks, 
 collects bodies of men of one Uood to fight with each 
 other. He alone can become a drunkard. 
 
 The reader must leave rhapsody, and may now be 
 reminded, in explanation of allusions in the following letter, 
 that the arm of Dr Livingstone, the African traveller, was 
 crushed and crunched by the bite and " chaw " of a lion. 
 He will also please to notice, that the skeleton of the
 
 MONKEYS. 13 
 
 gorilla in the museum has the left arm broken by some 
 dreadful accident. This injury may possibly have been 
 caused by a fall when young, or more probably by the 
 empoisoned bite of a larger gorilla, or of a tree-climbing 
 Leopard. So much may be premised before giving a letter, 
 supposed to be intercepted on its way between the Gaboon 
 and London, and London and Borneo, opened at St 
 Martin's-le-Grand, and detained as unpaid. 
 
 " I was born in a large baobab tree, on the west coast 
 of Africa, not very far from Calabar. We gorillas are 
 good time-keepers, rise early and go to bed early, guided 
 infallibly by the sun. But though our family has been in 
 existence at least six thousand years, we have no chro- 
 nology, and care not a straw about our grandfathers. I 
 suppose I had a grandmother, but I never took any interest 
 in any but very close relationships. 
 
 " We never toiled for our daily food, and are not idle 
 like these lazy black fellows who hold their palavers near 
 us, and whom I, for my part, heartily despise. They 
 cannot climb a tree, as we do, although they can talk to 
 each other, and make one another slaves. At least they 
 so treat their countrymen far off where the fine sweet 
 plantains grow, and some other juicy tit-bits, the memory 
 of which makes my mouth water. These fellows have 
 ugly wives, not nearly so big-mouthed as ours, without 
 our noble bony ridge, small ears, and exalted presence. 
 They are actually forced to walk erect, and their forelegs 
 seldom touch the ground, except in the case of piccan- 
 ninies. These little creatures crawl on the ground, are 
 much paler when born, and are then perfectly helpless ; 
 and have no hair except on their heads, whereas our
 
 1 4 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 beautiful young are fine and hairy, and can swing among 
 the branches, shortly after birth, nearly as well as their 
 parents. When I was very young, I could soon help 
 myself to fruits which abound on our trees. 
 
 "Have you dates, plantains, and soursops so sweet at 
 Sarawak, Master Redhair ? We have, and all kinds of 
 them. I should like, for a variety, to taste yours. Mind 
 you send me some of the durian* Make haste and send 
 it, for Wallace's description makes my mouth water. 
 
 " I have told you our little ones soon learn to help them- 
 selves, whereas I have seen the piccanninies of the blacks 
 nursed by their mothers till many rainy seasons had come 
 and gone. I really think nothing of the talking blacks 
 who live near us. They put on bits of coloured rags, not 
 nearly so bright, so regular, nor so contrasting as the 
 feathers of our birds. 
 
 " Beautifully coloured are the green touraco and the 
 purple plantain-eater, a rascally bird ! who eats some of 
 our finest plantains, and has bitten holes in many a one I 
 thought to get entirely to myself. Why, our parrots beat 
 these West-African negroes to sticks ! Even our common 
 gray parrot, so prettily scaled with gray, and with the red 
 feathers under his tail, is more natural than these blacks, 
 with their dirty-white, yellow, blue, green, and red rags. 
 
 " Besides, that gray parrot beats them hollow both in its 
 voice and in the way it imitates. Do you know that 
 when I have been giving my quick short bark, to tell that 
 I am not well pleased, I have heard one of these fellows 
 near me actually make me startle its bark was so like to 
 
 * The Durian. a peculiarly favourite fruit in several of the 
 Eastern Islands.
 
 MONKEYS. 15 
 
 that of one of our kind ! I cannot bear the blacks ! I 
 have had a grudge against them since some little urchins 
 shot at me when I was young, and made my hand bleed. 
 How it bled ! My mother, with whom I had been, kept 
 out of the way of these blackguards, but I was playing 
 with another little gorilla, and forgot to keep a look-out. 
 I have kept a good look-out ever since I got that wound, I 
 assure you. I licked it often, and so did my mother with 
 her delicious mouth. It soon left off bleeding and healed. 
 We gorillas have no brandy, no whisky, no wine, not even 
 small beer, to inflame our blood. We sleep, too, among 
 the trees, clear off the ground, where there are dangerous 
 vapours, so that we are free from all miasmata. West 
 Africa is my lovely home, and I am big and beautifully 
 pot-bellied. It is the home of the large-eared chimpanzee, 
 a near relative of ours, though we never marry. He is 
 an active fellow, with rather large vulgar-looking ears ; 
 while mine, though I ought not to say so, are beautifully 
 small, and denote my more exalted birth. Master Chim- 
 panzee needs all his ears, for he is not so strong as I, and 
 as yo f c will hear, we anthropoids have enemies in our trees, 
 just as you perhaps have, Master Eedhair. We are both 
 cautious of getting on the ground, and when there, I assure 
 you I keep a sharp look-out. 
 
 " I have told you of one adventure I had in my youth, 
 and now listen to another which I have not forgotten to 
 this day. My left arm aches now as I think of it. 
 
 " As I was one day gambolling with another play-fellow 
 in a large tree, with great branches standing out from the 
 trunk, and at a good height from the ground, my com- 
 panion, another young gorilla, but with smaller mouth,
 
 16 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 larger nose, and other features uglier than mine, suddenly 
 shrieked, and looked frightened and angry. No sooner 
 had I noticed him than my whole frame was shaken. I 
 was seized by two paws in the small of my back a very 
 painful part to be dug into by ten hooked claws, nearly 
 as long as tenpenny nails, but horribly sharp and hooked. 
 Oh my arm ! 
 
 " I tried to turn round, and there was a most ferocious 
 leopard growling at me. I tried to bite, and to scratch 
 his eyes out, but the pain in the small of my back made 
 me quite giddy. The spotted scoundrel seized my left 
 arm how it aches ! and gave me a crunch or two. I 
 hear, I feel the teeth against my bones as I write. My 
 whole body is full of pain. 
 
 "My mother came and released me. She was large, 
 handsome, and well-to-do, with such long and strong arms, 
 and with a magnificent bulging and pouting mouth. In 
 those days of my infancy I used to fancy I should like to 
 try to take as large a bite of a plantain as she could. I 
 tried twice or thrice, but could only squash a tenth of the 
 juice of the fruit into my mouth. She had glorious white 
 teeth. Her grin clearly frightened the leopard, as well as 
 a pinch she gave him in the ' scruff' of the neck with one 
 of her hands, while with the other she caught hold of his 
 tail and made him yell. How he roared ! He fell off the 
 branch on to another ; but soon, like all the cats, recovered 
 his hold and jumped down to the ground, when he skulked 
 away with his tail behind him. 
 
 " I must really leave off, warned both by my paper and 
 your impatience. Well, I grew stronger and bigger every 
 day, and swung by one arm almost as well as the rest did
 
 MONKEYS. 17 
 
 tvith their two. I got, in fact, so strong on my hind feet, 
 that my toes were actually in time thicker than those of 
 any of my race. It is well, my dear Orang, to use what 
 you have left you, and to try as soon as possible to forget 
 what has been taken from you. 
 
 "... Look at my portrait, I am as strong, and as 
 bony, and as bonnie, as any gorilla. But I begin to boast, 
 so I will leave off." 
 
 No doubt that gorilla's injured arm affected its habits 
 and its activity every day of its life. The broken arm, 
 never set by some gorilla surgeon of celebrity, formed 
 a highly important feature in its biography. Reader ! 
 when next thou visitest the noble Museum in Bloomsbury, 
 look at the skeleton of that gorilla, whose probable story 
 Arachnophilus hath tried to give thee, and remember that 
 both skin and skeleton were exhibited there before Du 
 Chaillu became " a lion." 
 
 The gorilla is a native of West Africa. It is closely 
 allied to the chimpanzee, but grows to a larger size, and 
 has many striking anatomical characters and external 
 marks to distinguish it. It is certainly much dreaded by 
 the natives on the banks of the Gaboon, and, doubtless, 
 dreads them equally. Dr Gray procured a large specimen 
 in a tub from that district. It was skinned and set up by 
 Mr Bartlett. I have seen photographs in the hands of my 
 excellent old friend that admirable natural history and 
 anatomical draughtsman Mr George Ford of Hatton 
 Garden. These photographs were taken from its truly 
 ugly face as it was pulled out of the stinking brine. Life 
 in death, or death in life, it was most repulsive. 
 
 ''
 
 IS HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 Professor Owen read a most elaborate paper on the 
 gorilla before the Zoological Society. The great compara- 
 tive anatomist and zoologist shows that it may have been 
 the very species whose skins were brought by Hanno to 
 Carthage, in times before the Christian era, as the skins 
 of hairy wild men. The historian refers to them as 
 " gorullai " (FwstiXXa/.) 
 
 The natives of West Africa name it " N'Geena." 
 
 The stuffed specimen at the Museum is a young male. 
 Its preparation does great credit to Mr Bartlett's care and 
 knowledge, for the hair over nearly all the body was in 
 patches among the spirit thoroughly corrupted in its 
 alcoholic strength by animal matter. The peculiarly an- 
 thropoid and morbidly- disagreeable look that even the face 
 of the young gorilla had was, of course, perfect in the 
 photograph. In the Leisure Hour, a tolerably good cut 
 of it was given, but the artist did not copy the label accur- 
 ately, for on the photograph from which that cut was 
 derived, another name was rendered by that sun, who pays 
 no compliments and tells no lies. Professor Owen, the 
 greatest of comparative anatomists, has made the subject 
 of anthropoid apes his own, by the perfection of his 
 researches, continued and continuous. He would have 
 liked, at least I may venture, I believe, to say so (if the 
 matter gave him more than a moment's thought), that the 
 name of Dr Gray had been on that label. 
 
 Letter from C- Waterton, Esq., mentioning a young gorilla. 
 
 WALTON HALL, Feb. 4, 1856. 
 " DEAE SIR, As your favour of the 28th did not seem
 
 MONKEYS. 1 9 
 
 to require an immediate answer I put it aside for a while, 
 having a multiplicity of business then on hand, and being 
 obliged to be from home for a couple of days. 
 
 " I beg to enclose you the letter to which you allude. 
 
 " Pray do not suppose that for one single moment I 
 should be illiberal enough to undervalue a 'closet 
 naturalist.' ' Non cuivis homini contingit adire corin- 
 thum.' It does not fall to every one's lot to range through 
 the forests of Guiana, still, a gentleman given to natural 
 history may do wonders for it in his own apartments on 
 his native soil ; and had Audubon, Swainson, Jameson, 
 &c., not attacked me in all the pride of pompous self-con- 
 ceit, I should have been the last man in the world to 
 expose their gross ignorance. 
 
 " You ask me ' If we are to have another volume of 
 essays ? ' I beg to answer, no. Last year, Mrs London 
 (to whom I made a present of the essays) wrote to me, 
 and asked for a few papers to be inserted in a forthcoming 
 edition. I answered, that as I had had some strange and 
 awful adventures since the ' Autobiography ' made its ap- 
 pearance, I would tack them on to it. But from that time 
 to this, I have never had a line, either from Mrs London 
 or from her publishers. But some months ago, having 
 made a present of a superb case of preserved specimens in 
 natural history to the Jesuits' College in Lancashire, I 
 gave directions to my stationer at Wakefield to procure me 
 from London the fourth or last edition of the essays ; and 
 I made references to it accordingly. But, lo and behold, 
 when I had opened this supposed fourth edition, I saw 
 printed on the title page ' a new edition.' Better had they 
 printed a fifth edition. This threw all my references
 
 20 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 wrong. Should you be passing by Messrs Longman, per- 
 haps you will have the goodness -to ask when this ' new 
 edition ' was printed. 
 
 " I am sorry you did not show me your drawing of the 
 chimpanzee before it was engraved. The artist has not 
 done justice to it. He has made the ears far too large.* 
 The little brown chimpanzee has very small ears ; fully as 
 small in proportion as those of a genuine negro. I am half 
 inclined to give to the world a little treatise on the monkey 
 tribe. I am prepared to show that Linnaeus, Buffon, and 
 all our hosts of naturalists who have copied the remarks 
 of these celebrated naturalists, are perfectly in the dark 
 with, regard to the true character of all the monkey tribe. 
 Yesterday, I sent up to the Gardener's Chronicle a few notes 
 on the woodpecker. Believe me, dear sir, very truly 
 yours, CHAELES WATERTON. 
 
 " P.S. Many thanks for your nice little treatise on 
 the chimpanzee." 
 
 Mr Waterton enclosed me a copy of the following letter, 
 which he published in a Yorkshire newspaper : 
 
 To Mrs Worhbwell. 
 
 " MADAM, I am truly sorry that the inclemency of the 
 weather has prevented the inhabitants of this renowned 
 watering-place from visiting your wonderful gorilla, or 
 brown orang-outang. 
 
 " I have passed two hours in its company, and I have 
 been gratified beyond expression. 
 
 * Mr Wolf's drawing was taken from a chimpanzee. Mr Water- 
 ton's young chimpanzee was in reality a small-eared gorilla. Tha 
 ears of the chimpanzee are large.
 
 MONKEYS. 21 
 
 " Would that all lovers of natural history could get a 
 sight of it, as, possibly, they may never see another of the 
 same species in this country. 
 
 "It differs widely in one respect from all other orang- 
 outangs which have been exhibited in England namely, 
 that, when on the ground, it never walks on the soles of 
 its fore-feet, but on the knuckles of the toes of those feet ; 
 and those toes are doubled up like the closed fist of a man. 
 This must be a painful position ; and, to relieve itself, the 
 animal catches hold of visitors, and clings caressingly to 
 Miss Bright, who exhibits it. Here then, it is at rest, 
 with the toes of the fore-feet performing their natural 
 functions, which they never do when the animal is on the 
 ground. 
 
 " Hence I draw the conclusion that this singular quad- 
 ruped, like the sloth, is not a walker on the ground of its 
 own free-will, but by accident only. 
 
 " No doubt whatever it is born, and lives, and dies 
 aloft, amongst the trees in the forests of Africa. 
 
 " Put it on a tree, and then it will immediately have the 
 full use of the toes of its fore-feet. Place it on the ground, 
 and then you will see that the toes of the fore-feet become 
 useless, as I have already described. 
 
 "That it may retain its health, and thus remunerate 
 you for the large sum which you have expanded in the 
 purchase of it, is, madam, the sincere hope of your 
 obedient servant and well-wisher, 
 
 CHARLES WATERTON." 
 
 Scarborough Cliff, No. 1, Nov. I, 1855. 
 " P.S. You are quite at liberty to make what use you
 
 22 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 choose of this letter. I have written it for your own 
 benefit, and for the good of natural history." * 
 
 MR MITCHELL ON A YOUNG CHIMPANZEE. 
 
 The writer of a most readable article on the acclimatisa- 
 tion of animals in the Edinburgh Review^ gives an amus- 
 ing recital of the arrival of a chimpanzee at the Zoological 
 Gardens. It was related to him by the late Mr Mitchell, 
 who was long the active secretary of the society, and who 
 did much to improve the Gardens. " One damp November 
 evening, just before dusk, there arrived a French traveller 
 from Senegal, with a companion closely muffled up in a 
 burnoose at his side. On going, at his earnest request, to 
 speak to him at the gate, he communicated to me the 
 interesting fact that the stranger in the burnoose was a 
 young chim, who had resided in his family in Senegal for 
 some twelve months, and who had accompanied him to 
 England. The animal was in perfect health ; but from 
 the state of the atmosphere required good lodging, and 
 more tender care than could be found in a hotel. He pro- 
 posed to sell his friend. I was hard ; did not like pulmonic 
 property J at that period of the year, having already two 
 of the race in moderate health, but could not refrain from 
 an offer of hospitality during China's residence in London. 
 Chim was to go to Paris if I did not buy him. So we 
 carried him, burnoose and all, into the house where the lady 
 
 * Written in 1861. Skins and skeletons of the gorilla are to be 
 found now in many museums. 
 
 t For Jan. 1860, vol. iii., p. 177. 
 
 % Monkeys are very liable to lung diseases in this climate, and all 
 menagerie keepers are aware of the bad effects of the winter on these 
 denizens of a warm climate.
 
 MONKEYS. 23 
 
 chims were, and liberated him in the doorway. They had 
 taken tea, and were beginning to think of their early couch. 
 When the Senegal Adonis caught sight of them, he assumed 
 a jaunty air and advanced with politeness, as if to offer 
 them the last news from Africa. A yell of surprise burst 
 from each chimpanzella as they successively recognised the 
 unexpected arrival. One would have supposed that all 
 the Billingsgate of Chimpanzeedom rolled from the voluble 
 tongues of these unsophisticated and hitherto unimpressible 
 young ladies ; but probably their- gesticulations, their shrill 
 exclamations, their shrinkings, their threats, were but well- 
 mannered expressions of welcome to a countryman thus 
 abruptly revealed in the foreign land of their captivity. 
 Sir Chim advanced undaunted, and with the composure of 
 a high-caste pongo ; if he had had a hat he would have 
 doffed it incontinently, as it was, he only slid out of his 
 burnoose and ascended into the apartment which adjoined 
 his countrywomen with agile grace, and then, through the 
 transparent separation, he took a closer view. Juliana 
 yelled afresh. Paquita crossed her hands, and sat silently 
 with face about three quarters averted. Sir Chim uttered 
 what may have been a tranquillising phrase, expressive of 
 the great happiness he felt on thus being suddenly restored 
 to the presence of kinswomen in the moment of his deepest 
 bereavement. Juliana calmed. Paquita diminished her 
 angle of aversion, and then Sir Chim, advancing quite close 
 to the division, began what appeared to be a recollection 
 of a minuet. He executed marvellous gestures with a 
 precision and aplomb which were quite enchanting, and 
 when at last he broke out into a quick movement with 
 loud smacking stamps, the ladies were completely carried
 
 24 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 away, and gave Mm all attention. Friendship was estab- 
 lished, refreshments were served, notwithstanding the pre- 
 vious tea, and everybody was apparently satisfied, especially 
 the stranger. Upon asking the Senegal proprietor what 
 the dance meant, he told me that the animal had voluntarily 
 taken to that imitation of his slaves, who used to dance 
 every evening in the courtyard." 
 
 So far Mr Mitchell's narrative ; the reviewer relates how 
 a chimpanzee, placed for a short time in the society of the 
 children of his owner in this country, not only throve in 
 an extraordinary manner, was perfectly docile and good- 
 tempered, but learnt to imitate them. When the eldest 
 little boy wished to tease his playfellow, he used, childlike, 
 to make faces at him. Chim soon outdid him, and one of 
 the funniest things imaginable was to see him blown at 
 and blowing in return ; his protrusible lips converted them- 
 selves into a trumpet-shaped instrument, which reminded 
 one immediately of some of the devils of Albert Diirer, or 
 those incredible forms which the old painters used to delight 
 in piling together in their temptations of Saint Anthony. 
 
 LADY ANNE BARNARD PLEADS FOR THE BABOON& 
 
 Lady Anne Barnard, whose name as the writer of " Auld 
 Robin Gray " is familiar to every one who knows that most 
 pathetic ballad, spent five years with her husband at the 
 Cape (1797-1802). Her journal letters to her sisters are 
 most amusing, and full of interesting observations.* After 
 describing " Musquito-hunting " with her husband, she 
 
 * See " Lives of the Lindsays," by Lord Lindsay, vol. iii., pp. 
 371-476.
 
 MONKEYS. 25 
 
 writes : " In return, I endeavoured to effect a treaty of 
 peace for the baboons, who are apt to come down from the 
 mountain in little troops to pillage our garden of the fruit 
 with which the trees are loadad. I told him he would be 
 worse than Don Carlos if he refused the children of the 
 sun and the soil the use of what had descended from ouran- 
 outang to ouran-outang ; but, alas ! I could not succeed. 
 He had pledged himself to the gardener,* to the slaves, 
 and all the dogs, not to baulk them of their sport ; so he 
 shot a superb man-of-the-mountain one morning, who was 
 marauding, and electrified himself the same moment, so 
 shocked was he at the groan given by the poor creature as 
 he limped off the ground. I do not think I shall hear of 
 another falling a sacrifice to Barnard's gun ; they come too 
 near the human race " (p. 408). 
 
 In another letter she says (p. 391), "The best way to 
 get rid of them is to catch one, whip him, and turn him 
 loose he skips off chattering to his comrades, and is 
 extremely angry, but none of them return the season this 
 is done. I have given orders, however, that there may be 
 no whipping." 
 
 S. BlSSET AND HIS TRAINED MONKEYS. 
 
 We have elsewhere referred to S. Bisset as a trainer of 
 animals. Among the earliest of his trials, this Scotchman 
 
 *At Paradise. She describes some plants, one, evidently a 
 Stapelia, is a fine large star-plant, yellow and spotted like the skiij 
 of a leopard, over which there grows a crop of glossy brown hair, at 
 once handsome and horrible ; it crawls flat on the ground, and its 
 leaves are thick and fat (p. 407).
 
 26 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 took two monkeys as pupils. One of these he taught to 
 dance and tumble on the rope, whilst the other held a 
 candle with one paw for his companion, and with the other 
 played a barrel organ. These animals he also instructed to 
 play several fanciful tricks, such as drinking to the com- 
 pany, riding and tumbling upon a horse's back, and going 
 through several regular dances with a dog. The horse and 
 dog referred to, were the first animals on which this in- 
 genious person tried his skill. Although Bisset lived in 
 the last century, few persons seem to have surpassed him 
 in his power of teaching the lower animals. We have seen 
 a man in Charlotte Square, in 1865, make a new- world 
 monkey go through a series of tricks, ringing a bell, firing 
 a pea-gun, and such like. Poor Jacko was to be pitied. 
 His want of heart in his labours was very evident. Poor 
 fellow, no time for reflection was allowed him. Like some 
 of the masters in the Old High School, such cruelty dates 
 back more than thirty years, a ferule, or a pair of tawse 
 kept Jacko to his work. It was play to the onlookers, but 
 no sport to master Cebus. Had he possessed memory and 
 reflection, how his thoughts must have wandered from 
 Edinburgh to the rorests of the Amazon ! 
 
 LORD BYRON'S PETS. 
 
 Beside horses and dogs, the poet Byron, like his own 
 Don Juan, had a kind of inclination, or weakness, for what 
 most people deem mere vermin, live animals. 
 
 Captain Medwin records, in one of his conversations, 
 that the poet remarked that it was troublesome to travel 
 about with so much live and dead stock as he did, and
 
 MONKEYS. 27 
 
 adds " I don't like to leave behind me any of my pets, 
 that have been accumulating since I came on the Continent. 
 One cannot trust to strangers to take care of them. You 
 will see at the farmer's some of my pea-fowls en pension. 
 Fletcher tells me that they are almost as bad fellow-travel- 
 lers as the monkey, which I will show you." Here he led 
 the way to a room where he played with and caressed the 
 creature for some time. He afterwards bought another 
 monkey in Pisa, because he saw it ill-used.* 
 
 Lord Byron's travelling equipage to Pisa in the autumn 
 of 1821. consisted, inter ccetera, of nine horses, a monkey, 
 a bull-dog, and a mastiff, two cats, three pea-fowls, and 
 some hens.t 
 
 THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD'S MONKEY. 
 (From the " Noctes Anibrosiance" Dec. 1825. J) 
 
 Shepherd. I wish that you but saw my monkey, Mr 
 North. He would make you hop the twig in a guffaw. I 
 ha'e got a pole erected for him, o' about some 150 feet high, 
 011 a knowe ahint Mount Benger ; and the way the cretur 
 rins up to the knob, looking ower the shouther o' him, and 
 twisting his tail roun' the pole for fear o' playin' thud on 
 the grun', is comical past a' endurance. 
 
 North. Think you, James, that he is a link ? 
 
 ShepJterd. A link in creation 1 Not he, indeed. He is 
 merely a monkey. Only to see him on his observatory, 
 
 * " Conversations of Lord Byron " (p. 9). 
 
 t Loc. cit. (p. 1). 
 
 J " Works of Professor Wilson," vol. L, p. 73.
 
 28 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 beholding the sunrise ! or weeping, like a Laker, at the 
 beauty o' the moon and stars ! 
 
 North. Is he a bit of a poet ? 
 
 Shepherd. Gin he could but speak and write, there can 
 be nae manner o' doubt that he would be a gran' poet. 
 Safe us ! what een in the head o' him ! Wee, clear, red, 
 fiery, watery, rnalignant-lookin een, fu' o' inspiration. 
 
 Tickler. You should have him stuffed. 
 
 Shepherd. Stuffed, man ! say, rather, embalmed. But 
 he 's no likely to dee for years to come indeed, the cretur 's 
 engaged to be married; although he's no in the secret 
 himsel yet. The bawns are published. 
 
 Tickler. Why really, James, marriage I think ought 
 to be simply a civil contract. 
 
 Shepherd. A civil contract ! I wuss it was. But, oh ! 
 Mr Tickler, to see the cretur sittin wi' a pen in 's hand, 
 and pipe in 's mouth, jotting down a sonnet, or odd, or 
 lyrical ballad ! Sometimes I put that black velvet cap ye 
 gied me on his head, and ane o' the bairns's auld big- coats 
 on his back ; and then, sure aneugh, when he takes his stroll 
 in the avenue, he is a heathenish Christian. 
 
 North. Why, James, by this time he must be quite 
 like one of the family ? 
 
 Shepherd. He's a capital flee-fisher. I never saw a 
 monkey throw a lighter line in my life . . . Then, for row- 
 ing a boat ! 
 
 Tickler. Why don't you bring him to Ambrose's ? 
 
 Shepherd. He 's sae bashfu'. He never shines in com- 
 pany; and the least thing in the world will make him 
 blush.
 
 MONKEYS. 29 
 
 THE FINDHORN FISHERMAN AND THE MONKEY. 
 
 Sir Thomas Dick Lauder * records the adventures of a 
 monkey in Morayshire, whose wanderings sadly alarmed 
 the inhabitants who saw him, all unused as they were to 
 the sight of such an exotic stranger. 
 
 "We knew a large monkey, which escaped from his 
 chain, and was abroad in Morayshire for some eight or ten 
 days. Wherever he appeared he spread terror among the 
 peasantry. A poor fisherman on the banks of the Find- 
 horn was sitting with his wife and family at their frugal 
 meal, when a hairy little man, as they in their ignorance 
 conceived him to be, appeared on the window sill and 
 grinned, and chattered through the casement what seemed 
 to them to be the most horrible incantations. Horror- 
 struck, the poor people crowded together on their knees on 
 the floor, and began to exorcise him with prayers most 
 vehemently, until some external cause of alarm made their 
 persecutor vanish. The neighbours found the family half 
 dead with fear, and could with difficulty extract from them 
 the cause. ' Oh ! worthy neebours ! ' at last exclaimed 
 the goodman with a groan, ' we ha'e seen the Enemy 
 glowrin' at us through that vera wundow there. Lord 
 keep us a' ! ! ' He next alarmed a little hamlet near the 
 hills ; appearing and disappearing to various individuals 
 in a most mysterious manner ; till at last a clown, with a 
 few grains of more courage than the rest, loaded his gun 
 and put a sixpence into it, with the intention of stealing 
 upon him as he sat most mysteriously chattering on the 
 
 * Gilpin's " Forest Scenery," edited by Sir T. D. Lauder, voL 
 i., p. 354.
 
 30 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 top of a cairn of stones, and then shooting him with silver, 
 which is known never to fail in finishing the imps of the 
 Evil One. And lucky indeed was it for pug that he 
 chanced, through whim, to abscond from that quarter ; for 
 if he had not so disappeared, he might have died by the 
 lead, if not by the silver. As it was, the bold peasant 
 laid claim to the full glory of compelling this dreaded 
 goblin to flee." 
 
 Sir Thomas Lauder kept several pets in his beautiful 
 seat at the Grange, long occupied by the Messrs Dalgleish 
 of Dreghorn Castle as a genteel boarding-school, and now 
 by the Misses Mouatt as one for young ladies. "We have 
 often seen the tombstones to his dogs, which were buried 
 to the south of that mansion, in which Principal Robert- 
 son the historian died, and where Lord Brougham, his re- 
 lation, used to go when a boy at the High School. 
 
 THE FRENCH MARQUIS AND HIS MONKEY. 
 
 Dr John Moore, the father of General Moore, who fell at 
 Corunna, in one of the graphic sketches of a Frenchman 
 which he gives in his work on Italy, records a visit he 
 
 paid to the Marquis de F at Besanc^on. After many 
 
 questions, he says, " Before I could make any answer, I 
 chanced to turn my eyes upon a person whom I had not 
 before observed, who sat very gravely upon a chair in 
 a corner of the room, with a large periwig in full dress 
 upon his head. The marquis, seeing my surprise at the 
 sight of this unknown person, after a very hearty fit of 
 laughter, begged pardon for not having introduced me 
 sooner to that gentleman (who was no other than a large
 
 MONKEYS. 31 
 
 monkey), and then told me, he had the honour of being 
 attended by a physician, who had the reputation of pos- 
 sessing the greatest skill, and who certainly wore the 
 largest periwigs of any doctor in the province. That one 
 morning, while he was writing a prescription at his bed- 
 side, this same monkey bad catched hold of his periwig by 
 one of the knots, and instantly made the best of his way 
 out at the window to the roof of a neighbouring house, 
 from which post he could not be dislodged, till the doctor, 
 having lost patience, had sent home for another wig, and 
 never after could be prevailed on to accept of this, which 
 had been so much disgraced. That, enfin, his valet, to 
 whom the monkey belonged, had, ever since that adven- 
 ture, obliged the culprit by way of punishment to sit 
 quietly, for an hour every morning, with the periwig on 
 his head. Et pendanb ces moments de tranquillite je 
 suis honore de la societe du venerable personage. Then, 
 addressing himself to the monkey, " Adieu, mon ami, 
 pour aujourdhui au plaisir de vous revoir ; " and the 
 servant immediately carried Monsieur le Me"dicin out of 
 the room.* 
 
 This is a most characteristic bit, which could scarcely 
 have occurred out of France, where monkeys and dogs are 
 petted as we never saw them petted elsewhere. These 
 things were so when we knew Paris under Louis- Philippe. 
 Frenchmen, surely, have not much changed under Louis 
 Napoleon. 
 
 THE MANDRILL AND GEORGE THE FOURTH. 
 One of the attractive sights of Mr Cross's menagerie, 
 * " View of Society and Manners in Italy," voL ii., p. 475.
 
 32 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 some forty years or so ago, was a full-grown baboon, to 
 which had been given the name of " Happy Jerry." He 
 was conspicuous from the finely-coloured rib-like ridges on 
 each side of his cheeks, the clear blue and scarlet hue of 
 which, on such a hideous long face and muzzle, with its 
 small, deeply-sunk malicious eyes, and projecting brow 
 and cheeks, seemed almost as if beauty and bestiality 
 were here combined. But Jerry had a habit which would 
 have made Father Matthew loathe him and those who 
 encouraged him. He had been taught to sit in an arm- 
 chair and to drink porter out of a pot, like a thirsty brick- 
 maker ; and, as an addition to his accomplishments, he 
 could also smoke a pipe, like a trained pupil of Sir Walter 
 Raleigh. This rib-nosed baboon, or mandrill, as he is 
 often called, obtained great renown ; and among other 
 distinguished personages who wished to see him was his 
 late majesty King George the Fourth. As that king 
 seldom during his reign frequented places of public resort, 
 Mr Cross was invited to bring Jerry to Windsor or 
 Brighton, to display the talents of his redoubtable baboon. 
 I have heard Mr Cross say, that the king placed his hands 
 on the arm of one of the ladies of the Court, at which 
 Jerry began to show such unmistakable signs of ferocity, 
 that the mild, kind menagerist was glad to get Jerry re- 
 moved, or at least the king and his courtiers to withdraw. 
 He showed his great teeth and grinned and growled, as a 
 baboon in a rage is apt to do. Jerry was a powerful 
 beast, especially in his fore-legs or arms. When he died, 
 Mr Cross presented his skin to the British Museum, where 
 it has been long preserved. The mandrill is a native of 
 West Africa, where he is much dreaded by the negroes.
 
 MONKEYS. 33 
 
 In Cross's menagerie at Walworth, nearly twenty years 
 ago, there was generally a fine mandrill. We remember 
 the sulky ferocity of that restless eye. How angry the 
 mild meiiagerist used to be at the ladies in the monkey- 
 room with their parasols ! These appendages were the 
 feelers with which some of the softer sex used to touch 
 Cross's monkeys, and, as the old gentleman used to insist, 
 helped to kill them. Parasols were freely used to touch 
 the boas and other snakes feeding in the same warm room. 
 No doubt a boa-constrictor could not live comfortably if 
 his soft, muscular sides got fifty pokes a day from as many 
 sticks or parasols. Edward Cross, mild, gentle, gentle- 
 manly, Prince of show-keepers, used to be very indignant 
 at the inquisitorial desire possessed, especially by some of 
 the fairer sex, to try the relative hardness and softness of 
 serpents and monkeys, and other mammals and creatures. 
 This story of the mandrill may excuse this pendant of an 
 episode. 
 
 THE YOUNG LADY'S PET MONKEY AND HER PARROT. 
 
 Horace Walpole tells an anecdote of a fine young French 
 lady, a Madame de Choiseul. She longed for a parrot 
 that should be a miracle of eloquence. A parrot was 
 soon found for her in Paris. She also became enamoured 
 of General Jacko, a celebrated monkey, at Astley's. But 
 the possessor was so exorbitant in his demand for Jacko, 
 that the General did not change proprietors. Another 
 monkey was soon heard of, who had been brought up by 
 a cook in a kitchen, where he had learned to pluck fowls 
 with inimitable dexterity. This accomplished pet was 
 bought and presented to Madame, who accepted him.
 
 * 
 
 34 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 The first time she went out, the two animals were locked 
 up in her bed-chamber. When the lady returned, the 
 monkey was alone to be seen. Search was made for 
 Pretty Poll, and to her horror she was found at last 
 under bed, shivering and cowering, and without a feather. 
 It seems that the two pets had been presented by rival 
 lovers of Madame. Poll's presenter concluded that his 
 rival had given the monkey with that very view, chal- 
 lenged him ; they fought, and both were wounded : and a 
 heroic adventure it was ! * 
 
 MONKEYS POOK RELATIONS. 
 
 One of Luttrell's sayings, recorded by Sydney Smith, 
 was, 
 
 " I hate the sight of monkeys, they remind me so of poor 
 relations." Here follows a fine passage of Sydney Smith, 
 which he might have written after hearing the lectures of 
 Professor Huxley, f " I confess I feel myself so much at 
 my ease about the superiority of mankind, I have such 
 a marked and decided contempt for the understanding of 
 every baboon I have yet seen, I feel so sure that the 
 blue ape without a tail will never rival us in poetry, 
 painting, and music, that I see no reason whatever why 
 justice may not be done to the few fragments of soul, and 
 tatters of understanding, which they may really possess. 
 I have sometimes, perhaps, felt a little uneasy at Exeter 
 'Change, from contrasting the monkeys with the 'prentice 
 
 * Extracted from the late Mr Cunningham's complete edition ; 
 we neglected to quote the page, and have altered and shortened the 
 words. 
 
 t " Memoirs of Rev. Sydney Smith," i., p. 377.
 
 MONKEYS. 35 
 
 boys who are teasing them ; but a few pages of Locke, or 
 a few lines of Milton, have always restored my tranquil- 
 lity, and convinced me that the superiority of man had 
 nothing to fear." * 
 
 MRS COLIN MACKENZIE OBSERVES APES AT SiMLA.t 
 
 The monkey she alludes to seems to be the Semno- 
 pithecus Entelhis, a black-faced, light-haired monkey, with 
 long legs and tail, much venerated by the Hindoos. 
 
 "Mrs L. and I were very much amused, early this morning 
 (July 5), by watching numbers of huge apes, the size of 
 human beings, with white hair all round their faces, and 
 down their backs and chests, who were disporting them- 
 selves and feeding on the green leaves, on the sides of the 
 precipice close to the house. Many of them had one or 
 two little ones the most amusing, indefatigable little 
 creatures imaginable who were incessantly running up 
 small trees, jumping down again, and performing all sorts 
 of antics, till one felt quite wearied with their perpetual 
 activity. When the mother wished to fly, she clutched 
 the little one under her arm, where, clinging round her 
 body with all its arms, it remained in safety, while she 
 made leaps of from thirty to forty feet, and ran at a most 
 astonishing rate down the khad, catching at any tree or 
 twig that offered itself to any one of her four arms. There 
 were two old grave apes of enormous size sitting together 
 
 * " "Wit and "Wisdom of Rev. Sydney Smith" (it is from a lecture at 
 the Royal Institution), p. 259. 
 
 t " Life in the Mission, the Camp, and the Zenana ; or, Six Years 
 in India," by Mrs Colin Mackenzie, vol. ii., p. 126.
 
 36 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 on the branch of a tree, and deliberately catching the fleag 
 in each other's shaggy coats. The patient sat perfectly 
 still, while his brother ape divided and thoroughly searched 
 his beard and hair, lifted up one arm and then the other, 
 and turned him round as he thought fit ; and then the 
 patient undertook to perform the same office for his friend." 
 
 THE AYE- AYE (Chiromys Madagascar iensis). 
 
 Zoologists used to know a very curious animal from Mada- 
 gascar, by name, or by an indifferent specimen preserved in 
 the Paris Museum. Sonnerat, the naturalist, obtained it 
 from that great island so well known to geographical boys 
 in former days by its being, so they were told, the largest 
 island in the world. This strange quadruped was named 
 by a word which meant " handed-rnouse," for such is the 
 signification of chiromys, or ckeiromys, as it used to be 
 spelled. This creature, when its history was better known, 
 was believed to be not far removed in the system from the 
 lemurs and loris. Its soft fur, long tail, large eyes, and 
 other features and habits connected it with these quadri.- 
 mana, while its rodent dentition seemed to refer it to the 
 group containing our squirrels, hares, and mice. It has 
 been the subject of a profound memoir by Professor Owen, 
 our greatest comparative anatomist ; and I remember, witli 
 pleasure, the last time I saw him at the Museum he was 
 engaged in its dissection. I may here refer to one of the 
 Professor's lighter productions a lecture at Exeter Hall 
 on some instances of the " power of God as manifested in 
 His animal creation " for a very nice notice of this curious 
 quadruped. In one of the French journals, there was an
 
 MONKEYS. 37 
 
 excellent account given of the peculiar habits of the little 
 nocturnal creature. In those tropical countries the trees 
 are tenanted by countless varieties of created things. Their 
 wood affords rich feeding to the large, fat, pulpy grubs of 
 beetles of the families Buprestidce, Dynastidoe, Passalidce, 
 and, above all, that glorious group the Longicornia. These 
 beetles worm their way into the wood, making often long 
 tunnels, feeding as they work, and leaving their ejecta in 
 the shape of agglomerated saw-dust. It is into the long 
 holes drilled by these beetles that the Aye-Aye searches 
 with his long fingers, one of which, on the fore-hand, is 
 specially thin, slender^ and skeleton-like. It looks like 
 the tool of some lock-picker. Our large-eyed little friend, 
 like the burglar, comes out at night and finds these holes 
 on the trees where he slept during the day. His sensitive 
 thin ears, made to hear every scratch, can detect the rasp- 
 ing of the retired grub, feasting in apparent security 
 below. Naturalists sometimes hear at night, so Samouelle 
 once told me, the grubs of moths munching the dewy 
 leaves. Our aye-aye is no collector, but he has eyes, 
 ears, and fingers too, that see, hear, and get larvae that, 
 when grown and changed into beetles, are the valued 
 prizes of entomologists. Into that tunnelled hole he 
 inserts his long finger, and squash it goes into a large, 
 pulpy, fat, sweet grub. It takes but a moment to draw it 
 out ; and if it be a pupa near the bark, so much the 
 better for the aye-aye, so much the worse for the beetle or 
 cossus. I might dilate on this subject, but prefer 
 referring the reader to Professor Owen's memoir, and to 
 his lecture.* The aye-aye, in every point of its structure, 
 * Published by James Nisbet & Co., in 1863, 1864.
 
 38 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 like every created thing, is full of design. Its curious 
 fingers, especially the skeleton-like chopstick of a digit 
 referred to, attract especial notice, from their evident 
 adaptation to the condition of its situation and existence, 
 as one of the works of an omnipotent and beneficent 
 Creator. 
 
 BATS. 
 
 A HIGHLY curious, if not the strangest, order of the class 
 are these flying creatures called bats. It is evident from 
 Noel Paton's fairy pictures that he has closely studied 
 their often fantastic faces. The writer could commend to 
 his attention an African bat, lately figured by his friend 
 Mr Murray. * Its enormous head, or rather muzzle, com- 
 pared with its other parts, gives it an outrageously hideous 
 look. In the late excellent Dr Horsfield's work on the 
 animals of Java, there are some engravings of bats by Mr 
 Taylor, who acquired among engravers the title of " Bat 
 Taylor,'' so wonderfully has he rendered the exquisite 
 pileage or fur of these creatures. It is wonderful how 
 numerous the researches of naturalists, such as Mr 
 Tomes, of Welford, near Stratford, have shown the order 
 Cheiroptera to be in genera and species. Their profiles 
 and full faces, even in outline, are often most bizarre and 
 strange. Their interfemoral membranes, we may add, are 
 actual " unreticulated " nets, with which they catch and 
 detain flies as they skim through the air. They pick these 
 * Illustrated Proceedings of Zoological Society.
 
 BATS. 39 
 
 out of this bag with their mouths, and "make no bones" 
 of any prey, so sharp and pointed are their pretty insec- 
 tivorous teeth. Their flying membranes, stretched on the 
 elongated finger-bones of thej.r fore-legs, are wonderful 
 adaptations of Divine wisdom, a capital subject for the 
 natural: theologian to select. 
 
 Our poet-laureate must be a close observer of natural 
 history. In his " In Memoriam," xciv., he distinctly 
 alludes to some very curious West African bats first 
 described by the late amiable Edward T. Bennett, long 
 the much-valued secretary of the Zoological Society. 
 These bats are closely related to the fox bats, and form a 
 genus which is named, from their shoulder and breast 
 appendages, Epomophorus : 
 
 " Bats went round in fragrant skies, 
 And wheel'd or lit the filmy shapes 
 That haunt the dusk, with ermine capes, 
 And woolly breasts and beaded eyes." 
 
 The species Mr Bennett named E. Whitei, after the good 
 Rev. Gilbert White, that well-known worthy who wrote 
 " The Natural History of Selborne," wherein are many 
 notices of bats. 
 
 CAPTAIN COOK'S SAILOR AND His DESCRIPTION OF A 
 FOX-BAT. 
 
 It is curious, now that Australia is almost as civilised, 
 and in parts nearly as populous, as much of Europe, to 
 read " Lieutenant Cook's Voyage Eound the World," in 
 vol. iii. of Hawkesworth's quartos, detailing the discoveries 
 of June, July, and August 1770 that is close upon a
 
 4:0 HEADS AXD TALES. 
 
 century ago. What progress lias the world made since 
 that period ! We do not require long periods of ages 
 to alter, to adapt, to develop the customs and know- 
 ledge of man. At p. 156 we get an account of a 
 large bat. On the 23d June 1770 Cook says : " This 
 day almost everybody had seen the animal which the 
 pigeon-shooters had brought an account of the day before ; 
 and one of the seamen, who had been rambling in the 
 woods, told us, at his return, that he verily believed he 
 had seen the devil. We naturally inquired in what form 
 he had appeared, and his answer was in so singular a style 
 that I shall set down his own words. ' He was,' says 
 John, ' as large as a one-gallon keg, and very like it ; he 
 had horns and wings, yet he crept so slowly through the 
 grass, that if I had not been aj "eared I might have touched 
 him.' This formidable apparition we afterwards discovered 
 to have been a bat, and the bats here must be acknowledged 
 to have a frightful appearance, for they are nearly black, 
 and full as large as a partridge ; they have indeed no horns, 
 but the fancy of a man who thought he saw the devil 
 might easily supply that defect." 
 
 Having seen some of the very curious fox-bats alive, and 
 given some condensed information about them in Dr 
 Hamilton's series of volumes called " Excelsior/' the 
 writer may extract the account, with some slight additions, 
 especially as the article is illustrated with a truly admirable 
 figure of a fox-bat, from a living specimen by Mr Wolf. 
 In Sir Emerson Tennent's " Sketches of the Natural His- 
 tory of Ceylon," p. 14, Mr Wolf has represented a whole 
 colony of the " flying-foxes," as they are called.
 
 Klyinir Fox. (Pteropus rntk-ollis.)
 
 BATS. 41 
 
 FOX-BATS (Pteropus). 
 
 In this country that bat is deemed a large one whose 
 wings, when measured from tip to tip, exceed twelve inches, 
 or whose body is above that of a small mouse in bulk. In 
 some parts of the world, however, there are members of this 
 well-marked family, the wings of which, when stretched and 
 measured from one extremity to the other, are five feet and 
 upwards in extent, and their bodies large in proportion. 
 These are the fox-bats, a pair of which were lately pro- 
 cured for the Zoological Gardens. It is from one of this 
 pair thafrthe very characteristic figure of Mr Wolf has been 
 derived.* There is something very odd in the appearance 
 of such an animal, suspended as it is during the day head 
 downwards, in a position the very sight of which suggests 
 to the looker-on ideas of nightmare and apoplexy. As the 
 head peers out from the membrane, contracted about the 
 body and investing it as in a bag, and the strange creature 
 chews a piece of apple presented by its keeper, the least 
 curious observer must be struck with the peculiarity of the 
 position, and cannot fail to admire the velvety softness and 
 great elasticity of the membrane which forms its wings. It 
 must have been from an exaggerated account of the fox- 
 bats of the Eastern Islands that the ancients derived their 
 ideas of the dreaded Harpies, those fabulous winged mon- 
 sters sent out by the relentless Juno, and whose names are 
 synonymous with rapine and cruelty. 
 
 Some of these bats, before they were thoroughly known, 
 
 * This was written some years ago ; but I was glad to see when 
 last in the Zoological Gardens, June 1866, another live specimen of 
 u species of fox bat.
 
 4 2 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 frightened British sailors not a little when they met with 
 them. We have given an anecdote, illustrative of this, in 
 a preceding page. 
 
 Dr Forster, who accompanied Captain Cook on the 
 voyage round the world from 1772 to 1775, observed fox- 
 bats at the Friendly Islands, where they were seen in large 
 groups of hundreds. Our traveller even notices that some 
 of them flew about the whole day, doubtless from being dis- 
 turbed by the wandering crews of the British discovery 
 ships. He saw a Casuarina tree of large size, the branches 
 of which were festooned with at least five hundred of these 
 pendent Cheiroptera in various attitudes of ease, according 
 to the habits and notions of the bat tribes, who can hang 
 either by the hind or by the fore-feet. He noticed that they 
 skimmed over the water with wonderful facility, and he saw 
 one in the act of swimming, though he cannot say that it 
 did so with either ease or expertness ; they are known, 
 however, to frequent the water in order to wash themselves 
 from any impurities on their fur and wings, as well as to 
 get rid of the vermin which may be infesting them. 
 
 Captain Lort Stokes found the red-necked species to be 
 very abundant, during his survey of the north coast of 
 Australia in H.M.S. Beagle. As the boats were engaged 
 in the survey, flights of these bats kept hovering over them, 
 uttering a disagreeable screeching noise and filling the air 
 with a faint mildewy odour, far from agreeable to the smell. 
 The sailors gave these bats the name of "monkey-birds," 
 without being aware that naturalists in their system con- 
 sider them as following closely the order which contains 
 these four-handed lovers of trees. Captain Stokes observes 
 that the leathern wings have a singular heavy flap, and
 
 BATS. 43 
 
 that a flight of bats would suddenly alight on a bamboo and 
 bend it to the ground with their weight. Each individual 
 struggles on alighting to settle on the same spot, and like 
 rooks or men in similar circumstances, they do not succeed 
 in fixing themselves without making a great deal of noise. 
 When first they clung to the bamboo, they did so by means 
 of the claw on the outer edge of the flying membrane, and 
 then they gradually settled. 
 
 Among the wild and varied scenery of those groups of 
 islands called the Friendly Islands, the Feejees, and the 
 Navigators, species of fox-bat form one of the characteristics 
 of the place to the observant eye ; while, if the traveller 
 should happen to be blind, their presence among the other- 
 wise fragrant forests would be readily perceived from the 
 strong odour which taints the atmosphere, and which, says 
 the Naturalist of the United States Exploring Expedition, 
 " will always be remembered by persons who have visited 
 the regions inhabited by these animals." Mr Titian Peale 
 mentions that a specimen of the fox-bat was kept in Phila- 
 delphia for several years ; and like most creatures, winged 
 as well as wingless, was amiable to those persons who were 
 constantly near it, while it showed clearly and unmistak- 
 ably its dislike to strangers. 
 
 On its voyage, this strange passenger was fed on boiled 
 rice, sweetened with sugar ; while at the Museum, it was 
 solaced and fed during its captivity chiefly on fruit, and now 
 and then appeared to enjoy the picking from the bones of a 
 boiled fowl. The fox-bat is but seldom brought alive to 
 this country. The late Mr Cross of the Surrey Zoological 
 Gardens kept one for a short time, and deemed it one of bis 
 greatest rarities; and, till the arrival lately of the pair
 
 41 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 alluded to at the Gardens in the Regent's Park, we have not 
 heard of other specimens having been exhibited in this 
 country. They are difficult to keep, and seem to feel very 
 sensibly the changes of our climate, while it is a hard thing 
 to get for them the food on which they live when in a state 
 of liberty. 
 
 Mr Macgillivray discovered a new species of fox-bat 
 on Fitzroy Island, off the coast of Australia, when he was 
 naturalist of H.M.S. Rattlesnake* He fell in with this 
 large fruit-eating bat (Pteropus conspicillatus) on the 
 wooded slope of a hill. They were in prodigious numbers, 
 and presented the appearance, as they flew along in the 
 bright sunshine, of a large flock of rooks. As they were 
 approached, a strong musky odour became apparent, and 
 a loud incessant chattering was heard. He describes the 
 branches of some of the trees as bending beneath the loads 
 of bats which clung to them. Some of these were in a 
 state of inactivity, sleeping or composing themselves to sleep, 
 while many specimens scrambled along among the boughs 
 and took to flight on being disturbed. He shot several 
 specimens, three or four at a time, as they hung in clusters. 
 Unless they were killed outright, they continued suspended 
 for some time ; when wounded they are difficult to handle, 
 as they bite severely, and at such times their cry resembles 
 somewhat the squalling of a child. The flesh of these bats 
 is described to be excellent, and no wonder, when they feed 
 on the sweetest fruits ; the natives regard it as nutritious 
 food, and travellers in Australia, like the adventurous 
 Leichhardt on his journey to Port Essington, sometimes are 
 furnished with a welcome meal from the fruit-eating fox- 
 * " Narrative of the Voyage," i., p. 96 (1852).
 
 BATS. 45 
 
 bats which fall in their way. Even the polished French, in 
 the Isle of Bourbon, as they used to call the Mauritius, 
 sometimes stewed a Pteropus, in their bouillon or broth to 
 give it a relish. 
 
 Travellers observe that in a state of nature the fox- 
 bats only eat the ripest and the best fruit, and in their 
 search for it they climb with great facility along the under 
 side of the branches. In Java, as Dr Horsfield observes, 
 these creatures, from their numbers and fruit-eating pro- 
 pensities, occasion incalculable mischief, as they attack every 
 kind that grows there, from the cocoa-nut to the rarer and 
 more delicate productions, which are cultivated with care 
 in the gardens of princes and persons of rank. The doctor 
 observes, that " delicate fruits, as they approach to maturity, 
 are ingeniously secured by means of a loose net or basket, 
 skilfully constructed of split bamboo. Without this pre- 
 caution little valuable fruit would escape the ravages of the 
 kalong." 
 
 We have mentioned that the fox-bats are occasionally 
 eaten in Australia. Colonel Sykes alludes to the native 
 Portuguese in Western India eating the flesh of another 
 species of Pteropus; and it would seem that but for prejudice, 
 their flesh, like that of the young of the South American 
 monkeys, is extremely delicate ; the colonel says, writing 
 of the Pteropus medius, a species found in India, " I can 
 personally testify that their flesh is delicate and without 
 disagreeable flavour." 
 
 The Javanese fox-bat occasionally affords amusement 
 to the colonists as well as natives, who chase it, according to 
 Dr Horsfield, " during the moonlight nights, which, in the 
 latitude of Java, are uncommonly serene. He is watched in
 
 46 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 his descent to the fruit-trees, and a discharge of small shot 
 readily brings him to the ground. By this means I 
 frequently obtained four or five individuals in the course 
 of an hour." The natives of New Caledonia, according 
 to Dr Forster, use the hair of these great bats in ropes, 
 and in the tassels to their clubs, "while they interweave the 
 hair among the threads of the Cyperus squarrosus, a grassy- 
 looking plant which they employ for that purpose. 
 
 William Dampier,* in 1687, observed the habits of a 
 fox-bat on one of the Philippine Islands, though he has 
 exaggerated its size when he judged " that the wings 
 stretched out in length, could not be less asunder than seven 
 or eight foot from tip to tip." He records that "in the 
 evening, as soon as the sun was set, these creatures would 
 begin to take their flight from this island in swarms like 
 bees, directing their flight over to the main island. Thus 
 we should see them rising up from the island till night 
 hindered our sight ; and in the morning, as soon as it was 
 light, we should see them returning again like a cloud to the 
 small island till sunrising. This course they kept constantly 
 while we lay here, affording us every morning and evening 
 an hour's diversion in gazing at them and talking about 
 them." Dr Horsfield describes the species, which is abun- 
 dant in the lower parts of Java, as having the same habit. 
 During the day it retreats to the branches of a tree of the 
 gemis Ficus, where it passes the greater portion of the day 
 in sleep, " hanging motionless, ranged in succession, and 
 often in close contact, they have little resemblance to living 
 beings, and by a person not accustomed to their economy, 
 are readily mistaken for a part of the tree, or for a fruit of 
 * " New Voyage round the World " (1698), p. 381.
 
 BATS. 47 
 
 uncommon size suspended from its branches." The doctor 
 describes their society as being generally silent during the 
 day, except when a contention arises among them to get out 
 of the influence of the sun, when they utter a sharp piercing 
 shriek. Their claws are so sharp, and their attachment is 
 consequently so strong, that they cannot readily leave their 
 hold without the assistance of their wings, and if shot when 
 in this position, they remain suspended. 
 
 ' DR MAYERNE AND His BALSAM OF BATS. 
 
 * 
 
 Dr Mayerne, a learned English physician, who died, 
 aged eighty-two, in 1655, showed by his prescriptions 
 that his enlightenment was not more than that of the pre- 
 vailing ignorance of the period. The chief ingredient in 
 his gout-powder was "raspings of a human skull unburied;" 
 " but," writes Mr Jeaffreson,* " his sweetest compound was 
 his ' balsam of bats,' strongly recommended as an unguent 
 for hypochondriacal persons, into which entered adders, 
 bats, sucking whelps, earth-worms, hogs' grease, the 
 marrow of a stag, and the thigh-bone of an ox." 
 
 No doubt the doctor imagined that a combination of the 
 virulence, flightiness, swiftness, strength, and other qualities 
 of all these animals would in some mysterious way be com- 
 municated to his melancholy patient; and, indeed, by acting 
 on the imagination of such persons a favourable direction 
 is given to their thoughts, and in this way their severe 
 malady may at times have been removed. 
 
 * " A Book about Doctors," by J. Cordy Jeaffreson, i., p. 23.
 
 48 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 HEDGEHOG. 
 
 THIS well-armed genus of insect-eating quadruped lias 
 sometimes given to describing zoologists, at least so it is 
 said, an opportunity of paying a sly compliment, conceal- 
 ing an allusion to the touchy or supposed irritable dis- 
 position of the party after whom the species has been 
 named. When South ey wrote the following paragraph, 
 he happily expressed what is too commonly the meaning 
 and wish of critics and criticised. If my readers look into 
 any system of mammalia of recent date, under the article 
 Erinaceus, he will see one or more instances of concealed 
 allusions to touchiness of disposition in the persons of the 
 naturalists, honoured by the seeming compliment. The 
 hedgehog is itself a very useful and very harmless quad- 
 ruped. It is of great use in a garden, and also in a 
 kitchen frequented by crickets or black-beetles. Its food 
 is chiefly grubs, insects, worms, and such like. The crea- 
 ture is easily tamed, and becomes a lovable and not a 
 touchy pet. It is eminently nocturnal. 
 
 SOUTHEY AND HIS CRITICS. 
 
 Robert Southey ("Common-Place Book," 4th series, p. 44) 
 writes : 
 
 " I intend to be a hedgehog, and roll myself up in my 
 own prickles : all I regret is that I am not a porcupine, 
 and endowed with the property of shooting them to annoy 
 the beasts who come near enough to annoy me."
 
 MOLE. 49 
 
 MOLE. 
 
 THIS is perhaps the most remarkable of all our quadrupeds. 
 Its subterranean haunts and curious aptitudes for a life 
 below the surface of the ground are peculiarly worthy of 
 study. The little hillocks it turns up in its excavations 
 are noticed by every one. Its pursuit of worms and grubs, 
 its nest, its soft plush-like fur, the pointed nose, the strong 
 digging fore-feet, the small all but hidden eyes, and hun- 
 dreds of other properties, render it a noticeable creature. 
 The following passage from Lord Macaulay's latest writings, 
 although rather long, may interest some in the story of 
 this curious creature : 
 
 THE MOLE AND KING WILLIAM. 
 
 " A fly, if it had God's message, could choke a king." 4 
 I never knew till the 9th January 1862, when reading 
 vol. v. of Macaulay's England, that a horse, stumbling on 
 a mole-hill, was the immediate cause of the death of the 
 great William III. 
 
 Lady Trevelyan, the sister of Macaulay, published vol. 
 v. of her brother's work, and added an account of the 
 death of the illustrious Dutchman, who did so much for 
 our religious and civil liberties. The historian was very 
 partial to William, and the account of that monarch's last 
 days is Macaulay's last finished piece : it is here quoted in 
 full from the history : t 
 
 " Meanwhile reports about the state of the king's health 
 
 * Jeremy Taylor, if I remember aright, 
 t Vol. V., pp. 305-310. 
 
 D
 
 50 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 were constantly becoming more and more alarming. His 
 medical advisers, both English and Dutch, were at the end 
 of their resources. He had consulted by letter all the 
 most eminent physicians of Europe ; and, as he was appre- 
 hensive that they might return flattering answers if they 
 knew who he was, he had written under feigned names. 
 To Fagon he had described himself as a parish priest. Fagon 
 replied, somewhat bluntly, that such symptoms could have 
 only one meaning, and that the only advice which he had 
 to give to the sick man was to prepare himself for death. 
 Having obtained this plain answer, William consulted 
 Fagon again without disguise, and obtained some prescrip- 
 tions which were thought to have a little retarded the 
 approach of the inevitable hour. But the great kingVdays 
 were numbered. Headaches and shivering fits returned 
 on him almost daily. He still rode, and even hunted ; 
 but he had no longer that firm seat, or that perfect com- 
 mand of the bridle, for which he had once been renowned. 
 Still all his care was for the future. The filial respect and 
 tenderness of Albemarle had been almost a necessary of 
 life to him. But it was of importance that Heinsius 
 should be fully informed both as to the whole plan of the 
 next campaign, and as to the state of the preparations. 
 Albemarle was in full possession of the king's views on 
 these subjects. He was therefore sent to the Hague. 
 Heinsius was at that time suffering from indisposition, 
 which was indeed a trifle when compared with the mala- 
 dies under which William was sinking. But in the nature 
 of William there was none of that selfishness which is the 
 too common vice of invalids. On the 20th of February 
 he sent to Heinsius a letter, in which he did not even
 
 MOLE. 51 
 
 allude to his own sufferings and infirmities. ' I am,' he 
 said, ' infinitely concerned to learn that your health is not 
 yet quite re-established. May God be pleased to grant you 
 a speedy recovery. I am unalterably your good friend, 
 WILLIAM.' These were the last lines of that long corres- 
 pondence. 
 
 " On the 20th of February, William was ambling on a 
 favourite horse named Sorrel through the park of Hampton 
 Court. He urged his horse to strike into a gallop just at 
 the spot where a mole had been at work. Sorrel stumbled 
 on the mole-hill, and went down on his knees. The king 
 fell off, and broke his collar-bone. The bone was set, and 
 he returned to Kensington in his coach. The jolting of 
 the rough roads of that time made it necessary to reduce 
 the fracture again. To a young and vigorous man such 
 an accident would have been a trifle ; but the frame of 
 William was not in a condition to bear even the slightest 
 shock. He felt that his time was short, and grieved, with 
 a grief such as only noble spirits feel, to think that he must 
 leave his work but half finished. It was possible that he 
 might still live until one of his plans should be carried 
 into execution. He had long known that the relation in 
 which England and Scotland stood to each other was at 
 best precarious, and often unfriendly, and that it might 
 be doubted whether, in an estimate of the British power, 
 the resources of the smaller country ought not to be de- 
 ducted from those of the larger. Recent events had proved 
 that without doubt the two kingdoms could not possibly 
 continue for another year to be on the terms on which 
 they had been during the preceding century, and that 
 there must be between them either absolute union or
 
 52 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 deadly enmity. Their enmity would bring frightful cala- 
 mities, not on themselves alone, but on all the civilised 
 world. Their union would be the best security for the 
 prosperity of both, for the internal tranquillity of the 
 island, for the just balance of power among European 
 states, and for the immunities of all Protestant countries. 
 On the 28th of February, the Commons listened, with 
 uncovered heads, to the last message that bore William's 
 sign-manual. An unhappy accident, he told them, had 
 forced him to make to them in writing a communication 
 which he would gladly have made from the throne. He 
 had, in the first year of his reign, expressed his desire to 
 see a union accomplished between England and Scotland. 
 He was convinced that nothing could more conduce to the 
 safety and happiness of both. He should think it his 
 peculiar felicity if, before the close of his reign, some 
 happy expedient could be devised for making the two 
 kingdoms one ; and he, in the most earnest manner, recom- 
 mended the question to the consideration of the Houses. 
 It was resolved that the message should be taken into con- 
 sideration on Saturday the 7th of March. 
 
 " But, on the 1st of March, humours of menacing appear- 
 ance showed themselves in the king's knee. On the 4th of 
 March he was attacked by fever ; on the 5th, his strength 
 failed greatly ; and on the 6th he was scarcely kept alive 
 by cordials. The Abjuration Bill and a money bill were 
 awaiting his assent. That assent he felt that he should 
 not be able to give in person. He therefore ordered a 
 commission to be prepared for his signature. His hand 
 was now too weak to form the letters of his name, and it 
 was suggested that a stamp should be prepared. On the
 
 MOLE. 53 
 
 7th of March the stamp was ready. The Lord Keeper 
 and the Clerks of the Parliament came, according to usage, 
 to witness the signing of the commission. But they were 
 detained some hours in the ante-chamber while he was in 
 one of the paroxysms of his malady. Meanwhile the Houses 
 were sitting. It was Saturday the 7th, the day on which 
 the Commons had resolved to take into consideration the 
 question of the union with Scotland. But that subject 
 was not mentioned. It was known that the king had but 
 a few hours to live ; and the members asked each other 
 anxiously whether it was likely that the Abjuration and 
 money bills would be passed before he died. After sitting 
 long in the expectation of a message, the Commons ad- 
 journed till six in the afternoon. By that time William 
 had recovered himself sufficiently to put the stamp on the 
 parchment which authorised his commissioners to act for 
 him. In the evening, when the Houses had assembled, 
 Black Rod knocked. The Commons were summoned to 
 the bar of the Lords ; the commission was read, the Abju- 
 ration Bill and the Malt Bill became law, and both Houses 
 adjourned till nine o'clock in the morning of the following 
 day. The following day was Sunday. But there was 
 little chance that William would live through the night. 
 It was of the highest importance that, within the shortest 
 possible time after his decease, the successor designated by 
 the Bill of Hights and the Act of Succession should receive 
 the homage of the Estates of the Realm, and be publicly 
 proclaimed in the Council : and the most rigid Pharisee 
 in the Society for the Reformation of Manners could 
 hardly deny that it was lawful to save the state, even on 
 the Sabbath.
 
 54 BEADS AND TALES. 
 
 " The king meanwhile was sinking fast. Albemarle had 
 arrived at Kensington from the Hague, exhausted by rapid 
 travelling. His master kindly bade him go to rest for 
 some hours, and then summoned him to make his report. 
 That report was in all respects satisfactory. The States 
 General were in the best temper ; the troops, the provisions, 
 and the magazines were in the best order. Everything 
 was in readiness for an early campaign. William received 
 the intelligence with the calmness of a man whose work 
 was done. He was under no illusion as to his danger. 
 ' I am fast drawing,' he said, ' to my end.' His end was 
 worthy of his life. His intellect was not for a moment 
 clouded. His fortitude was the more admirable because 
 he was not willing to die. He had very lately said to one 
 of those whom he most loved, ' You know that I never 
 feared death ; there have been times when I should have 
 wished it, but, now that this great new prospect is opening 
 before me, I do wish to stay here a little longer.' Yet no 
 weakness, no querulousuess disgraced the noble close of 
 that noble career. To the physicians the king returned 
 his thanks graciously and gently. ' I know that you have 
 done all that skill and learning could do for me, but the 
 case is beyond your art ; and I submit.' From the words 
 which escaped him he seemed to be frequently engaged in 
 mental prayer. Burnet and Tenison remained many hours 
 in the sick-room. He professed to them his firm belief in 
 the truth of the Christian religion, and received the sacra- 
 ment from their hands with great seriousness. The ante- 
 chambers were crowded all night with lords and privy- 
 councillors. He ordered several of them to be called in, 
 and exerted himself to take leave of them with a few
 
 MOLE. 55 
 
 kind and cheerful words. Among the English who Avere 
 admitted to his bedside were Devonshire and Ormond. 
 But there were in the crowd those who felt as no English- 
 man could feel, friends of his youth, who had been true to 
 him, and to whom he had been true, through all vicissi- 
 tudes of fortune ; who had served him with unalterable 
 fidelity when his Secretaries of State, his Treasury, and his 
 Admiralty had betrayed him ; who had never on any field 
 of battle, or in an atmosphere tainted with loathsome and 
 deadly disease, shrunk from placing their own lives in 
 jeopardy to save his, and whose truth he had at the cost 
 of his own popularity rewarded with bounteous munificence. 
 He strained his feeble voice to thank Auverquerque for 
 the affectionate and loyal services of thirty years. To 
 Albemarle he gave the keys of his closet and of his private 
 drawers. ' You know,' he said, ' what to do with 
 them.' By this time he could scarcely respire. 'Can 
 this/ he said to the physicians, ' last long?' He was told 
 that the end was approaching. He swallowed a cordial, 
 and asked for Bentinck. Those were his last articulate 
 words. Bentinck instantly came to the bedside, bent 
 down, and placed his ear close to the king's mouth. The 
 lips of the dying man moved, but nothing could be heard. 
 The king took the hand of his earliest friend, and pressed 
 it tender!}' to his heart. In that moment, no doubt, all 
 that had cast a slight passing cloud over their long and 
 pure friendship was forgotten. It was now between seven 
 and eight in the morning. He closed his eyes, and gasped 
 for breath. The bishops knelt down and read the com- 
 mendatory prayer. When it ended William was no 
 more ! "
 
 56 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 It was assuredly the stumbling of his horse against a 
 mole-hill that led more immediately to the death of this 
 great monarch. It is but one link in the chain of many 
 providences affecting his life. We all remember the school- 
 boy ditty 
 
 " For want of a nail the shoe was lost ; 
 For want of a shoe the rider was lost ; 
 For want of the rider the battle \vas lost ; 
 For want of the battle the kingdom was lost." 
 
 How much the death of King William retarded progress 
 in Great Britain can never be judged or determined. His 
 appointed hour had come. It was no bullet with its billet 
 on the banks of the Boyne that laid the Dutchman low, 
 but the cast-up earth of a specimen of a little insectivorous 
 quadruped called the mole, which laid him on that bed 
 from which he never arose. 
 
 BEARS. 
 
 A MOST comfortably clad set of plantigrade creatures, as 
 fond, most of them, of fruits as they are of flesh. No 
 creatures are more amusing in zoological gardens to chil- 
 dren, who wonder at their climbing powers. Who is so 
 heartless as not to have pitied the roving polar bear, 
 caged, on a sultry July day, in a small paddock with a 
 puddle, and wandering about restlessly in his few feet of 
 ground, as the well-dressed mob lounged to hear the mili- 
 tary band performing in the Regent's Park Zoological
 
 BEARS. 57 
 
 Gardens ? Even young bears have an adult kind of look 
 about them. The writer remembers the manner of one, 
 disappointed at its bread sap, most of the milk of \vhich 
 had been absorbed. A little girl standing by, not two 
 years old, perfectly understood what the little creature 
 was searching for, and, looking up, said " milka," or some- 
 thing closely resembling it. We recently saw a little 
 brown bear, on board a Russian ship at Leith. He acted 
 as a capital guard. The little creature had a grown-up 
 face, more easily observed than described. 
 
 Bear hams, we speak from rare experience, are truly 
 excellent. Bears, in our early London days, were kept 
 by many hairdressers and perfumers. The anecdote or 
 passage from Dickens's "Humphrey's Clock" is very 
 characteristic. 
 
 In one of Wilkie's pictures the brown bear is figured on 
 its way with its owners to the parish beadle's " house of 
 detention." We remember the very bear and its owners. 
 A fine chapter might be written on the animals that used 
 to be led about the country by wandering foreigners. Our 
 first sight of guinea-pigs, our first view of the black- 
 bellied hamster, our first sight of the camel and dromedary, 
 with a monkey on his neck, and our first bear, were seen 
 in this way. Boys and girls in those days seldom saw- 
 menageries. A muzzled bear on its hind legs in Nicolsou 
 Street, or at the Sciennes, was an exotic sight seldom wit- 
 nessed, and not easily forgotten. The last we saw was in 
 Bernard Street, Leith, in 1869. That very day, the police 
 were hunting for Bruin and its leaders all over Edinburgh. 
 Bears are now debarred from parading our streets.
 
 58 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 AN AUSTRIAN GENERAL AND A BEAR.* 
 
 Mr Paget was told an excellent story of a bear hunt, 
 which took place in the mountains of Transylvania, and in 
 the presence of the gentleman who told him the story. 
 
 " General V , the Austrian commander of the forces 
 
 in this district, had come to Cronstadt to inspect the 
 troops, and had been invited by our friend, in compliment 
 to his rank, to join him in a bear hunt. Now, the general, 
 though more accustomed to drilling than hunting, accepted 
 the invitation, and appeared in due time in a cocked hat 
 and long gray greatcoat, the uniform of an Austrian 
 general. When they had taken up their places, the 
 general, with half a dozen rifles arrayed before him, paid 
 such devoted attention to a bottle of spirits he had brought 
 with him, that he quite forgot the object of his coming. 
 At last, however, a huge bear burst suddenly from the 
 cover of the pine forest, directly in front of him. At that 
 moment the bottle was raised so high that it quite obscured 
 the general's vision, and he did not perceive the intruder 
 till he was close upon him. Down went the bottle, up 
 jumped the astonished soldier, and, forgetful of his guns, 
 off he started, with the bear clutching at the tails of his 
 greatcoat as he ran away. What strange confusion of 
 ideas was muddling the general's intellect at the moment 
 it is difficult to say, but I suspect he had some notion that 
 the attack was an act of insubordination on the part of 
 Bruin, for he called out most lustily, as he ran along, 
 'Back, rascal! back! I am a general!' Luckily, a poor 
 
 * " Hungary and Transylvania," &c., by John Paget, Esq., vol. ii. 
 p. 445.
 
 BEARS. 59 
 
 Wallack peasant had more respect for the epaulettes than 
 the bear, and, throwing himself in the way, with nothing 
 but a spear for his defence, he kept the enemy at bay 
 till our friend and the jagers came up, and finished the 
 contest with their rifles." 
 
 BYRON'S BEAR AT CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 When at Trinity College, Cambridge, Lord Byron had a 
 strange pet. He " brought up a bear for a degree." He 
 said to Captain Medwyn,* " I had a great hatred of college 
 rules, and contempt for academical honours. How many 
 of their wranglers have ever distinguished themselves in 
 the world? There was, by the by, rather a witty satire 
 founded on my bear. A friend of Shelley's made an 
 ourang-outang (Oran Hanton, Esq.) the hero of a novel 
 (' Melincourt'), had him created a baronet, and returned 
 for the borough of One Vote." 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS ON BEARS' GREASE AND ITS PRODUCERS. 
 
 Any one who has been long resident in London, or who 
 has passed through Fenchurch Street, or Everett Street, 
 Russell Square, must have been struck with the way in 
 which " bears' grease " is or used to be advertised in these 
 localities. Dickens makes Mr Samuel Weller tell of an 
 enthusiastic tradesman of this description, t 
 
 " His whole delight was in his trade. He spent all his 
 money in bears, and run in debt for 'em besides, and there 
 
 * " Conversations of Lord Byron," p. 72. 
 t " Master Humphrey's Clock."
 
 GO HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 they wos a growling away in the front cellar all day long 
 and ineffectually gnashing their teeth, vile the grease o' 
 their relations and friends wos being retailed in gallipots 
 in the shop above, and the first floor winder wos orna- 
 mented with their heads ; not to speak o' the dreadful 
 aggrawation it must have been to 'em to see a man always 
 a walkiii' up and down the pavement outside, with the 
 portrait of a bear in his last agonies, and underneath, in 
 large letters, ' Another fine animal was slaughtered yester- 
 day at Jenkiuson's !' Hous'ever, there they wos, and there 
 Jenkinson wos, till he was took very ill with some inward 
 disorder, lost the use of his legs, and wos confined to his 
 bed, vere he laid a wery long time ; but sich wos his pride 
 in his profession even then, that wenever he wos worse 
 than usual the doctor used to go down-stairs, and say, 
 ' Jenkinson 's wery low this mornin', we must give the 
 bears a stir ;' and as sure as ever they stirred 3 em up a 
 bit, and made 'em roar, Jenkinson opens his eyes, if he 
 wos ever so bad, calls out, 'There's the bears!' and 
 rewives agin." 
 
 The author of a most amusing article in the seventy- 
 seventh volume of the Edinburgh Review, on the modern 
 system of advertising, records that, in his puff, the first 
 vendor of bears' grease cautioned his customers to wash 
 their hands in warm water after using it, to prevent them 
 from assuming the hairy appearance of a paw. 
 
 A BEARABLE PUN. 
 
 An illiterate vendor of beer wrote over his door at 
 Harrowgate, " Bear sold here." " He spells the word
 
 BEARS. 61 
 
 quite correctly," said Theodore Hook, " if he means to 
 apprise us that the article is his own BruiM." * 
 
 SHAVED BEAR. 
 
 Robert Southey (" Common-Place Book," 4th ser.,p. 359) 
 says : "At Bristol I saw a shaved monkey shown for a 
 fairy ; and a shaved bear, in a check waistcoat and trousers, 
 sitting in a great chair as an Ethiopian savage. This was 
 the most cruel fraud I ever saw. The unnatural position 
 of the beast, and the damnable brutality of the woman- 
 keeper, who sat upon his, knee, put her arm round his neck, 
 called him husband and sweetheart, and kissed him, made 
 it the most disgusting spectacle I ever witnessed. Cottle 
 was with me." 
 
 He also tells of a fellow exhibiting a dragon-fly under a 
 magnifier at a country fair, and calling it the great High 
 German " Heiter-Keiter." 
 
 THE POLAR BEAR. 
 (Thalassarctos maritimus.ty 
 
 Notwithstanding ice and snow, and the darkness of a nine 
 months' winter, the Arctic regions are tenanted by several 
 mammalia. Some of these are constant residents, the rest 
 are migratory visitors. Of the former division, one of the 
 most conspicuous, as it is certainly the most formidable, 
 is the polar bear, a creature between eight and nine feet 
 in length, which, shuffling along the snow at a very quick 
 
 * Mark Lemon, " Jest Book," p. 331 
 f QaXaffffa. sea ; O.QKTOS, bear.
 
 62 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 pace, and being an excellent swimmer besides, cannot fail 
 to inspire dread. The large wide head and fearfully armed 
 jaws are united by a strong neck to powerful shoulders, 
 from which spring the thick and muscular fore-legs. The 
 paws, both of the fore and of the hind feet, are broad and 
 admirably adapted, with their long hairy covering, to keep 
 the polar bear from sinking in the snow. Although the 
 creature has an appearance of clumsiness, it is the reverse 
 of inactive. Every one who knows the boundless spaces 
 it has to traverse, when in a state of liberty and the 
 "monarch of all it surveys," cannot but pity it as a 
 prisoner in the Regent's Park, where a tolerably capacious 
 den, supplied with a bath of water of very limited dimen- 
 sion, affords the restless creature less liberty than a squirrel 
 has in its round-about, or a poor lark in its cage. 
 
 Voyagers to the Arctic regions describe it as wandering 
 over the fields of ice, mounting the hummocks,* and look- 
 
 * Those "Arctic hedge-rows," as Mr David Walker calls them, 
 when, on the 30th November 1857, he was on board the Arctic 
 yacht Fox, wintering in the floe-ice of Baffin's Bay. "The scene 
 apparent on going on deck after breakfast was splendid, and unlike 
 anything I ever saw before. The subdued light of the moon 
 thrown over such a vast expanse of ice, in the distance the loom of 
 a berg, or the shadow of the hummocks (the Arctic hedge-rows), 
 the only thing to break the even surface, a few stars peeping out, 
 as if gazing in wonder at the spectacle, all united to render the 
 prospect striking, and lead one to contemplate the goodness and 
 power of the Creator." On the 2d November, they had killed a 
 bear, which had been bayed and surrounded by their Esquimaux 
 dogs. Captain M'Clintock shot him. He was 7 feet 3 inches long. 
 Only one of the dogs was injured by his paws. Much did the hungry 
 beasts enjoy their feast, for they " were regaled with the entrails, 
 which they polished off in a very short time." Mr Walker, in
 
 BEARS. 63 
 
 ing around for prey. With outstretched head, its little 
 but keen eye directed to the various points of a wide 
 horizon, the polar bear looks out for seals ; or scents with 
 its quick nostrils the luscious smell of some stinking whale- 
 blubber or half -putrid whale-flesh. Dr Scoresby relates * 
 that a piece of the kreng of a whale thrown into the fire 
 drew a bear to a ship from the distance of miles. Captain 
 Beechey mentions, that his party in 1818, as they were 
 off the coast of Spitzbergen, by setting on fire some fat of 
 the walrus, soon attracted a bear to their close vicinity. 
 This polar Bruin was evidently unaccustomed to the sight 
 of masts, and, when approaching, occasionally hesitated, 
 and seemed half inclined to turn round and be off. So 
 agreeable a smell as burning walrus fat dispelled all dis- 
 trust, and brought him within musket- shot. On receiving 
 the first ball, he sprang round, growled terrifically, and 
 half raised himself on his hind-legs, as if expecting to seize 
 the object which had caused so much pain ; woe to any 
 one who had at that moment been within reach of his 
 merciless paws ! Although a second and third ball laid 
 him writhing on the ice, he was not mastered ; and on the 
 butt end of a musket directed at his head breaking short 
 off, the bear quickly seized the thigh of his assailant, and, 
 but for the immediate assistance of two or three of his 
 shipmates, the man would have been seriously injured. 
 In these very seas nearly fifty years before the hero of 
 Trafalgar encountered this Arctic tyrant, and, when missed 
 from his ship, was discovered with a comrade attacking 
 
 " Belfast News Letter," quoted in " Dublin Natural History Review," 
 1858, p. 180. 
 * " Account of Arctic Regions," i. 517.
 
 64 HEADS AND TALES 
 
 a large specimen, separated from them by a chasm in the 
 ice. On being reprimanded by his captain for his fool- 
 hardiness, " Sir," said the young middy, pouting his lips, 
 as he used to do when excited, " I wished to kill the bear 
 that I might carry the skin to my father."* 
 
 Barentz, in his celebrated voyage in 1595, had two of 
 his men killed by " a great leane white beare." In these 
 early days, so unused were polar bears to man, that though 
 thirty of their comrades attempted a rescue, the prey was 
 not abandoned. The purser, " stepping somewhat farther 
 forward, and seeing the beare to be within the length of a 
 shot, presently levelled his peece, and discharging it at the 
 beare, shot her into the head, betweene both the eyes, and 
 yet shee held the man still fast by the necke, and lifted up 
 her head with the man in her mouth, but shee beganne 
 somewhat to stagger ; wherewith the purser and a Scottish- 
 man drew out their courtlaxes (cutlasses), and stroke at 
 her so hard, that their courtlaxes burst, and yet shee 
 would not leave the man. At last Wm. Geysen went to 
 them, and with all his might stroke the beare upon the 
 snowt with his peece, at which time the beare fell to the 
 ground, making a great noyse, and Wm. Geysen leaping 
 upon her cut her throat. The 7th of September wee buried 
 the dead bodies of our men in the States Island, and 
 having fleaed the beare, carryed her skinne to Amsterdam." 
 
 This is about the earliest record of an encounter with 
 this formidable creature ; sailors now find that they can 
 be attacked with most advantage in the water. When in 
 this element, they try to escape by swimming to the ice, 
 and when the ice is in the form of loose and detached 
 
 * The anecdote is given with more detail at p. 67.
 
 BEAH8. 65 
 
 small floes, Dr Sutherland has seen them dive underneath, 
 and appear on the opposite side. Scoresby records, that 
 when shot at a distance, and able to escape, the bear has 
 been observed to retire to the shelter of a hummock, and, 
 as if aware of the styptical effect of cold, apply snow to 
 the wound. 
 
 In common with nearly every animal, this huge despot 
 of the North is strongly attached to its young. Captain 
 Inglefield, on his return home from Baffin's Bay in 1852, 
 pursued three bears, as he was anxious to get a supply of 
 fresh meat for his Esquimaux dogs. The trio were evidently 
 a mother and twins. The captain was anxious to secure 
 the cubs alive as trophies, and was cautious in shooting at 
 the mother. All three fell, and were brought on board the 
 Isabel. He records that it was quite heartrending to see 
 the affection that existed between them. When the cubs 
 saw their mother was wounded, they commenced licking 
 her wounds, regardless of their own sufferings. At length 
 the mother began to eat the snow, a sure sign that she was 
 mortally wounded. " Even then her care for the cubs did 
 not cease, as she kept continually turning her head from 
 one to the other, and, though roaring with pain, she seemed 
 to warn them to escape if possible. Their attachment was 
 as great as hers, and I was thus obliged to destroy them 
 all. It went much against my feelings, but the memory of 
 my starving dogs reconciled me to the necessity." 
 
 The female bear when pursued carries or pushes her 
 cubs forwards, and the little creatures are described as 
 placing themselves across her path to be shoved forwards. 
 Scoresby mentions an instance where, when projected some 
 yards in advance, the cubs ran on until she overtook them, 
 

 
 06 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 when they alternately adjusted themselves for a second 
 throw. 
 
 It is chiefly on the seal that this bear feeds, and it 
 displays great cunning in catching them as they sleep 
 on the ice, or come to the holes in the ice to breathe, 
 when it destroys them with one blow of its formid- 
 able and heavy paw. For its mode of getting the walrus 
 we refer the reader to "Excelsior," vol. i. p. 37. Not- 
 withstanding his strength and ferocity, the Esquimaux 
 frequently kill the polar bear, as they esteem its flesh and 
 fat, and highly prize its skin. The flesh is not so prized 
 by Saxons, whether they be European or American. Dr 
 Kane's opinion would differ but little from that of Arctic 
 voyagers on our side of the Atlantic. The surgeon to the 
 " Grinnell Expedition" in search of Sir John Franklin 
 thus characterises its flesh : " Bear is strong, very strong, 
 and withal most capricious meat ; you cannot tell where 
 to find him. One day he is quite beefy and bearable ; 
 another, hircine, hippuric, and detestable." 
 
 It is but fair to say that Captain Parry* regards the 
 flesh of the polar bear to be as wholesome as any other, 
 though not quite so palatable. His men suffered from 
 indigestion after eating it ; but this he attributes to the 
 quantity, and not to the quality, of the meat they had eaten. 
 
 There seems to be little doubt that the liver is highly 
 deleterious. Some of the sailors of Barentz, who made a 
 meal of it, were very sick, " and we verily thought we 
 should have lost them, for all their skins came off from the 
 foot to the head." 
 
 The skin of the bear is covered with long yellowish 
 "Attempt to Keach the North Pole," p. 115.
 
 BEARS. 67 
 
 white hair, which is very close, and forms a wonderful de- 
 fence against the cold, and against the tusk of the animals 
 on which it feeds. We heard of another use of this hair 
 from an officer on one of the late Arctic searching expedi- 
 tions. A bear was seen to come down a tolerably high 
 and steep declivity by sliding down on its hinder quarters, 
 in an attitude known, in more than one part of the British 
 Islands, by the expressive name of " katy-hunkers ;" the 
 shaggy hair with which it was covered serving like a thick 
 mat to protect the creature from injury. The Esquimaux 
 prepare the skin sometimes without ripping it up, and 
 turning the hairy side inward a warm sack-like bed is 
 formed, into which they creep, and lie very comfortably. 
 Otho Fabricius, in his " Fauna Graenlandica" (p. 24), in- 
 forms us that the tendons are converted into sewing threads. 
 The female bear has one or two, and sometimes three, cubs 
 at a time. They are born in the winter, and the mother 
 generally digs for them and for herself a snug nestling-place 
 in the snow. The males in the winter time leave the coast, 
 and go out on the ice-fields, to the edge of the open water 
 after seals. Adam White, in " fixcelsior" (with additions). 
 
 NELSON AND THE POLAR BEAR. 
 
 In 1773, Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, 
 sailed on a voyage of discovery towards the North Pole. 
 In this expedition sailed two Norfolk young men, one in 
 his twenty-third year, the other a mere lad in his fifteenth 
 year. The former sailed from a spirit of curiosity, and 
 being sorely distressed by sea-sickness was landed in Nor- 
 way. He afterwards became famous in the British Parlia-
 
 68 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 ment, and the speeches of the Right Hon. William Windham, 
 Secretary at War, are often referred to even now. The 
 younger man was Horatio Nelson, cockswain under Captain 
 Lutwidge, who was killed at the battle of Trafalgar, thirty- 
 two years after his Polar expedition, and left a name which 
 is synonymous with the glory of the British navy. 
 
 Southey, in his admirable life,* records an instance of 
 his hardihood on this expedition : " One night, during the 
 mid-watch, he stole from the ship with one of his comrades, 
 taking advantage of a rising fog, and set off over the ice 
 in pursuit of a bear. It was not long before they were 
 missed. The fog thickened, and Captain Liitwidge and 
 his officers became exceedingly alarmed for their safety. 
 Between three and four in the morning the weather cleared, 
 and the two adventurers were seen at a considerable dis- 
 tance from the ship attacking a huge bear. The signal for 
 them to return was immediately made ; Nelsons' comrade 
 called upon him to obey it, but in vain ; his musket had 
 flashed in the pan ; their ammunition was expended ; and 
 a chasm in the ice, which divided him from the bear, pro- 
 bably preserved his life. ' Never mind,' he cried ; ' do but 
 let me get a blow at this devil with the butt-end of my 
 musket, and we shall have him.' Captain Lutwidge, how- 
 ever, seeing his danger, fired a gun, which had the desired 
 effect of frightening the beast ; and the boy then returned, 
 somewhat afraid of the consequences of his trespass. The 
 captain reprimanded him sternly for conduct so unworthy 
 of the office which he filled, and desired to know what 
 motive he could have for hunting a bear. ' Sir,' said he, 
 
 * "Life of Nelson," by Robert Southey, Esq., LL.D., Poet 
 Laureate, p. 11.
 
 BEARS. 69 
 
 pouting his lip, as he was wont to do when agitated, ' I 
 wished to kill the bear, that I might carry the skin 
 to my father.' " 
 
 A CLEVER POLAR BEAR. 
 
 Mr Markham,* when the ship Assistance was in the 
 Wellington Channel, observed several bears prowling about 
 in search of seals. " On one occasion," he writes, " I saw 
 a bear swimming across a lane of water, and pushing a 
 large piece of ice before him. Landing on the floe, he 
 advanced stealthily towards a couple of seals, which were 
 basking in the sun at some little distance, still holding the 
 ice in front to hide his black muzzle ; but this most sagacious 
 of bears was for once outwitted, for the seals dived into a 
 pool of water before he could get within reach. On an- 
 other occasion, a female Bruin having been shot from the 
 deck of the Intrepid, her affectionate cub, an animal about 
 the size of a large Newfoundland dog, remained resolutely 
 by the side of its mother, and on the approach of the 
 commander of the Intrepid with part of his crew, a sort of 
 tournament ensued, in which the youthful bear, although 
 belaboured most savagely, showed a gallant resistance, and 
 at length rushing between the legs of the corporal of 
 marines, laid him prostrate on the ice, floored another 
 man, who had seized hold of his tail, and effected his 
 escape. 
 
 * " Franklin's Footsteps/' by Clement B. Markham, p. 65.
 
 70 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 CAPTAIN OMMANEY AND THE POLAR BEAR. 
 
 Captain Ommaney,* who Jed one of the travelling parties 
 in 1851 sent out from the ships under Austin in search of 
 Franklin on the 12th of June, the day before he arrived at 
 the ships, met with a laughable accident, although it might 
 have had a serious termination. They had all of them but 
 just got into their blanket bags, when a peculiar noise, as 
 if something was rubbing up the snow, was heard outside. 
 The gallant captain instantly divined its cause, seized, 
 loaded, and cocked his gun, and ordered the tent door to 
 be opened, upon which a huge bear was seen outside. 
 Captain Ommaney fired at the animal, but, whether from 
 the benumbed state of his limbs, or the dim glimmering 
 light, he unfortunately missed him, and shot away the rope 
 that supported the tent instead. The enraged monster 
 then poked his head against the poles, and the tent fell 
 upon its terrified inmates, and embraced them in its folds. 
 Their confusion and dismay can more easily be imagined 
 than described, but at length one man, with more self-pos- 
 session than the rest, slipped out of his bag, scrambled 
 from under the prostrate tent, and ran to the sledge for 
 another gun ; and it was well that he did so, for no sooner 
 had he vacated his sleeping sack than Bruin seized it be- 
 tween his teeth, and shook it violently, with the evident 
 intention of wreaking his vengeance on its inmate. He 
 was, however, speedily despatched by a well-aimed shot 
 from the man, the tent was repitched, and tranquillity re- 
 stored, 
 
 * " Franklin's Footsteps," by Clement Robert Markham, late of 
 H.M.S. Assistance, p. 93.
 
 EACCOON BADGES. 7 1 
 
 RACCOON. 
 
 A STRIKINGLY pretty, well-clad, and pleasingly coloured 
 North American quadruped, of -which many zoological 
 anecdotes might be given. Linnaeus named it Ursu lotor, 
 or the Washer, from its curious habit of putting any food 
 offered to it, at least when in confinement, into water, 
 before attempting to eat it. 
 
 "A GONE COON." 
 
 An American phrase for " the last extremity," or, " it 's 
 all up." They say that a Major, or Colonel, or General 
 Scott " down South " was notorious as a dead shot. Once 
 on a time, when out with his gun, he espied a raccoon on a 
 lofty tree. The poor raccoon, noticing the gun pointed at 
 him, cried to the dead shot, "Air you General Scott?" 
 "I air." "Then wait, I air a comin' down, for I air 
 a gone coon" 
 
 BADGER 
 
 THE badger, or brock, as it is called in Scotland, is 
 yearly becoming more and more rare. In a few years, 
 this curious and powerful member of the ferae, will figure, 
 like the bear and beaver, as among the extinct quadrupeds 
 of these islands. Naturalists will be recording that in the 
 days of Robert Burns it must have been not at all uncom- 
 mon, and not rare in those of Hugh Miller, since low dram-
 
 72 HRADS AND TALES. 
 
 shops kept them for the entertainment of their guests. 
 The Ayrshire bard makes the Newfoundland dog, Caesar, 
 say to his comrade Luath, the collie, when speaking of 
 most of the gentry of his day 
 
 " They gang as saucy by poor folk 
 As I wad by a stinking brock."* 
 
 The author of " Old Red Sandstone" and " My Schools 
 and Schoolmasters," has recorded in the latter work the 
 history of his employment as a hewer of great stones under 
 the branching foliage of the elm and chestnut trees of 
 Niddry Park, near Edinburgh, and how, in the course of 
 a strike among the masons, he marched into town with 
 several of them to a meeting on the Links, where, con- 
 spicuous from the deep red hue of their clothes and aprons, 
 they were cheered as a reinforcement from a distance. On 
 adjourning, Hugh Miller, in his racy style, gives the follow- 
 ing account of a badger-baiting more than forty years 
 ago: 
 
 HUGH MILLER AND THE BADGER-BAITING IN THE 
 CANONGATE. 
 
 " My comrades proposed that we should pass the time 
 until the hour of meeting in a public-house, and, desirous 
 of securing a glimpse of the sort of enjoyment for which 
 they sacrificed so much, I accompanied them. Passing not 
 a few more inviting-looking places, we entered a low tavern 
 in the upper part of the Canongate, kept in an old half- 
 ruinous building, which has since disappeared. We passed 
 
 * Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 1787, p. 14, "The Twa
 
 BADGER. 73 
 
 on through a narrow passage to a low-roofed room in the 
 centre of the erection, into which the light of day never 
 penetrated, and in which the gas was burning dimly in a 
 close, sluggish atmosphere, rendered still more stifling by 
 tobacco-smoke, and a strong smell of ardent spirits. In 
 the middle of the crazy floor there was a trap-door, which 
 lay open at the time ; and a wild combination of sounds, 
 in which the yelping of a dog, and a few gruff voices that 
 seemed cheering him on, were most noticeable, rose from 
 the apartment below. It was customary at this time for 
 dram-shops to keep badgers housed in long narrow boxes, 
 and for working men to keep dogs ; and it was part of the 
 ordinary sport of such places to set the dogs to unhouse 
 the badgers. The wild sport which Scott describes in his 
 'Guy Mannering," as pursued by Dandy Dinmont and 
 his associates among the Cheviots, was extensively practised 
 twenty-nine years ago amid the dingier haunts of the High 
 Street and Canongate. Our party, like most others, had 
 its dog, a repulsive-looking brute, with an earth-directed 
 eye ; as if he carried about with him an evil conscience ; 
 and my companions were desirous of getting his earthing 
 ability tested upon the badger of the establishment ; but on 
 summoning the tavern-keeper, we were told that the party 
 below had got the start of us. Their dog was, as we might 
 hear, 'just drawing the badger ; and before our dog could 
 be permitted to draw him, the poor brute would require to 
 get an hour's rest.' I need scarce say, that the hour was 
 spent in hard drinking in that stagnant atmosphere; and 
 we then all descended through the trap-door, by means of 
 a ladder, into a bare-walled dungeon, dark and damp, and 
 where the pestiferous air smelt like that of a burial vault.
 
 74 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 The scene which followed was exceedingly repulsive and 
 brutal, nearly as much so as some of the scenes furnished 
 by those otter-hunts in which the aristocracy of the country 
 delight occasionally to indulge. Amid shouts and yells, 
 the badger, with the blood of his recent conflict still fresh 
 upon him, was again drawn to the box-mouth; and the party 
 returning satisfied to the apartment above, again betook 
 themselves to hard drinking. In a short time the liquor 
 began to tell, not first, as might be supposed, on our 
 younger men, who were mostly tall, vigorous fellows, in 
 the first flush of their full strength, but on a few of the 
 middle-aged workmen, whose constitutions seemed under- 
 mined by a previous course of dissipation and debauchery. 
 The conversation became very loud, very involved, and 
 though highly seasoned with emphatic oaths, very insipid ; 
 and leaving with Cha who seemed somewhat uneasy 
 that my eye should be upon their meeting in its hour 
 of weakness money enough to clear off my share of 
 the reckoning, I stole out to the King's Park, and passed 
 an hour to better purpose among the trap rocks than I 
 could possibly have spent it beside the trap-door of that 
 tavern party. I am not aware that a single individual, 
 save the writer, is now living ; its very dog did not live out 
 half his days. His owner was alarmed one morning, shortly 
 after this time, by the intelligence that a dozen of sheep 
 had been worried during the night on a neighbouring farm, 
 and that a dog very like his had been seen prowling about 
 the fold ; but in order to determine the point, he would be 
 visited, it was added, in the course of the day, by the 
 shepherd and a law-officer. The dog meanwhile, however, 
 conscious of guilt, for dogs do seem to have consciences
 
 FERRET. 75 
 
 in such matters, was nowhere to be found, though, after 
 the lapse of nearly a week, he again appeared at the work ; 
 and his master, slipping a rope round his neck, brought 
 him to a deserted coal-pit half -filled with water, that opened 
 in an adjacent field, and flinging him in, left the authorities 
 no clue by which to establish his identity with the robber 
 and assassin of the fold."* 
 
 THE LAIRD OP BALNAMOON AND THE BROCK. 
 
 The laird, so Dean Eamsay had the story sent him, once 
 riding past a high steep bank, stopped opposite a hole in 
 it, and said, " John, I saw a brock gang in there." " Did 
 ye 1 ?" said John; "wull ye haud my horse, sir?" "Cer- 
 tainly," said the laird, and away rushed John for a spade. 
 After digging for half an hour, he came back, nigh speech- 
 less to the laird, who had regarded him musingly. " I 
 canna find him, sir," said John. " 'Deed," said the laird, 
 very coolly, " I wad ha' wondered if ye had, for it 's ten 
 years sin' I saw him gang in there." t 
 
 FERRET. 
 
 A TRULY blood-thirsty member of that slim-bodied but 
 active race, the weasel tribe. He is certainly an inhabi- 
 tant of a warmer climate than this, being very sensitive to 
 
 * " My Schools and Schoolmasters ; or, The Story of my 
 Education," by Hugh Miller, fifth edition, 1856, pp. 321-323. 
 
 \- " Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character," tenth edition, 
 1864, p. ]83.
 
 76 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 cold. He is used in killing rats and ferreting out rabbits, 
 a verb indeed derived from his name. He has been known 
 to attack sleeping infants. 
 
 COLLINS AND THE HAT-CATCHER s grip OF HIS FERRETS. 
 
 That delightful painter of cottage life, says his son,* 
 often found cottagers who gloried in being painted, and 
 who sat like professional models, under an erroneous im- 
 pression that it was for their personal beauties and perfec- 
 tions that their likenesses were portrayed. The remarks 
 of these and other good people, who sat to the painter in 
 perfect ignorance of the use or object of his labours, were 
 often exquisitely original. He used to quote the criticism 
 of a celebrated country rat-catcher, on the study he had 
 made from him, with hearty triumph and delight. When 
 asked whether he thought his portrait like, the rat-catcher, 
 who perhaps in virtue of his calling was a gruff and 
 unhesitating man, immediately declared that the face was 
 " not a morsel like," but vowed with a great oath, that 
 nothing could ever be equal to the correctness of the dirt 
 shine on his old leather breeches, and the grip that he had 
 of the necks of his ferrets ! 
 
 POLE-CAT. 
 
 AN equally blood-thirsty member of the weasel family, 
 with the subject of the preceding paragraph. 
 
 * " Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, R.A.," by his son, W 
 Wilkie Collins, i. p. 222.
 
 DOG3. 77 
 
 FOX AND THE POLE-CAT. (POLL-CAT.*) 
 
 Francis Grose relates the following as having happened 
 during one of the famous Westminster elections : " Dur- 
 ing the poll, a dead cat being thrown on the hustings, 
 one of Sir Cecil Wray's party observed it stunk worse than 
 a fox, to which Mr Fox replied, there was nothing extra- 
 ordinary in that, considering it was a poll-cat." 
 
 DOGS. 
 
 ONE who seems to love the race of dogs, and who has 
 written a most readable book on them,t remarks, that the 
 dog " even now is rarely the companion of a Jew, or the 
 inmate of his house." He quotes various terms of reproach 
 still common among us, and which seem to have originated 
 from a similar feeling to that of the Jew. For instance, 
 we say of a very cheap article, that it is " dog cheap." 
 To call a person "a dog," or "a cur," or "a hound," 
 means something the very opposite of complimentary. 
 A surly person is said to have " a dogged disposition." 
 Any one very much fatigued is said to be " dog weary/' 
 A wretched room or house is often called " a dog hole," or 
 said to be only fit for "a dog." Very poor verse is 
 " doggerel." It is told of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, 
 
 * " The Olio," by the late Francis Grose, Esq., F.A.S., p. 203. 
 
 t " Dogs and their Ways ; " illustrated by numerous anecdotes, 
 compiled from authentic sources, by the Rev. Charles Williams. 
 1863.
 
 78 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 that when a young nobleman refused to translate some 
 inscription over an alcove, because it was in " dog-latin," 
 she observed, " How strange a puppy shouldn't understand 
 his mother tongue." 
 
 What, too, can be more expressive of a man being on 
 the verge of ruin, than the common phrase, that " such a 
 one is going to the dogs." Of modern describers of the 
 very life and feelings of dogs, who can surpass Dr John 
 Brown of Edinburgh ? His " Rab," and his " Our Dogs," 
 are worthy of the brush of Sir Edwin Landseer. Who 
 has not heard the answer said to have been given by 
 Sydney Smith to the great painter, when he wanted to 
 make a portrait of the witty canon, " Is thy servant a 
 doy, that he should do this thing ? " 
 
 There is great diversity of standard in matters of f taste. 
 In China, a well-roasted pup, of any variety of the very 
 variable Canis familiaris, is a dainty dish. In London 
 the greatest exquisite delights in the taste of a half-cooked 
 woodcock, but would scruple to eat a lady's lapdog, e.ven 
 though descended, by indubitable pedigree, from a genuine 
 " liver -and-tan " spaniel, that followed King Charles II. 
 in his strolls through St James's Park ; and which was 
 given to her ladyship's ancestress on a day recorded, per- 
 haps, in the diary of Mr Samuel Pepys. Again, in the 
 country of the Esquimaux, who has not read in the in- 
 tensely interesting narratives of the Moravian missionaries, 
 how the dogs of the " Innuit " of " the men," as they 
 call themselves are, in winter, indispensable to their 
 very existence ? Parry, Lyon, Franklin, Richardson, Ross, 
 Rae, Penny, Sutherland, Inglefield, and Kane, have told 
 us what excellent " carriage "-pullers these hardy children
 
 DOGS. 79 
 
 of the snow become from early infancy ; and how the more 
 they work, like the wives of savages in Australia, the 
 more they are kicked. Passing over the dogs of the 
 Indian tribes of North America and the gaunt race in 
 Patagonia, the reader may remember that the Roman 
 youth, like the young Briton, had, in the days of Horace, 
 his outer marks one was, that he loved to have a dog, 
 or a whole pack beside him " gaudet canibus." This 
 attachment to the dog is given us " from above," and is 
 one of the many " good gifts " which proceed from Him, 
 who made man and dog " familiar," as the apt specific 
 name of Linnseus denominates the latter: One of our 
 greatly-gifted poets, in a cynical mood, could write an 
 epitaph on a favourite Newfoundlander, and end it with 
 the dismal lines on his views of " earthly friends " 
 
 " He never knew but one, and here he lies." 
 
 Our genial and home-loving Cowper has made his dog 
 Beau classical. We must beg our readers to refresh their 
 memories, by looking into the Olney bard's exquisite story, 
 
 " My spaniel, prettiest of his race, 
 And high in pedigree," 
 
 and they will find that that story of " The Dog and the 
 Water-lily" was "no fable," and that Beau really under- 
 stood his master's wish when he fetched him a water-lily 
 out of " Ouse's silent tide." How graceful are the last 
 two stanzas of that sweet little poem 
 
 " Charm'd with the sight, ' The world/ I cried, 
 
 ' Shall hear of this thy deed j 
 My dog shall mortify the pride 
 Of man's superior breed.
 
 80 HEADS AND TALE* 
 
 4 But chief myself I will enjoin, 
 
 Awake at duty's call, 
 To show a love as prompt as thine 
 
 To Him who gives me all.' " * 
 
 That the world might know the very " mark and figure" 
 of this spaniel, the late able illustrator of so many topo- 
 graphical works (Mr James Storer) published in his 
 " Rural Walks of Cowper " t a figure of Beau, from the 
 
 * It may interest the reader, who does not dive deep into liter- 
 ary curiosities, to refer to the original edition of Hayley's "Cowper" 
 (4to, 1803, vol. L p. 314), where the poet, in a letter to Samuel 
 Rose, Esq., written at Weston, August 18, 1788, alludes to his 
 having " composed a spick and span new piece called ' The Dog 
 and the Water-lily ; ' " and in his next letter, September 11, he 
 sent this piece to his excellent friend, the London barrister. 
 Visitors to Olney and Weston, who have gone over the poet's 
 walks, cannot but have their love for the gentle and afflicted 
 Cowper most deeply intensified. See Miller's " First Impressions." 
 
 t This book, like Storer's other illustrations of the scenes of the 
 poems of Burns and Bloomfield, drawn immediately after the death 
 of these poets, will become year by year more valuable.
 
 DOGS. 81 
 
 stuffed skin in the possession of Cowper's kinsman, the 
 Rev. Dr Johnson. 
 
 Mr Montague, in a letter to the son and biographer of 
 Sir James Mackintosh,* gives many reminiscences of that 
 eminent man, who was much attached to the memory of 
 Cowper. He says, " We reached Dereham about mid-day 
 (it was in 1801), and wrote to Mr Johnson, the clergyman, 
 who had protected Cowper in the last years of his life, and 
 in whose house he died. He instantly called upon us, 
 and we accompanied him to his house. In the hall, we 
 were introduced to a little red and white spaniel, in a glass 
 case the little dog Beau, who, seeing the water-lily which 
 Cowper could not reach, ' plunging, left the shore.' " 
 
 " I saw him with that lily cropp'd, 
 
 Impatient swim to meet 
 My quick approach, and soon he dropp'd 
 The treasure at my feet." 
 
 We saw the room where Cowper died, and the bell 
 which he last touched. We went to his grave, and to 
 Mrs Unwin's, who is buried at some distance. I lamented 
 this, " Do not live in the visible, but the invisible," said 
 your father, " his attainments, his tenderness, his affec- 
 tions, his sufferings, and his hardships, will live long after 
 both their graves are no more." 
 
 We could linger over a prized octavo volume, published 
 in Edinburgh in 1787; the first poem of this, " The Twa 
 Dogs, a Tale," occupies some thirteen pages, written with 
 that " rare felicity " so common to the Bard of Scotland. 
 
 * " Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Sir James 
 Mackintosh," edited by his son, Robert James Mackintosh, Esq., 
 vol. i. p. 164.
 
 82 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 We mention it, because of the peculiar happiness with 
 which the collie, or Scottish shepherd- dog, is described in 
 lines that Sir Edwin Landseer alone has equalled on can- 
 vas, or his brother Thomas with the graver 
 
 " He was a gash an' faithfu' tyke 
 As ever lap a sheugh or dyke. 
 His honest, sonsie, bawsn't* face, 
 Aye gat him friends in ilka place. 
 His breast was white, his touzie back 
 Weel clad wi' coat of glossy black ; 
 His gaucie tail, wi' upward curl, 
 Hung owre his hurdies wi' a swirl." 
 
 That 's the shepherd-dog, as we have heard him described 
 from a specimen, which was the friend and follower of a 
 valued one, who, when a boy ('tis many years ago), frisked 
 with the dog, over one of the many ferny haughs that 
 margin the lovely Tweed above and below Peebles. It is 
 the collie we have seen, on one of the sheep-farms of 
 Lanarkshire, obey its young master by a word or two, as 
 unintelligible to us as Japanese. But to the Culter 
 " Luath," to hear was to obey j and in a quarter of an 
 hour a flock of sheep, which had been feeding on a hill- 
 side half a mile off, were brought back, driven by this 
 faithful "bit doggie." We wonder not that shepherds 
 love their dogs. Why, even the New Smithfield cattle- 
 drovers, who drive sheep along the streets of London on a 
 Monday or Friday, never even require to urge their faith- 
 ful partners. Well may the gifted authoress of " The 
 Dream " address " the faithful guardian " 
 
 * "Bawsn't," having a white stripe down the face. Glossary to 
 Burns'i Poems.
 
 DOGS. 83 
 
 * Oh, tried and trusted ! thou whose love 
 
 Ne'er changes nor forsakes, 
 Thou proof, how perfect God hath stamp'd 
 
 The meanest thing He makes ; 
 Thou, whom no snare entraps to serve, 
 
 No art is used to tame 
 (Train'd, like ourselves, thy path to know, 
 
 By words of love and blame) ; 
 Friend ! who beside the cottage door, 
 
 Or in the rich man's hall, 
 With steadfast faith still answerest 
 
 The one familiar call ; 
 Well by poor hearth and lordly home 
 
 Thy couchant form may rest, 
 And Prince and Peasant trust thee still, 
 
 To guard what they love best." 
 
 Hon. Mrs Norton, " The Dream," &c., p. 192. 
 
 No ordinary-sized volume, much less a short article, 
 could give a tithe of the true anecdotes of members of the 
 dog race. Mere references to their biography would take 
 up a volume of Bibliography itself, just as their forms, 
 and character, and "pose," give endless subject to the 
 painter. Of modern authors, no one loved dogs more 
 truly than Sir Walter Scott, as the reader of his writings 
 and of his biography is well aware ; * but it may not be 
 generally known that, on the only occasion when the 
 great novelist met the Ayrshire peasant, 
 " Virgilium tantum vidi," 
 
 the poem, which had made Burns a wonder to the boy then 
 "unknown," was that of " The Twa Dogs;" so that, even 
 then, Scott had commenced to show his attachment to 
 these faithful followers. It was in the house of Sir Adam 
 Ferguson, when Scott was a mere lad ; and the scene was 
 
 * See an extract farther on, in proof of this.
 
 84 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 described most vividly to the writer by the late Scottish 
 knight, after whose battle in South Italy the author of 
 " Marmion" named his pet stag-hound Maida, or, as Scott 
 pronounced it, " Myda." It was as the author of " The 
 Twa Dogs" that young Ferguson and Scott regarded Burns 
 on his entrance into the room with such wistful attention. 
 The story is told in Lockhart, and we will not quote it 
 further ; but, leaving dogs of our own days and lands to 
 Mr Jesse, who has given an interesting volume on them, 
 we will close with a few paragraphs on the dog of the East 
 a very differently treated animal to that generally prized 
 and esteemed " friend" of man in these lands of the West. 
 The Holy Scriptures show us that dogs were generally 
 despised. We select three, out of many instances. " Is 
 thy servant a dog that he should do this thing ?" was the 
 question with which Hazael, ignorant of the deceitfulness 
 of his own heart, indignantly replied to' Elisha, when the 
 prophet told him of the evil that he would yet do unto the 
 children of Israel (2 Kings viii. 13). He, "who spake as 
 never man spake," knowing the faith of the Syrophoenician 
 woman, and giving her an opportunity of manifesting it 
 " for our example," said, in the Syriac fashion of thought, 
 "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it 
 to the dogs" (Mark vii. 27). And the apostle John, in 
 that wondrous close of the prophetical writings, says, " For 
 without," i.e., outside of the New Jerusalem, " are dogs " 
 (Rev. xxii. 5). In the East up to the present day, with 
 but few exceptions, dogs are treated with great dislike. 
 We might quote passages in proof from almost every East- 
 ern traveller, and may venture to extract one from the 
 graphic page of the Eev. W. Graham, who lived five years
 
 DOGS. 85 
 
 in Syria, and who has given some noble word-pictures of 
 men, and streets, and scenes in Damascus and other Turk- 
 ish towns. Writing of Damascus,* he remarks, " The dogs 
 are considered unclean, and are never domesticated in the 
 East. They are thin, lean, fox-like animals, and always at 
 the starving point. They live, breed, and die in the streets. 
 They are useful as scavengers. They are neither fondled 
 nor persecuted, but simply tolerated ; and no dog has an 
 owner, or ever follows and accompanies a man as the sheep 
 do. I once went out in the evening at Beyrout, with my 
 teacher to enjoy the fresh air and talk Arabic. My little 
 English dog, the gift of a friend, followed us. We passed 
 through a garden, where a venerable Moslem was sitting 
 on a stone, silently and solemnly engaged in smoking his 
 pipe. He observed the dog following us, and was aston- 
 ished at it, as something new and extraordinary ; and ris- 
 ing, and making out of the way, he cried out, ' May his 
 father be accursed ! Is that a dog or a fox ?'" Again, in 
 Damascus, should a worn-out horse, donkey, or camel die 
 in the streets, in a few hours the dogs have devoured it ; 
 and the powerful rays of the sun dry up all corrupt mat- 
 ter. Mr Graham tells us that the dogs of Damascus are 
 brown, blackish, or of an ash colour, and that he saw no 
 white or spotted specimens. He never saw a case of 
 hydrophobia, nor did he hear a bark. The dogs " howl, 
 and make noise enough," he continues, " but the fine, well- 
 defined bow-wow is entirely wanting." With a quiet hu- 
 mour, he hints at the bark being a mark of the civilised, 
 domesticated dog, and as denoting, apparently, " the re- 
 finement of canine education." We have been struck with 
 * " The Jordan and the Rhine " (1854), p. 46, and pp. 91-93.
 
 86 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 the attempts of Penny's Esquimaux dogs, deposited by the 
 gallant Arctic mariner in the Zoological Gardens, to get up 
 a bark somewhat like the " well-bred" dogs in the cages 
 near them. Mr Graham tells us of the Damascus dogs 
 having established a kind of police among themselves, and, 
 like the rooks, driving all intruders far from their district. 
 
 Dogs were not always disregarded in the East. Hero- 
 dotus informs us,* during the Persian occupation the num- 
 ber of Indian dogs kept in the province of Babylon for the 
 use of the governor was so great, that four cities were 
 exempted from taxes for maintaining them. In the moun- 
 tain parts of India, travellers describe the great dogs of 
 Thibet and Cashmere as being much prized. 
 
 "The domestic dog of Ladak," says Major Cunning- 
 ham,t " is the well-known shepherd's dog, or Thibetan 
 mastiff. They have shaggy coats, generally quite black, 
 or black and tan ; but I have seen some of a light brown 
 colour. They are usually ill-tempered to strangers ; but I 
 have never found one that would face a stick, although they 
 can fight well when attacked. The only peculiarity that I 
 have noticed about them is, that the tail is nearly always 
 curled upward on to the back, where the hair is displaced 
 by the constant rubbing of the tail." And that the same 
 massive variety was also prized in ancient times we know, 
 by a singularly fine, small bas-relief in baked clay, found in 
 1849 in the Birs-i-Nimrud, Babylon, by Sir Henry Raw- 
 linson, which is preserved in the British Museum, to which 
 it was presented by the late Prince- Albert, and an out- 
 line of which, reduced one-half, will convey a good idea 
 
 * See Layard's " Nineveh and its Remains," vol. ii. (1849), p. 425. 
 t "Ladak, Physical, Statistical, and Historical/' p. 218.
 
 DOGS. 
 
 87 
 
 to the reader of its form. We may add that this bas-relief 
 was first noticed and figured, in 1851, in the third edition 
 of a truly learned and excellent work on " Nineveh and 
 
 Persepolis," by Mr Vaux of the British Museum (p. 183). 
 These dcgs, then, were nothing else than big, " low jowled" 
 Thibetan mastiffs, such as we occasionally see brought 
 over by some Indian officer ; and the use for which they 
 were employed by the ancient kings and their attendants 
 is strikingly exhibited on some slabs from a chamber in 
 the north palace of Koujunjik, a part of the great Nineveh. 
 On some of these slabs, dogs are seen engaged in pulling 
 down wild asses, deer, and other animals ; and they were 
 evidently kept also to assist in securing nobler game 
 "the king of beasts;" the sport of which animals shows 
 how truly the Assyrian king was named " Nimrod, the 
 mighty hunter before the Lord." Adam White, ' " Ex- 
 celsior " (with additions).
 
 88 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 BISHOP BLOMFIELD BITTEN BY A Doo. 
 
 His natural temperament was quick, and he was fond of 
 authority. " A saying of Sydney Smith's has been pre- 
 served, humorously illustrative of the view which he took 
 of Bishop Blomfield's character. The bishop had been 
 bitten by a dog in the calf of the leg, and fearing possible 
 hydrophobia in consequence, he went, with characteristic 
 promptitude, to have the injured piece of flesh cut out by 
 a surgeon before he returned home. Two or three on 
 whom he called were not at home ; but, at last, the opera- 
 tion was effected by the eminent surgeon, Mr Keate. The 
 same evening the bishop was to have dined with a party 
 where Sydney Smith was a guest. Just before dinner, a 
 note arrived, saying that he was unable to keep his engage- 
 ment, a dog having rushed out from the crowd and bitten 
 him in the leg. When this note was read aloud to the 
 company, Sydney Smith's comment was, '/ should like to 
 hear the dogs account of the story.' 
 
 " When this accident occurred to him, Bishop Blomfield 
 happened to be walking with Dr D'Oyly, the rector of 
 Lambeth. A lady of strong Protestant principles, mistaking 
 Dr D'Oyly for Dr Doyle, said that she considered it was a 
 judgment upon the bishop for keeping such company." * 
 
 " PUPPIES NEVER SEE TILL THEY ARE NINE DAYS OLD." 
 
 It is related, that when a former Bishop of Bristol held 
 the office of Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cam- 
 bridge, he one day met a couple of under-graduates, who 
 
 * " Memoir of Bishop Blomfiold," by his aon, i. 220.
 
 DOG8. 89 
 
 neglected to pay the accustomed compliment of capping. 
 The bishop inquired the reason of the neglect. The two 
 men begged his lordship's pardon, observing they were 
 freshmen, and did not know him. " How long have you 
 been in Cambridge ?" asked his lordship. " Only eight 
 days," was the reply. " Very good," said the bishop ; 
 "puppies never see till they are nine days old."* 
 
 MRS ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING'S DOG FLUSH. 
 
 Few have written so lovingly on the dog as this 
 gifted poetess. Her dog Flush is described so well that 
 Landseer could paint the creature almost to a hair. 
 She has entered into the very feeling created in us by this 
 favoured pet of our race. The beautiful stanzas t I have 
 copied give also many little touches of her autobiography. 
 This gifted lady was long an invalid. She could enter 
 with rare sympathy into Cowper's attachments to animals. 
 Her experience of the friendship of Flush is well told in 
 the following lines, so different from Lord Byron's misan- 
 thropic verses on his dog : 
 
 To FLUSH, MY DOG. 
 
 Loving friend, the gift of one 
 Who her own true faith has run 
 
 Through her lower nature, 
 Be my benediction said 
 With my hand upon thy head, 
 
 Gentle fellow-creature ! 
 
 * Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 177. 
 
 f A selection from the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 
 London, 1866, pp. 134-138.
 
 90 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 Like a lady's ringlets brown 
 Flow thy silken ears adown 
 
 Either side demurely 
 Of thy silver-suited breast, 
 Shining out from all the rest 
 
 Of thy body purely. 
 
 Darkly brown thy body is, 
 Till the sunshine, striking this, 
 
 Alchemise its dulness, 
 When the sleek curls manifold 
 Flash all over into gold 
 
 With a burnish'd fulness. 
 
 Underneath my stroking hand, 
 Startled eyes of hazel bland 
 
 Kindling, growing larger, 
 Up thou leapest with a spring, 
 Full of prank and curveting 
 
 Leaping like a charger. 
 
 Leap ! thy broad tail waves a light; 
 Leap ! thy slender feet are bright, 
 
 Canopied in fringes ; 
 Leap ! those tassell'd ears of thine 
 Flicker strangely, fair and fine, 
 
 Down their golden inches. 
 
 Yet, my pretty, sporting friend, 
 Little is 't to such an end 
 
 That I praise thy rareness ; 
 Other dogs may be thy peers 
 Haply in these drooping ears 
 
 And this glossy fairness.
 
 DOGS. 91 
 
 But of thee it shall be said, 
 Tliis dog watch'd beside a bed 
 
 Day and night unweary 
 "Watch'd within a curtain' d room, 
 Where no sunbeam brake the gloom, 
 
 Round the sick and dreary. 
 
 Roses gather'd for a vase 
 In that chamber died apace, 
 
 Beam and breeze resigning 
 This dog only waited on, 
 Knowing that, when light is gone, 
 
 Love remains for shining. 
 
 Other dogs in thymy dew 
 
 Track'd the hares, and follow'd through 
 
 Sunny moor or meadow ; 
 This dog only crept and crept 
 Next a languid cheek that slept, 
 
 Sharing in the shadow. 
 
 Other dogs of loyal cheer 
 Bounded at the whistle clear, 
 
 Up the woodside hieing ; 
 This dog only watch'd in reach 
 Of a faintly-utter'd speech, 
 
 Or a louder sighing. 
 
 And if one or two quick tears 
 Drcpp'd upon his glossy ears, 
 
 Or a sigh came double, 
 Up he sprang in eager haste, 
 Fawning, fondling, breathing fast 
 
 In a tender trouble
 
 02 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 And this dog was satisfied 
 
 If a pale, thin hand would glide 
 
 Down his dewlaps sloping, 
 Which he push'd his nose within, 
 After platforming his chin 
 
 On the palm left open. 
 
 This dog, if a friendly voice 
 Call him now to blither choice 
 
 Than such chamber-keeping, 
 " Come out !" praying from the door, 
 Presseth backward as before, 
 
 Up against me leaping. 
 
 Therefore to this dog will I, 
 Tenderly, not scornfully, 
 
 Render praise and favour : 
 With my hand upon his head 
 Is my benediction said, 
 
 Therefore, and for ever. 
 
 And because he loved me so, 
 Better than his kind will do, 
 
 Often man or woman, 
 Give I back more love again 
 Than dogs often take of men, 
 
 Leaning from my Human. 
 
 Blessings on thee, dog of mine, 
 Pretty collars make thee fine, 
 
 Sugar'd milk make fat thee ! 
 Pleasures wag on in thy tail, 
 Hands of gentle motion fail 
 
 Nevermore to oat thee !
 
 DOGS. 93 
 
 Downy pillow take thy head, 
 Silken coverlet bestead, 
 
 Sunshine help thy sleeping 1 
 No fly's buzzing wake thee up, 
 No man break thy purple cup 
 
 Set for drinking deep in. 
 
 Whisker'd cats arointed flee, 
 Sturdy stoppers keep from thee 
 
 Cologne distillations ; 
 Nuts lie in thy path for stones, 
 And thy feast-day macaroons 
 
 Turn to daily rations ! 
 
 Mock I thee in wishing weal ? 
 Tears are in my eyes to feel 
 
 Thou art made so straightly ; 
 Blessing needs must straighten too \ 
 Little canst thou joy or do, 
 
 Thou who lovest greatly. 
 
 Yet be blessed to the height 
 Of all good and all delight 
 
 Pervious to thy nature ; 
 Only loved beyond that line, 
 With a love that answers thine, 
 
 Loving fellow-creature ! 
 
 SIR THOMAS FOWELL BUXTON, BART., AND HIS DOG 
 
 " SPEAKER." 
 
 Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton was very fond of dogs ; his 
 son* tells an anecdote of the singular manner in which 
 
 * " Memoirs of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart.," edited by his 
 son, Charles Buxton, Esq., B.A., third edition, p. 139.
 
 94 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 one of his pets came into his possession. " He was stand- 
 ing at the door of the House of Commons talking to a 
 friend, when a beautiful black and tan terrier rushed 
 between them, and immediately began barking furiously 
 at Mr Joseph Pease, who was speaking. All the members 
 jumped up, shouting and laughing, while the officers of 
 the house chased the dog round and round, till at last he 
 took refuge with Mr Buxton, who, as he could find no 
 traces of an owner, carried him home. He proved to be 
 quite an original. One of his whims was, that he would 
 never go into the kitchen nor yet into a poor man's 
 cottage ; but he formed a habit of visiting by himself at 
 the country houses in the neighbourhood of Cromer, and 
 his refined manners and intelligence made ' Speaker ' a 
 welcome guest wherever he pleased to go." 
 
 LORD BYRON AND HIS DOG BOATSWAIN. 
 
 In November 1808 Lord Byron lost his favourite dog 
 Boatswain ; the poor animal having been seized with a fit 
 of madness, at the commencement of which so little aware 
 was Byron of the nature of the malady, that he more than 
 once, with his bare hand, wiped away the slaver from the 
 dog's lips during the paroxysms. In a letter to his friend 
 Mr Hodson, he thus announces this event : " Boatswain 
 is dead ! he expired in a state of madness on the 18th, 
 after suffering much, yet retaining all the gentleness of his 
 nature to the last, never attempting to do the least injury 
 to any one near him. I have now lost everything except 
 old Murray." 
 
 The monument raised by him to this dog the most
 
 DOGS. 95 
 
 memorable tribute of the kind since the dog's grave, of 
 old, at Salamis is still a conspicuous ornament of the 
 gardens of Newstead. The misanthropic verses engraved 
 upon it may be found among his poems, and the following 
 is the inscription by which they are introduced : 
 
 " Near this spot 
 
 Are deposited the remains of one 
 
 Who possessed beauty without vanity, 
 
 Strength without insolence, 
 
 Courage without ferocity, 
 
 And all the virtues of man without his vices. 
 
 This praise, which would be unmeaning flattery 
 
 If inscribed over human ashes, 
 Is but a just tribute to the memory of 
 
 BOATSWAIN, a dog, 
 
 Who was born at Newfoundland, May 1803, 
 And died at Newstead Abbey, November 18, 1805." 
 
 The poet Pope, when about the same age as the writer 
 of this inscription, passed a similar eulogy on his dog, at 
 the expense of human nature ; adding that " histories are 
 more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends." 
 In a still sadder and bitterer spirit, Lord Byron writes of 
 his favourite : 
 
 "To mark a friend's remains these stones arise; 
 I never knew but one, and here he lies." * 
 
 Moore relates a story of this dog, indicative, not only of 
 intelligence, but of a generosity of spirit, which might well 
 win for him the affections of such a master as Byron. A 
 fox-terrier of his mother's, called Gilpin, was an object of 
 dislike to Boatswain, who worried him nearly to the death. 
 Gilpin was sent off and Boatswain was missed for a day. 
 * Moore's "Life of Byron," chap. vii. p. 74.
 
 96 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 To the surprise of the servants, towards evening Gilpin and 
 Boatswain were in company, the former led by the latter, 
 who led him to the kitchen fire, licked him and lavished 
 on him every possible demonstration of joy. He had been 
 away to fetch him, and ever after caressed him, and 
 defended him from the attacks of other dogs. (P. 44.) 
 
 " PERCHANCE" A LADY'S reason FOR so NAMING HER DOG. 
 
 A lady had a favourite lap-dog, which she called Per- 
 chance. " A singular name," said somebody, " for a beauti- 
 ful pet, madam ; where did you find it?" "Oh," drawled 
 she, " it was named from Byron's dog. You remember 
 where he says, ' Perchance my dog will howl.' "* 
 
 COLLINS THE ARTIST AND HIS DOG " PRINNY" A MODEL 
 OP " a model." 
 
 William "Wilkie Collins, after a most graphic account of 
 the companions of his artist- father's home,t notices " one 
 who was ever as ready to offer his small aid and humble 
 obedience as were any of his superiors, to confer the benefit 
 of their penetrating advice." I refer to Mr Collins's dog 
 " Prinny" (Prince). This docile and affectionate animal 
 had been trained by his master to sit in any attitude, which 
 the introduction of a dog in his picture (a frequent occur- 
 rence) might happen to demand. So strict was "Prinny's" 
 sense of duty, that he never ventured to move from his set 
 position until his master's signal gave him permission to 
 
 * Mark Lemon, " Jest Book," p. 279. 
 
 t " Memoirs of the Life of Wm. Collins, R.A.," by his Son, i. 105.
 
 DOGS. 07 
 
 approach his chair, when he was generally rewarded with 
 a lump of sugar, placed, not between his teeth, but on his 
 nose, where he continued to balance it, until he was desired 
 to throw it into the air and catch it in his mouth, a feat 
 which he very seldom failed to perform. On one occasion 
 his extraordinary integrity in the performance of his duties 
 was thus pleasantly exemplified : " My father had placed 
 him on the backs of two chairs, his fore-legs on the rails 
 of one, and his hind-legs on the rails of the other ; and in 
 this rather arduous position had painted from him for a 
 considerable time, when a friend was announced as waiting 
 for him in another apartment. Particularly desirous of 
 seeing this visitor immediately, the painter hurried from 
 the room, entirely forgetting to tell ' Prinny' to get down, 
 and remained in conversation with his friend for full half 
 an hour. On returning to his study the first object that 
 greeted him was poor ' Prinny/ standing on his ' bad 
 eminence' exactly in the position in which he had been 
 left, trembling with fatigue, and occasionally vending his 
 anguish and distress in a low piteous moan, but not moving 
 a limb, or venturing even to turn his head. Not having 
 received the usual signal he had never once attempted to 
 get down, but had remained disconsolate in his position 
 ' sitting' hard, with nobody to paint him, during the long 
 half hour that had delayed his master's return." 
 
 THE SOLDIER AND THE MASTIFF. 
 
 A soldier passing through a meadow, a large mastiff ran 
 at him, and he stabbed the dog with a bayonet. The 
 master of the dog asked him why he had not rather struck 
 
 G
 
 98 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 the dog with the butt-end of his weapon ? " So I. should," 
 said the soldier, " if he had run at me with his tail !"* 
 
 BARK 'AND BITE. 
 
 Lord Clare, who was much opposed to Curran, one day 
 brought a Newfoundland dog upon the bench, and during 
 Gurran's speech turned himself aside and caressed the 
 animal. Curran stopped. " Go on, go on, Mr Curran," said 
 Lord Clare. " Oh, I beg a thousand pardons," was the 
 rejoinder. " I really thought your lordship was employed 
 in consultation." \ 
 
 MRS DREW AND THE Two DOGS. 
 
 (A C0RI008LY NEAR APPROACH TO MORAL PERCEPTION.) 
 
 In the biography of Samuel Drew, A.M., a great name 
 among the metaphysical writers of this country, we read 
 a very interesting anecdote of two dogs. 
 
 His father, a farmer and mail-carrier in Cornwall, had 
 procured a Newfoundland dog for protection on his jour- 
 neys, having been attacked by highwaymen. There was a 
 smaller dog which had been bred in the house. The son 
 was living at Poplea, in Cornwall, when the following cir- 
 cumstance occurred, and he witnessed it : J 
 
 " Our dairy was under a room which was used occasion- 
 ally as a barn and apple-chamber, into which the fowls 
 
 * Mark Lemon, " Jest Book," p. 203. 
 + Loc. cit. p. 213. 
 
 J " The Life, Character, and Literary Labours of Samuel Drew, 
 A.M.," by his eldest son, p. 66.
 
 DOGS. 99 
 
 sometimes found their way ; and, in scratching among the 
 chaff, scattered the dust on the pans of milk below, to the 
 great annoyance of my mother-in-law. In this a favourite 
 cock of hers was the chief transgressor. One day in har- 
 vest she went into the dairy, followed by the little dog, 
 and finding dust again on her milk-pans, she exclaimed, 
 ' I wish that cock were dead ! ' Not long after, she being 
 with us in the harvest field, we observed the little dog 
 dragging along the cock, just killed, which, with an air of 
 triumph, he laid at my mother-in-law's feet. Highly ex- 
 asperated at the literal fulfilment of her hastily-uttered 
 wish, she snatched a stick from the hedge, and attempted 
 to give the dog a beating. The luckless animal, seeing the 
 reception he was likely to meet with, where he expected 
 marks of approbation, left the bird and ran off, she brand- 
 ishing her stick, and saying, in a loud angry tone, ' I '11 
 pay thee for this by and by.' In the evening, when about 
 to put her threat into execution, she found the little dog 
 established in a corner of the room, and the large one 
 standing before it. Endeavouring to fulfil her intention 
 by first driving off the large dog, he gave her plainly to 
 understand that he was not at all disposed to relinquish 
 his post. She then sought to get at the small dog behind 
 the other, but the threatening gesture, and fiercer growl 
 of the large one, sufficiently indicated that the attempt 
 would be not a little perilous. The result was that she 
 was obliged to abandon her design. In killing the cock 
 I can scarcely think that the dog understood the precise 
 import of my stepmother's wish, as his immediate execu- 
 tion of it would seem to imply. The cock was a more 
 recent favourite, and had received some attentions which
 
 100 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 had previously been bestowed upon himself. This, I think, 
 had led him to entertain a feeling of hostility to the bird, 
 which he did not presume to indulge, until my mother's 
 tone and manner indicated that the cock was no longer 
 under her protection. In the power of communicating 
 with each other, which these dogs evidently possess, and 
 which, in some instances, has been displayed by other 
 species of animals, a faculty seems to be developed of which 
 we know very little. On the whole, I never remember to 
 have met with a case in which to human appearance there 
 was a nearer approach to moral perception than in that of 
 my father's two dogs." 
 
 THE DIFFERENCE OF EXCHANGE. " DOG-CHEAP." 
 
 Dining at a nobleman's table, where the company were 
 praising the claret, his lordship told them that he had 
 received that hogshead of wine in return for a couple of 
 hounds, which he sometime before presented to Count 
 Lauragais. " Why, then, my lord," cried Foote, " I not 
 only think your wine excellent, but dog-clieap" * 
 
 GAINSBOROUGH AND HIS WIFE AND THEIR DOGS. 
 
 Thomas Gainsborough, the rival of Sir Joshua in 
 portraiture, wanted that evenness of temper which the 
 President of the Royal Academy so abundantly possessed. 
 He was easily angered, but as soon appeased, and says his 
 
 * "Memoirs of Samuel Foote, Esq.," &c., by W. Cooke, Esq., 
 vol. ii. p. 36.
 
 DOGS. 101 
 
 biographer/* ' If he was the first to offend, he was the 
 first to atone. Whenever he spoke crossly to his wife, a 
 remarkably sweet-tempered woman, he would write a note 
 of repentance, sign it with the name of his favourite dog 
 ' Fox/ and address it to his Margaret's pet spaniel, ' Tris- 
 tram.' Fox would take the note in his mouth, and duly 
 deliver it to Tristram. Margaret would then answer 
 ' My own dear Fox, you are always loving and good, and 
 I am a naughty little female ever to worry you, as I too 
 often do, so we will kiss and say no more about it ; your 
 own affectionate Tris.'" The writers of such a corre- 
 spondence could not have led what is called " a cat and 
 dog life." Husbands and wives might derive a hint from 
 this anecdote ; for we know, from the old ballad, that they 
 will be sulky and quarrel at times even about getting 
 " Up to bar the door, ! " 
 
 SIR WILLIAM GELL'S DOG. 
 
 The re viewer t of Sir Thomas Browne's works says "We 
 ourselves have witnessed an example of the curious and 
 credulous exaggeration which has construed certain articu- 
 lations in animals into rational speech. Some time since, 
 in travelling through Italy, we heard, in grave earnest, 
 from several Italians, of the prodigy of a Pomeranian dog 
 that had been taught to speak most intelligibly by Sir 
 William Gell. Afterwards, in visiting that accomplished 
 and lamented gentleman at Naples, we requested to hear 
 
 * "Life of Thomas Gainsborough, E.A.," by the late George 
 William Fulcher, p. 155. 
 f Edinburgh Review, 1836, vol. Ixiv. p. 17.
 
 102 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 an animal possessed of so unusual a gift. And, as the 
 friends of the urban scholar can bear witness, the dog 
 undoubtedly could utter a howl, which, assisted by the 
 hand of the master in closing the jaw at certain inflections, 
 might be intelligibly construed into two words not to 
 be repeated. Such a dog, with such an anathema in 
 his vocabulary, would have hanged any witch in England 
 three centuries ago." 
 
 ELIZABETH, THE LAST DUCHESS OP GORDON, AND THE 
 WOLF-DOG KAISER. 
 
 The Rev. A. Moody Stuart, in his " Life of the last 
 Duchess of Gordon,"* that truly Christian lady, refers to 
 some old pets of the duke's and her own r which, on her 
 becoming a widow, she took with her from Gordon Castle 
 to Huntly Lodge, a bullfinch, an immense Talbot mastiff 
 named Sail, and others. He adds " To a stranger, the 
 most remarkable of the duke's old favourites was Kaiser, 
 an Hungarian wolf-dog, with a snow-white fleece, and most 
 sheep-like aspect in the distance, but at whose appearance 
 out of doors, man, woman, and child fled as from a wolf. 
 The duchess called him ' The wolf in sheep's clothing.' 
 Her husband's tastes having brought her much into con- 
 tact with all sorts of dogs, she had learned to pat them 
 confidently at their first introduction, when a large space 
 between their eyes betokened a kindly temper. This open 
 breadth of forehead was strongly marked in Sail, a fine 
 old mastiff that used at this time to walk round the dining- 
 
 * " Life and Letters of Elizabeth, last Duchess of Gordon," by 
 the Rev. A. Moody Stuart, 1865, pp. 198-200.
 
 DOUS. 103 
 
 room after breakfast, with her noble head reaching the 
 level of the table. But the duke had chosen Kaiser for 
 other qualities. Two of those wolf-dogs had been brought 
 to him for sale when travelling on the Continent ; the 
 other was the larger and handsomer animal ; but Kaiser's 
 eyes, sunk deep in the head, and all but meeting under his 
 shaggy hair, at once fixed his choice on him as ' likest his 
 work.' That work was to defend the sheep from the 
 wolves, and one mode of defence was by laying a strange 
 trap for the enemy. The dog was remarkably like a sheep, 
 his hair white without a dark speck, and he carried a 
 great load of it, long and fleecy like wool. In the Hun- 
 garian steppes four or five of those dogs would lay them- 
 selves down on the grass in the evening, sleeping there 
 like so many harmless lambs, with their faces inward for 
 the heat of each other's breath. The keen eye of the 
 wolf was soon attracted by the white fleeces, with no 
 shepherd near to guard them. Eager for blood, he 
 careered swiftly over the plain, and sprang unsuspecting 
 into the midst of the flock, only to find himself clenched 
 in the relentless jaws of Kaiser and his comrades, wolves 
 more terrible than himself under the clothing of timid 
 sheep. A conversation once took place at the Lodge on 
 the character ascribed to dogs in Scripture. It slightly 
 vexed the good duchess that they were so often mentioned 
 in the Bible, but only as emblems of what is foul and 
 fierce, except in a single instance, and that not of com- 
 mendation, but neutrality. This exception, she said, oc- 
 curred in the Book of Proverbs, where the greyhound is 
 named, along with the lion and the goat, as ' comely in 
 going,' yet merely in praise of his external beauty. But
 
 104 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 her difficulty was relieved by the reply, that in Isaiah Ivi. 
 10, the "dog" is really used in a good sense as applied to 
 the spiritual watchmen of the Lord's flock. For the un- 
 faithful shepherds, being there likened to dumb dogs that 
 cannot bark, were not censured under the simple image of 
 watch-dogs, but because, as such, they were faithless and 
 useless ; implying that the good watch-dog is an honourable 
 emblem of the true pastor, watching for the souls com- 
 mitted to his care, and solemnly warning them of approach- 
 ing danger." 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT AND HIS ITALIAN GREYHOUNDS. 
 
 Dr John Moore, when travelling with the Duke of 
 Hamilton, saw and heard a good deal of Frederick the 
 Great, and has given in his second volume of " A View of 
 Society and Manners in France," &c., many interesting 
 particulars of his private and public life. Among these, 
 he alludes to his using " a very large gold snuff-box, the lid 
 ornamented with diamonds," and his taking "an immoderate 
 quantity of Spanish snuff, the marks of which very often 
 appear on his waistcoat and breeches. These are also 
 liable to be soiled by the paws of two or three Italian 
 greyhounds, which he often caresses " (vol. ii. p. 236). 
 
 THE DOG AND THE FRENCH MURDERERS. 
 
 (AN OCCURRENCE IN THE SPRING OF 1837.) 
 
 Thomas Raikes,* in his Journal 8th March 1837, re- 
 cords : " Eight years ago, a labouring man in the depart- 
 
 * Portion of the Journal kept by Thomas Raikes, Esq., from 
 1831 to 1837, vol. iii. p. 134.
 
 DOGS. 105 
 
 ment of the Loire was found murdered in a wood near his 
 house, and his dog sitting near the body. No clue could 
 be gained to the perpetrators of the crime, and his widow 
 continued to live in the same cottage, accompanied always 
 by the faithful animal. Last week two men, apparently 
 travellers, stopped at the house, requesting shelter from 
 the storm, which was granted ; but no sooner had the dog 
 perceived them, than he flew at them with fury, and could 
 not be pacified. As they were quitting the house, one of 
 them said to the other, ' That rascally dog has not forgotten 
 us.' This raised the suspicion of the widow, who overheard 
 it, and applying to the gendarmes in the neighbourhood, 
 they followed and arrested them. The result has been 
 that, after a long examination, one of them has confessed 
 the crime, and impeached his associate." 
 
 Hannah More wrote an ode addressed to Garrick's famous 
 house- dog Dragon. A copy of this she gave to Sir Joshua 
 Reynolds in 1777, while still unprinted, under an oath 
 neither to take nor give a copy of it, which oath Sir 
 Joshua had observed (she says) like a true knight, only 
 reading it to his visitors till some of them learned it by heart. 
 The " charming bagatelle " was afterwards printed, that 
 posterity might be enabled to wonder what a small expen- 
 diture of wit in metre sufficed to purchase a large modicum 
 of fame among the blues of that day.* 
 
 * " Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds," by C. R. Leslie, B.A. 
 and Tom Taylor, M.A., vol. ii. p. 191.
 
 106 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 ROBERT HALL AND THE DOG. 
 
 The eloquent Robert Hall and Dr Leifchild were often 
 in each other's company when at Bristol, travelling and 
 preaching together at anniversaries and ordinations. The 
 son and biographer of the latter says : * " I rode with 
 them from Bristol to Wells, and can now, in imagination, 
 see Mr Hall smoking and reclining on one seat of the 
 carriage, while my father sat on the other. I can see Mr 
 Hall descending at a blacksmith's shop to re-light his pipe, 
 making his way directly to the forge, and jumping aside 
 with unwonted agility, when a huge dog growled at him. 
 I can recall his look, when rallied on his agility, after his 
 return to the carriage. ' You seemed afraid of the dog, 
 sir,' said my father. ' Apostolic advice, sir Beware of 
 dogs,' rejoined Mr Hall." Mr Leifchild, in another part of 
 the memoir (p. 360), relates that some housekeeper would 
 exclaim to him, as he was about to enter the house of friend 
 or stranger, " Don't be afraid of the dog, sir, he never 
 bites." " Are you quite sure he never bites 1 " was his 
 prompt question. " Quite sure, sir," rejoined the servant. 
 "Then," rejoined the good-humoured doctor, "if he 
 never bites, how does he live 1 " 
 
 A QUEEN AND HER LAP-DOG. 
 
 Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I., on her return to 
 Burlington Bay with assistance for her husband, was 
 attacked in the house where she slept by the cannonade of 
 
 *"John Leifchild, D.D. His Public Ministry, &c.," by J. R 
 Leifcbild, A.M., p. 143.
 
 DOGS. 107 
 
 five ships of war belonging to the Parliament. She left the 
 house amid the whistling of balls, one of which killed one 
 of her servants. When on her way to the shelter of a ditch, 
 she remembered that an aged lap-dog, called " Mitte," was 
 left behind. She was much attached to this old favourite, 
 and returned to the house she had left. Rushing up-stairs 
 into her chamber, she caught up her old pet, which was 
 reposing on her bed, and carried her off in safety. Having 
 done this, the queen and her ladies gained the ditch, and 
 crouched down in it, while the cannon played furiously 
 over their heads.* 
 
 THE CLEVER DOG THAT BELONGED TO THE HUNTERS 
 OF POLMOOD. 
 
 The estate of Polmood, in Peeblesshire, was the subject 
 of extraordinary litigation, and a volume of considerable 
 bulk is devoted to its history. This work contains much 
 curious evidence from aged country folks in the western 
 parts of the country. Mr Chambers t tells us that in the 
 history " reminiscences concerning a wonderfully clever dog 
 are put forward as links in the line of propinquity." The 
 deponent has heard his father say that Robert Hunter had 
 a remarkable dog called "Algiers ; " and that, when Robert 
 lived at Woodend, he used to tie a napkin round the dog's 
 neck with money in it, and send him for snuff to Lam- 
 mington, which is about three miles from Woodend, and 
 
 * Agnes Strickland, " Lives of the Queens of England," vol. v. 
 p. 293 (ed. 1851). 
 
 f " A History of Peeblesshire," by William Chambers of Glen- 
 ormiston, p. 428.
 
 108 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 that the dog executed his message faithfully, and prevented 
 everybody from laying hold of or stopping him. Another 
 venerable deponent, aged eighty-nine, had heard his mother 
 tell many stories about a dog belonging to Uncle Robert, 
 which went by the name of " Algiers ; " that they used to 
 cut a fleece off him every year sufficient to make a pair of 
 stockings ; and that Uncle Robert used to tie a purse round 
 his neck, with money in it, and the dog then swam 
 the Tweed, and brought back tobacco from the Crook ! 
 And a third declares that " Algiers " could be sent to 
 Edinburgh with a letter, and bring back a letter to his 
 master. 
 
 THE IKISH CLERGYMAN AND THE DOGS. 
 
 Mr Fitzpatrick, in his anecdotal memoirs of Archbishop 
 Whately, tells a story of an eccentric Irish parson. This 
 person, when preaching, was interrupted in his homily 
 by two dogs, which began to fight in church. He 
 descended the pulpit, and endeavoured to separate them. 
 On returning to his place, the clergyman, who was rather 
 an absent man, asked the clerk, " Where was I a while 
 ago 1 ?'' "Wasn't yer Riverence appaising the dogs?" 
 responded the other.* 
 
 WASHINGTON IRVING AND THE DOG. 
 
 Patrick Fraser Tytler, author of " The History of Scot- 
 land," in a letter to his wife in 1830, says " At Lady Mor- 
 ton's, one evening, I met with Washington Irving. I had 
 * Vol. i. p. 156.
 
 DOGS. 109 
 
 heard him described as a very silent man, who was always 
 observing others, but seldom opened his lips. Instead of 
 which, his tongue never lay still ; and he gets out more 
 wee wordies in a minute than any ordinary converser does 
 in five. But I found him a very intelligent and agreeable 
 man. I put him in mind of his travelling with our dear 
 Tommy. He had at first no recollection ; but I brought 
 it back to his memory by the incident of the little black 
 dog, who always went before the horses in pulling up hill, 
 and pretended to assist them. I put him in mind of his 
 own wit, ' that he wondered if the doggie mistook himself 
 for a horse ; ' at which he laughed, and added, ' Yes, and 
 thought it very hard that he was not rubbed down at the 
 end of the journey.' "* 
 
 DOUGLAS JEREOLD AND HIS DOG. 
 
 Jerrold had a favourite dog that followed him every- 
 where. One day in the country, a lady, who was passing, 
 turned round and said audibly, " What an ugly little 
 brute ! " Whereupon Jerrold, addressing the lady, replied, 
 " Oh, madam ! I wonder what he thinks about us at this 
 moment." f 
 
 SHERIDAN AND THE Doa. 
 
 After witnessing the first representation of a dog-piece 
 by Reynolds, called the "Caravan," Sheridan suddenly 
 came into the green-room, on purpose, it was imagined, to 
 
 * Memoir by his friend, the Rev. John W. Burgon, p. 204. 
 + Mark Lemon, " Jest Book," p. 44.
 
 110 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 ^^p 
 
 wish the author joy. " Where is he 1 " was the first ques- 
 tion ; " where is my guardian angel ? " " Here I am," 
 answered Reynolds. " Pooh ! " replied Sheridan, " I don't 
 mean you, I mean the dog." * 
 
 CHARLES LAMB AND HIS DOG. 
 
 Thomas Hood had a dog called " Dash." This dog he 
 gave to Charles Lamb. The ready-witted Elia often took 
 the creature out with him when walking at Enfield. On 
 one occasion, the dog dashed off to chase some young 
 sheep. The owner of the muttons came out quite indignant 
 at the owner, to expostulate with him on the assault of 
 Lamb's dog on his sheep. Elia, with his quiet ready wit, 
 replied, " Hunt Lambs, sir ? why, he never hunted me."\ 
 
 FRENCH DOGS, TIME OF Louis XI. HISTORY OF HIS 
 DOG "RELAIS" BY Louis XII. 
 
 Horace Walpole, in one of his gossiping letters to the 
 Countess of Ossory in 1781, writes, "You must not be 
 surprised if I should send you a collection of Tonton's 
 bons-mots. I have found a precedent for such a work. A 
 grave author wrote a book on the * Hunt of the Grand 
 Senechal of Normandy," and of les DITS du bon chien 
 Souillard, qui fat au Roi Lay de France onzieme du nom. 
 Louis XII., the reverse of the predecessor of the same 
 name, did not leave to his historian to celebrate his dog 
 
 * Mark Lemon, " Jest Book," p. 43. 
 
 f " Charles Lamb : his Friends, his Haunts, and his Books," by 
 Percy Fitzgerald, M.A., 1866, p. 161.
 
 DOGS. Ill 
 
 ; 
 
 " Ilelais," but did him the honour of being his biographer 
 himself ; and for a reason that was becoming so excellent 
 a king. It was pour animer les descendans (Kun si brave chien 
 ct se rendre aussi bons que lui, et encore meilleurs. It waa 
 great pity the Cardinal d'Amboise had no bastard pup- 
 pies, or, to be sure, his Majesty would have written his 
 Prime Minister's life too, for a model to his successors." * 
 
 MARTIN LUTHER OBSERVES A DOG AT LINTZ. 
 
 In the " Table Talk " of Martin Luther, it is recorded: 
 "I saw a dog at Lintz, in Austria, that was taught to go with 
 a hand-basket to the butchers' shambles for meat. When 
 other dogs came about him, and sought to take the meat 
 out of the basket, he set it down and fought lustily with 
 them ; but when he saw they were too strong for him, 
 he himself would snatch out the first piece of meat, 
 lest he should lose all. Even so does now our Emperor 
 Charles ; who, after having long protected spiritual bene- 
 fices, seeing that every prince takes possession of monas- 
 teries, himself takes possession of bishoprics, as just now 
 he has seized upon those of Utrecht and Liege." t 
 
 THE POOR DOG AT THE GROTTA DEL CANE. 
 
 Henry Matthews, J like other visitors of Naples, went 
 to the celebrated Grotta del Cane, or Dog Grotto, on the 
 
 * Cunningham's Edition of Correspondence, viii. p. 331. 
 
 t "The Table Talk; or, Familiar Discourse of Martin Luther," 
 p. 66. 
 
 J "The Diary of an Invalid; being the Journal of a Tour in 
 Pursuit of Health in Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, and France in 
 1817-1819," p. 144.
 
 112 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 - 
 
 borders of Lake Agnano, so called from the vapour in the 
 cave, destructive to animal life, being shown by means of 
 a dog. In his diary, of March 3, 1818, he records : 
 "Travellers have made a great display of sensibility in 
 their strictures upon the spectacle exhibited here ; but to 
 all appearance the dog did not care much about it. It 
 may be said, with truth of him, that he is used to it ; for 
 he dies many times a day, and he went to the place of 
 execution wagging his tail. He became insensible in two 
 minutes ; but upon being laid on the grass, he revived 
 from his trance in a few seconds, without the process of 
 immersion in the lake, which is generally mentioned as 
 necessary to his recovery. From the voracity with which 
 he bolted down a loaf of bread which I bought for him, 
 the vapour does not seem to injure the animal functions. 
 Addison seems to have been very particular in his experi- 
 ments upon the vapour of this cavern. He found that a 
 pistol would not take fire in it ; but upon laying a train of 
 gunpowder, and igniting it beyond the sphere of the vapour, 
 he found that it could not intercept the train of fire when 
 it had once begun flashing, nor hinder it from running to 
 the very end. He subjected a dog to a second trial in 
 order to ascertain whether he was longer in expiring the 
 first than the second time ; and he found there was no 
 sensible difference. A viper bore it nine minutes the first 
 time he put it in, and ten minutes the second ; and he 
 attributes the prolonged duration of the second trial to the 
 large provision of air that the viper laid in after his first 
 death, upon which stock he supposes it to have existed a 
 minute longer the second time."
 
 DOGS. 1 1 3 
 
 DOG, A POSTMAN AND CARRIER. 
 
 Robert Southey says, that " near Moffat a dog used for 
 many years to meet the mail and receive the letters for a 
 little post-town near.'' * 
 
 How often may you see a dog carrying a basket or a 
 parcel. No enticement, even of a dog-friend or of a great 
 bone, will induce this faithful servant to abandon his 
 charge. Every one must have observed this. 
 
 DOG-MATIC. 
 
 In the great dispute between South and Sherlock, the 
 latter, who was a great courtier, said "His adversary 
 reasoned well, but he barked like a cur." To which the 
 other replied, " Th&t fawning was the property of a cur as 
 well as barking." t 
 
 GENERAL MOREAU AND HIS GREYHOUND. 
 
 " The day after the battle of Dresden (27th Aug. 1812), 
 a greyhound was brought to the King of Saxony, the ally 
 of Napoleon. The dog was moaning piteously. On the 
 collar were engraved the words, ' I belong to the General 
 Moreau.' Where was the dog's master ? By the side of 
 the Emperor Alexander. Moreau had been mortally 
 wounded. The dog had remained with his master until 
 his death. While Moreau was conversing with the 
 Emperor Alexander a cannon-shot nearly carried off both 
 
 * " Common-Place Book," 4th ser. p. 423. 
 t Mark Lemon, " Jest Book," p. 24. 
 
 H
 
 1 I 4 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 his legs. It is said that throughout the five days during 
 which he lingered he uttered not a murmur of pain." * 
 
 At the battle of Solferino, where rifled cannon were first 
 brought to bear in warfare, a dog excited great attention 
 by its attachment to the body of its slain master. It 
 became the chief object in a painting of the circumstance, 
 from which an engraving was executed. 
 
 A DUKE OP NORFOLK AND HIS SPANIELS. 
 
 In Southey's " Common-place Book," 4th ser. p. 479, he 
 writes " Our Marlborough and King James's spaniels are 
 unrivalled in beauty. The latter breed (black and tan, 
 with hair almost approaching to silk in fineness, such as 
 Vandyke loved to introduce into his portraits) were solely 
 in the possession of the late Duke of Norfolk.^ He never 
 travelled without two of his favourites in the carriage. 
 When at Worksop he used to feed his eagles with the 
 pups ; and a stranger to his exclusive pride in the race, 
 seeing him one day employed in thus destroying a whole 
 litter, told his grace how much he should be delighted to 
 possess one of them. The duke's reply was a characteristic 
 one. ' Pray, sir, which of my estates should you like to 
 have?'" 
 
 There are shepherds who possess collies, such proud, 
 useful servants and friends, that no bribe would induce 
 them to part with them. But what old favourite dog or 
 even bird is there that any one would part with ? Man, 
 be he scavenger or duke, is very similar in this species of 
 attachment. 
 
 * " Memoir of Baron Larrey, Surgeon-in-chief of the Grande 
 Armtfe." London. 1861. P. 191.
 
 DOGS. 115 
 
 LORD NORTH AND THE DOG. 
 
 In several of the caricatures published about the year 
 1783, when Fox and Burke had joined Lord North, and 
 helped to form what is called the Coalition Ministry, a dog 
 is represented. This, says Mr "Wright,* is said to be an 
 allusion to an occurrence in the House of Commons. 
 During the last defensive declamation of Lord North, on 
 the eve of his resignation, a dog, which had concealed 
 itself under the benches, came out and set up a hideous 
 howling in the midst of his harangue. The house was 
 thrown into a roar of laughter, which continued until the 
 intruder was turned out; and then Lord North coolly 
 observed, " As the new member has ended his argument, 
 I beg to be allowed to continue mine." 
 
 PERTHES DERIVES HINTS FROM HIS DOG. 
 
 In a letter, written when he first came to Gotha, Perthes, 
 the publisher, says " Do not laugh if I tell you that my 
 dog has given me many a hint upon human nature. I 
 never before had a dog constantly with me, and I now ask 
 myself whether the poodle be not a man, and men poodles. 
 I am not led to this thought by the animal propensities 
 which we have in common, such as eating, drinking, &c., 
 but by those of a more refined character. He too i? 
 cheerful and dejected, excited and supine, playful and 
 morose, gentle and bold, caressing and snappish, patient 
 
 * " England under the House of Hanover," by Thomas Wright; 
 Esq., M.A., vol. ii. p. 57.
 
 116 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 and refractory ; just like us men in all things, even in his 
 dreams ! This likeness is not to me at all discouraging ; 
 on the contrary, it suggests a pleasing hope that this flesh 
 and blood which plagues and fetters us, is not the real 
 man, but merely the earthly clothing which will be cast 
 off when he no longer belongs to earth, provided he has 
 not sinfully chosen to identify himself with the merely 
 material. The devil's chief seat is not in matter but in 
 the mind, where he fosters pride, selfishness, and hatred, 
 and by their means destroys not what is transitory but 
 what is eternal in man." * 
 
 PETER THE GREAT AND HIS FAVOURITE DOG LISETTE. 
 
 Mr Stoehlint relates the following anecdote of the Czar 
 Peter, on the authority of Miss Anne Cramer, the chamber- 
 maid to the empress. In the cabinet of natural history of 
 the academy at St Petersburg, is preserved, among a number 
 of uncommon animals, Lisette, the favourite dog of the 
 Russian monarch. She was a small, dun-coloured Italian 
 greyhound, and very fond of her master, whom she never 
 quitted but when he went out, and then she laid herself 
 down on his couch. At his return she showed her fond- 
 ness by a thousand caresses, followed him wherever he 
 went, and during his afternoon nap lay always at his 
 feet. 
 
 * " Memoir of Perthes," vol. ii. pp. 153-4. 
 
 t " Original Anecdotes of Peter the Great, collected from the con- 
 versation of several persons of distinction at St Petersburg and 
 Moscow," by Mr Stcehlm, Member of the Imp. Acad., St Peteri., 
 p. 306.
 
 DOGS. 117' 
 
 A person belonging to the court, having excited the 
 anger of the czar I do not know by what means was 
 confined in the fort, and there was reason to suppose that 
 he would receive the punishment of the knout on the first 
 market-day. The whole court, and the empress herself, 
 thought him innocent, and considered the anger of the czar 
 as excessive and unjust. Every means was tried to save 
 him, and the first opportunity taken to intercede in his 
 favour. But, so far from succeeding, it served only to 
 irritate the emperor the more, who forbade all persons, even 
 the empress, to speak for the prisoner, and, above all, to 
 present any petition on the subject, under the pain of 
 incurring his highest displeasure. 
 
 It was supposed that no resource remained to save the 
 culprit. However, those who in concert with the czarina 
 interested themselves in his favour, devised the means 
 of urging their suit without incurring the penalty of the 
 prohibition. 
 
 They composed a short but pathetic petition, in the 
 name of Lisette. After having set forth her uncommon 
 fidelity to her master, she adduced the strongest proofs of 
 innocence of the prisoner, entreated the czar to take the 
 matter into consideration, and to be propitious to her 
 prayer, by granting him his liberty. 
 
 This petition was tied to her collar, in such a manner 
 as to be easily visible. 
 
 On the czar's return from the Admiralty and Senate, 
 Lisette, as usual, came leaping about him; and he per- 
 ceived the paper, folded in the form of a petition. He 
 took, and read it " What !" said he; " Lisette, do you 
 also present me petitions ? Well, as it is the first time, I
 
 118 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 grant your prayer." He immediately sent a denthtchick* 
 to the fort, with orders to set the prisoner at liberty. 
 
 THE LIGHT COMPANY'S POODLE AND SIR F. PONSONBY. 
 
 Captain Gronow, in his gossiping book,t says " Every 
 regiment has a pet of some sort or another. One distin- 
 guished Highland regiment possesses a deer ; the Welsh 
 Fusiliers a goat, which is the object of their peculiar affec- 
 tion, and which generally marches with the band. The 
 light company of my battalion of the 1st Guards in 1813 
 rejoiced in a very handsome poodle, which, if I mistake 
 not, had been made prisoner at Vittoria. At the com- 
 mencement of the battle of the 9th of December 1813, 
 near the mayor's house, not far from Bidart, we observed 
 the gallant Frederick Ponsonby well in front with the 
 skirmishers, and by the side of his horse the soldiers' 
 poodle. The colonel was encouraging our men to advance, 
 and the poodle, in great glee, was jumping and barking at 
 the bullets, as they flew round him like hail. On a sudden 
 we observed Ponsonby struggling with a French mounted 
 officer, whom he had already disarmed, and was endea- 
 vouring to lead off to our lines; when the French skir- 
 mishers, whose numbers had increased, fired several shots, 
 and wounded Ponsonby, forcing him to relinquish his 
 prisoner, and to retire. At the same time, a bullet broke 
 one of the poor dog's legs. For his gallant conduct in 
 this affair, the poodle became, if possible, a still greater 
 
 * A denthtchick is a soldier appointed to wait on an officer, 
 t " Kecollections and Anecdotes," 2d ser., by Capt. R. H. Qronow, 
 p. 194 (1863).
 
 DOGS. 119 
 
 favourite than he was before ; and his friends, the men of 
 the light company, took him to England, where I saw my 
 three-legged friend for several years afterwards, the most 
 prosperous of poodles, and the happiest of the canine 
 race." 
 
 ADMIRAL RODNEY AND HIS DOG LOUP. 
 
 Earl Stanhope, in his History,* remarks " To those 
 who love to trace the lesser lights and shades of human 
 character, I shall owe no apology if I venture to record of 
 the conqueror of De Grasse, that even in his busiest hours 
 he could turn some kindly thoughts not only to his family 
 and friends, but to his dog in England. That dog, named 
 Loup, was of the French fox-breed, and so attached to his 
 master, that when the admiral left home to take the com- 
 mand of his fleet, the faithful animal remained for three 
 days in his chamber, watching his coat, and refusing food. 
 The affection was warmly returned. On many more than 
 one occasion we find Rodney write much as follows to his 
 wife ' Remember me to my dear girls and my faithful 
 friend Loup ; I know you will kiss him for me.' " t 
 
 RUDDIMAN AND HIS DOG RASCAL. 
 
 George Chalmers, in his Life of the learned Thomas 
 
 * " History of England, from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace 
 of Versailles," by Lord Mahon, vii. p. 261. 
 
 t See Mundy's " Life of Lord Rodney," vol. i. 258. " Remem- 
 ber me to my dear girls and poor Loup. Kiss them for me. I hope 
 they were pleased with my letter." VoL ii. p. 28.
 
 120 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 Ruddiman,* tells us that " young Ruddiman was initiated 
 in grammar at the parish-school of Boyndie, in Banffshire, 
 which was distant a mile from his father's dwelling ; and 
 which was then taught by George Morison, whom his pupil 
 always praised for his attention and his skill. To this 
 school the boy walked every morning, carrying his daily 
 provisions with him. He is said to have been daily accom- 
 panied by a dog, which, when he had proceeded to the top 
 of Tooting-hillock, the halfway resting-place, always re- 
 turned home after partaking of his victuals. This story is 
 still (1794) remembered, as if there were in it something 
 supernatural. We may suppose, however, that the excur- 
 sion was equally agreeable to both parties ; and when it 
 was once known that the dog was to eat at a particular 
 place at a stated hour, an appropriate allowance was con- 
 stantly made for him. Whether Ruddiman had a natural 
 fondness for dogs, or whether a particular attachment 
 began, when impressions are easily made, which are long 
 remembered, cannot now be ascertained. He certainly, 
 throughout a long life, had a succession of dogs, which 
 were invariably called Rascal ; and which, being springing 
 spaniels, ever accompanied him in all his walks. He used, 
 with affectionate recollection, to entertain his friends with 
 stories of dogs, which all tended to show the fidelity of 
 that useful animal to man." 
 
 Mrs Schimmelpenninck, authoress of " Select Memoirs 
 of Port Royal," died in 1856. Her interesting Autobio- 
 
 * " Life of Thomas Ruddiman, A.M., the Keeper for almost fifty 
 years of the Library belonging to the Faculty of Advocates, Edin- 
 burgh," p. 4.
 
 DOGS. 121 
 
 grapliy and Life were published in 1858 by her relation, 
 Christiana C. Hankin. In p. 467 it is remarked that 
 " her love of animals formed quite a feature in her daily 
 habits. Like St Francis, she delighted to attract the little 
 birds, by tempting them with dainty food upon her 
 verandah ; and it was a positive pleasure to her to watch 
 their feast. She had a bag made, which was always filled 
 with oats, to regale any stray horse or ass ; and she has 
 been seen surrounded by four goats, each standing on its 
 hind legs, with its uplifted front feet resting on her, and 
 all eagerly claiming the salt she had prepared for them. 
 But her great delight was in dogs. She never forgot those 
 sad hours in childhood, when, unable to mix in the sports 
 of children from illness (perhaps, too, from her want of 
 sympathy in the usual pleasures of that age), the beautiful 
 dogs at Barr were her companions and friends. 
 
 " It is no figure of speech to say that she had a large 
 acquaintance amongst the dogs at Clifton. She always 
 carried a pocketful of biscuit to feed them ; and she had a 
 canine friend who for years was in the daily habit of wait- 
 ing at her door to accompany her morning walk, after 
 which he received his little portion of biscuit, and returned 
 to his home. Timid as Mrs Schimmelpenninck was by 
 nature and by habit, she had no idea of personal fear of 
 animals, and especially of dogs. I have seen her go up 
 without hesitation to some splendid specimen of the race, 
 of which everybody else was afraid, to stroke him, or offer 
 food ; when the noble creature, with that fine perception 
 often so remarkably manifested by dogs and children, 
 would look up in her face, and then return her caress, and 
 crouch down at her feet in love and confidence. Her own
 
 122 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 two beautiful little spaniels were her constant companions 
 in her walks ; their happy gambols were always a source 
 of pleasure." * 
 
 Sir Walter Scott loved dogs dearly. In his novels and 
 poetical works his knowledge of them and his regard often 
 appear. He loved them, from the stately deerhound to the 
 wiry terrier. He was quite up to the ways of their educa- 
 tion. Dandie Dinmont, in " Guy Mannering," speaking of 
 his terriers, says, " I had them a' regularly entered, first wi' 
 rottens, then wi' stots and weasels, and then wi' the tods and 
 brocks, and now they fear naething that ever comes wi' a 
 hairy skin on 't." Then, again, read Washington Irving's 
 description of his visit to Abbotsford, and how, on Scott 
 taking him out for a walk, a host of his dogs attended, 
 evidently as a matter of course. He often spoke to them 
 during the walk. The American author was struck with 
 the stately gravity of the noble staghound Maida, while 
 the younger dogs gambolled about him, and tried to get 
 him to gambol. Maida would occasionally turn round 
 suddenly, and give one of the playful creatures a tumble, 
 and look at Scott and Irving, as much as to say, " You 
 see, gentlemen, I cannot help giving way to this nonsense ;" 
 when on he would go as grave as ever. " I make no doubt," 
 said Scott to his companion, " when Maida is alone with 
 these young dogs, he throws gravity aside, and plays the 
 boy as much as any of them ; but he is ashamed to do so 
 in our company, and seems to say, " Ha' done with your 
 
 * See her "Autobiography," p. 85, for an anecdote of her saving a 
 /ittle dog, tied in a basket of stones, from the water. She called it 
 " Moses."
 
 DOGS. 123 
 
 nonsense, youngsters ; what will the laird and that other 
 gentleman think of me if I give way to such foolery?" 
 A little volume might almost be made on Sir Walter Scott 
 and his dogs. Wilkie, Allan, and especially Sir Edwin 
 Landseer, have handed down to us the portraits of many 
 of them. His works, and biography by Lockhart, and the 
 writings of his many visitors, would afford many an inter- 
 esting extract. 
 
 SHEEIDAN ON THE DOG-TAX. 
 
 In 1796, a tax, which caused great discontent and ridi- 
 cule, was laid for the first time upon dogs. Mr Wright, 
 in his " England under the House of Hanover," says 
 " The debates on this tax in the House of Commons ap r 
 pear to have been extremely amusing. In opposing the 
 motion to go into committee, Sheridan objected that the 
 bill was most curiously worded, as it was, in the first in- 
 stance, entitled, ' A bill for the protection of his Majesty's 
 subjects against dogs.' ' From these words,' he said, ' one 
 would imagine that dogs had been guilty of burglary, 
 though he believed they were a better protection to their 
 masters' property than watchmen.' After having enter- 
 tained the House with some stories about mad dogs, and 
 giving a discourse upon dogs in general, he asked, ' Since 
 there was an exception in favour of puppies, at what age 
 they were to be taxed, and how the exact age was to be 
 ascertained ] ' The Secretary at War, who spoke against 
 the bill, said, ' It would be wrong to destroy in the poor 
 that virtuous feeling which they had for their dog.' In 
 committee, Mr Lechmere called the attention of the House
 
 124 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 to ladies' 'lap-dogs.' He knew a lady who had sixteen 
 lap-dogs, and who allowed them a roast shoulder of veal 
 every day for dinner, while many poor persons were starv- 
 ing ; was it not, therefore, right to tax lap-dogs very high 1 
 He knew another lady who kept one favourite dog, when 
 well, on Savoy biscuits soaked in Burgundy, and when 
 ailing (by the advice of a doctor) on minced chicken and 
 sweetbread ! Among the caricatures on this subject, one 
 by Gillray (of which there were imitations) represented 
 Fox and his friends, hanged upon a gallows, as ' dogs not 
 worth a tax ;' while the supporters of Government, among 
 whom is Burke, with ' G. R.' on his collar, are ranged as 
 well-fed dogs ' paid for.' " * 
 
 SYDNEY SMITH DISLIKES DOGS. 
 
 AN INGENIOUS WAT OF GETTING KID OF THEM. 
 
 Lady Holland tells us f that her father, the witty canon 
 of St Paul's, disliked dogs. " During one of his visits to 
 London, at a dinner at Spencer House, the conversation 
 turned upon dogs. ' Oh,' said my father, ' one of the 
 greatest difficulties I have had with my parishioners has 
 been on the subject of dogs.' ' How so 1 ' said Lord 
 Spencer. ' Why, when I first went down into Yorkshire, 
 there had not been a resident clergyman in my parish for 
 a hundred and fifty years. Each farmer kept a huge 
 mastiff dog ranging at large, and ready to make his morn- 
 ing meal on clergy or laity, as best suited his particular 
 taste. I never could approach a cottage in pursuit of my 
 
 * Vol. ii. pp. 264, 265. 
 
 f " Memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith," by his daughter, Lady Hol- 
 land, &c., vol. i. p. 200.
 
 DOGS. 125 
 
 calling but I rushed into the jaws of one of these shaggy 
 monsters. I scolded, preached, and prayed without avail ; 
 so I determined to try what fear for their pockets might 
 do. Forthwith appeared in the county papers a minute 
 account of the trial of a farmer, at the Northampton Sessions, 
 for keeping dogs unconfined ; where said farmer was not 
 only fined five pounds and reprimanded by the magistrates, 
 but sentenced to three months' imprisonment. The effect 
 was wonderful, and the reign of Cerberus ceased in the 
 land.' ' That accounts,' said Lord Spencer, ' for what has 
 puzzled me and Althorp for many years. We never failed 
 to attend the sessions at Northampton, and we never could 
 find out how we had missed this remarkable dog case.'" 
 
 SYDNEY SMITH ON DOGS. * 
 
 " No, I don't like dogs ; I always expect them to go 
 mad. A lady asked me once for a motto for her dog Spot. 
 I proposed, ' Out, damned Spot ! ' But she did not think 
 it sentimental enough. You remember the story of the 
 French marquise, who, when her pet lap-dog bit a piece 
 out of her footman's leg, exclaimed, ' Ah, poor little beast ! 
 I hope it won't make him sick.' I called one day on Mrs 
 
 , and her lap-dog flew at my leg and bit it. After 
 
 pitying her dog, like the French marquise, she did all she 
 could to comfort me by assuring me the dog was a Dis- 
 senter, and hated the Church, and was brought up in a 
 Tory family. But whether the bite came from madness or 
 Dissent, I knew myself too well to neglect it, and went on 
 the instant to a surgeon, and had it cut out, making a 
 mem. on the way to enter that house no more." 
 
 * " Life of the Rev. Sydney Smith," by his daughter, Lady Hol- 
 land, &c., vol. i. p. 379.
 
 126 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 SYDNEY SMITH'S " NEWFOUNDLAND DOG THAT BREAK- 
 FASTED ON PARISH BOYS." 
 
 The Rev. Sydney Smith used to be much amused when 
 he observed the utter want of perception of a joke in some 
 minds. One instance we may cite from his " Memoirs :"* 
 
 " Miss , the other day, walking round the grounds at 
 
 Combe Florey, exclaimed, ' Oh, why do you chain up that 
 fine Newfoundland dog, Mr Smith 1 ' ' Because it has a 
 passion for breakfasting on parish boys.' ' Parish boys ! ' 
 she exclaimed ; ' does he really eat boys, Mr Smith ? ' 
 ' Yes, he devours them, buttons and all.' Her face of 
 horror made me die of laughing." 
 
 SOUTHEY ON DOGS. 
 
 Southey was likewise not a little attached to the memory 
 at least of dogs, as may be inferred by the following pas 
 sage in a letter to Mr Bedford, Jan. 27, 1823. Snivel 
 was a dog belonging to Mr B. in early days. " We had 
 an adventure this morning, which, if poor Snivel had been 
 living, would have set up her bristles in great style. A 
 foumart was caught in the back kitchen ; you may perhaps 
 know it better by the name of polecat. It is the first I 
 ever saw or smelt ; and certainly it was in high odour. 
 Poor Snivel ! I still have the hairs which we cut from her 
 tail thirty years ago ; and if it were the fashion for men 
 to wear lockets, in a locket they should be worn, for I 
 never had a greater respect for any creature upon four legs 
 than for poor Sni. See how naturally men fall into relic 
 * Vol. L p. 267.
 
 DOGS. 127 
 
 worship; when I have preserved the memorials of that 
 momentary whim so many years, and through so many 
 removals." * 
 
 DOG, A GOOD JUDGE OP ELOCUTION. 
 
 When Dr Leifchild, of Craven Chapel, London, was a 
 student at Hoxton Academy, there was a good lecturer on 
 elocution there of the name of True. In the Memoir, 
 published in 1863, are some pleasing reminiscences by Dr 
 Leifchild of this excellent teacher, who seems to have taken 
 great pains with the students, and to have awakened in 
 their breasts a desire to become proficients in the art of 
 speaking. The doctor himself was an admirable example 
 of the proficiency thus attained under good Mr True. He 
 records f a ludicrous circumstance which occurred one day. 
 " In reciting Satan's address to the evil spirits from ' Para- 
 dise Lost,' a stout student was enjoined to pronounce the 
 three words, ' Princes, potentates, warriors,' in successively 
 louder tones, and to speak out boldly. He hardly needed 
 this advice, for the first word came out like distant thunder, 
 the second like approaching thunder, and the third like a 
 terribly near and loud clap. At this last the large house- 
 dog, Pompey, who had been asleep under the teacher's 
 chair, started up and jumped out of the window into the 
 garden. ' The dog is a good judge, sir,' mildly remarked 
 Mr True." 
 
 * " Life and Correspondence," vol. v. p. 133. 
 
 f " John Leifchild, D.D., his Public Ministry, Private Usefulness, 
 and Personal Characteristics," founded upon an autobiography, by 
 J. K. Leifchild, A.M., p. 34.
 
 128 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 COWPER'S DOG BEAU AND THE WATER-LILY. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY THE STORY OF AS INTELLIGENT A DOG. 
 
 In Blackwood's Magazine for 1818 there is an address,. in 
 blank verse, by Mr Patrick Fraser Tytler, " To my Dog." 
 Mr Tytler's brother-in-law, Mr Hog,* recorded the fact on 
 which this address was founded in his diary at the time. 
 " Peter tells a delightful anecdote of Cossack, an Isle of 
 Skye terrier, which belonged originally to his brother at 
 Aldourie. It was amazingly fond of his children, one of 
 which, having fallen on the gravel and hurt itself, began 
 to cry out. Cossack tried in vain to comfort it by leaping 
 upon it and licking its face. Finding all his efforts to 
 pacify the child fruitless, he ran off to a mountain-ash 
 tree, and leaping up, pulled a branch of red rowan berries 
 and carried it in his mouth to the child." 
 
 HORACE WALPOLE'S PET DOG EOSETTE. 
 
 Horace Walpole, writing to Lord Nuneham in November 
 1773, f says : " The rest of my time has been employed in 
 nursing Rosette alas ! to no purpose. After suffering 
 dreadfully for a fortnight from the time she was seized at 
 Nuneham, she has only languished till about ten days ago. 
 As I have nothing to fill my letter, I will send you her 
 epitaph ; it has no merit, for it is an imitation, but in 
 coming from the heart if ever epitaph did, and therefore 
 your dogmanity will not dislike it 
 
 * See Burgon's " Memoir of Patrick F. Tytler," p. 140. 
 t Letter first published in Cunningham's Chronological Edition, 
 rol. vi. p. 4.
 
 DOGS. 129 
 
 1 Sweetest roses of the year, 
 Strew around my Rose's bier, 
 Calmly may the dust repose 
 Of my pretty, faithful Rose! 
 And if yon cloud-topp'd hill * behind 
 This frame dissolved, this breath resign'd, 
 Some happier isle, some humbler heaven, 
 Be to my trembling wishes given ; 
 Admitted to that equal sky, 
 May sweet Rose bear me company! ' " 
 
 ARRIVAL OF TONTON, A PET DOG, TO WALPOLE. TONTON 
 DOES NOT UNDERSTAND ENGLISH. 
 
 Horace Walpole, in May 1781,f had announced Tonton's 
 arrival to his correspondent, the Hon. H. S. Conway. He 
 says : " I brought him this morning to take possession of 
 his new villa, but his inauguration has not been at all 
 pacific. As he has already found out that he may be as 
 despotic as at St Joseph's, he began with exiling my beau- 
 tiful little cat, upon which, however, we shall not quite 
 agree. He then flew at one of my dogs, who returned it 
 by biting his foot till it bled, but was severely beaten for 
 it. I immediately rung for Margaret (his housekeeper) to 
 dress his foot; but in the midst of my tribulation could not 
 keep my countenance, for she cried, ' Poor little thing ; he 
 does not understand my language ! ' I hope she will not 
 recollect, too, that he is a Papist !" In a postscript he tells 
 the general that Tonton " is a cavalier, and a little of the 
 mousquetaire still ; but if I do not correct his vivacities, 
 
 * Richmond Hill. The dog died at Strawberry Hill. 
 + Correspondence, chronologically arranged by Peter Cunning- 
 ham, viii. p. 39. 
 
 J
 
 130 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 at least I shall not encourage them, like my dear old 
 friend." 
 
 In a letter of about the same date to Mason the poet, 
 he again alludes to his fondness of Toriton, but adds " I 
 have no occasion to brag of my dogmanity." * 
 
 Horace Walpole, in 1774, thus refers to Margaret, in a 
 letter to Lady Ossory : " Who is to have the care of the 
 dear mouse in your absence ? I wish I could spare Mar- 
 garet, who loves all creatures so well that she would have 
 been happy in the ark, and sorry when the deluge ceased ; 
 unless people had come to see Noah's old house, which she 
 would have liked still better than cramming his men- 
 agerie." f A sly allusion to the numerous fees Margaret 
 got from visitors. Horace, in another of his letters, 
 alludes to this, and, in a joke, proposes to marry Margaret 
 to enrich himself. 
 
 HORACE WALPOLE. DEATH OF HIS DOG TONTON. 
 
 Horace Walpole, writing to the Countess of Ossory, 
 Feb. 24, 1789,J says : "I delayed telling you that Tonton 
 is dead, and that I comfort myself. He was grown stone 
 deaf, and very nearly equally blind, and so weak that the 
 two last days he could not walk up-stairs. Happily he had 
 not suffered, and died close by my side without a pang or 
 a groan. I have had the satisfaction, for my dear old 
 friend's sake and his own, of having nursed him up, by 
 constant attention, to the age of sixteen, yet always afraid 
 
 * Loc. cit., p. 44. + Vol. vi. p. 117. 
 
 J " The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford," edited by 
 Peter Cunningham, now first chronologically arranged, ix. p. 172.
 
 DOGS , 
 
 of his surviving me, as it was scarcely possible he could 
 meet a third person who would study his happiness equally. 
 I sent him to Strawberry, and went thither on Sunday to 
 see him buried behind the chapel near Rosette. I shall 
 miss him greatly, and must not have another dog ; I am 
 too old, and should only breed it up to be unhappy when 
 I am gone. My resource is in two marble kittens that 
 Mrs Darner has given me, of her own work, and which are 
 so much alive that I talk to them, as I did to poor Tonton ! 
 If this is being superannuated, no matter ; when dotage 
 can amuse itself it ceases to be an evil. I fear my marble 
 playfellows are better adapted to me, than I am to being 
 your ladyship's correspondent." Poor Tonton was left to 
 Walpole by " poor dear Madame de Deffand." In a letter 
 to the Rev. Mr Cole, in 1781, he announces its arrival, and 
 how " she made me promise to take care of it the last time 
 I saw her. That I will most religiously, and make it as 
 happy as is possible." * 
 
 AKCHBISHOP WHATELY AND HIS DOGS. 
 
 " In these rambles he was generally attended by three 
 uncompromising-looking dogs, the heads of which, if it 
 were possible to draw them together in shamrock form, 
 would forcibly suggest Cerberus. Richard Whately found, 
 or thought he found, in the society of these dogs far 
 brighter intelligence, and infinitely more fidelity, than in 
 many of the Oxford men, who had been fulsomely praised 
 for both. 
 
 " In devotion to his dogs, Dr Whately continued true to 
 the end of his life, and during the winter season might be 
 * Loc. cit., viii. p. 35.
 
 132 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 daily seen in St Stephen's Green, Dublin, playing at 'tig 1 
 or 'hide and seek' with his canine attendants. Sometimes 
 the old archbishop might be seen clambering up a tree, 
 secreting his handkerchief or pocket-knife in some cunning 
 nook, then resuming his walk, and, after a while, suddenly 
 affecting to have lost these articles, which the dogs never 
 failed immediately to regain. 
 
 " That he was a close observer of the habits of dogs 
 and other quadrupeds we have evidence in his able lecture 
 on 'Animal Instinct.' Dr Whately, when referring to 
 another subject, once said not irrelevantly, ' The power of 
 duly appreciating little things belongs to a great mind : a 
 narrow-minded man has it not, for to him they are great 
 things.' Dr Whately was of opinion that some brutes were 
 as capable of exercising reason as instinct. In his ' Lec- 
 tures and Reviews ' (p. 64) he tells of a dog which, being 
 left on the bank of a river by his master, who had gone 
 up the river in a boat, attempted to join him. He plunged 
 into the water, but not making allowance for the strength 
 of the stream, which carried him considerably below the 
 boat, he could not beat up against it. He landed, and 
 made allowance for the current of the river by leaping in 
 at a place higher up. The combined action of the stream 
 and his swimming carried him in an oblique direction, and 
 he thus reached the boat. Dr Whately adopts the follow- 
 ing conclusion ' It appears, then, that we can neither deny 
 reason universally and altogether to brutes, nor instinct to 
 man ; but that each possesses a share of both, though in 
 very different proportions.' " * 
 
 * Fitzpatrick, " Memoirs of Richard Whately, Archbishop of 
 Dublin," vol. i. pp. 21, 22 (1864).
 
 DOGS. 133 
 
 SIR DAVID WILKIE COULD NOT SEE A PUN. " A 
 DOG-ROSE." 
 
 The son and biographer of William Collins, the Eoyal 
 Academician,* quotes from a manuscript collection of anec- 
 dotes, written by that charming painter of country life and 
 landscape, the following on Sir David Wilkie : " Wilkie 
 was not quick in perceiving a joke, although he was 
 always anxious to do so, and to recollect humorous stories, 
 of which he was exceedingly fond. As instances, I recol- 
 lect once when we were staying at Mr Wells's, at Eedleaf, 
 one morning at breakfast a very small puppy was running 
 about under the table. ' Dear me/ said a lady, ' how this 
 creature teases me!' I took it up and put it into my 
 breast-pocket. Mr Wells said, ' That is a pretty nosegay.' 
 ' Yes,' said I, ' it is a dog-rose.' Wilkie's attention, 
 sitting opposite, was called to his friend's pun, but all in 
 vain. He could not be persuaded to see anything in it. 
 I recollect trying once to explain to him, with the same 
 want of success, Hogarth's joke in putting the sign of the 
 woman without a head (' The Good Woman ') under the 
 window from which the quarrelsome wife is throwing the 
 dinner into the street." 
 
 ULYSSES AND HIS DOG. 
 
 Richard Payne Knight, in his " Inquiry into the 
 Principles of Taste," t when treating of the "sublime and 
 
 * "Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, R.A.," by his son, 
 W. Wilkie Collins, i. 193. 
 
 t Third edition, 1806, p. 385.
 
 134 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 pathetic," quotes the story of Ulysses and his dog, as 
 follows : " No Dutch painter ever exhibited an image less 
 imposing, or less calculated to inspire awe and terror, or 
 any other of Burke's symptoms or sources of the sublime 
 (unless, indeed, it be a stink), than the celebrated dog of 
 Ulysses lying upon a dunghill, covered with vermin and 
 in the agonies of death ; yet, when in such circumstances, 
 on hearing the voice of his old master, -who had been 
 .absent twenty years, he pricks his ears, wags his tail, and 
 expires, what heart is not at once melted, elevated, and 
 expanded with all those glowing feelings which Longinus 
 has so well described as the genuine effects of the true 
 sublime? That master, too the patient, crafty, and 
 obdurate Ulysses, who encounters every danger and 
 bears every calamity with a constancy unshaken, a spirit 
 undepressed, and a temper unruffled when he sees this 
 faithful old servant perishing in want, misery, and neglect, 
 yet still remembering his long-lost benefactor, and collect- 
 ing the last effort of expiring nature to give a sign of joy 
 and gratulation at his return, hides his face and wipes 
 away the tear ! This is true sublimity of character, 
 which is always mixed with tenderness mere sanguinary 
 ferocity being terrible and odious, but never sublime. 
 Ayadoi croXuSaxcuro/ avdgsg Men prone to tears are brave, 
 says the proverbial Greek hemistich ; for courage, which 
 does not arise from mere coarseness of organisation, but 
 from that sense of dignity and honour which constitutes 
 the generous pride of a high mind, is founded in sensi- 
 bility."
 
 WOLF. 135 
 
 WOLF. 
 
 SURELY the man should get a monument who is proved to 
 have killed the last she-wolf in these islands. How 
 closely allied the wolf is to the dog may be clearly read 
 in the accounts of Polar winterings. Some of the larger 
 butchers' dogs are singularly wolf-like, and it seems to be 
 that variety which occasionally, as it were, resumes its 
 wolfish habits of prowling at night and killing numbers 
 of sheep in certain districts, as we sometimes read in the 
 country papers of the day. In Strathearn, we lately heard 
 of a very recent instance of this wolf-like ferocity breaking 
 out. The dog was traced with great difficulty, and at 
 last shot. He proved to be of the kind alluded to. 
 
 POLSON AND THE LAST SCOTTISH WOLF. 
 
 Mr Scrope * describes, from traditions still existing on 
 the east coast of Sutherland, the destruction of what is 
 supposed to have been the last Scottish wolf and her cubs. 
 This was between 1690 and 1700. This wolf had com- 
 mitted many depredations on their flocks, and the in- 
 habitants had been unsuccessful in their attempts to hunt 
 it down. 
 
 A man named Poison, attended by two herd boys, went 
 in search of it. 
 
 Poison was an old hunter, and had much experience 
 in tracing and destroying wolves and other predatory 
 
 * "The Art of Deer- Stalking," &c., by William Scrope, Esq., 
 F.L.S.,p. 371.
 
 136 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 animals. Forming his own conjectures, he proceeded at 
 once to the wild and rugged ground that surrounds the 
 rocky mountain-gulley which forms the channel of the 
 burn of Sledale. Here, after a minute investigation, he 
 discovered a narrow fissure in the midst of a confused 
 mass of large fragments of rock, which, upon examination, 
 he had reason to think might lead to a larger opening or 
 cavern below, which the wolf might use as his den. 
 Stones were now thrown down, and other means resorted 
 to, to rouse any animal that might be lurking within. 
 Nothing formidable appearing, the two lads contrived to 
 squeeze themselves through the fissure, that they might 
 examine the interior, while Poison kept guard on the out- 
 side. The boys descended through the narrow passage 
 into a small cavern, which was evidently a wolf's den, for 
 the ground was covered with bones and horns of animals, 
 feathers, and egg-shells ; and the dark space was somewhat 
 enlivened by five or six active wolf cubs. Not a little 
 dubious of the event, the voices of the poor boys came up 
 hollow and anxious from below, communicating this intelli- 
 gence. Poison at once desired them to do their best, and 
 to destroy the cubs. Soon after, he heard the feeble 
 howling of the whelps as they were attacked below, and 
 saw almost at the same time, to his great horror, a full- 
 grown wolf, evidently the dam, raging furiously at the 
 cries of her young, and now close upon the mouth of the 
 cavern, which she had approached unobserved, among the 
 rocky irregularities of the place. She attempted to leap 
 down at one bound from the spot where she was first seen. 
 In this emergency, Poison instinctively threw himself 
 forward on the wolf, and succeeded in catching a firm
 
 WOLF. 137 
 
 hold of the animal's long and busliy tail, just as the fore- 
 part of the body was within the narrow entrance of the 
 cavern. He had unluckily placed his gun against a rock, 
 when aiding the boys in their descent, and could not now 
 reach it. Without apprising the lads below of their immi- 
 nent peril, the stout hunter kept firm grip of the wolf's 
 tail, which ho wound round his left arm ; and although the 
 maddened brute scrambled, and twisted, and strove with 
 all her might to force herself down to the rescue of her 
 cubs, Poison was just able, with the exertion of all his 
 strength, to keep her from going forward. In the midst 
 of this singular struggle, which passed in silence for the 
 wolf was mute, and the hunter, either from the engrossing 
 nature of his exertions, or from his unwillingness to alarm 
 the boys, spoke not a word at the commencement of the 
 conflict his son within the cave, finding the light ex- 
 cluded from above, asked in Gaelic, and in an abrupt tone, 
 " Father, what is keeping the light from us ? " " If the 
 root of the tail break," replied he, "you will soon know 
 that." Before long, however, the man contrived to get 
 hold of his hunting-knife, and stabbed the wolf in the 
 most vital parts he could reach. The enraged animal no-w 
 attempted to turn and face her foe, but the hole was too 
 narrow to allow of this ; and when Poison saw his danger, 
 ho squeezed her forward, keeping her jammed in, whilst 
 he repeated his stabs as rapidly as he could, until the 
 animal, being mortally wounded, was easily dragged back 
 and finished. 
 
 A similar story has been given, with the wilds of Canada 
 for the scene. The young Highlander was said to be dirk-
 
 138 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 ing pigs, while the father was keeping guard. " Phat 's 
 keeping out the licht, fayther 1 " shouts the son. " If ta 
 tail preaks, tou 'It fine tat," were the question and answer. 
 
 FOX. 
 
 THE sharp-faced fox is a very epitome of cunning, and his 
 name is a by-word for slyness. Farmers know well that 
 no fox, nestling close to their houses, ever meddles with 
 their poultry. Reynard rambles a good way from home 
 before he begins to plunder. How admirable is Professor 
 Wilson's description of fox-hunting, quoted here from the 
 "Noctes." Sir Walter Scott, in one of his topographical 
 essays, has given a curious account of the way in which a 
 fox, acquainted with the " ins and outs " of a certain old 
 castle, outwitted a whole pack of dogs, who had to jump 
 up singly to get through a small window to which Reynard 
 led them. His large tail, so bushy and so free, is of great 
 use to Reynard. He often brushes the eyes of his pur- 
 suers with it when sprinkled with water anything but 
 sweet, and which, by its pungency, for a time blinds them. 
 The pursuit of the fox is most exciting, and turns out the 
 lord " of high degree," and the country squire and farmer. 
 It is the most characteristic sport of the " better classes " 
 in this country. 
 
 AN ENTHUSIASTIC FOX-HUNTING SURGEON.* 
 
 A medical gentleman, named Hansted, residing near 
 * Edinburgh Review, 1841, vol. Ixxiv. p. 77.
 
 FOX. 139 
 
 Newbury, who was very fond of fox-hunting, ordered his 
 gardener to set a trap for some vermin that infested his 
 garden. As ill luck would have it, a fox was found in 
 the morning with his leg broken, instead of a plant-eating 
 rabbit. The gardener took Reynard to the doctor, when 
 he exclaimed, " Why did you not call me up in the night, 
 that I might have set the leg ? " Better late than never : 
 the surgeon set the leg ; the fox recovered, and was killed 
 in due form, after a capital run. 
 
 FOX-HUNTING. 
 (From the " Noctes Ambrosiance," April 1826.*) 
 
 North. It seems fox-hunting, too, is cruel 
 
 Shepherd. To wham 1 ? Is't cruel to dowgs, to feed 
 fifty or sixty o' them on crackers and ither sorts o' food, 
 in a kennel like a Christian house, wi' a clear burn flowin' 
 through 't, and to gie them, twice a-week or aftener, 
 during the season, a brattlin rin o' thretty miles after a 
 fox ? Is that cruelty to dowgs ? 
 
 North. But the fox, James ? 
 
 Shepherd. We '11 come to the fox by and by. Is 't cruel 
 to horses, to buy a hundred o' them for ae hunt, rarely for 
 less than a hundred pounds each, and aften for five 
 hundred to feed them on five or sax feeds o' corn per 
 diem and to gie them skins as sleek as satin and to 
 gar them nicher (neigh) wi' fu'ness o' bluid, sae that every 
 vein in their bodies starts like sinnies (sinews) and to 
 gallop them like deevils in a hurricane, up hill and doun 
 
 * " Noctes Ambrosianse." Works of Professor Wilson, vol. i. 
 pp. 136-138.
 
 14:0 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 brae, and loup or soom canals and rivers, and flee ower 
 hedges, and dikes, and palings, like birds, and drive 
 crashin' through woods, like elephants or rhinoceroses a' 
 the while every coorser flingin' fire-flaughts (flalces) frae 
 his een, and whitening the sweat o' speed wi' the foam o' 
 fury I say, ca' you that cruelty to horses, when the hunt 
 charge with all their chivalry, and plain, mountain, or 
 forest are shook by the quadrupedal thunder ? 
 
 North. But the fox, James ? 
 
 Shepherd. We '11 come to the fox by and by. Is 't cruel 
 to men to inspirit wi' a rampagin happiness fivescore o' 
 the flower o' England or Scotland's youth, a' wi' caps and 
 red coats, and whups in their hauns a troop o' lauchin, 
 tearin', tallyhoin' " wild and wayward humorists," as the 
 doctor ca'd them the tither Sunday ? 
 
 North. I like the expression, James. 
 
 Shepherd. So do I, or I would not have quoted it. But 
 it's just as applicable to a set o' outrageous ministers, 
 eatin' and drinkin', and guflawin' at a Presbytery denner. 
 
 North. But the fox, James? 
 
 Shepherd. We 11 come to the fox by and by. Is 't cruel 
 to the lambs, and leverets, and geese, and turkeys, and 
 dyucks, and patricks, and wee birds, and ither animal 
 eatables, to kill the fox that devoors them, and keeps 
 them in perpetual het water ? 
 
 North. But the fox, James ? 
 
 Shepherd. Deevil take baith you and .the fox ; I said 
 that we would come to the fox by and by. Weel, then, 
 wha kens that the fox isna away snorin' happy afore the 
 houn's 1 I hae nae doubt he is, for a fox is no sae com- 
 plete a coward as to think huntin' cruel ; and his haill
 
 FOX. 141 
 
 
 
 nature is then on the alert, which in itsel' is happiness. 
 Huntin' him fa'in into languor and ennui, and growin" 
 ower fat on how-towdies (barn-door fowls). He 's no 
 killed every time he 's hunted. 
 
 North. Why, James, you might write for the " Annals 
 of Sporting." 
 
 Shepherd. So I do sometimes and mair o' ye than 
 me, I jalouse ; but I was gaun to ask ye if ye could 
 imagine the delicht o' a fox gettin' into an undiggable 
 earth, just when the leadin' houn' was at his hainches ? 
 ae sic moment is aneuch to repay half an hour's draggle 
 through the dirt ; and he can lick himsel' clean at his 
 leisure, far ben in the cranny o' the rock, and come out 
 a' tosh and tidy by the first dawn o' licht, to snuff the 
 mornin' air, and visit the distant farm-house before 
 Partlet has left her perch, or Count Crow lifted his head 
 from beneath his oxter on his shed-seraglio. 
 
 North. Was ye ever in at a death ? Is not that cruel ? 
 
 Shepherd. Do you mean in at the death o' ae fox, or the 
 death o' a hundred thousand men and sixty thousand 
 horses ? the takin' o' a Brush, or a Borodino ? 
 
 North. My dear James, thank ye for your argument. 
 As one Chalmers is worth a thousand Martins, so is one 
 Hogg worth a thousand Chalmerses. 
 
 Shepherd. Ane may weel lose patience, to think o' fules 
 being sorry for the death o' a fox. When the jowlers tear 
 him to piecesf he shows fecht, and gangs aff in a snarl 
 Hoo could he dee mair easier ? and for a' the gude he 
 has ever dune, or was likely to do, he surely had leeved 
 lang eneuch.
 
 142 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 
 
 ARCTIC Fox (Vulpes lagopuf). 
 
 This inoffensive and pretty little creature is found in all 
 parta-of the Arctic lands. Its fur is peculiarly fine and 
 thick ; and as in winter this is closer and more mixed with 
 wool than it is in summer, the intense cold of these regions 
 is easily resisted. When sleeping rolled up into a ball, 
 with the black muzzle buried in the long hairs of the tail, 
 there is not a portion of the body but what is protected 
 from the cold, the shaggy hairs of the brush acting as a 
 respirator or boa for the mouth and a muff for the paws. 
 Our Arctic travellers have remarked, that it is a peculiarly 
 cleanly animal, and its vigilance is extreme. It is almost 
 impossible to come on it unawares, for even when appear- 
 ing to be soundly asleep, it opens its eyes on the slightest 
 noise being made. During the day it appears to be list- 
 less, but no sooner has the night set in than it is in motion, 
 and it continues very active until morning. The young 
 migrate to the southward in the autumn, and sometimes 
 collect in great numbers on the shores of Hudson's Bay. 
 Mr Graham noticed that they came there in November and 
 left in April. 
 
 Sir James Ross found a fox's burrow on the sandy 
 margin of a lake in the month of July. It had several 
 passages, each opening into a common cell, beyond which 
 was an inner nest, in which the young, six in number, were 
 found. These had the dusky, lead- coloured livery worn 
 by the parents in summer ; and though four of them were 
 kept alive till the following winter, they never acquired 
 the pure white coats of the old fox, but retained the dusky 
 colour on the face and sides of the body. The parents had

 
 FOX. 143 
 
 
 
 kept a good larder for their progeny, as the outer cell and 
 the several passages leading to it contained many lemmings 
 and ermines, and the bones of fish, ducks, and hares, in 
 great quantities. Sir John Richardson* observed them to 
 live in villages, twenty or thirty burrows being constructed 
 close to each other. A pair were kept by Sir James Ross 
 for the express purpose of watching the changes which 
 take place in the colour of their fur. He noticed that they 
 threw off their winter dress during the first week in June, 
 and that this change took place a few days earlier in the 
 female than in the male. About the end of September 
 the brown fur of the summer gradually became of an ash 
 colour, and by the middle of October it was perfectly 
 white. It continued to increase in thickness until the end 
 of November, f A variety of a blackish-brown colour is 
 occasionally met with, but this is rare : such specimens, 
 Ross remarks, must have extreme difficulty in surprising 
 their prey in a country whose surface is of an unvaried 
 white, and must also be much more exposed to the perse- 
 cutions of their enemies. The food of this fox is various, 
 but seems to consist principally of lemmings and of birds 
 and their eggs. He eats, too, the berries of the Empetrum, 
 nigrum, a plant common on our own hills, and goes to the 
 shore for mussels and other shell-fish. Otho Fabricius J 
 says he catches the Arctic salmon as that fish approaches 
 the shore to spawn, and that he seizes too the haddock, 
 having enticed it near by beating the water. Crantz, in 
 his " History of Greenland," evidently alludes to this 
 
 * " Fauna Boreali-Americana." Mammalia, p. 87. 
 f Appendix to " Second Voyage," p. xii. 
 J " Fauna Grcenlandica," p. 20.
 
 144 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 cunning habit when he observes, " They plash with their 
 feet in the water, to excite the curiosity of some kinds of 
 fishes to come and see what is going forward, and then 
 they snap them up ; and the Greenland women have learnt 
 this piece of art from tfwm." Captain Lyon noticed a fox 
 prowling on a hill-side, and heard him for some hours 
 afterwards in the neighbourhood imitating the cry of the 
 brent-goose. In another part of his Journal he mentions 
 that the bark is so modulated as to give an idea that it 
 proceeds from a distance, though at the time the fox lies 
 at yonr feet. It struck him that the creature was gifted 
 " with this kind of ventriloquism in order to deceive its 
 prey as to the distance it is from them." It sometimes 
 catches the ptarmigan ; and though it cannot swim, it 
 manages occasionally to get hold of oceanic birds ; in fact, 
 nothing alive which it can master seems to come amiss, 
 and failing to make a meal from something it has caught 
 and killed, the Arctic fox is glad, like foxes in more 
 favoured lands, to feed on carrion. 
 
 Captain M'Clintock, who commanded the yacht Fox on 
 the Franklin Arctic search in 1857 and 1858, wintered in 
 the ice pack of Baffin's Bay. One of the party shot an 
 Arctic fox when they were 140 miles from the land. He 
 records in a letter to his brother,* that this wanderer from 
 the shore " was very fat, living upon such few dovekies as 
 were silly enough to spend their winter in the pack" 
 
 Martens, in his " Spitzbergen," says, that some of the 
 
 ship's crew informed him, that the fox when he is hungry 
 
 " lies down as if he was dead, until the birds fly to him to 
 
 eat him, which by that trick he catches and eats." Our 
 
 * DuUin Nat. Hist. Jicvkw, 1858, p. 166.
 
 FOX. 145 
 
 author believed it a fable, but it may nevertheless be one 
 of the many expedients used by a species of a group whose 
 name is proverbial for craftiness and cunning. 
 
 The flesh of the fox is occasionally eaten by the Esqui- 
 maux : Captain Lyon, in his " Private Journal," says that 
 at first all of his party were horrified at the idea of eating 
 foxes " But very many soon got the better of their fas- 
 tidiousness and found them good eating ; not being myself 
 very nice, I soon made the experiment, and found the flesh 
 much resembling that of kid, and afterwards frequently 
 had a supper of it." 
 
 Sir James Clarke Ross, during his five years' imprison- 
 ment in Boothia Felix and the adjoining seas, had ample 
 means of judging of its flavour ; he tells us that some of 
 his party, who were the first to taste them, named them 
 " lambs," from their resemblance in flavour to very young 
 lamb. He adds, that the flesh of the old fox is by no 
 means so palatable. During that disastrous expedition the 
 flesh of this fox formed one of the principal luxuries of 
 their table, and it was always " reserved for holidays and 
 great occasions. We ate them boiled, or, more frequently 
 after being parboiled, roasted, in a pitch kettle." 
 
 When the Arctic Expedition in search of Franklin win- 
 tered in Leopold Harbour in 1848-49, the commander, 
 Sir J. C. Ross, made use of the Arctic fox as a messenger. 
 Having caught some of these animals in traps, a collar with 
 information for the missing parties was put round the neck 
 of each before liberation, as the fox is known to travel 
 great distances in search of food. On Captain Austin's 
 subsequent expedition in 1850-51 the same plan was car- 
 ried out, but it was found to be equally without result. 
 
 K
 
 146 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 Commander Osborn thus facetiously describes tlie circum- 
 stance.* " Several animals thus intrusted with despatches 
 or records were liberated by different ships ; but, as the 
 truth must be told, I fear in many cases the next night 
 saw the poor ' postman,' as Jack termed him, in another 
 trap, out of which he would be taken, killed, the skin 
 taken off, and packed away to ornament at some future 
 day the neck of some fair Dulcinea. As a ' sub,' I was 
 admitted into this secret mystery, or, otherwise, I with 
 others might have accounted for the disappearance of the 
 collared foxes by believing them busy on their honourable 
 mission. In order that the crime of killing ' the postmen' 
 may be recognised in its true light, it is but fair that I 
 should say, that the brutes, having partaken once of the 
 good cheer on board or around the ships, seldom seemed 
 satisfied with the mere empty honours of a copper collar, 
 and returned to be caught over and over again. Strict 
 laws were laid down for their safety, such as that no fox 
 taken alive in a trap was to be killed : of course no fox was 
 after this taken alive ; they were all unaccountably dead, 
 unless it was some fortunate wight whose brush and coat 
 were worthless ; in such case he lived either to drag about 
 a quantity of information in a copper collar for the rest of 
 his days, or else to die a slow death, as being intended for 
 Lord Derby's menagerie. The departure of 'a postman' 
 was a scene of no small merriment ; all hands, from the 
 captain to the cook, were out to chase the fox, who, half 
 frightened out of its wits, seemed to doubt which way to 
 run, whilst loud shouts and roars of laughter, breaking the 
 cold, frosty air, were heard from ship to ship, as the fox- 
 * " Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal," p. 176.
 
 FOX. 147 
 
 hunters, swelled in numbers from all sides, and those that 
 could not run mounted some neighbouring hummock of ice 
 and gave a loud halloo, which said far more for robust 
 health than for tuneful melody." 
 
 The Arctic fox as a captive has often amused our Arctic 
 voyagers, and accounts of it are to be met with in most of 
 their narratives. Captain Lyon made a pet of one he cap- 
 tured, and confined it on deck in a small kennel with a 
 piece of chain. The little creature astonished the party 
 very much by his extraordinary sagacity, for, on the very 
 first day, having been repeatedly drawn out by his chain, 
 he at length drew his chain in after him whenever he re- 
 treated to his hut, and took it in with his mouth so com- 
 pletely, that no one who valued his fingers would venture 
 afterwards to take hold of the end attached to the staple. 
 
 Sir J. C. Ross observed in Boothia Felix a good deal of 
 difference in the disposition of specimens, some being easily 
 tamed, whilst others would remain savage and untractable 
 even with the kindest treatment. He found the females 
 much more vicious than the males. A dog-fox which his 
 party captured lived several months with them, and be- 
 came so tame in a short time that he regularly attended the 
 dinner-table like a dog, and was always allowed to go at 
 large about the cabin. When newly caught their rage is 
 quite ungovernable, and yet when two are put together they 
 very seldom quarrel. They soon get reconciled to confine- 
 ment. Captain Lyon * notices that their first impulse on 
 getting food is to hide it as soon as possible, and this, he 
 observed, they did, even when hungry and by themselves ; 
 when there was snow on the ground they piled it over their 
 * " Private Journal," p. 105.
 
 148 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 stores, and pressed it down forcibly with their nose. 
 When no snow was to be obtained, he noticed his pet fox 
 gather the chain into his mouth, and then carefully coil it 
 so as to cover the meat. Having gone through this pro- 
 cess, and drawn away his chain after him on moving away, 
 he has sometimes repeated his useless labours five or six 
 times, until disgusted, apparently, at the inability of mak- 
 ing the morsel a greater luxury by previous concealment, 
 he has been forced to eat it. These creatures use snow as 
 a substitute for water, and it is pleasing to see them break 
 a large lump with their feet, and roll on the pieces with 
 evident delight. When the snow lay lightly scattered on 
 the decks, they did not lick it up as dogs do, but by pres- 
 sing it repeatedly with their nose, collected a small lump 
 which they drew into their mouth. 
 
 It may be added that the specific name lagopus, or 
 " hare-foot," was given to this fox from the soles of its feet 
 being densely covered with woolly hair, which gives them 
 some resemblance to the feet of a hare. Cuvier remarks 
 that other foxes acquire this hair on the soles when taken 
 to northern lands. 
 
 The specimens, figured so admirably by Mr Wolf, were 
 drawn from some brought alive to the Zoological Gardens 
 by one of the late Arctic expeditions. A. White, in " Ex- 
 celsior " (with additions). 
 
 JACKAL. 
 
 THE boy who used to read, long ago, "The Three 
 Hundred Animals," was ever familiar with, "the Lion's
 
 CATS. 149 
 
 Provider" as the menagerie showmen, even now, somewhat 
 pompously style this hungry howler of the desert. 
 
 The jackal is a social kind of dog, and a pack of hungry 
 or excited jackals can howl in notes fit to pierce the ears 
 of the deafest. He is a mean, starved-looking creature in 
 ordinary circumstances, seeming as if his social life pre- 
 vented his getting what is called a lion's share on any 
 'occasion. 
 
 JACKAL AND TIGER. 
 
 As Burke was declaiming with great animation against 
 Hastings, he was interrupted by little Major Scott. " Am 
 I," said he, indignantly, " to be teased by the barking 
 of this jackal, while I am attacking the royal tiger of 
 Bengal r* 
 
 CATS. 
 
 ANOTHER fertile subject for anecdote. Who has not some 
 faithful black Topsy, Tortoise-shell, or Tabby, or rather 
 succession of them, whose biographies would afford many 
 a curious story ? Professor Bell f has well defended the 
 general character of poor pussy from the oft-repeated 
 calumnies spread about it. Cats certainly get much 
 
 * Mark Lemon, "Jest-Book," p. 280. 
 
 ( " British Quadrupeds." The professor has long retired to his 
 favourite Selborne. He occupies the house of Gilbert White; and 
 a new illustrated edition of the " Natural History and Antiquities 
 of Selborne " has been long looked for from him.
 
 150 
 
 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 attached to individuals, as well as to houses and articles 
 in them. They want the lovableness and demonstrative- 
 ness of dogs ; but their habits are very different, and they 
 are strictly organised to adapt them to watch and to pounce 
 on their prey. 
 
 As we have elsewhere remarked, and the remark was 
 founded on observation of our eldest daughter when a very 
 young child, " Your little baby loves the pussy, and pussy 
 sheathes her claws most carefully, but should baby draw 
 back her arm suddenly, and pussy accidentally scratch that 
 tender skin, how the little girl cries ! It is, perhaps, her 
 first lesson that sweets and bitters, pleasures and pains, 
 meekness and ferocity, are mingled in this world." * 
 
 JEEEMY BENTHAM AND HIS PET CAT " SIR JOHN 
 LANGBORN." 
 
 Dr, afterwards Sir John, Bowring, in the life of that 
 diligent eccentric " codificator," Jeremy Bentham, f thus 
 alludes to some of his pets : " Bentham was very fond of 
 animals, particularly ' pussies? as he called them, ' when 
 they had domestic virtues ; ' but he had no particular 
 affection for the common race of cats. He had one, how- 
 ever, of which he used to boast that he had ' made a man 
 of him,' and whom he was wont to invite to eat maccaroni 
 at his own table. This puss got knighted, and rejoiced in 
 
 * " The Instructive Picture Book ; or, A Few Attractive Lessons 
 from the Natural History of Animals," by Adam White, p. 15 (fifth 
 edition, 1862). 
 
 f " The Works of Jeremy Bentham," now first collected under 
 the superintendence of his executor, John Bowring, vol. xi. pp. 80, 81.
 
 CATS. 151 
 
 the name of Sir John Langborn. In his early days, he 
 was a frisky, inconsiderate, and, to say the truth, some- 
 what profligate gentleman; and had, according to the 
 report of his patron, the habit of seducing light and giddy 
 young ladies of his own race into the garden of Queen's 
 Square Place ; but tired at last, like Solomon, of pleasures 
 and vanities, he became sedate and thoughtful took to 
 the church, laid down his knightly title, and was installed 
 as the Reverend John Langborn. He gradually obtained 
 a great reputation for sanctity and learning, and a doctor's 
 degree was conferred upon him. When I knew him, in his 
 declining days, he bore no other name than the Reverend 
 Doctor John Langborn ; and he was alike conspicuous for 
 his gravity and philosophy. Great respect was invariably 
 shown his reverence ; and it was supposed he was not far 
 off from a mitre, when old age interfered with his hopes 
 and honours. He departed amidst the regrets of his many 
 friends, and was gathered to his fathers, and to eternal 
 rest, in a cemetery in Milton's Garden.* 
 
 " ' I had a cat/ he said, ' at Hendon, which used to 
 follow me about even in the street. George Wilson was 
 very fond of animals too. I remember a cat following him 
 as far as Staines. There was a beautiful pig at Hendon, 
 which I used to rub with my stick. He loved to come 
 and lie down to be rubbed, and took to following me like 
 a dog. I had a remarkably intellectual cat, who never 
 failed to attend one of us when we went round the 
 garden. He grew quite a tyrant, insisting on being fed 
 and on being noticed. He interrupted my labours. Once 
 
 * Jeremy Bentham's house in Queen's Square waa that which 
 had been occupied by the great poet
 
 152 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 he came with a most hideous yell, insisting on the door 
 being opened. He tormented Jack (Colls) so much, that 
 Jack threw him out of the window. He was so clamorous 
 that it could not be borne, and means were found to send 
 him to another world. His moral qualities were most 
 despotic his intellectul extraordinary; but he was a 
 universal nuisance. 
 
 " ' From my youth I was fond of cats, as I am still. I 
 was once playing with one in my grandmother's room. I 
 had heard the story of cats having nine lives, and being 
 sure of falling on their legs ; and I threw the cat out of the 
 window on the grass-plot. When it fell it turned towards 
 me, looked in my face and mewed. " Poor thing ! " I said, 
 " thou art reproaching me with my unkindness." I have 
 a distinct recollection of all these things. Cowper's story 
 of his hares had the highest interest for me when young ; 
 for I always enjoyed the society of tame animals. Wilson 
 had the same taste so had Romilly, who kept a noble 
 puss, before he came into great business. I never failed 
 to pay it my respects. I remember accusing Romilly of 
 violating the commandment in the matter of cats. My 
 fondness for animals exposed me to many jokes.' " 
 
 BlSSET AND HIS MUSICAL CATS. 
 
 S. Bisset, to whom we referred before, was a Scotchman, 
 born at Perth. He went to London as a shoemaker ; but 
 afterwards turned a broker. About 1739 he turned his 
 attention'to the teaching of animals. He was very success- 
 ful, and among the subjects of his experiments were three 
 young cats. Wilson, in his " Eccentric Mirror," * has 
 * Vol. i. No. 3. p. 27.
 
 CATS. 153 
 
 recorded that " he taught these domestic tigers to strike 
 their paws in such directions on the dulcimer, as to pro- 
 duce several tunes, having music-books before them, and 
 squalling at the same time in different keys or tones, first, 
 second, and third, by way of concert. In such a city as 
 London these feats could not fail of making some noise. 
 His house was every day crowded, and great interruption 
 given to his business. Among the rest, he was visited by 
 an exhibitor of wonders. Pinchbeck advised him to a 
 public exhibition of his animals at the Haymarket, and 
 even promised, on receiving a moiety, to be concerned in 
 the exhibition. Bisset agreed, but the day before the per- 
 formance, Pinchbeck declined, and the other was left to act 
 for himself. The well-known Cats' Opera was advertised 
 in the Haymarket ; the horse, the dog, the monkeys, and 
 the cats went through their several parts with uncommon 
 applause, to crowded houses, and in a few days Bisset 
 found himself possessed of nearly a thousand pounds to 
 reward his ingenuity. 
 
 CONSTANT, CHATEAUBRIAND, AND THE CAT. 
 
 " Benjamin Constant was accustomed to write in a closet 
 on the third story. Beside him sat his estimable wife, and 
 on his knee his favourite cat ; this feline affection he enter- 
 tained in common with Count de Chateaubriand." * 
 
 LISTON THE SURGEON AND HIS CAT. 
 Eobert Liston, the great surgeon, was, it seems, very 
 
 * Times, 18 Dec. 1830, quoted by Southey, " Common-Place Book," 
 iv. p. 489.
 
 154 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 fond of a cat. Dr Forbes Winslow asks, " Who has not 
 seen Listen's favourite cat Tom ? This animal is con- 
 sidered to be a unique specimen of the feline tribe ; and so 
 one would think, to see the passionate fondness which he 
 manifests for it. This cat is always perched on Liston's 
 shoulder, at breakfast, dinner, and tea, in his carriage, and 
 out of his carriage. It is quite ludicrous to witness the 
 devotion which the great operator exhibits towards his 
 favourite." * 
 
 Listen was a curious man. He often called on his 
 friends as early as six o'clock in the morning. In most 
 cases, such calls must have been visits of formality or quiet 
 jokes at the lazy manners of most men of the present age. 
 We know one person whom he called on usually at this 
 early hour. It would be more healthy for the young, if 
 they would imitate this talented surgeon. We may here 
 say that he used to allow one particular nail to grow long. 
 It was a nail he used to guide his knife when operating. 
 When at college in 1833 or 1834, we heard a student, who 
 knew this clever operator well, happily apply the double- 
 entendre, " homo ad unguem factus," a phrase, Dr Carson, 
 our noble rector at the High School, taught us to translate 
 " an accomplished man." 
 
 TEE BANKER MITCHELL'S ANTIPATHY TO KITTENS. 
 
 Mr J. T. Smith, once Keeper of the Prints in the British 
 Museum, author of the " Life and Times of Nollekens, the 
 
 * " Physic and Physicians," a medical sketch-book, vol. ii. p. 363 
 (1839).
 
 CATS. 155 
 
 Royal Academician," * tells a story of Mr Matthew Mitchell, 
 a banker, who collected prints. 
 
 " Mr Mitchell had a most serious antipathy to a kitten. 
 He could sit in a room without experiencing the least 
 emotion from a cat ; but directly he perceived a kitten, his 
 flesh shook on his bones, like a snail in vinegar. I once 
 relieved him from one of these paroxysms by taking a 
 kitten out of the room ; on my return he thanked me, and 
 declared his feelings to be insupportable upon such an 
 occasion. Long subsequently, I asked him whether he 
 could in any way account for this agitation. He said he 
 could not, adding that he experienced no such sensations 
 upon seeing a full-grown cat ; but that a kitten, after he 
 had looked at it for a minute or two, in his imagination 
 grew to the size of an overpowering elephant." 
 
 JAMES MONTGOMERY AND HIS CAis.f 
 
 The poet Montgomery was very fond of cats. His 
 biographers say " We never recollect the time when some 
 familiar ' Tabby ' or audacious ' Tom ' did not claim to 
 share the poet's attention during our familiar interviews 
 with him in his own parlour. We well recollect one fine 
 brindled fellow, called ' Nero/ who, during his kittenhood, 
 ' purred ' the following epistle to a little girl who had been 
 his playmate : 
 
 * "A Book for a Rainy Day," p. 103. Old Smith was a regular 
 hunter after legacies, and like all such was often disappointed. His 
 "Nollekens " is a fine example. 
 
 f " Memoirs of James Montgomery," by Holland and Everett, iv. 
 pp. 114, 115.
 
 156 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 " HARTSHEAD, NEAR THE HOLE-IN-THE-WALL, 
 
 "July 23, 1825. 
 " Harrrrrrr, 
 
 " Mew, wew, auw, mauw, hee, wee, miaw, waw, wurr, 
 whirr, ghurr, wew, mew, whew, isssss, tz, tz, tz, purrurrurrur? 
 
 DONE INTO ENGLISH. 
 
 " HARRIET, 
 
 " This comes to tell you that I am very well, and I 
 hope you are so too. I am growing a great cat ; pray how 
 do you come on ? I wish you were here to carry me about 
 as you used to do. and I would scratch you to some pur- 
 pose, for I can do this much better than I could while you 
 were here. I have not run away yet, but I believe I shall 
 soon, for I find my feet are too many for my head, and 
 often carry me into mischief. Love to Sheffelina, though 
 I was always fit to pull her cap when I saw you petting 
 her. My cross old mother sends her love to you she 
 shows me very little now-a-days, I assure you, so I do not 
 care what she does with the rest. She has brought me a 
 mouse or two, and I caught one myself last night ; but it 
 was in my dream, and I awoke as hungry as a hunter, and 
 fell to biting at my tail, which I believe I should have 
 eaten up ; but it would not let me catch it. So no more 
 at present from TINY. 
 
 " P.S. They call me Tiny yet, you see ; but I intend 
 to take the name of Nero, after the lion fight at Warwick 
 next week, if the lion conquers, not else. 
 
 " 2d P.S. I forgot to tell you that I can beg, but I 
 like better to steal, it 's more natural, you know. 
 
 " HARRIET, at Ockbrook."
 
 CATS. 157 
 
 SIR WALTER SCOTT'S VISIT TO THE BLACK DWARF. 
 DAVID EITCHIE'S CAT. 
 
 David Ritchie, the prototype of the "Black Dwarf," 
 inhabited a small cottage on the farm of Woodhouse, 
 parish of Manor, Peeblesshire. In the year 1797, Walter 
 Scott, then a young advocate, was taken by the Fer- 
 gusons to see " Bowed Davie," as the poor misanthropic 
 man was generally called. 
 
 Mr William Chambers,* the historian of his native 
 county, describes the visit at greater length than Scott has 
 done in the introduction to his novel. He says " At the 
 first sight of Scott, the misanthrope seemed oppressed with 
 a sentiment of extraordinary interest, which was either 
 owing to the lameness of the stranger a circumstance 
 throwing a narrower gulf between this person and himself 
 than what existed between him and most other men or 
 to some perception of an extraordinary mental character 
 in this limping youth, which was then hid from other eyes. 
 After grinning upon him for a moment with a smile less 
 bitter than his wont, the dwarf passed to the door, double- 
 locked it, and then coming up to the stranger, seized him by 
 the wrist with one of his iron hands, and said, ' Man, hae 
 ye ony poo'er 1 ?' By this he meant magical power, to 
 which he had himself some vague pretensions, or which, 
 at least, he had studied and reflected upon till it had 
 become with him a kind of monomania. Scott disavowed 
 the possession of any gifts of that kind, evidently to the 
 great disappointment of the inquirer, who then turned 
 
 * " A History of Peeblesshire," by William Chambers of Glenor- 
 miston, p. 403 (1864).
 
 158 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 round and gave a signal to a huge black cat, hitherto un- 
 observed, which immediately jumped up to a shelf, where 
 it perched itself, and seemed to the excited senses of the 
 visitors as if it had really been the familiar spirit of the 
 mansion. ' He has poo'er,' said the dwarf in a voice 
 which made the flesh of the hearers thrill, and Scott, in 
 particular, looked as if he conceived himself to have 
 actually got into the den of one of those magicians with 
 whom his studies had rendered him familiar. ' Ay, he 
 has poo'er,' repeated the recluse ; and then, going to his 
 usual seat, be sat for some minutes grinning horribly, as if 
 enjoying the impression he had made, while not a word 
 escaped from any of the party. Mr Ferguson at length 
 plucked up his spirits, and called to David to open the 
 door, as they must now be going. The dwarf slowly 
 obeyed, and when they had got out, Mr Ferguson observed 
 that his friend was as pale as ashes, while his person was 
 agitated in every limb. Under such striking circum- 
 stances was this extraordinary being first presented to the 
 real magician, who was afterwards to give him such a 
 deathless celebrity." 
 
 Mr Chambers doubtless received the particulars of this 
 visit from Sir Adam Ferguson, Scott's friend and companion. 
 
 Robert Southey, like Jeremy Bentham, with whom the 
 Quarterly Reviewer would have grudged to have been 
 classified, loved cats. His son, in his " Life and Cor- 
 respondence," vol. vi. p. 210, says "My father's fondness 
 for cats has been occasionally shown by allusion in his 
 letters,* and in ' The Doctor ' is inserted an amusing me- 
 * See vol. v. p. 145.
 
 CATS. 159 
 
 morial of the various cats which at different times were 
 inmates of Greta HalL He rejoiced in bestowing upon 
 them the strangest appellations, and it was not a little 
 amusing to see a kitten answer to the name of some 
 Italian singer or Indian chief, or hero of a German fairy 
 tale, and often names and titles were heaped one upon an- 
 other, till the possessor, unconscious of the honour con- 
 veyed, used to ' set up his eyes and look ' in wonderment. 
 Mr Bedford had an equal liking for the feline race, and 
 occasional notices of their favourites therefore passed 
 between them, of which the following records the death of 
 one of the greatest : 
 
 " ' To Grosvenor C. Bedford, Esq. 
 
 " ' KESWICK, May 18, 1833. 
 
 " ' MY DEAR G Alas ! Grosvenor, this day 
 
 poor old Rumpel was found dead, after as long and happy 
 a life as cat could wish for, if cats form wishes on that 
 subject. His full titles were : " The Most Noble the 
 Archduke Rumpelstiltzchen, Marquis M'Bum, Earl Tom- 
 lemagne, Baron Raticide, "Waowhler, and Skaratch." There 
 should be a court mourning in Catland, and if the Dragon* 
 wear a black ribbon round his neck, or a band of crape a 
 la militaire round one of the fore paws, it will be but a 
 becoming mark of respect. 
 
 " ' As we have no catacombs here, he is to be decently 
 
 interred in the orchard, and cat-mint planted on his grave. 
 
 Poor creature, it is well that he has thus come to his end 
 
 after he had become an object of pity. I believe we are, 
 
 * A cat of Mr Bedford's.
 
 160 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 each and all, servants included, more sorry for his loss, or 
 rather more affected by it, than any one of us would like 
 to confess. 
 
 " * I should not have written to you at present, had it 
 not been to notify this event. E. S.' " 
 
 In a letter from Leyden to his son Cuthbert, then in his 
 seventh year, he says " I hope Rumpelstiltzchen has re- 
 covered his health, and that Miss Cat is well ; and I should 
 like to know whether Miss Fitzrumpel has been given away, 
 and if there is another kitten. The Dutch cats do not 
 speak exactly the same language as the English ones. I 
 will tell you how they talk when I come home." * 
 
 ARCHBISHOP WHATELY'S ANECDOTE OF THE CAT THAT 
 USED TO RING THE BELL. 
 
 Archbishop Whately t records a case of an act done by 
 a cat, which, if done by a man, would be called reason. 
 He says " This cat lived many years in my mother's 
 family, and its feats of sagacity were witnessed by her, my 
 sisters, and myself. It was known, not merely once or 
 twice, but habitually, to ring the parlour bell whenever it 
 wished the door to be opened. Some alarm was excited 
 on the first occasion that it turned bell-ringer. The family 
 had retired to rest, and in the middle of the night the par- 
 lour-bell was rung violently ; the sleepers were startled 
 from their repose, and proceeded down-stairs, with pokera 
 
 * "Life and Correspondence," v. p. 223. 
 
 f On Instinct, a Lecture delivered before the Dublin Natural 
 History Society, llth November 1842. Dublin, 1847. P. 10.
 
 TIGER AND LION. 161 
 
 and tongs, to interrupt, as they thought, the predatory 
 movement of some burglar ; but they were agreeably sur- 
 prised to discover that the bell had been rung by pussy ; 
 who frequently repeated the act whenever she wanted to 
 get out of the parlour." 
 
 A friend (D. D., Esq., Edinburgh) tells me of a cat his 
 family had in the country, that used regularly to " tirl at 
 the pin " of the back door when it wished to get in to the 
 house. 
 
 TIGER AND LION. 
 
 THESE most ferocious of theCarnivora have afforded interest- 
 ing subjects to many a traveller. An extensive volume of 
 truly sensational adventure might be compiled about them, 
 adding a chapter for the jaguar and the leopard, two ex- 
 tremely dangerous spotted cats, that can do what neither 
 tigers nor lions are able to do namely, climb trees. Hav- 
 ing once asked a friend, who was at the death of many a 
 wild beast, which was the most savage animal he had ever 
 seen, he replied, " A wounded leopard." It was to such 
 an animal that Jacob referred when he saw Joseph's clothes, 
 and said " Some evil beast hath devoured him." Colonel 
 Campbell's work, from which the first paragraph is derived, 
 contains much about the pursuit of the tiger. Dr Living- 
 stone's travels and Gordon Cumming's books on South 
 Africa, neither of which we have quoted, have thrilling 
 pages about the lordly presence of "the king of beasts." 
 Mr Joseph Wolf and Mr Lewis are perhaps the best 
 draughtsmen of the lion among recent artists. The public
 
 162 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 admire much Sir Edwin Landseer's striking bronze lions 
 on the pedestal of the Nelson Monument. That artist 
 excels in his pictures of the lion. On the Assyrian 
 monuments in the British Museum are many wonderfully 
 executed lion hunts, as perfectly preserved as if they had 
 been chiselled in our day. Parts of these bas-reliefs were 
 certainly designed from actual sketches made from the 
 lions and dogs, which took the chief part in the amusements 
 of some "Ninirod, a mighty hunter before the Lord." 
 Even our Scottish kings kept a lion or lions as ornaments 
 of their court. At Stirling Castle and Palace, a room 
 which we saw in 1865, still bears the name of the " Lion's 
 Den." The British lion is an old emblem of both Scot- 
 land and England, and it is not twenty-five years ago 
 since we, in common with every visitor to the Tower, were 
 glad to see "the Royal Lion." Dr Livingstone's experi- 
 ence, we have not the slightest wish to prove its accuracy, 
 shows that the lion has a soothing, or rather paralysing 
 power over his prey, when he has knocked it down or 
 bitten it. 
 
 BUSSAPA, THE TIGER-SLAYER, AND THE TIGER. 
 
 The following striking anecdote recounts the extraor- 
 dinary presence of mind and determined courage of a 
 celebrated Mahratta hunter named Bussapa. This man 
 acquired the name of the " Tiger-slayer," and wore on his 
 breast several silver medals granted by the Indian Govern- 
 ment for feats of courage in destroying tigers. Colonel 
 Campbell met him, and in "My Indian Journal" (pp. 142, 
 143), published in 1864, has recorded from his brother's
 
 TIGER AND LION. 163 
 
 diary the following anecdote : " Bussapa, a hunter of 
 ' Lingyat ' caste, with whom I am well acquainted, was 
 sent for by the headman of a village, to destroy a tiger 
 which had carried off a number of cattle. He came, and 
 having ascertained the brute's usual haunts, fastened a 
 bullock near the edge of a ravine which he frequented, 
 and quietly seated himself beside it, protected only by a 
 small bush. Soon after sunset the tiger appeared, killed 
 the bullock, and was glutting himself with blood, when 
 Bussapa, thrusting his long matchlock through the bush, 
 fired, and wounded him severely. The tiger half rose, but 
 being unable to see his assailant on account of the inter- 
 vening bush, dropped again on his prey with a sudden 
 growl. Bussapa was kneeling within three paces of him, 
 completely defenceless ; he did not even dare to reload, 
 for he well knew that the slightest movement on his part 
 would be the signal for his immediate destruction ; his 
 bare knees were pressed upon gravel, but he dared not 
 venture to shift his uneasy position. Ever and anon, the 
 tiger, as he lay with his glaring eyes fixed upon the bush, 
 uttered his hoarse growl of anger ; his hot breath absolutely 
 blew upon the cheek of the wretched man, yet still he 
 moved not. The pain of his cramped position increased 
 every moment suspense became almost intolerable ; but 
 the motion of a limb, the rustling of a leaf, would have 
 been death. Thus they remained, the man and the tiger, 
 watching each other's motions ; but even in this fearful 
 situation, his presence of mind never for a moment forsook 
 the noble fellow. He heard the gong of the village strike 
 each hour of that fearful night, that seemed to him 
 ' eternity,' and yet he lived ; the tormenting mosquitoes
 
 164 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 swarmed round his face, but lie dared not brush them off. 
 That fiend-like eye met his whenever he ventured a glance 
 towards the horrid spell that bound him ; and a hoarse 
 growl grated on the stillness of the night, as a passing 
 breeze stirred the leaves that sheltered him. Hours rolled 
 on, and his powers of endurance were well-nigh exhausted, 
 when, at length, the welcome streaks of light shot up 
 from the eastern horizon. On the approach of day, the 
 tiger rose, and stalked away with a sulky pace, to a thicket 
 at some distance, and then the stiff and wearied Bussapa 
 felt that he was safe. 
 
 " One would have thought that, after such a night of 
 Buffering, he would have been too thankful for his escape, 
 to venture on any further risk. But the valiant Bussapa 
 was not so easily diverted from his purpose ; as soon as he 
 had stretched his cramped limbs, and restored the checked 
 circulation, he reloaded his matchlock, and coolly pro- 
 ceeded to finish his work. With his match lighted, he 
 advanced close to the tiger, lying ready to receive him, 
 and shot him dead by a ball in the forehead, while in the 
 act of charging." 
 
 Colonel Campbell relates, that most of Bussapa's family 
 have fallen victims to tigers. But the firm belief of the 
 " tiger-slayer " in predestination, makes him blind to all 
 danger. 
 
 JOHN HUNTER AND THE DEAD TIGER. 
 
 The greatest comparative anatomist our country has 
 produced, John Hunter, obtained the refusal of all animals 
 which happened to die in the Tower or in the travelling
 
 TIGER AND LION. 165 
 
 menageries. In this way he often obtained rare subjects 
 for his researches. Dr Forbes Winslow* alludes to a well- 
 known fact, that all the money Hunter could spare, was 
 devoted to procuring curiosities of this sort, and Sir Everard 
 Home used to state, that as soon as he had accumulated 
 fees to the amount of ten guineas, he always purchased 
 some addition to his collection. Indeed, he was not un- 
 frequently obliged to borrow of his friends, when his own 
 funds were at a low ebb, and the temptation was strong. 
 " Pray, George," said he one day to Mr G. Mcol, the 
 bookseller to the king, with whom he was very intimate, 
 " have you got any money in your pocket ? " Mr N. 
 replied in the affirmative. " Have you got five guineas ] 
 Because, if you have, and will lend it me, you shall go 
 halves." " Halves in what'?" inquired his friend. " Why, 
 halves in a magnificent tiger, which is now dying in Castle 
 Street." Mr Nicol lent the money, and Hunter purchased 
 the tiger. 
 
 TIGERS. 
 
 Mrs Colin Mackenzie f records the death of a man from 
 the wounds of a tiger. " The tiger," she says, " was 
 brought in on the second day. He died from the wound 
 he had received. I gave the body to the Dhers in our 
 service, who ate it. The claws and whiskers are greatly 
 prized by the natives as charms. The latter are supposed 
 to give the possessor a certain malignant power over his 
 
 * "Physics and Physicians : a Medical Sketch-Book," vol. i. p. l"/4. 
 It was published anonymously in 1839. 
 
 t " Life in the Mission, the Camp, and the Zenana ; or, Six Years 
 in India," vol. ii. p. 382.
 
 166 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 enemies, for which reason I always take possession of them 
 to prevent our people getting them. The tiger is very 
 commonly worshipped all over India. The women often 
 prostrate themselves before a dead tiger, when sportsmen 
 are bringing it home in triumph ; and in a village, near 
 Nagpur, Mr Hislop found a number of rude images, almost 
 like four-legged stools, which, on inquiry, proved to be 
 meant for tigers, who were worshipped as the tutelary 
 deities of the place. I believe a fresh image is added for 
 every tiger that is slain." 
 
 LION AND TIGER. 
 
 A jolly jack-tar, having strayed into Atkin's show at 
 Bartholomew Fair, to have a look at the wild beasts, was 
 much struck with the sight of a lion and a tiger in the 
 same den. " Why, Jack," said he to a messmate, who was 
 chewing a quid in silent amazement, " I shouldn't wonder 
 if next year they were to carry about a sailor and a marine 
 living peaceably together!" "Ay," said his married com- 
 panion, " or a man and wife."* 
 
 We may add that we have long regarded it as a vile 
 calumny to two animals to say of a man and wife who 
 quarrel, that they live " a cat and dog life." No two 
 animals are better agreed when kept together. Each 
 knows his own place and keeps it. Hence they live at 
 peace speaking "generally," as "Mr Artemus Ward" 
 would say of " such an observation." 
 
 * Mark Lemon, " Jest Book," p. 237.
 
 TIGER AND LION. 167 
 
 ANDROCLES AND THE LION. 
 
 Addison,* in the 139th Guardian, has given us the story 
 of Androcles and the Lion. He prefaces it by saying that 
 he has no regard " to what ^Esop has said upon the subject, 
 whom," says he, " I look upon to have been a republican, 
 by the unworthy treatment which he often gives to the 
 king of beasts, and whom, if I had time, I could convict of 
 falsehood and forgery in almost every matter of fact which 
 he has related of this generous animal." 
 
 Better observation of it, however, from the time of Bur- 
 chell to that of Livingstone, shows that JEsop's account is 
 on the whole to be relied on, and that the lion is a thorough 
 cat, treacherous, cruel, and, for the most part, with a good 
 deal of the coward in him. 
 
 The story of Androcles was related by Aulus Gellius, 
 who extracted it from Dion Cassius. Although likely to 
 be embellished, there is every likelihood of the foundation 
 of the story being true. Addison relates this, "for the 
 sake of my learned reader, who needs go no further in it, 
 if he has read it already : Androcles was the slave of a 
 noble Roman who was proconsul of Afric. He had been 
 guilty of a fault, for which his master would have put him 
 to death, had not he found an opportunity to escape out of 
 his hands, and fled into the deserts of Numidia. As he 
 was wandering among the barren sands, and almost dead 
 with heat and hunger, he saw a cave in the side of a rock. 
 He went into it, and finding at the farther end of it a place 
 to sit down upon, rested there for some time. At length, 
 
 * August 20, 1713. Chalmers's edition of "British Essayists," vol 
 xviii. p. 85.
 
 168 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 to his great surprise, a huge overgrown lion entered at the 
 mouth of the cave, and seeing a man at the upper end of 
 it, immediately made towards him. Androcles gave him- 
 self up for gone ;* but the lion, instead of treating him as 
 he expected, laid his paw upon his lap, and with a com- 
 plaining kind of voice, fell a licking his hand. Androcles, 
 after having recovered himself a little from the fright he 
 was in, observed the lion's paw to be exceedingly swelled 
 by a large thorn that stuck in it. He immediately pulled 
 it out, and by squeezing the paw very gently made a great 
 deal of corrupt matter run out of it, which probably freed 
 the lion from the great anguish he had felt some time before. 
 The lion left him upon receiving this good office from him, 
 and soon after returned with a fawn which he had just 
 killed. This he laid down at the feet of his benefactor, 
 and went off again in pursuit of his prey. Androcles, after 
 having sodden the flesh of it by the sun, subsisted upon it 
 until the lion had supplied him with another. He lived 
 many days in this frightful solitude, the lion catering for 
 him with great assiduity. Being tired at length with this 
 savage society, he was resolved to deliver himself up into 
 his master's hands, and suffer the worst effects of his dis- 
 pleasure, rather than be thus driven out from mankind. 
 His master, as was customary for the proconsuls of Africa, 
 was at that time getting together a present of all the 
 largest lions that could be found in the country, in order 
 to send them to Eome, that they might furnish out a show 
 to the Roman people. Upon his poor slave surrendering 
 himself into his hands, he ordered him to be carried away 
 to Rome as soon as the lions were in readiness to be sent, 
 * Up for lost.
 
 TIGER AND LION. 169 
 
 and that for his crime he should be exposed to fight with 
 one of the lions in the amphitheatre, as usual, for the diver- 
 sion of the people. This was all performed accordingly. 
 Androcles, after such a strange run of fortune, was now 
 in the area of the theatre, amidst thousands of spectators, 
 expecting every moment when his antagonist would come 
 out upon him. At length a huge monstrous lion leaped out 
 from the place where he had been kept hungry for the 
 show. He advanced with great rage towards the man, but 
 on a sudden, after having regarded him a little wistfully, 
 fell to the ground, and crept towards his feet with all the 
 signs of blandishment and caress. Androcles, after a short 
 pause, discovered that it was his old Numidian friend, and 
 immediately renewed his acquaintance with him. Their 
 mutual congratulations were very surprising to the be- 
 holders, who, upon hearing an account of the whole matter 
 from Androcles, ordered him to be pardoned, and the lion 
 to be given up into his possession. Androcles returned at 
 Rome the civilities which he had received from him in the 
 deserts of Afric. Dion Cassius says, that he himself saw 
 the man leading the lion about the streets of Rome, the 
 people everywhere gathering about them, and repeating to 
 one another, 'Hie est leo hospes hominis; hie est homo medicus 
 leonis.' ' This is the lion who was the man's host ; this is 
 the man who was the lion's physician.' " 
 
 We are glad to repeat this anecdote, although some may 
 call it " stale and old." The last time we were at the 
 Zoological Gardens, in the Regents Park, London, we saw a 
 lion very kindly come and rub itself against the rails of its 
 den, on seeing a turbaned visitor come up, who addressed 
 it. The man had been kind to it on its passage home.
 
 170 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 It was by no means a tame lion, nor one that its keeper 
 would have ventured to touch. 
 
 SIR GEORGE DAVIS AND THE LION 
 
 Steele, in the 146th Guardian,* has followed up a papei 
 by Addison, on the subject of lions, and gives an anecdote 
 sent him, he says, by " a worthy merchant and a friend of 
 mine," who had it in the year 1700 from the gentleman 
 to whom it happened. 
 
 " About sixty years ago, when the plague raged at 
 Naples, Sir George Davis, consul there for the English 
 nation, retired to Florence. It happened one day he went 
 out of curiosity to see the great duke's lions. At the far- 
 ther end, in one of the dens, lay a lion, which the keepers 
 in three years' time could not tame, with all the art and 
 gentle usage imaginable. Sir George no sooner appeared 
 at the grates of the den, but the lion ran to him with all 
 the marks of joy and transport he was capable of express- 
 ing. He reared himself up, and licked his hand, which 
 this gentleman put in through the grates. The keeper 
 affrighted, took him by the arm and pulled him away, 
 begging him not to hazard his life by going so near the 
 fiercest creature of that kind that ever entered those dens. 
 However, nothing would satisfy Sir George, notwith- 
 standing all that could be said to dissuade him, but he 
 must go into the den to him. The very instant he entered, 
 the lion threw his paws upon his shoulders, and licked his 
 face, and ran to and fro in the den, fawning and full of 
 
 * August 28, 1713. Chalmers's edition of "British Essayists," 
 Tol. xviiL p. 116
 
 TIGER AND LION. 171 
 
 joy, like a dog at the sight of his master. After several 
 embraces and salutations exchanged on both sides, they 
 parted very good friends. The rumour of this interview 
 between the lion and the stranger rung immediately 
 through the whole city, and Sir George was very near 
 passing for a saint among the people. The great duke, 
 when he heard of it, sent for Sir George, who waited upon 
 his highness, to the den, and to satisfy his curiosity, gave 
 him the following account of what seemed so strange to 
 the duke and his followers : 
 
 " ' A captain of a ship from Barbary gave me this lion 
 when he was a young whelp. I brought him up tame, 
 but when I thought him too large to be suffered to run 
 about the house, I built a den for him in my court-yard j 
 from that time he was never permitted to go loose, except 
 when I brought him within doors to show him to my 
 friends. When he was five years old, in his gamesome 
 tricks, he did some mischief by pawing and playing with 
 people. Having griped a man one day a little too hard, I 
 ordered him to be shot, for fear of incurring the guilt of 
 what might happen ; upon this a friend who was then at 
 dinner with me begged him : how he came here I know 
 not.' 
 
 Here Sir George Davis ended, and thereupon the Duke 
 of Tuscany assured him that he had the lion from that 
 very friend of his." 
 
 CANOVA'S LIONS AND THE CHILD. 
 
 The mausoleum of Pope Clement XII., whose name was 
 Kezzonico, is one of the greatest works of Antonio Canova,
 
 172 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 the celebrated Italian sculptor. It is in St Peter's, at 
 Rome, and was erected in 1792. It is only mentioned 
 here on account of two lions, which were faithfully studied 
 from nature. 
 
 His biographer, Mr Mernes,* tells us that these lions 
 were formed " after long and repeated observation on the 
 habits and forms of the living animals. Wherever they 
 were to be seen Canova constantly visited them, at all 
 hours, and under every variety of circumstances, that he 
 might mark their natural expression in different states of 
 action and of repose, of ferocity or gentleness. One of the 
 keepers was even paid to bring information, lest any 
 favourable opportunity should pass unimproved." 
 
 One of these lions is sleeping, while the other, which is 
 under the figure of the personification of religion, couches 
 but is awake, in attitude of guarding inviolate the 
 approach to the sepulchre, and ready with a tremendous 
 roar to spring upon the intruder. 
 
 Canova himself was much pleased with these lions. 
 Mr Memes illustrates their wonderful force and truth by 
 a little anecdote. 
 
 " One day, while the author (a frequent employment) 
 stood at some distance admiring from different points of 
 view the tomb of Rezzonico, a woman with a child in her 
 arms advanced to the lion, which appears to be watching. 
 The terrified infant began to scream violently, clinging to 
 the nurse's bosom, and exclaiming, ' Mordera, mamma, 
 mordera!' (It will bite, mamma; it will bite.) The 
 mother turned to the opposite one, which seems asleep ; 
 
 * "Memoirs of Antonio Canova," by J. S. Memes, A.M. 1825. 
 Pp. 332, 334, 346.
 
 TIGER AND LION. 173 
 
 her charge was instantly pacified; and smiling through 
 tears, extended its little arm to stroke the shaggy head, 
 whispering in subdued accents, as if afraid to awake the 
 monster, ' come placido ! non mordero quello, mamma.' 
 (How gentle ! this one will not bite, mother.") 
 
 ADMIRAL NAPIER AND THE LION IN THE TOWER. 
 Admiral Sir Charles Napier, K.C.B., when a boy in his 
 fourteenth year, visited London on his way to join his 
 first ship at Spithead, the Renown. His biographer tells 
 us he was staying at the house of a relative, who, " after 
 showing the youngster all the London sights, took him to 
 see the lions at the Tower. Amongst them was one which 
 the keeper represented as being so very tame that, said he, 
 ' you might put your hand into his mouth.' Taking him 
 at his word, the young middy, to the horror of the spec- 
 tators, thrust his hand into the jaws of the animal, who, 
 no doubt, was taken as much by surprise as the lookers- 
 on. It was a daring feat ; but providentially he did not 
 suffer for his temerity." * This reminds the biographer of 
 Nelson's feat with the polar bear, and of Charles Napier's 
 (the soldier) bold adventure with an eagle in his boyhood, 
 as related by Sir William Napier in the history of his 
 gallant brother's life. 
 
 OLD LADY AND THE BEASTS ON THE MOUND. 
 When the houses were cleared from the head of the 
 Mound in Edinburgh, a travelling menagerie had set up 
 its caravans on that great earthen bridge, just at the time 
 
 * " The Life of Admiral Sir Charles Napier, K.C.B," by Major- 
 General Elers Napier, vol. i. p. 8.
 
 174 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 when George Ferguson, the celebrated Scotch advocate, 
 better known by his justiciary title of Lord Hermand, 
 came up, full of Pittite triumph that the ministry of " all 
 the talents " had fallen. " They are out ! they are all 
 out ! every mother's son of them !" he shouted. A lady, 
 who heard the words, and perceived his excited condition, 
 imagined that he referred to the wild beasts ; and seizing 
 the judge by his arm, exclaimed, " Gude heaven ! we shall 
 a' be devoored!"* 
 
 SEALS. 
 
 A MOST intelligent group of creatures, some of which the 
 compiler has watched in Yell Sound, close to Mossbank. 
 He has even seen them once or twice in the Forth, close 
 to the end of the pier. In the Zoological Gardens a speci- 
 men of the common seal proved for months a great source 
 of attraction by its mild nature, and its singular form and 
 activity. It soon died, and, had a coroner's jury returned a 
 verdict, it would have been " Death from the hooks swal- 
 lowed with the fish " daily provided. We have heard seal- 
 fishers describe the great rapidity of the growth of seals 
 in the Arctic seas. They seem in about a fortnight after 
 their birth to attain nearly the size of their mothers. The 
 same has been recorded of the whale order. Both seals 
 and whales have powers of assimilating food and making 
 fat that are unparalleled even by pigs. The intelligence of 
 seals is marvellous. Many who visited the Zoological 
 * " A Tour in Tartan-Land," by Cuthbert Bede.
 
 SEALS. 175 
 
 Gardens in the Kegent's Park in May and June 1866 
 witnessed instances of this in a seal from the South Seas, 
 recently exhibited in London. Persons on the sea-side 
 might readily domesticate these interesting and truly 
 affectionate creatures. Hooker's sea-bear, the species 
 exhibited in London, was at first, so the kind Frenchman 
 told us, very fierce, but soon got reconciled to him, and, 
 when I saw it, great was the mutual attachment. It was 
 a strangely interesting sight to see the great creature walk 
 on its fin-like legs, and clamber up and kiss the genial- 
 bearded French sailor. 
 
 DR ADAM CLARKE ON SHETLAND SEALS. 
 
 In Shetland, Dr Adam Clarke tells us the popular 
 belief is that the seals, or, as they call them, selkies, are 
 fallen spirits, and that it is dangerous to kill any of them, 
 as evil will assuredly happen to him who does. They 
 think that when the blood of a seal touches the water, the 
 sea begins to rise and swell. Those who shoot them notice 
 that gulls appear to watch carefully over them ; and Mr 
 Edmonston assured him that he has known a gull scratch 
 a seal to warn it of his approach. Dr Clarke, in the second 
 of his voyages to Shetland, had a seal on board, which was 
 caught on the Island of Papa. He says : " It refuses all 
 nourishment ; it is very young, and about three feet long ; 
 it roars nearly like a calf, but not so loud, and continually 
 crawls about the deck, seeking to get again to sea. As I 
 cannot bear its cries, I intend to return it to the giver. 
 Several of them have been tamed by the Shetlanders, and 
 these will attend their owners to the place where the cowa
 
 176 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 are milked, in order to get a drink. This was the case 
 with one Mr Henry of Burrastow brought up. When it 
 thought proper it would go to sea and forage there, but 
 was sure to return to land, and to its owner. They tell 
 me that it is a creature of considerable sagacity. The 
 young seal mentioned above made his escape over the 
 gangway, and got to sea. I am glad of it ; for its plain- 
 tive lowing was painful to me. We saw it afterwards 
 making its way to the ocean."* 
 
 DE EDMONSTON ON SHETLAND SEALS. 
 
 Every one familiar with seals is struck with their plain- 
 tive, intelligent faces, and any one who has seen the seals 
 from time to time living in the Zoological Gardens must 
 have been pleased with the marks of attention paid by 
 them to their keepers. Dr Edmonston of Balta Sound has 
 published in the " Memoirs of the Wernerian Society "fa 
 graphic and valuable paper on the distinctions, history, and 
 hunting of seals in the Shetland Isles. As that gentleman 
 is a native of Unst, and had, when he wrote the Memoir, 
 been for more than twenty years actively engaged in their 
 pursuit, both as an amusement and as a study, we may 
 extract two or three interesting passages. 
 
 He remarks (p. 29) on the singular circumstance that so 
 few additions have been made to the list of domestic ani- 
 mals bequeathed to us from remote antiquity, and men- 
 tions the practicability of an attempt being made to tame 
 seals ; and also says that it is yet to be learned whether 
 
 * "Life," vol. iii. p. 188. 
 t Vol. viii. pp. 1-16.
 
 SEALS. 177 
 
 they would breed in captivity and remain reclaimed from the 
 wild state. The few instances recorded in books of natural 
 history of tame seals refer to the species called Phoca vitu- 
 lina, but of the processes of rearing and education we have 
 no details. " The trials," continues Dr Edmonston, " I 
 have made on these points have been equally numerous on 
 the great as on the common seal. By far the most inter- 
 esting one I ever had was a young male of the barbata 
 species : he was taken by myself from a cave when 
 only a few hours old, and in a day or two became as at- 
 tached as a dog to me. The varied movements and 
 sounds by which he expressed delight at my presence and 
 regret at my absence were most affecting ; these sounds 
 were as like as possible to the inarticulate tones of the 
 human voice. I know no animal capable of displaying 
 more affection than he did, and his temper was the gentlest 
 imaginable. I kept him for four or five weeks, feeding 
 him entirely on warm milk from the cow ; in my tempor- 
 ary absence butter-milk was given to him, and he died soon 
 after. 
 
 " Another was a female, also of the great seal species, 
 which we captured in a cave when about six weeks old, in 
 October 1830. This individual would never allow herself 
 to be handled but by the person who chiefly had the charge 
 of her, yet even she soon became comparatively familiar. 
 
 " It was amusing to see how readily she ascended the 
 stairs, which she often did, intent, as it seemed, on examin- 
 ing every room in the house ; on showing towards her 
 signs of displeasure and correction, she descended more 
 rapidly and safely than her awkwardness seemed to pro- 
 mise. 
 
 M
 
 178 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 " She was fed from the first on fresh fish alone, and 
 grew and fattened considerably. We had her carried down 
 daily in a hand-barrow to the sea-side, where an old exca- 
 vation admitting the salt water was abundantly roomy and 
 deep for her recreation and our observation. After sport- 
 ing and diving for some time she would come ashore, and 
 seemed perfectly to understand the use of the barrow. 
 Often she tried to waddle from the house to the water, or 
 from the latter to her apartment, but finding this fatiguing, 
 and seeing preparations by her chairman, she would of her 
 own accord mount her palanquin, and thus be carried as 
 composedly as any Hindoo princess. By degrees we ven- 
 tured to let her go fairly into the sea, and she regularly 
 returned after a short interval ; but one day during a thick 
 fall of snow she was imprudently let off as usual, and, 
 being decoyed some distance out of sight of the shore by 
 some wild ones which happened to be in the bay at the 
 time, she either could not find her way back or voluntarily 
 decamped. 
 
 " She was, we understood, killed very shortly after in a 
 neighbouring inlet. We had kept her about six months, 
 and every moment she was becoming more familiar; we 
 had dubbed her Finna, and she seemed to know her 
 name. Every one that saw her was struck with her ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 " The smooth face without external ears the nose 
 slightly aquiline the large, dark, and beautiful eye which 
 stood the sternest human gaze, gave to the expression of 
 her countenance such dignity and variety that we all agreed 
 that it really was super-animal. The Scandinavian Scald, 
 with such a mermaid before him, would find in her eye a
 
 SEALS. 179 
 
 metaphor so emphatic that he would have no reason to 
 borrow the favourite oriental image of the gazelles from his 
 Caucasian ancestors. 
 
 " This remarkable expressiveness and dignity of aspect of 
 the Haff-fish, so superior to all other animals with which 
 the fishermen of Shetland were acquainted, and the human 
 character of his voice, may have procured for him that 
 peculiar respect with which he was regarded by those who 
 lived nearest his domains, and were admitted to most fre- 
 quent intercourse with him. He was the favourite animal 
 of superstition, and a few tales of him are still current. 
 These, however, are not of much interest or variety, the 
 leading ideas in them being these : That the great seal is 
 a human soul, or a fallen angel in metempsychosis, and 
 that to him who is remarkable for hostility to the phocal 
 race some fatal retribution will ensue. I can easily con- 
 ceive the feeling of awe with which a fisherman would be 
 impressed when, in the sombre magnificence of some rocky 
 solitude, a great seal suddenly presented himself, for an 
 interview of this kind once occurred to myself. 
 
 " I was lying one calm summer day on a rock a little 
 elevated above the water, watching the approach of seals, 
 in a small creek formed by frowning precipices several 
 hundred feet high, near the north point of the Shetland 
 Islands. 
 
 " I had patiently waited for two hours, and the scene and 
 the sunshine had thrown me into a kind of reverie, when 
 my companion, who was more awake, arrested my atten- 
 tion. A full-sized female haff-fish was swimming slowly 
 past, within eight yards of my feet, her head askance, and 
 her eyes fixed upon me; the gun, charged with two balls,
 
 180 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 ; 
 
 was immediately pointed. I followed her with the aim for 
 some distance, when she dived without my firing. ... 
 
 " I resolved that this omission should not recur, if she 
 afforded me another opportunity of a shot, which I hardly 
 hoped for, but which actually in a few moments took place. 
 Still I did not fire, until, when at a considerable distance, 
 she was on the eve of diving, and she eluded the shot by 
 springing to a side. Here was really a species of fasci- 
 nation. The wild scene, the near presence and commanding 
 aspect of the splendid animal before me, produced a spell- 
 bound impression which, in my sporting experience, I never 
 felt before. 
 
 " On reflection, I was delighted that she escaped. 
 
 " The younger seals are the more easy to tame, but the 
 more difficult to rear ; under a month old they must be 
 fed, and, especially the barbata, almost entirely on milk, 
 and that of the cow seems hardly to agree with them. 
 
 "Perhaps their being suckled by a cow fed chiefly on fish, 
 the giving them occasionally a little salt water, and then 
 by degrees inducing them to eat fish, might be the best 
 mode until they attained the age of being sustained on fish 
 alone. In the barbata, to insure rapid taming, it appears 
 to be necessary to capture them before the period of cast- 
 ing the foetal hair, analogous to what I have observed in 
 the case of the young of water-birds before getting up their 
 first feathers, and when they are entirely covered with the 
 egg down. 
 
 "These changes seem connected with a great development 
 of the wild habits, and attachment to, and knowledge of, 
 the localities where they have first seen the light. As the 
 barbata is until this period in reality a land animal, the
 
 SEALS. 181 
 
 chief difficulty we have to surmount with it is in the quality 
 of the'milk to be given it. The vitulina is essentially an 
 inhabitant of the water from its birth, yet the care of the 
 mother is perhaps for weeks necessary to judge how long 
 and how often it should be on land, and this we can hardly 
 expect to imitate. In the young of this species a few days 
 old, which we have tried to rear, a want of knowledge of 
 this kind of management may have led to failure. I have 
 not attempted to rear them at a greater age. 
 
 " The Greenland seal is, I have been informed, occasion- 
 ally kept for a month or two on board the whalers, and 
 thrives sufficiently well on the flesh of sea-birds. This 
 species appears to bring forth in January, and therefore it 
 is subjected to captivity. 
 
 " I know but comparatively little of its capability of 
 being easily tamed ; but this quality, of itself, is no evi- 
 dence of superior intelligence. 
 
 " Might it not be easy to induce Greenland shipmasters 
 to bring some of these animals to England, where they 
 would be accessible to the observation of zoologists. 
 
 " One mode of attempting to tame them might be to take 
 half-grown animals in a net, or surprise them on land, and 
 then keep them in salt-water ponds in a semi-domestic 
 state : if any of them were pregnant when caught, or could 
 be got to breed, the main difficulty would be overcome." 
 
 Long as these extracts are, they possess great interest as 
 being derived from observations on living animals made 
 by one who was a friend of the Duke of Wellington, and 
 was always welcomed by him. His northern Island of 
 Unst is a fine field for studying marine animals. The 
 sweeping currents of the Arctic oceans bring creatures to
 
 182 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 the quiet voes and sounds. Shetland in spring, summer, 
 and autumn is a favoured locality for the naturalist and 
 painter. 
 
 THE WALRUS. 
 
 There was some likelihood, a few years ago, that a 
 most attractive animal would be added to the collection of 
 the Zoological Society. But, unfortunately for the public 
 gratification, as well as the remuneration of the spirited 
 captain who brought the creature, it reached the gardens 
 in a dying state, and only survived a few days. But it is 
 not the first of its family which has travelled so far to the 
 southward. Nearly 250 years ago a specimen was brought 
 alive by some of the Arctic adventurers, and excited no 
 little surprise, as old Purchas tells us. It was in the year 
 1608, when "the king and many honourable personages 
 beheld it with admiration, for the strangeness of the same, 
 the like whereof had never before beene scene alive in 
 England. Not long after it fell sicke and died. As the 
 beast in shape is very strange, so is it of strange docilitie, 
 and apt to be taught, as by good experience we often 
 proved." 
 
 The figure which accompanies this paper was drawn 
 from our late lamented visitor by Mr Wolf, who sketched 
 it before its removal to the Zoological Gardens. Captain 
 Henry caught it during a whaling expedition, and sent it 
 to London. Though quite young, it was nearly four feet 
 in length ; and when the person who used to feed it came 
 into the room, it would give him an affectionate greeting, 
 in a voice somewhat resembling the cry of a calf, but 
 considerably louder. It walked about, but, owing to its
 
 SEALS. 183 
 
 weakness, soon grew tired, and lay down. Unlike the 
 seals, to which it is closely allied, the walrus has consider- 
 able power with its limbs when out of the water, and can 
 support its bulky body quite clear of the ground. Its 
 mode of progression, however, is awkward when compared 
 with ordinary quadrupeds ; its hind-limbs shuffling along, 
 as if inclosed in a sack. In some future season, when a 
 lively specimen reaches the Gardens, and is accommodated 
 with an extensive tank of water, there is no reason why 
 the walrus should not thrive as well as the seal, or his 
 close, though not kind, neighbour of the North, the Polar 
 bear. 
 
 The walrus, morse, or sea-horse (Trichechus rosmarus, 
 Linn.*), is one of the most characteristic inhabitants of the 
 Arctic regions. There it is widely distributed, and thence 
 it seldom wanders. One or two specimens were killed on 
 the shores of the northern Scottish islands in 1817 and 
 1825 ; but these instances seem hardly to admit of its in- 
 troduction into our fauna, any more than West Indian 
 beans, brought by the currents, are admissible into our 
 flora. It is mentioned by some old Scottish writers t 
 among our native animals, and at one time may have been 
 carried to our coasts on some of the bergs, which are occa- 
 sionally seen in the German Ocean after the periodical 
 disruptions of the Arctic ice. Like the Polar bear, how- 
 ever, the walrus has evidently been formed by its Creator 
 for a life among icy seas, and there it is now found often 
 in large herds. Captain Beechey and other voyagers to 
 
 * Trichechus, from the Greek rpixas ex uv > "having hairs :" walrus, 
 the German wallrosi, " whale-horse." 
 
 f See Fleming's " British Animals," p. 19-
 
 184 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 the seas around Spitzbergen, describe them as being par- 
 ticularly abundant on the western coast of that inclement 
 island. The captain says that in fine weather they resort to 
 large pieces of ice at the edge of the main body, where herds 
 of them may be seen of sometimes more than a hundred 
 individuals each. " In these situations they appear greatly 
 to enjoy themselves, rolling and sporting about, and fre- 
 quently making the air resound with their bellowing, which 
 bears some resemblance to that of a bull. These diversions 
 generally end in sleep, during which these wary animals 
 appear always to take the precaution of having a sentinel 
 to warn them of any danger." The only warning, how- 
 ever, which -the sentinel gives, is by seeking his own safety ; 
 in effecting which, as the herd lie huddled on one another 
 like swine, the motion of one is speedily communicated to 
 the whole, and they instantly tumble, one over the other, 
 into the sea, head-foremost, if possible; but failing that, 
 anyhow. 
 
 Scoresby remarks that the front part of the head of the 
 young walrus, without tusks, when seen at a distance, is 
 not unlike the human face. It has the habit of raising its 
 head above the water to look at ships and other passing 
 objects ; and when seen in such a position, it may have 
 given rise to some of the stories of mermaids. 
 
 There is still a considerable uncertainty as to the food 
 of the walrus. Cook found no traces of aliment in the 
 stomachs of those shot by his party. Crantz says that in 
 Greenland shell-fish and 'sea-weeds seem to be its only 
 subsistence. Scoresby found shrimps, a kind of craw-fish, 
 and the remains of young seals, in the stomachs of those 
 which he examined. Beechey mentions, that in the inside
 
 SEALS. 185 
 
 of several specimens he found numerous granite pebbles 
 larger than walnuts. These may be taken for the same 
 purpose that some birds, especially of the gallinaceous 
 order, swallow bits of gravel. Dr Von Baer concludes, 
 from an analysis of all the published accounts, that the 
 walrus is omnivorous.* A specimen that died at St Peters- 
 burg was fed on oatmeal mixed with turnips or other 
 vegetables ; and the little fellow, who lately died in the 
 Regent's Park, seems to have been fed by the sailors on 
 oatmeal porridge. 
 
 One of the chief characteristics of the walrus is the pre- 
 sence of two elongated tusks (the canine teeth) in the 
 upper jaw. According to Crantz, it uses these to scrape 
 mussels and other shell-fish from the rocks and out of the 
 sand, and also to grapple and get along with, for they 
 enable it to raise itself on the ice. They are also powerful 
 weapons of defence against the Polar bear and its other 
 enemies. 
 
 The walrus attains a great size. Twelve feet is the 
 length of a fine specimen in the British Museum. Beechey's 
 party found some of them fourteen feet in length and nine 
 feet in girth, and of such prodigious weight that they could 
 scarcely turn them over. 
 
 Gratifying accounts are given of the attachment of the 
 female to its young, and the male occasionally assists in 
 their defence when exposed to danger, or at least in re- 
 venging the attack. Lord Nelson, when a lad, was cox- 
 
 * Me"m. Acad. Imp. Sc. St. Pe*tersb., 1838, p. 232. Professor 
 Owen has communicated to the Zoological Society the anatomy of 
 the young walrus ; and much valuable information will be found in 
 Dr Gray's " Catalogue of Mammalia in the British Museum."
 
 186 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 wain to one of the ships of Phipps's expedition to the 
 Arctic seas, and commanded a boat, -which was the means 
 of saving a party belonging to the other ship from immi- 
 nent danger. " Some of the officers had fired at and 
 wounded a walrus. As no other animal," says Southey, 
 " has so human-like an expression in its countenance, so 
 also is there none that seems to possess more of the pas- 
 sions of humanity. The wounded animal dived immedi- 
 ately, and brought up a number of its companions ; and 
 they all joined in an attack upon the boat. They wrested 
 an oar from one of the men ; and it was with the utmost 
 difficulty that the crew could prevent them from staving 
 or upsetting her, till the Carcass's boat (commanded 
 by young Horatio Nelson) came up : and the walruses, 
 finding their enemies thus reinforced, dispersed." And 
 Captain Beechey gives the following pleasing picture of 
 maternal affection which he witnessed in the seas around 
 Spitzbergen : " We were greatly amused by the singular 
 and affectionate conduct of a walrus towards its young. 
 In the vast sheet of ice which surrounded the ships, there 
 were occasionally many pools ; and when the weather was 
 clear and warm, animals of various kinds would frequently 
 rise and sport about in them, or crawl from thence upon 
 the ice to bask in the warmth of the sun. A walrus rose 
 in one of these pools close to the ship, and, finding every- 
 thing quiet, dived down and brought up its young, which 
 it held to its breast by pressing it with its nipper. In this 
 manner it moved about the pool, keeping in an erect posture, 
 and always directing the face of the young towards the 
 vessel. On the slightest movement on board, the mother 
 released her nipper, and pushed the young one under
 
 SEALS. 187 
 
 water ; but, when everything was again quiet, brought it 
 up as before, and for a length of time continued to play 
 about in the pool, to the great amusement of the seamen, 
 who gave her credit for abilities in tuition, which, though 
 possessed of considerable sagacity, she hardly merited." 
 
 The walrus has two great enemies in its icy home the 
 Polar bear and the Esquimaux. Captain Beechey thus 
 graphically describes the manoeuvres of that king of the 
 Bruin race, which must often be attended with success. 
 The bears, when hungry, are always on the watch for 
 animals sleeping upon the ice, and try to come on them 
 unawares, as their prey darts through holes in the ice. 
 " One sunshiny day a walrus, of nine or ten feet length, 
 rose in a pool of water not very far from us ; and after 
 looking around, drew his greasy carcase upon the ice, where 
 he rolled about for a time, and at length laid himself down 
 to sleep. A bear, which had probably been observing his 
 movements, crawled carefully upon the ice on the opposite 
 side of the pool, and began to roll about also, but apparently 
 more with design than amusement, as he progressively 
 lessened the distance that intervened between him and his 
 prey. The walrus, suspicious of his advances, drew him- 
 self up preparatory to a precipitate retreat into the water 
 in case of a nearer acquaintance with his playful but 
 treacherous visitor ; on which the bear was instantly motion- 
 less, as if in the act of sleep; but after a time began to 
 lick his paws, and clean himself, occasionally encroaching 
 a little more upon his intended prey. But even this 
 artifice did not succeed ; the wary walrus was far too 
 cunning to allow himself to be entrapped, and suddenly 
 plunged into the pool ; which the bear no sooner observed
 
 188 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 than he threw off all disguise, rushed towards the spot, and 
 followed him in an instant into the water, where, I fear, 
 he was as much disappointed in his meal, as we were of 
 the pleasure of witnessing a very interesting encounter." 
 
 The meat of the walrus is not despised by Europeans, 
 and its heart is reckoned a delicacy. To the Esquimaux 
 there is no greater treat than a kettle well filled with 
 walrus-blubber ; and to the natives along Behring's Straits 
 this quadruped is as valuable as is the palm to the sons of 
 the desert. Their canoes are covered with its skin ; their 
 weapons and sledge-runners, and many useful articles, are 
 formed from its tusks ; their lamps are filled with its oil ; 
 and they themselves are fed with its fat and its fibre. So 
 thick is the skin, that a bayonet is almost the only weapon 
 which can pierce it. Cut into shreds, it makes excellent 
 cordage, being especially adapted for wheel-ropes. The 
 tusks bear a high commercial value, and are extensively 
 employed by dentists in the manufacture of artificial teeth. 
 The fat of a good-sized specimen yields thirty gallons of 
 oil. A. White, from "Excelsior" 
 
 KANGAROOS. 
 
 WHAT dissertation on the strange outward form, or stranger 
 mode of reproduction to which this famed member of the 
 Marsupialia belongs, could contain as much in little space 
 as Charles Lamb's happy description in his letter to Baron 
 Field, his "distant correspondent" in New South Wales? 
 When that was written, and for long after, it may be
 
 KANGAROOS. 189 
 
 necessary to tell some, Australia was chiefly known as the 
 land of the convict. 
 
 " Tell me," writes Elia, " what your Sidneyites do ? 
 Are they th-v-ng all day long ? Merciful heaven ! what 
 property can stand against such a depredation ? The 
 kangaroos your aborigines do they keep their primitive 
 simplicity un-Europe-tainted, with those little short fore- 
 puds, looking like a lesson framed by nature to the pick- 
 pocket ! Marry, for diving into fobs they are rather 
 lamely provided a priori ; but if the hue and cry were 
 once up, they would show as fair a pair of hind-shifters as 
 the expertest locomotor in the colony." * 
 
 In one of his letters to another of his favoured corre- 
 spondents he alludes to his friend Field having gone to a 
 country where there are so many thieves that even the 
 kangaroos have to wear their pockets in front, lest they 
 be picked ! 
 
 KANGAROO COOKE. 
 
 Major-General Henry Frederick Cooke, C.B. and 
 K.C.H., commonly called Kang-Cooke, was a captain in 
 the Coldstream Guards, and aide-de-camp to the Duke of 
 York. He was called the kangaroo by his intimate asso- 
 ciates. It is said that this arose from his once having let 
 loose a cageful of these animals at Pidcock's Menagerie, 
 or from his answer to the Duke of York, who, inquiring 
 how he fared in the Peninsula, replied that he " could get 
 nothing to eat but kangaroo."f Moore, in his Diary,J 
 
 * " Distant Correspondents," in the Essays of Elia, first series 
 ed. 1841, p. 67. 
 
 t Jesse's " Life of Beau Brummell," vol. i. p. 288. 
 
 I "Memoirs, Correspondence," &c , edited by Lord John 
 Russell, vol. iii. p. 179.
 
 190 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 December 13, 1820, records that he dined with him and 
 others at Lord Granard's. Cooke told of Admiral Cotton 
 once (at Lisbon, I think) saying during dinner, " Make 
 signals for the Kangaroo to get under way ;" and Cooke, 
 who had just been expressing his anxiety to leave Lisbon, 
 thought the speech alluded to his nickname, and consi- 
 dered it an extraordinary liberty for one who knew so little 
 of him as Admiral Cotton to take. He found out after- 
 wards, however, that his namesake was a sloop-of-war. 
 
 THE TIGER-WOLF. 
 
 (Thylacinus cynocephalus.) 
 
 THE great order, or rather division, of mammalia, the 
 Afarsupialia* is furnished with a pouch, into which the 
 young are received and nourished at a very early period 
 of their existence. The first species of the group, known 
 to voyagers and naturalists, was the celebrated opossum 
 of North America, whose instinctive care to defend itself 
 from danger causes it to feign the appearance of .death. 
 As the great continent of Australia became known, it was 
 found that the great mass of its mammalia, from the 
 gigantic kangaroo to the pigmy, mouse-like potoroo, be- 
 longed to this singular order. The order contains a most 
 anomalous set of animals, some being exclusively car- 
 nivorous, some chiefly subsisting on insects, while others 
 browse on grass ; and many live on fruits and leaves, 
 which they climb trees to procure ; a smaller portion sub- 
 * So called from the Latin word marsupium, a pouch.
 
 THE TIGER-WOLF. 191 
 
 sisting on roots, for which they burrow in the ground. 
 The gentle and deer-faced kangaroo belongs to this order ; 
 the curious bandicoots, the tree-frequenting phalangers 
 and petauri, the savage " native devil,"* and the voracious 
 subject of this notice. 
 
 The " tiger-wolf " is a native of Van Diemen's Land, 
 and is strictly confined to that island. It was first described 
 in the ninth volume of the " Linnean Transactions," under 
 the name of Didelphis cynocephalus, or dog-headed opos- 
 sum," the English name being an exact translation of its 
 Latin one. Its non-prehensile tail, peculiar feet, and 
 different arrangement of teeth, pointed out to naturalists 
 that it entered into a genus distinct from the American 
 opossums; and to this genus the name of Thylacinus^ 
 has been applied; its specific name cynocephalus being 
 still retained in conformity with zoological nomenclature, 
 although M. Temminck, the founder of the genus, hon- 
 oured the species with the name of its first describer, and 
 called it Tliylacinus Harrisii. 
 
 Mr Gould has given a short account of this quadruped 
 in his great work, " The Mammals of Australia," accom- 
 panied with two plates, one showing the head of the male, 
 of the natural size, in such a point of view as to exhibit 
 the applicability of one of the names applied to it by the 
 colonists, that of " zebra-wolf." He justly remarks that 
 it must be regarded as by far the most formidable of all 
 the marsupial animals, as it certainly is the most savage 
 
 * Didbolus ursinus, the ursine opossum of Van Diemen's Land, 
 a great destroyer of young lambs. 
 
 t From the Greek words for a pouch and a dog, 0i/Xa/cos and 
 jciW. Dr Gray had previously named it Peracyon, from 
 bag, and KVWV, a dog.
 
 192 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 indigenous quadruped belonging to the Australian con- 
 tinent. Although it is too feeble to make a successful 
 attack on man, it commits great havoc among the smaller 
 quadrupeds of the country ; and to the settler it is a great 
 object of dread, as his poultry and other domestic animals 
 are never safe from its attacks. His sheep are, especially, 
 an object of the colonist's anxious care, as he can house 
 his poultry, and thus secure them from the prowler ; but 
 his flocks, wandering about over the country, are liable to 
 be attacked at night by the tiger-wolf, whose habits are 
 strictly nocturnal. Mr Gunn has seen some so large and 
 powerful that a number of dogs would not face one of 
 them. It has become an object with the settler to destroy 
 every specimen he can fall in with, so that it is much 
 rarer than it was at the time Mr Harris, its first describer, 
 wrote its history, at least in the cultivated districts. 
 Much, however, of Van Diemen's Land is still in a state 
 of nature, and as large tracts of forest-land remain yet 
 uncleared, there is abundance of covert for it still in the 
 more remote parts of the colony, and it is even now often 
 seen at Woolnoth and among the Hampshire hills. In 
 such places it feeds on the smaller species of kangaroos 
 and other marsupials, bandicoots, and kangaroo-rats, 
 while even the prickle-covered echidna a much more 
 formidable mouthful than any hedgehog supplies the 
 tiger- wolf with a portion of its sustenance. The specimen 
 described by Mr Harris was caught in a trap baited with 
 the flesh of the kangaroo. When opened, the remains of 
 a half-digested echidna* were found in its stomach. 
 
 * Echidna aculeata, or E. hystrix, the porcupine ant-eater, a 
 curious edentate, spine-covered quadruped, closely allied to the still 
 stranger Omithorhynchus. the duck-bill.
 
 THE TIGER-WOLF. 193 
 
 The tiger-wolf has a certain amount of daintiness in its 
 appetite when in a state of nature. From the observations 
 of Mr Gunn it would seem that nothing will induce it to 
 prey on the wombat,* a fat, sluggish, marsupial quadruped, 
 abundant in the districts which it frequents, and whose 
 flesh would seem to be very edible, seeing that it lives on 
 fruits and roots. No sooner, however, was the sheep in- 
 troduced than the tiger-wolf began to attack the flocks, 
 and has ever since shown a most unmistakable appetite 
 for mutton, preferring the flesh of that most useful and 
 easily -mastered quadruped to that of any kangaroo how- 
 ever venison-like, or bandicoot however savoury. The 
 colonists of Van Diemen's land have applied various names 
 to this animal, according as its resemblance to other fero- 
 cious quadrupeds of different climates struck their fancy. 
 The names of " tiger," "hyena," and "zebra-wolf," are partly 
 acquired from its ferocity, somewhat corresponding with 
 that of these well-known carnivorous denizens of other 
 lands, and partly from the black bands which commence 
 behind the shoulders, and which extend in length on the 
 haunches, and resemble in some faint measure those on 
 the barred tyrant of the Indian jungles, and the other 
 somewhat similarly ornamented mammalia implied in the 
 names. These bars are well relieved by the general gray- 
 ish-brown colour of the fur, which is somewhat woolly in 
 its texture, from each of the hairs of which it is composed 
 being waved. 
 
 * Phascolomys Vombatus, a curious, broad- backed, and large- 
 Leaded marsupial, two specimens of which are in the Zoological 
 Gardens. It is a burrower, and in the teeth it resembles the rodent 
 animals; hence its name, from <f>d<rKu\ov. a pouch, and /iOs, a mouse. 
 
 N
 
 194 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 The specimens in the Zoological Gardens are very shy 
 and restless ; when alarmed they dash and leap about 
 their dens and utter a short guttural cry somewhat resem- 
 bling a bark. This shyness is partly to be attributed to 
 their imperfect vision by day, and partly to their resem- 
 blance in character to the wolf, whose treachery and sus- 
 picious manners in confinement must have struck every 
 one who has gazed on this " gaunt savage '' in his den in 
 the Regent's Park. The specimens exhibited are the first 
 living members of the species first brought to Europe. 
 The male was taken in November 1849, and the female at 
 an earlier period in the same year, on the upper part of St 
 Patrick's River, about thirtymiles north-east of Launceston. 
 After being gradually accustomed to confinement by Mr 
 Gunn, they were shipped for this country, and reached the 
 Gardens in the spring of 1850. It is very seldom, indeed, 
 that they are caught alive ; and when so caught they are 
 generally at once killed, so that it was with some difficulty 
 and by offering a considerable pecuniary inducement to 
 the shepherds, that they were at last secured for the 
 Zoological Society.* In their den they show great acti- 
 vity, and can bound upwards nearly to the roof of the 
 place where they are confined. A. White, from "Excel- 
 sior." 
 
 SQUIRREL : ARCTIC LEMMING. 
 
 THE one with its long plume-like tail, organised for a 
 life among trees, the other with its home in the arctic 
 
 * Mitchell's " Popular Guide to the Zoological Gardens," p. 9. 
 (1852.)
 
 SQUIRREL. 195 
 
 regions, belong to an order not generally distinguished 
 for intelligence, although the beaver, once reputed a mir- 
 acle of mind, belongs to it. The glirine or rodent animals 
 are generally of small or moderate size, though some, like 
 the water -loving capybara, are of considerable dimen- 
 sions. 
 
 The squirrel is a fine subject for a painter. There is a 
 picture by Sir Edwin Landseer, of a squirrel and bull- 
 finch. On an engraving of it, published in 1865, is in- 
 scribed " a pair of nut-crackers," a happy title, and very 
 apposite. 
 
 Jekyll saw in Colman's chambers a squirrel in the usual 
 round cage. " Ah ! poor devil," said Jekyll, " he 's going 
 the home circuit" * 
 
 If you come upon a squirrel on the ground, he is not 
 long in getting to the topmost branch of the highest tree, 
 so perfectly is he adapted for " rising " at a " bar " ! 
 
 PETS OF SOME OF THE KEVOLUTIONARY BUTCHERS. 
 A SQUIRREL. 
 
 SirEdwardBulwerLytton,Bart.,in his novel, "Zanoni,"t 
 pictures Citizen Couthon fondling a little spaniel " that he 
 invariably carried in his bosom, even to the Convention, as 
 a vent for the exuberant sensibilities which overflowed his 
 affectionate heart." 
 
 In a note the novelist remarks 
 
 " This tenderness for some pet animal was by no means 
 peculiar to Couthon ; it seems rather a common fashion 
 
 * Mark Lemon's " Jest Book," p. 180. f Ed. 1845, p. 339.
 
 196 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 with, the gentle butchers of the Revolution. M. George 
 Duval informs us (' Souvenirs de la Terreur,' iii. p. 183), 
 that Chaumette had an aviary, to which he devoted his 
 harmless leisure ; the murderous Fournier carried, on his 
 shoulders, a pretty little squirrel attached by a silver chain ; 
 Panis bestowed the superfluity of his affections upon two 
 gold pheasants ; and Marat, who would not abate one of 
 the three hundred thousand heads he demanded, reared 
 doves ! Apropos of the spaniel of Couthon, Duval gives 
 us a characteristic anecdote of Sergent, not one of the least 
 relentless agents of the massacre of September. A lady 
 came to implore his protection for one of her relations con- 
 fined in the Abbaye. He scarcely deigned to speak to her. 
 As she retired in despair, she trod by accident on the paw of 
 his favourite spaniel. Sergent, turning round, enraged and 
 furious, exclaimed, ' Madam, Jiave you no humanity ? ' '' 
 
 ARCTIC VOYAGER AND THE LEMMING. 
 
 Captain Back, on his arctic land expedition, when 
 returning in September 1835, encountered a severe gale, 
 which forced them to land their boat, and as the water 
 rose they had three times to haul it higher on the bank. 
 He introduces an affecting little incident : " So completely 
 cold and drenched was everything outside, that a poor little 
 lemming, unable to contend with the floods, which had 
 driven it successively from all its retreats, crept silently 
 under the tent, and snuggled away in precarious security 
 within a few paces of a sleeping terrier. Unconscious of 
 its danger, it licked its fur coat, and darted its bright eyes 
 from object to object, as if pleased and surprised with its
 
 SQUIRREL. 197 
 
 new quarters ; but soon the pricked ears of the awakened 
 clog announced its fate, and in another instant the poor 
 little stranger was quivering in his jaws !" * 
 
 Mr M'Dougallt records several amusing anecdotes of 
 the little arctic lemming, named Arctomys Spermophilus 
 Parryi, after the great arctic voyager. He says, " My 
 own experience of those industrious little warriors tended 
 to prove that they possessed a strange combination of 
 sociality and combativeness. Industrious they most cer- 
 tainly are, as is shown by the complicated excavation of 
 their subterranean cities ; besides which, every feather and 
 hair of bird and animal found in the vicinity of their 
 dwellings, is made to contribute its iota of warmth and 
 comfort to the interior of their winter quarters. 
 
 " I had," continues the master of the Resolute, " many 
 opportunities of watching their movements during my de- 
 tention at Winter Harbour. My tent happened to be 
 pitched immediately over one of their large towns, causing 
 its inhabitants to issue forth from its thousand gates to 
 catch a view of the strangers. Frequently on waking 
 we have found the little animals, rolled up in a ball, 
 snugly ensconced within the folds of our blanket-bags ; 
 nor would they be expelled from such a warm and desir- 
 able position without showing fight. On several occasions 
 I observed Naps, the dog, fast asleep with one or two lem- 
 mings huddled away between its legs, like so many pups." 
 
 * P. 441. Sir John Richardson told me that the species was 
 Spermophilus Parryi. 
 
 f- "The Eventful Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ship Resolute to the 
 Arctic Regions, in Search of Sir John Franklin, in 1852-3-4, pp. 
 314, 315.
 
 198 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 He says that Lieutenant Mecham noticed an Esquimaux 
 dog, named Buffer, trudging along, nose to the ground, 
 quite unconscious of danger, when a lemming, suddenly 
 starting from its cavern, seized poor Buffer by the nose, 
 inflicting a severe wound. The dog, astounded at such an 
 unsuspected assault, gave a dismal howl, and at length 
 shook the enemy off, after which he became the attacking 
 party, and in less than a minute the presumptuous assailant 
 disappeared between the jaws of the Tartar he had attempted 
 to catch. 
 
 EATS AND MICE. 
 
 WHY should we not, like Grainger, begin this section as 
 the writer of "The Sugar-Cane" does one of his para- 
 graphs 
 
 " Come muse ! let 's sing of rats." 
 
 The " restless rottens " and mice need little introduction. 
 They are a most fertile race, and some species of them 
 seem only to be in human habitations. They are terrible 
 nuisances, and yet rat-skins are said to be manufactured in 
 Paris into gloves. 
 
 Sydney Smith's comparison of some one dying like a 
 poisoned rat in a ditch is a powerful one. The same 
 writer, in hunting down an unworthy man, with his cut- 
 ting criticism, says, that he did it not on account of his 
 power, but to put down what might prove noisome if not 
 settled, much as a Dutch burgomaster might hunt a rat, 
 not for its value, but because by its boring it might cause
 
 EATS AND MICE. 199 
 
 the water to break through his dikes, and thus flood hia 
 native land. 
 
 Robert Browning, in one of his poems, " The Pied Piper 
 of Hamelin," has powerfully described an incursion of rats. 
 A few lines may be quoted : 
 
 " Almost five hundred years ago, 
 To see the townsfolk suffer so 
 From vermin, was a pity. 
 "Rats! 
 They fought the dogs and killed the cats, 
 
 And bit the babies in their cradles, 
 And ate the cheeses out of the vats, 
 
 And licked the soup from the cook's own ladles, 
 Split open the kegs of salted sprats, 
 Made nests inside men's Sunday hats, 
 And even spoiled the women's chats, 
 By drowning their speaking 
 With shrieking and squeaking 
 In fifty different sharps and flats. 
 
 * # * * * 
 
 " And ere three shrill notes the pipes had uttered, 
 You heard as if an army muttered ; 
 And the muttering grew to a grumbling ; 
 And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling ; 
 And out of the houses the rats came tumbling 
 Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats, 
 Brown rats, black rats, grey rats, tawny rats ; 
 Grave old plodders, gay young friskers, 
 
 Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins, 
 Cocking tails, and pricking whiskers, 
 
 Families by tens and dozens, 
 Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives 
 Followed the Piper for their lives. 
 From street to street he piped, advancing, 
 And step for step they followed dancing, 
 Until they came to the river Weser 
 Wherein all plunged and perished, 
 Save one."
 
 200 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 THE DUKE OP WELLINGTON AND THE MUSK-RAT. 
 
 Mr Taylor, in his notes to the artist Haydon's Auto- 
 biography, tells us that a favourite expression of the Duke 
 of Wellington, when people tried to coax him to do what 
 he had resolved not to do, was, " The rat has got into the 
 bottle." This not very intelligible expression may refer to 
 an anecdote I have heard of the Duke's once telling, in his 
 later days, how the musk-rats in India got into bottles, 
 which ever after retained the odour of musk. " Either the 
 rats must be very small," said a lady who heard him, " or 
 the bottles very large." " On the contrary, madam," was 
 the Duke's reply, " very small bottles and very large rats." 
 "That is the style of logic we have to deal with at the 
 Horse Guards," whispered Lord . 
 
 LADY EGLINTOUN AND THE EATS. 
 
 Mr Eobert Chambers, in his " Traditions of Edinburgh" 
 (p. 191), gives an interesting account of the elegant 
 Susanna, Countess of Eglintoun, who was in her eighty- 
 fifth year when Johnson and Boswell visited her. She 
 died in 1780, at the age of ninety-one, having preserved to 
 the last her stately mien and fine complexion. She is said 
 to have washed her face periodically with sow's milk. 
 
 " This venerable woman amused herself latterly in tam- 
 ing and patronising rats. She kept a vast number of these 
 animals in her pay at Auchans, and they succeeded in her 
 affections the poets and artists she had loved in early life. 
 It does not reflect much credit upon the latter, that her 
 ladyship used to complain of never having met with true
 
 EATS AND MICE. 201 
 
 gratitude except from four-footed animals. She had a 
 panel in the oak wainscot of her dining-room, which she 
 tapped upon and opened at meal times, when ten or twelve 
 jolly rats came tripping forth, and joined her at table. At 
 the word of command or a signal from her ladyship, they 
 retired again to their native obscurity a trait of good 
 sense in the character and habits of the animals which, it 
 is hardly necessary to remark, patrons do not always find 
 in two-legged protfyes." 
 
 GENERAL DOUGLAS AND THE EATS. 
 
 The biographer of this highly-distinguished military 
 engineer-officer relates an anecdote of him when a lieu- 
 tenant at Tynemouth. The future author of well-known 
 works on Gunnery and Military Bridges, early began 
 to show ability in mechanics. " Lieutenant Douglas 
 occupied a room barely habitable, and had to contest the 
 tenancy with rats, which asserted their claim with such 
 tenacity, that he went to sleep at the risk of being de- 
 voured. Their incursions compelled him to furnish him- 
 self with loaded pistols and a tinder-box, and he kept watch 
 one night, remaining quiet till there was an irruption, when 
 he started up and struck a light. But his vigilance proved 
 of no avail, for the clink of the flint and steel caused a 
 stampede, and not a rat remained by the time he had 
 kindled the tinder. Their flight suggested to him another 
 device. He looked out all the holes, and covered them 
 with slides, connected with each other by wires, and these 
 he fastened to a string, which enabled him to draw them 
 all with one pull, and thus close the outlets. The con-
 
 202 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 trivance claims to be mentioned as his first success in 
 mechanics, foreshadowing his future expertness. It came 
 into use the same night : he pulled the string without 
 rising from bed, then struck a light, while the rats flew off 
 to the holes to find them blocked, and he shot them at 
 leisure. Two or three such massacres cleared off the 
 intruders, and left him undisturbed in his quarters." * 
 
 HANOVEK RATS. 
 
 How amusingly does Mr Waterton show his attachment 
 to the extinct Stuarts in his essays. Go where he may, 
 " a Hanover rat " pops up before him. In his charming 
 autobiography appended to the three series of his graphic 
 essays, whether he be in Rome or Cologne, in York or 
 London, at a farm-house, or on board a steamer on the 
 Rhine, " a Hanover rat " is sure to be encountered. We 
 could cite many amusing illustrations. 
 
 Earl Stanhope t speaks of the Jacobites after the death 
 of Anne reviling all adherents of the court as "a parcel of 
 Roundheads and Hanover rats." This is the phrase used 
 by Squire Western in Fielding's novel of " Tom Jones." 
 He tells us that the former of these titles was the by-word 
 first applied to the Calvinistic preachers in the civil wars, 
 from the close cropped hair which they affected as distin- 
 guished from the flowing curls of the cavaliers. The 
 
 * " The Life of General Sir Howard Douglas, Bart., G.C.B., 
 F.R.S., D.C.L., from his Notes, Conversations, and Correspond- 
 ence," by S. W. Fullom. 1863. P. 28. 
 
 f " History of England, from the Peace of Utredit," by Lord 
 Mahon, vol. vii. p. 465.
 
 EATS AND MICE. 203 
 
 second phrase was of far more recent orgin. It so chanced 
 that not long after the accession of the House of Hanover, 
 some of the brown, that is, the German or Norway rats, 
 were first brought over to this country in some timber, as 
 is said ; and being much stronger than the black, or till 
 then, the common rats, they in many places quite ex- 
 tirpated the latter. The word, both the noun and the 
 verb "to rat," was first levelled at the converts to the 
 government of George the First, but has by degrees ob- 
 tained a wider meaning, and come to be applied to any 
 sudden and mercenary change in politics. The ravages 
 of rats might form the subject of a curious volume. 
 They are not at all literary in their tastes, though they are 
 known to eat through bales of books, should they be 
 placed in the way of their runs. The booksellers in the 
 Row always leave room between the wall and the books in 
 their cellars, t& allow room for this predacious vermin. 
 
 Mr Cole, when examined before the Committee of the 
 House on the condition of the depositories of the Records 
 some time ago, stated that " six or seven perfect skeletons 
 of rats were found imbedded (in the Rolls); bones of 
 these vermin were generally distributed throughout the 
 mass, and a dog was employed in hunting the live ones." 
 
 IRISHMAN EMPLOYED SHOOTING EATS. 
 
 Luttrell visited Sydney Smith at his parsonage in 
 Somersetshire. The London wit told some amusing Irish 
 stories, and his manner of telling them was so good. 
 "One: 'Is your master at home, Paddy?' ' N~o, your 
 honour.' ' Why, I saw him go in five minutes ago.'
 
 204 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 4 Faith, your honour, he's not exactly at home; he 's only 
 there in the back yard a-shooting rats with cannon, your 
 honour, for his devarsion.' " * 
 
 JAMES WATT AND THE RAT'S WHISKERS. 
 
 Mrs Schimmelpenninck in her youth lived at Birming- 
 ham, where she often met James Watt. In her auto- 
 biography (p. 34), she says, " Everybody practically 
 knew the infinite variety of his talents and stores of know- 
 ledge. When Mr Watt entered a room, men of letters, 
 men of science, nay, military men, artists, ladies, even 
 little children thronged round him. I remember a cele- 
 brated Swedish artist having been instructed by him that 
 rats' whiskers made the most pliant and elastic painting- 
 brush ; ladies would appeal to him on the best means of de- 
 vising grates, curing smoky chimneys, warming their houses, 
 and obtaining fast colours. I can speak from experience 
 of his teaching me how to make a dulcimer, and improve a 
 Jew's harp." 
 
 THE POET GRAY COMPARES THE POET-LAUREATE TO A 
 RATCATCHER. 
 
 The poet Gray very much despised such offices as that 
 of the poet-laureate, or that held by Elkanah Settle, the 
 last of the city poets whose name is held up to ridicule by 
 Pope in the " Dunciad." In a letter to the Rev. Wm. 
 Mason, f he puts this very strikingly : 
 
 * Life of Sydney Smith, by his daughter, Lady Holland, vol. i. 
 374. 
 
 t " Correspondence of Thomas Gray and Mason, edited from the 
 originals," by the Rev. John Mitford, p. 112.
 
 EATS AND MICE. 205 
 
 " Though I very well know the bland emolient sapona- 
 ceous qualities both of sack and silver, yet if any great 
 man would say to me, 'I make you ratcatcher to his 
 Majesty, with a salary of 300 a year, and two butts of 
 the best Malaga ; and though it has been usual to catch a 
 mouse or two, for form's sake, in public once a year, yet 
 to you, sir, we shall not stand upon these things,' I cannot 
 say I should jump at it ; nay, if they would drop the very 
 name of the office, and call me Sinecure to the King's 
 Majesty, I should still feel a little awkward, and think 
 everybody I saw smelt a rat about me : but I do not pre- 
 tend to blame any one else that has not the same sensa- 
 tions. For my part, I would rather be serjeant-trumpeter 
 or pinmaker to the palace." 
 
 JEREMY BENTHAM AND THE MICE. 
 
 The biographer of Jeremy Bentham * tells us that 
 among the animals he was fond of were mice. They were 
 encouraged "to play" about in his workshop. I remember, 
 when one got among his papers, that he exclaimed, " Ho ! 
 ho ! here 's a mouse at work ; why won't he come into my 
 lap ? but then I ought to be writing legislation, and that 
 would not do." 
 
 One day, while we were at dinner, mice had got, as they 
 frequently did, into the drawers of the dinner-table, and 
 were making no small noise. " O you rascals," exclaimed 
 Bentham, " there 's an uproar among you. I '11 tell puss 
 of you ; " and then added, " I became once very intimate 
 
 * Dr Bowling's "Life of Jeremy Bentham," Works, vol. xi. p. 
 80, 81.
 
 206 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 with a colony of mice. They used to run up my legs, and 
 eat crumbs from my lap. I love everything that has four 
 legs ; so did George Wilson. We were fond of mice, and 
 fond of cats ; but it was difficult to reconcile the two 
 affections." 
 
 Jeremy Bentham records : " George Wilson had a dis- 
 order which kept him two months to his couch. The 
 mouses used to run up his back and eat the powder and 
 pomatum from his hair. They used also to run up my 
 knees when I went to see him. I remember they did so 
 to Lord Glenbervie, who thought it odd." * 
 
 BURNS AND THE FIELD MOUSE. 
 
 The history of the origin of this well-known piece of the 
 Scottish poet is thus given by Mr Chambers in that 
 edition of the Life and Works of Robert Burns, t which 
 will ever be regarded, by Scotchmen at least, as the most 
 complete and carefully-edited of the numerous editions of 
 that most popular poet. 
 
 "We have the testimony of Gilbert Burns that this 
 beautiful poem was composed while the author was follow- 
 ing the plough. Burns ploughed with four horses, being 
 twice the amount of power now required on most of the 
 soils of Scotland. He required an assistant, called a 
 gaudsman, to drive the horses, his own duty being to hold 
 and guide the plough. John Blane, who had acted as 
 gaudsman to Burns, and who lived sixty years afterwards, 
 had a distinct recollection of the turning-up of the mouse. 
 
 * "Bowring's Life," vol. x., Works, p. 186. 
 
 t By Kobert Chambers, Edinburgh, 1851, 4 vols., vol. i., p. 146.
 
 BATS AND MICE. 207 
 
 Like a thoughtless youth as he was, he ran after the crea- 
 ture to kill it, but was checked and recalled by his master, 
 who, he observed, became thereafter thoughtful and ab- 
 stracted. Bums, who treated his servants with the 
 familiarity of fellow-labourers, soon after read the poem to 
 Blane. 
 
 TO A MOUSE, 
 
 ON TTJRKING UP HER NEST WITH THE PLOUGH, NOVEMBER 1785. 
 " "Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie, 
 Oh, what a panic 's in thy breastie ! 
 Thou needna start awa sae hasty 
 Wi' bickering brattle ! 
 I wad be laith to rin and chase thee 
 Wi' murd'ring pattle.* 
 
 " I 'm truly sorry man's dominion 
 Has broken nature's social union, 
 And justifies that ill opinion, 
 
 Which makes thee startle 
 At me, thy poor earth-born companion, 
 
 And fellow-mortal ! 
 
 " I doubt na whyles, but thou may thieve ; 
 What then ? poor beastie, thou maun live ! 
 A daimen icker in a thrave^ 
 
 'S a sma" request : 
 I '11 get a blessin' wi' the laive, 
 
 And never miss 't. 
 " Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin ! 
 Its silly wa's the win's are strewin' ! 
 And naething now to big a new ane 
 
 0, foggage green, 
 And bleak December's winds ensuin' 
 
 Baith snell and keen ! 
 
 * The stick used for clearing away the clods from the plough, 
 t An occasional ear of com in a thrave, that is, twenty -four 
 heaves.
 
 208 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 " Thou saw the fields laid bare and waste, 
 And weary winter coming fast, 
 And cozie here, beneath the blast, 
 
 Thou thought to dwell, 
 Till crash ! the cruel coulter passed 
 
 Out through thy cell. 
 
 " That wee bit heap o 1 leaves and stibble, 
 Has cost thee mony a weary nibble ! 
 Now thou 's turned out for a' thy trouble, 
 
 But house or hald, 
 To thole the winter's sleety dribble, 
 
 And cranreuch cauld ! 
 
 " But, mousie, thou art no thy lane ; 
 Improving foresight may be vain ; 
 The best-laid schemes o' mice and meu 
 
 Gang aft a-gley, 
 And lea'e us nought but grief and pain 
 
 For promised joy. 
 
 " Still thou art blest, compared wi' me ! 
 The present only toucheth thee ; 
 But, och ! I backward cast my e'e, 
 
 On prospects drear ! 
 And forward, though I canna see, 
 
 I guess and fear." 
 
 It was on the farm of Mossgiel, in the parish of Mauch- 
 line, where he resided nearly nine years, that the occur- 
 rence took place so pathetically recorded and gloriously 
 commented on in this piece. 
 
 DESTRUCTIVE FIELD MICE. 
 
 Thomas Fuller, in " The Farewell " to his description of 
 the " Worthies of Essex," says, " I wish the sad casualties 
 may never return which lately have happened in this
 
 EATS AND MICE. 209 
 
 county; the one, 1581, in the Hundred of Dengy, the 
 other, 1648, in the Hundred of Rochford and Isle of Foul- 
 ness (rented in part by two of my credible parishioners, 
 who attested it, having paid dear for the truth thereof) ; 
 when an army of mice, nesting in ant-hills, as conies in 
 burrows, shaved off the grass at the bare roots, which, 
 withering to dung, was infectious to cattle. The March 
 following, numberless flocks of owls from all parts flew 
 thither, and destroyed them, which otherwise had ruined 
 the country, if continuing another year. Thus, though 
 great the distance betwixt a man and a mouse, the meanest 
 may become formidable to the mightiest creature by their 
 multitudes ; and this may render the punishment of the 
 Philistines more clearly to our apprehensions, at the same 
 time pestered with mice in their barns and pained with 
 emerods in their bodies." ' 
 
 THE BARON VON TRENCK AND THE TAME MOUSE IN PRISON. 
 
 The unfortunate Baron Von Trenck was a Prussian 
 officer, whose adventures, imprisonments, and escape form 
 the subject of memoirs which he wrote in Hungary. He 
 at last settled in France, and there, in 1794, perished by 
 the guillotine. 
 
 Before he obtained his liberty, he lost a companion which 
 had for two years helped to beguile the solitude of his 
 captivity. This was a mouse, which he had tamed so per- 
 fectly, that the little creature was continually playing with 
 him, and would eat out of his mouth. " One night it 
 skipped about so much that the sentinels heard a noise 
 
 * " Worthies of England," vol. i. p. 545. 
 

 
 210 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 and reported it to the officer of the guard. As the garri- 
 son had been changed at the peace (between Austria and 
 Prussia), and as Trenck had not been able to form at once 
 so close a connexion with the officers of the regular tr;:cps 
 as he had done with those of the militia, one of the former, 
 after ascertaining the truth of the report with his own ears, 
 sent to inform the commandant that something extraor- 
 dinary was going on in the prison. The town-major 
 arrived in consequence early in the morning, accompanied 
 by locksmiths and masons. The floor, the walls, the 
 baron's chains, his body, everything in short, were strictly 
 examined. Finding all in order, they asked the cause of 
 the last evening's bustle. Trenck had heard the mouse, 
 and told them frankly by what it had been occasioned. 
 They desired him U- call his little favourite ; he whistled, 
 and the mouse immediately leaped upon his shoulder. 
 He solicited that its life might be spared ; but the officer 
 of the guard took it into his possession, promising, how- 
 ever, on his word of honour, to give it to a lady who would 
 take great care of it. Turning it afterwards loose in his 
 chamber, the mouse, who knew nobody but Trenck, soon 
 disappeared, and hid himself in a hole. At the usual 
 hour of visiting his prison, when the officers were just 
 going away, the poor little animal darted in, climbed up 
 his legs, seated itself on his shoulder, and played a thou- 
 sand tricks to express the joy it felt on seeing him again. 
 Every one was astonished, and wished to have it. The 
 major, to terminate the dispute, carried it away, gave it to 
 his wife, who had a light cage made for it ; but the mouse 
 refused to eat, and a few days after was found dead." * 
 * "Wilson's Life, "p. 28.
 
 RATS AND MICE. , 211 
 
 ALEXANDER WILSON AND THE MOUSE. 
 
 About the time when Alexander Wilson formed the 
 design of drawing the American birds, and writing those 
 descriptions which, when published, gave him that name 
 which has clung to him, "the American Ornithologist," he 
 had a school within a few miles of Philadelphia. He was 
 then a keen student of the animal life around him. In 
 1802 he wrote to his friend Bertram, and tells him of his 
 having had "live crows, hawks, and owls ; opossums, squir- 
 rels, snakes, lizards," &c. He tells him that his room 
 sometimes reminded him of Noah's ark, and comically 
 adds, "but Noah had a wife in one corner of it, and in 
 this particular our parallel does not altogether tally. I 
 receive every subject of natural history that is brought to 
 me ; and, though they do not march into my ark from all 
 quarters, as they did into that of our great ancestor, yet I 
 find means, by the distribution of a few fivepenny bits, 
 to make them find the way fast enough. A boy, not 
 long ago, brought me a large basketful of crows. I expect 
 his next load will be bull-frogs, if I don't soon issue orders 
 to the contrary. One of my boys caught a mouse in school 
 a few days ago, and directly marched up to me with his 
 prisoner. I set about drawing it the same evening, and 
 all the while the pantings of its little heart showed it to be 
 in the most extreme agonies of fear. I had intended to 
 kill it, in order to fix it in the claws of a stuffed owl ; but, 
 happening to spill a few drops of water near where it was 
 tied, it lapped it up with such eagerness, and looked in 
 my face with such an eye of supplicating terror, as per- 
 fectly overcame me. I immediately restored it to life and
 
 212 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 liberty. The agonies of a prisoner at the stake, while the 
 fire and instruments of torture are preparing, could not be 
 more severe than the sufferings of that poor mouse ; and, 
 insignificant as the object was, I felt at that moment the 
 sweet sensation that mercy leaves in the mind when she 
 triumphs over cruelty." * 
 
 HARES, RABBITS, GUINEA-PIG. 
 
 ALL gnawing creatures, belonging to the Glirine or Roden- 
 tia order. Charles Lamb has written on the hare, in one 
 view of that finely-flavoured beast, as only Elia could 
 write. But the poet Cowper has made the hare's history 
 peculiarly pleasing and familiar. How often in his letters 
 he alludes to his hares ! Mrs E. B. Browning, in her 
 exquisitely delicate and pathetic poem, " Cowper's Grave," 
 thus alludes to Cowper's pets 
 
 "Wild, timid hares were drawn from woods to share his home 
 caresses, 
 
 Uplooking to his human eyes with sylvan tendernesses ; 
 
 The very world, by God's constraint, from falsehood's ways re- 
 moving, 
 
 Its women and its men became, beside him, true and loving." 
 
 Not many years ago the compiler saw traces of the holes 
 the poet had cut in the skirting-boards of the room for 
 their ingress and egress, that they might have ampler 
 room for wandering. His epitaphs on two of them are 
 often quoted. Rabbits are peculiarly the pets of boys, 
 
 * "Memoir of Wilson," p. 27, prefixed to his poetical works. 
 Belfast, 1844.
 
 HARES, RABBITS, GUINEA-PIG. 213 
 
 and though, when wild, often great vermin, from their 
 destructive habits and their mining operations, are yet 
 said to contribute much to the revenue of one European 
 monarch. 
 
 How Mr Malthus ought to have hated guinea-pigs, those 
 fertile little lumps of blotched fur ! Few creatures can be 
 more productive. 
 
 WILLIAM COWPEB ON HIS HAKES. 
 
 What a model description of the habits of an animal we 
 have in the gentle Cowper's account of his hares ! Would 
 that he had made pets of other animals, and written de- 
 scriptions of them, like that which follows, and which is 
 here copied from the original place to which he contri- 
 buted it.* 
 
 " Hay 28. 
 
 " MR URBAN, Convinced that you despise no com- 
 munications that may gratify curiosity, amuse rationally, or 
 add, though but a little, to the stock of public knowledge, I 
 send you a circumstantial account of an animal, which, 
 though its general properties are pretty well known, is 
 for the most part such a stranger to man, that we are but 
 little aware of its peculiarities. We know indeed that the 
 hare is good to hunt and good to eat ; but in all other re- 
 spects poor Puss is a neglected subject. In the year 1774, 
 being much indisposed, both in mind and body, incapable 
 of diverting myself either with company or books, and yet 
 
 * Gentleman's Magazine, for June 1784, being the sixth number 
 of vol. liv., pp. 412-414, " Unnoticed Properties of that little 
 animal the Hare. "
 
 214 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 in a condition that made some diversion necessary, I was 
 glad of anything that would engage my attention with- 
 out fatiguing it. The children of a neighbour of mine had 
 a leveret given them for a plaything ; it was at that time 
 about three months old. Understanding better how to 
 tease the poor creature than to feed it, and soon becoming 
 weary of their charge, they readily consented that their 
 father, who saw it pining and growing leaner every day, 
 should offer it to my acceptance. I was willing enough to 
 take the prisoner under my protection, perceiving that in 
 the management of such an animal, and in the attempt to 
 tame it, I should find just that sort of employment which 
 my case required. It was soon known among the neigh- 
 bours that I was pleased with the present ; and the conse- 
 quence was, that in a short time, I had as many leverets 
 offered to me as would have stocked a paddock. I under- 
 took the care of three, which it is necessary that I should 
 here distinguish by the names I gave them Puss, Tiney, 
 and Bess. Notwithstanding the two feminine appellatives, 
 I must inform you that they were all males. Immediately 
 commencing carpenter, I built them houses to sleep in. 
 Each had a separate apartment, so contrived that their 
 ordure would pass through the bottom of it ; an earthen 
 pan placed under each received whatsoever fell, which being 
 duly emptied and washed, they were thus kept perfectly 
 sweet and clean. In the daytime they had the range of a 
 hall, and at night retired each to his own bed, never in- 
 truding into that of another. 
 
 " Puss grew presently familiar, would leap into my lap, 
 raise himself upon his hinder feet, and bite the hair from 
 my temples. He would suffer me to take him up, and
 
 HARES, RABBITS, GUINEA-PIG. 215 
 
 to carry him about in my arms, and has more than once 
 fallen fast asleep upon my knee. He was ill three days, 
 during which time I nursed him, kept him apart from his 
 fellows that they might not molest him (for, like many 
 other wild animals, they persecute one of their own species 
 that is sick), and by constant care, and trying him with 
 a variety of herbs, restored him to perfect health. No 
 creature could be more grateful than my patient after 
 his recovery, a sentiment which he most significantly ex- 
 pressed by licking my hand, first the back of it, then the 
 palm, then every finger separately ; then between all the 
 fingers, as if anxious to leave no part of it unsaluted, a 
 ceremony which he never performed but once again upon 
 a similar occasion. Finding him extremely tractable, I 
 made it my custom to carry him always after breakfast 
 into the garden, where he hid himself generally under the 
 leaves of a cucumber vine, sleeping or chewing the cud 
 till evening ; in the leaves also of that vine he found a 
 favourite repast. I had not long habituated him to this 
 taste of liberty, before he began to be impatient for the 
 return of the time when he might enjoy it. He would in- 
 vite me to the garden by drumming upon my knee, and by 
 a look of such expression as it was not possible to mis- 
 interpret. If this rhetoric did not immediately succeed, 
 he would take the skirt of my coat between his teeth, and 
 pull at it with all his force. Thus Puss might be said to 
 be perfectly tamed ; the shyness of his nature was done 
 awa} r , and on the whole it was visible, by many symptoms 
 which I have not room to enumerate, that he was happier 
 in human society than when shut up with his natural com- 
 panions.
 
 216 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 " Not so Tiney. Upon him the kindest treatment had 
 not the least effect. He, too, was sick, and in his sickness, 
 had an equal share of my attention ; but if, after his re- 
 covery, I took the liberty to stroke him, he would grunt, 
 strike with his forefeet, spring forward, and bite. He 
 was, however, very entertaining in his way, even his surli- 
 ness was matter of mirth, and in his play he preserved 
 such an air of gravity, and performed his feats with such a 
 solemnity of manner, that in him, too, I had an agreeable 
 companion. 
 
 " Bess, who died soon after he was full grown, and whose 
 death was occasioned by his being turned into his box, 
 which had been washed, while it was yet damp, was a hare 
 of great humour and drollery. Puss was tamed by gentle 
 usage ; Tiney was not to be tamed at all ; and Bess had a 
 courage and confidence that made him tame from the 
 beginning. I always admitted them into the parlour after 
 supper, where the carpet affording their feet a firm hold, 
 they would frisk, and bound, and play a thousand gambols, 
 in which Bess, being remarkably strong and fearless, was 
 always superior to the rest, and proved himself the Vestris 
 of the party. One evening, the cat, being in the room, had 
 the hardiness to pat Bess upon the cheek, an indignity 
 which he resented by drumming upon her back with such 
 violence, that the cat was happy to escape from under his 
 paws and hide herself. 
 
 " You observe, sir, that I describe these animals as hav- 
 ing each a character of his own. Such they were in fact, 
 and their countenances were so expressive of that charac- 
 ter, that, when I looked only on the face of either, I im- 
 mediately knew which it was. It is said that a shepherd,
 
 HAKES, BABBITS, GUINEA-PIG. 217 
 
 however numerous his flock, soon becomes so familiar 
 with their features, that he can by that indication only 
 distinguish each from all the rest, and yet to a common 
 observer the difference is hardly perceptible. I doubt not 
 that the same discrimination in the cast of countenances 
 would be discoverable in hares, and am persuaded that 
 among a thousand of them no two could be found exactly 
 similar j a circumstance little suspected by those who have 
 not had opportunity to observe it. These creatures have a 
 singular sagacity in discovering the minutest alteration that 
 is made in the place to which they are accustomed, and 
 instantly apply their nose to the examination of a new ob- 
 ject. A small hole being burnt in the carpet, it was 
 mended with a patch, and that patch in a moment under- 
 went the strictest scrutiny. They seem, too, to be very 
 much directed by the smell in the choice of their favourites ; 
 to some persons, though they saw them daily, they could 
 never be reconciled, and would even scream when they at- 
 tempted to touch them ; but a miller coming in, engaged 
 their affections at once his powdered coat had charms 
 that were irresistible. You will not wonder, sir, that my 
 intimate acquaintance with these specimens of the kind 
 has taught me to hold the sportsman's amusement in abhor- 
 rence. He little knows what amiable creatures he perse- 
 cutes, of what gratitude they are capable, how cheerful 
 they are in their spirits, what enjoyment they have of life, 
 and that, impressed as they seem with a peculiar dread of 
 man, it is only because man gives them peculiar cause 
 for it. 
 
 "That I may not be tedious, I will just give you a short 
 summary of those articles of diet that suit them best, and
 
 218 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 then retire to make room for some more important corres- 
 pondent. 
 
 " I take it to be a general opinion that they graze, but it 
 is an erroneous one, at least grass is not their staple ; they 
 seem rather to use it medicinally, soon quitting it for leaves 
 of almost any kind. Sowthistle, dent-de-lion, and lettuce 
 are their favourite vegetables, especially the last. I dis- 
 covered, by accident, that fine white sand is in great esti- 
 mation with them, I suppose as a digestive. It happened 
 that I was cleaning a bird cage while the hares were with 
 me ; I placed a pot filled with such sand upon the floor, 
 to which being at once directed by a strong instinct, they 
 devoured it voraciously ; since that time I have generally 
 taken care to see them well supplied with it. They ac- 
 count green corn a delicacy, both blade and stalk, but the 
 ear they seldom eat ; straw of any kind, especially wheat- 
 straw, is another of their dainties ; they will feed greedily 
 upon oats, but if furnished with clean straw, never want 
 them ; it serves them also for a bed, and, if shaken up 
 daily, will be kept sweet and dry for a considerable time. 
 They do not indeed require aromatic herbs, but will eat a 
 small quantity of them with great relish, and are particu- 
 larly fond of the plant called musk ; they seem to resemble 
 sheep in this, that if their pastures be too succulent, they 
 are very subject to the rot ; to prevent which, I always 
 made bread their principal nourishment ; and, filling a pan 
 with it cut into small squares, placed it every evening in 
 their chambers, for they feed only at evening and in the 
 night ; during the winter, when vegetables are not to be 
 got, I mingled this mess of bread with shreds of carrot, 
 adding to it the rind of apples cut extremely thin ; for,
 
 HARES, RABBITS, GUINEA-PIG. 219 
 
 though they are fond of the paring, the apple itself dis- 
 gusts them. These, however, not being a sufficient substi- 
 tute for the juice of summer herbs, they must at this time 
 be supplied with water ; but so placed that they cannot 
 overset it into their beds. I must not omit, that occasion- 
 ally they are much pleased with twigs of hawthorn and 
 of the common briar, eating even the very wood when it 
 is of considerable thickness. 
 
 "Bess, I have said, died young ; Tiney lived to be nine 
 years old, and died at last, I have reason to think, of some 
 hurt in his loins by a fall. Puss is still living, and has 
 just completed his tenth year, discovering no signs of 
 decay nor even of age, except that he is grown more dis- 
 creet and less frolicsome than he was. I cannot conclude, 
 sir, without informing you that I have lately introduced a 
 dog to his acquaintance, a spaniel that had never seen a 
 hare, to a hare that had never seen a spaniel. I did it 
 with great caution, but there was no real need of it. Puss 
 discovered no token of fear, nor Marquis the least symp- 
 tom of hostility. There is, therefore, it should seem, no 
 natural antipathy between dog arid hare, but the pursuit 
 of the one occasions the flight of the other, and the dog 
 pursues because he is trained to it ; they eat bread at the 
 same time out of the same hand, and are in all respects 
 sociable and friendly. Yours &c., W. C. 
 
 " P.S. I should not do complete justice to my subject, 
 did I not add, that they have no ill scent belonging to 
 them, that they are indefatigably nice in keeping them- 
 selves clean, for which purpose nature has furnished them 
 with a brush under each foot ; and that they are never 
 infested by any vermin."
 
 220 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 Our readers know his fine verses or epitaphs on his hares. 
 We may quote from the biographer to whom Sir Robert 
 Peel and the Duke of Wellington left all their papers and 
 memoirs, a sentence or two on Cowper's hares, and on 
 the other pets of that lovable man. Earl Stanhope * 
 says of this poet and " best letter-writer in the English 
 language " Such, indeed, were his powers of description 
 and felicity of language, that even the most trivial objects 
 drew life and colour from his touch. In his pages, the 
 training of three tame hares, or the building of a frame 
 for cucumbers, excite a warmer interest than many ac- 
 counts compiled by other writers, of great battles deciding 
 the fate of empires. In his pages, the sluggish waters of 
 the Ouse, the floating lilies which he stooped to gather 
 from them, the poplars, in whose shade he sat, and over 
 whose fall he mourned, rise before us as though we had 
 known and loved them too. As Cowper himself declares, 
 ' My descriptions are all from nature, not one of them 
 second-handed ; my delineations of the heart are from my 
 own experience, not one of them borrowed from books.' " 
 
 HAIRS OR HARES ! 
 
 A gentleman on circuit, narrating to Lord Norbury some 
 extravagant feat in sporting, mentioned that he had lately 
 shot thirty-three hares before breakfast. "Thirty-three 
 hairs ! " exclaimed Lord Norbury ; " zounds, sir ! then you 
 must have been firing at a wig." f 
 
 Sportsmen are very apt to exaggerate. They did so at 
 
 * "History of England," vol. vi. p. 486. 
 t Mark Lemon, " Jest Book," p. 59.
 
 HARES, BABBITS, GUINEA-PIG. 221 
 
 least in Horace's days. We have heard of a man of rank, 
 who actually made a gamekeeper, who was a first-rate 
 marksman, fire whenever he discharged his piece. The 
 story goes, that that man was regarded as having shot 
 everything that fell. 
 
 The Duke of L.'s reply, when it was observed to him 
 that the gentlemen bordering on his estates were continu- 
 ally hunting upon them, and that he ought not to suffer it, 
 is worthy of imitation. " I had much rather," said he, 
 " have friends than hares." * 
 
 The time must be coming, when every farmer or peasant 
 will be allowed to shoot hares. It is surely cruel to im- 
 prison or fine a man for shooting and shouldering a hare. 
 Having lately traversed a goodly part of the Perthshire 
 Highlands, we were struck with the numbers of Arctic 
 hares that scudded away out of our path. What a fine 
 help one of them would be to a poor family. 
 
 S. BlSSET AND HIS TRAINED HAKE AND TURTLE. 
 
 S. Bisset, whose training of other animals is elsewhere 
 recorded, like the poet Cowper, procured a leveret, and 
 reared it to beat several marches on the drum with its hind 
 legs, until it became a good stout hare. This creature, 
 which is always set down as the most timid, he declared 
 to be as mischievous and bold an animal, to the extent of 
 its power, as any with which he was acquainted. He 
 taught canary-birds, linnets, and sparrows, to spell the 
 name of any person in company, to distinguish the hour 
 and minute of time, and play many other surprising tricks. 
 He trained six turkey-cocks to go through a regular country 
 * Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 182.
 
 222 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 dance ; but in doing this he confessed he adopted the 
 eastern method, by which camels are made to dance, by 
 heating the floor. In the course of six months' teaching, 
 he made a turtle fetch and carry like a dog ; and having 
 chalked the floor, and blackened its claws, could direct it 
 to trace out any given name of the company.* 
 
 A FAMILY OF RABBITS ALL BLIND OP ONE EYE. 
 
 Lady Anne Barnard, in her Cape Journal,* referring to 
 De3sin or Rabbit Island at the Cape of Good Hope, says 
 that it is " dreadfully exposed to the south-east winds. A 
 gentleman told me of a natural phenomenon he had met 
 with when shooting there ; his dog pointed at a rabbit's 
 hole, where tLe company within were placed so near the 
 opening that he could see Mynheer, Madame, and the 
 whole rabbit family. Pompey, encouraged, brought out 
 the old coney, his wife, and seven young ones. all, like 
 the callenders in the ' Arabian Nights' Entertainments,' 
 blind of one eye, and that the same eye. The question 
 was, on which side of the island was the rabbit's hole 1 
 With a very little reasoning and comparing, it was found 
 that from its position, the keen .blast must have produced 
 this effect. The oddest part of this story is, that it is true, 
 but I do not expect you to believe it." 
 
 THOMAS FULLER ON NORFOLK RABBITS. 
 " These are an army of natural pioneers whence men 
 
 * Biography of S. Bisset in G. H. Wilson's "Eccentric Mirror," 
 vol. i., No. B, p. 29. 
 
 t Published by Lord Lindsay in vol. iii. of his " Lives of the 
 Lindsays," p. 387.
 
 HARES, RABBITS, GUINEA-PIG. 223 
 
 have learned cuniculos agere, the art of undermining. 
 They thrive best on barren ground, and grow fattest in 
 the hardest frosts. Their flesh is fine and wholesome. If 
 Scottish men tax our language as improper, and smile at 
 our wing of a rabbit, let us laugh at their shoulder of a 
 capon. 
 
 Their skins were formerly much used, when furs were 
 in fashion ; till of late our citizens, of Komans are turned 
 Grecians, have laid down their grave gowns and taken up 
 their light cloaks ; men generally disliking all habits, 
 though emblems of honour, if also badges of age. 
 
 Their rich or silver-hair skins, formerly so dear, are now 
 levelled in prices with other colours ; yea, are lower than 
 black in estimation, because their wool is most used in 
 making of hats, commonly (for the more credit) called 
 half-beavers, though many of them hardly amount to the 
 proportion of semi-demi castors." * 
 
 DR CHALMERS AND THE GUINEA-PIG. 
 
 Mr Aitken alludes in a pleasing manner to an instance 
 of Dr Chalmers's fondness for animals. He had just been 
 appointed the head-master of one of the Glasgow parish 
 schools ;'St John's). " Early in the week following my 
 appointment, I received my first private call. One cir- 
 cumstance occurred during the visit which I still remem- 
 ber most vividly. One of my children had been presented 
 with a pair of guinea-pigs. These had found their way 
 into the apartment where we were sitting, and ran about 
 in all directions. I could have wished to turn them out, 
 * " Worthies of England." vol. ii. p. 445 (ed. 1840).
 
 224 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 but had not the power to rise from liy chair. He soon 
 observed them, followed them with his eye as they now 
 retreated under his chair and again ventured out into his 
 presence he even changed the position of his feet to give 
 them scope. That same kindly eye, one glance of which 
 we all loved so much to catch in after-life, beamed only 
 the more warmly as the creatures frisked in greater confi- 
 dence around him. It was to me an omen for good. He 
 who could enjoy thus the innocent gamble of these guinea- 
 pigs could not fail to be accessible for good when occasion 
 required. It was the first flush of that largeness of heart 
 which afterwards appeared in all I ever heard him say or 
 saw him do." * 
 
 SLOTH. 
 KEVEREND SYDNEY SMITH ON THE SLOTH. 
 
 FEW anecdotes can be published of this curious creature, 
 though Waterton and Burchell, or Dr Buckland, for him 
 and his friend Bates, have recorded much that is interest- 
 ing of its habits. The following bit is peculiarly happy : 
 " The sloth, in its wild state, spends its life in trees, and 
 never leaves them but from force or accident. The eagle 
 to the sky, the mole to the ground, the sloth to the tree ; 
 but what is most extraordinary, he lives not upon the 
 branches, but under them. He moves suspended, rests 
 
 * Dr Hannah's "Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Thorn ae 
 Chalmers, D.D., L.L.D.," vol. ii. p. 237.
 
 f^m
 
 THE GEEAT ANT-EATER. 225 
 
 suspended, sleep suspended, and passes his life in suspense 
 like a young clergyman distantly related to a bishop."* 
 
 THE GREAT ANT-EATER. 
 
 ( Myrmecophaga jubata, L.f) 
 
 A FEW months ago a handbill was distributed in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Seven Dials, inviting the public to visit a 
 " wonderful animal fed with ants, and possessing strength 
 to kill the lion, tiger, or any other animal under its claws." 
 We entered the miserable apartment where it was exhibited 
 and any spectator must at once have been struck with the 
 creature's want of resemblance to any other he had ever seen. 
 Its head so small, so long and slender ; the straight, wiry, 
 dry hair with which it was covered, and its singularly large 
 and bushy tail, first attracted notice. A second glance 
 showed its enormously thick fore-legs, and the claws of its 
 feet turned in, so that it walked on the sides of its soles. 
 Oken and St Hilaire would have said that it was " all ex- 
 tremity." A cup, with the contents of one or two eggs, 
 was brought, and it sucked them with great avidity, every 
 now and then darting from its small mouth a very long 
 tongue, which looked like a great, black worm, whisking 
 about in the custard. One of its showmen told us that it 
 had attacked the woman of the house the preceding day, and 
 had scratched her arm. Whether this was true or grossly 
 exaggerated, we know not ; but if so, we suspect that the 
 
 * Sydney Smith, " Review of Waterton's Wanderings." Edin- 
 luryh Review, 1826. Works, vol. ii. p. 145. 
 
 t From fj.vp/j,r]^, ant ; <t>ayu, I eat ; jubata, maned. 
 
 P
 
 226 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 woman herself must have been in fault, <And not the in- 
 offensive stranger. 
 
 On the payment of a handsome consideration to her 
 owners, the poor captive was transferred from her unwhole- 
 some lodging in St Giles's, to the Gardens of the Zoolo. 
 gical Society in the Regent's Park. And within the last 
 few weeks her solitude has been cheered by the arrival of 
 a companion from her native forests. The new-comer is 
 in beautiful condition, though not nearly so large. He has 
 a head decidedly shorter and stronger, and is probably not 
 yet fully grown. 
 
 The great ant-eater seems to be scattered over a wide 
 extent of South America Guiana, Brazil, and Paraguay, 
 being its places of abode. It is a stout animal, measuring 
 from the end of the snout to the tip of the long tail six or 
 seven feet, of which the tail takes nearly the half ; so that 
 the actual size of its body is much reduced. In Paraguay 
 it is named Nurumi or Yoyui. The former name is altered 
 from the native word for small mouth, and indicates a 
 striking peculiarity in its structure. The Portuguese call it 
 Tamandua ; the Spaniards, Osa hormiguero (i.e., ant-hill 
 bear). In Paraguay it prefers sides of lakes where ants, at 
 least termites or white ants, are abundant ; but it also fre- 
 quents woods. In Guiana, Mr Waterton found it chiefly 
 " in the inmost recesses of the forest," where it " seems 
 partial to the low and swampy parts near creeks, where the 
 trcely tree grows." * It sleeps a great deal, reclining on its 
 side, as the visitor to the Gardens may frequently see it do, 
 with its head between its fore-legs, joining its fore and hind- 
 
 *" Wanderings in South America" (Third Journey), p. 159, 
 (ed. 1839).
 
 TUB GREAT ANT-EATEK. 227 
 
 feet, and spreading the tail so as to cover the whole body. 
 Huddled up under this thatch, it might almost be taken for 
 a bundle of coarse and badly dried hay. The tail is thickly 
 covered with long hairs, placed vertically, the hairs drag- 
 gling on the ground. When the creature is irritated, the 
 tail is shaken straight and elevated. The natives of Para- 
 guay, like other persecutors of harmlessness, kill every 
 specimen they meet, so that the ant-eater gets rare, and so 
 rare is it on the Amazon that Mr Wallace, who travelled 
 there from 1848 to 1852, honestly tells us he never saw 
 one. He heard, however, that during rain it turns its 
 bushy tail over its head and stands still. The Indians, 
 knowing this habit, when they meet an ant-eater, make a 
 rustling noise among the leaves. The creature instantly 
 turns up its tail, and is easily killed by the stroke of a stick 
 on its little head.* 
 
 The ant-eater is slow in its movements never attempt- 
 ing to escape. When hard pressed it stops, and, seated on 
 its hind-legs, waits for the aggressor. Its object is to re- 
 ceive him between its fore-legs ; and one has only to look 
 at its arms and claws in order to fancy what a frightful 
 squeeze it would give. Nothing but death, they say, will 
 make the creature relax its grasp. It is asserted that the 
 jaguar the tiger of South America, and the most formid- 
 able beast of the New World dares not attack it. This 
 Azara, with good reason, doubts. A single bite from a 
 jaguar, or the stroke of his paw, would fracture an ant- 
 eater's skull before it had time to turn round; for the 
 movements of this edentate quadruped are as sluggish as 
 those of the toothed carnivorous tyrant are rapid. 
 
 * " A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro," by 
 Alfred R. Wallace. 1853, p. 452.
 
 228 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 As seen in its handsome and roomy cage, the ant-eater 
 gives us an impression of dulness and stupidity ; and always 
 smelling and listening and looking at the door where its 
 keeper introduces its food, its mind, when awake, appears 
 to be constantly occupied about " creature comforts." In 
 the course of the day it laps up with its darting tongue, 
 and sucks in through its long taper snout a dozen eggs, 
 and almost the whole of a rabbit, chopped into a fine 
 mince-meat. With such dainty fare, and with the anxious 
 attention which it receives from its sagacious curators, it is 
 scarcely surprising that it thrives ; and when the warm 
 weather comes, it will be a fine sight to see these animals 
 enjoying the range of a paddock, which will doubtless be 
 provided for their use, and exercising their brawny fore- 
 limbs and powerful claws in pulling down conical mounds, 
 which may remind them of departed joys and balmier 
 climes. Nor will it be the least charm of the spectacle that 
 it will enable us to compare this living species with other 
 Edentata of South America such as the Megatherium, 
 now only found in the fossil state, but so admirably re- 
 stored by Mr Hawkins for the Crystal Palace. 
 
 We need not dwell on the admirable adaptation of the 
 ant-eater to its position and to its few and simple wants. 
 To those who have not studied " the works of the Lord," it 
 may appear uncouth and unattractive. Compared with a 
 dog, it is stupid ; and alongside of a lion, it is slow. It 
 has not the symmetry of the horse, nor the beautiful mark- 
 ings of the zebra and leopard. But its Creator has given 
 it the instincts, the form, the muscular powers, and the 
 colours which best answer its purpose. And no one can 
 say that it is plain and ugly, who looks at its legs so pret-
 
 RHINOCEROS AND ELEPHANT. 229 
 
 tily variegated with white and black, and its noble black 
 collar. 
 
 Those of our readers who wish further information will 
 find it in the Literary Gazette for October 8, 1853. In 
 that article it is easy to recognise the Roman hand of the 
 facile princeps among living comparative anatomists. Long 
 may it be before either of our new acquaintances in the 
 Garden afford him a subject for dissection ; but when that 
 day arrives, we hope that he will not delay to publish the 
 memoir.* A. White, in "Excelsior" (with additions). 
 
 RHINOCEROS AND ELEPHANT. 
 
 Two genera of the bulkiest among terrestrial beasts. Just 
 imagine the great rhinoceros at the Zoological Gardens 
 taking it into its head, with that little eye, target hide, 
 and bulky bones, and other items about it, to fondle its 
 keeper ! he was nearly crushed to death. How the great 
 thick-skinned creature enjoys a bath ! 
 
 As for the elephant, he is a mountain of matter as well 
 as of animal intelligence. Sir Emerson Tennant in his 
 "Ceylon," but especially in his "Natural History," volumes, 
 has given some truly readable chapters on the Asiatic 
 elephant. We could have extracted many an anecdote, 
 even from recent works, of the intelligent sagacity of the 
 
 * This memoir has been published, and the subject of it was this 
 very ant-eater. Professor Owen has introduced many striking facts 
 from the history of its structure, in his lecture delivered at Exeter 
 Hall, 1863, and published by the Messrs Nisbet.
 
 230 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 Indian as well as the African elephants. The account of 
 the shooting of Mr Cross's well-known elephant Chunie, at 
 Exeter Change, has been very curiously and fully detailed by 
 Hone in his " Every-Day Book." A skull of an elephant 
 in the British Museum, shows how wonderfully an elephant 
 is at times able to defend itself from attack. Many a shot 
 that " rogue elephant " had received, years before the 
 three or four Indian sportsmen, who presented its skull as 
 a trophy, succeeded in planting a shot in its brain, or in 
 its heart. Think of the feelings of Lord Clive's relations, 
 at the prospect of his sending home an elephant for a pet. 
 The good folks, not without some motive, as the great 
 Indian ruler conceived, other than mere love for him, had 
 been sending him presents. Samuel Rogers, who wrote 
 the neatest of hands, records that Clive wrote the worst 
 and certainly the most illegible of scrawls. Instead of 
 " elephant," as they read it, their liberal relative had 
 written " equivalent !" 
 
 THE LORD KEEPER GUILFORD AND HIS VISIT TO THE 
 RHINOCEROS IN THE CITY OF LONDON.* 
 
 It is strange to read in the life of the Lord Keeper Guil- 
 ford, that his lordship's court enemies, " hard put to it to 
 find, or invent, something tending to the diminution of his 
 character," took advantage of his going to see a rhinoceros, 
 to circulate a foolish story of him, which much annoyed 
 him. It was in the reign of James II. his biographer thus 
 
 * " The Life of the Right Hon. Francis North, Baron Guilford, 
 Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, under King Charles II. and King 
 James II., &c." By the Hon. Roger North, A New Edition, iu 
 three vola., 1826, vol. ii. p. 167.
 
 BHINOCEROS AND ELEPHANT. 231 
 
 records it. The rhinoceros, referred to, was the first evel 
 brought to England. Evelyn, in his " Memoirs," says, that 
 it was sold for .2000, a most enormous sum in those days 
 (1685). 
 
 Koger North relates the story : " It fell out thus a 
 merchant of Sir Dudley North's acquaintance had brought 
 over an enormous rhinoceros, to be sold to showmen for 
 profit. It is a noble beast, wonderfully armed by nature 
 for offence, but more for defence, being covered with im- 
 penetrable shields, which no weapon would make any im- 
 pression upon, and a rarity so great that few men, in our 
 country, have in their whole lives the opportunity of see- 
 ing so singular an animal. This merchant told Sir Dudley 
 North that if he, with a friend or two, had a mind to see 
 it, they might take the opportunity at his house before it 
 was sold. Hereupon Sir Dudley North proposed to his 
 brother, the Lord Keeper, to go with him upon this exhi- 
 bition, which he did, and came away exceedingly satisfied 
 with the curiosity he had seen. But whether he was 
 dogged to find out where he and his brother housed in the 
 city, or flying fame carried an account of the voyage to 
 court, I know not ; but it is certain that the very next 
 morning a bruit went from thence all over the town, and 
 (as factious reports used to run) in a very short time, viz., 
 that his lordship rode upon the rhinoceros, than which a 
 more infantine exploit could not have been fastened upon 
 him. And most people were struck with amazement at it, 
 and divers ran here and there to find out whether it was 
 true or no. And soon after dinner some lords and others 
 came to his lordship to know the truth from himself, for 
 the setters of the lie affirmed it positively as of their own
 
 232 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 knowledge. Tbat did not give his lordship much dis- 
 turbance, for he expected no better from his adversaries. 
 But that his friends, intelligent persons, who must know 
 him to be far from guilty of any childish levity, should 
 believe it, was what roiled him extremely, and much more 
 when they had the face to come to him to know if it were 
 true. I never saw him in such a rage, and to lay about 
 him with affronts (which he keenly bestowed upon the 
 minor courtiers that came on that errand) as then ; for he 
 sent them away with fleas in their ear. And he was 
 seriously angry with his own brother, Sir Dudley North, 
 because he did not contradict the lie in sudden and direct 
 terms, but laughed as taking the question put to him for 
 a banter, till, by iteration, he was brought to it. For some 
 lords came, and because they seemed to attribute some- 
 what to the avowed positiveness of the reporters, he rather 
 chose to send for his brother to attest than to impose his 
 bare denial, and so it passed ; and the noble earl (of Sun- 
 derland), with Jeffries, and others of that crew, made 
 merry, and never blushed at the lie of their own making, 
 but valued themselves upon it as a very good jest." 
 
 And so it passed. What a sensation would have been 
 caused by the sudden apparition in that age of a few num- 
 bers of Punch. What a subject for a cartoon, some John 
 Leech of 1685 would have made of the stately Lord Keeper 
 on the back of a rhinoceros, and the infamous Judge 
 Jeffries leering at him from a window. 
 
 THE ELEPHANT AND HIS TRUNK. 
 
 Canning and another gentleman were looking at a pic- 
 ture of the deluge ; the ark was seen in the middle dis-
 
 RHINOCEROS AND ELEPHANT. 233 
 
 tance, while in the fore-sea an elephant was struggling with 
 his fate. " I wonder," said the gentleman, " that the 
 elephant did not secure an inside place!" "He was too 
 late, my friend," replied Canning ; " he was detained pack 
 ing up his trunk. 1 "* 
 
 SIR RICHARD PHILLIPS AND JELLY MADE OF IVORY DUST. 
 A VEGETARIAN TAKEN IN. 
 
 The biographers of James Montgomery t relate an amus- 
 sing anecdote of Sir Richard Phillips, the eccentric London 
 bookseller and author. He visited Sheffield in October 
 1828. " He had lived too long amidst the bustle and busi- 
 ness of the great world, and was too little conscious of any 
 feeling at all like diffidence, to allow him to hesitate about 
 calling upon any person, whether of rank, genius, or eccen- 
 tricity, when the success of his project was likely to be 
 thereby promoted. The time selected by the free and easy 
 knight for his unannounced visitation of Montgomery was 
 Sunday at dinner time. He was at once asked to sit down 
 and partake of the chickens and bacon which had just been 
 placed on the table, but here was a dilemma ; Sir Richard, 
 although neither a Brahmin nor a Jew, avowed himself a 
 staunch Pythagorean he could eat no flesh ! Luckily 
 there was a plentiful supply of carrots and turnips, and 
 jelly. But was the latter made from calves' feet 1 Mont- 
 gomery assured his guest that it was not ; but, added he, 
 with a conscientious regard for his visitor's scruples, from 
 ivory dust. We believe the poet fancied the hypothesis of an 
 
 * Mark Lemon, " Jest Book," p. 329. 
 
 t " John Holland and James Everett," vol. iv. p. 283.
 
 234 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 animal origin of this viand could not be very obscure ; it 
 was, however, swallowed ; the clever bibliopole perhaps be- 
 lieving, with some of the Sheffield ivory-cutters, that ele- 
 phants, instead of being hunted and killed for their tusks, 
 shed them when fully grown, as bucks do their antlers !" 
 
 J. T. SMITH AND THE ELEPHANT. 
 
 That gossiping man, J. T. Smith, once Keeper of the 
 Prints in the British Museum, and author of " Nollekens 
 and his Times," relates, that when he and a friend were 
 returning late from a club, and were approaching Temple 
 Bar, " about one o'clock, a most unaccountable appearance 
 claimed our attention, it was no less than an elephant, 
 whose keepers were coaxing it to pass through the gateway. 
 He had been accompanied with several persons from the 
 Tower wharf with tall poles, but was principally guided 
 by two men with ropes, each walking on either side of the 
 street, to keep him as much as possible in the middle, on 
 his way to the menagerie, Exeter Change, to which desti- 
 nation, after passing St Clement's Church, he steadily 
 trudged on, with strict obedience to the command of his 
 keepers.* 
 
 "I had the honour afterwards of partaking of a pot of 
 Barclay's entire with this same elephant, which high mark 
 of his condescension was bestowed when I accompanied 
 my friend, the late Sir James Wintel Lake, Bart., to view 
 the rare animals in Exeter Change, that gentleman being 
 assured by the elephant's keeper that, if he would offer 
 the beast a shilling, he would see the noble animal nod his 
 head and drink a pot of porter. The elephant had no 
 * "A Book for a Rainy Day," p. 92.
 
 RHINOCEROS AND ELEPHANT. 235 
 
 sooner taken the shilling, which he did in the mildest 
 manner from the palm of Sir James's hand, than he gave 
 it to the keeper, and eagerly watched his return with the 
 beer. The elephant then, after placing his proboscis to 
 the top of the tankard, drew up nearly the whole of the 
 beverage. The keeper observed, ' You will hardly believe, 
 gentlemen, but the little he has left is quite warm ; ' upon 
 this we were tempted to taste it, and it really was so. 
 This animal was afterwards disposed of for the sum of one 
 thousand guineas." 
 
 THE ELEPHANT AND THE TAILOR. 
 
 This old story has been often told, but never so well as 
 by Sydney Smith in one of his lectures at the Royal In- 
 stitution. " Every one knows the old story of the tailor 
 and the elephant, which, if it be not true, at least shows 
 the opinion the Orientals, who know the animal well, 
 entertain of his sagacity. An eastern tailor to the Court 
 was making a magnificent doublet for a bashaw of nine 
 tails, and covering it, after the manner of eastern doublets, 
 with gold, silver, and every species of metallic magni- 
 ficence. As he was busying himself on this momentous 
 occasion, there passed by, to the pools of water, one of the 
 royal elephants, about the size of a broad-wheeled waggon, 
 rich in ivory teeth, and shaking, with its ponderous tread, 
 the tailor's shop to its remotest thimble. As he passed 
 near the window, the elephant happened to look in ; the 
 tailor lifted up his eyes, perceived the proboscis of the 
 elephant near him, and, being seized with a fit of facetious- 
 ness, pricked the animal with his needle ; the mass of
 
 236 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 matter immediately retired, stalked away to the pool, filled 
 his trunk full of muddy water, and, returning to the shop, 
 overwhelmed the artisan and his doublet with the dirty 
 effects of his vengeance." 
 
 DR JOHNSON ALLUDED TO AS " AN ELEPHANT." 
 " If an elephant could write a book, perhaps one that 
 had read a great deal would say, that an Arabian horse is 
 a very clumsy, ungraceful animal." This was written by 
 Horace Walpole to Miss Berry, in 1791, in allusion to Dr 
 Johnson's depreciation of Thomas Gray the poet.* It is 
 an acute observation, well worth being wrought out. 
 There is a grandeur and even a grace about this bulky 
 beast and its motions well deserving the study of any one 
 who has the opportunity. Elephants in our streets are not 
 now so rare as they used to be. We saw three in one 
 procession in the streets of Edinburgh in 1865. 
 
 ELEPHANT'S SKIN. 
 
 " Did any of you ever see an elephant's skin 1 " asked 
 the master of an infant school in a fast neighbourhood. 
 " I have ! " shouted a six-year-old at the foot of the class. 
 " Where 1 " inquired the master, amused by his earnestness. 
 " On the elephant/" was the reply. 
 
 FOSSIL PACHYDERMATA. 
 
 CUVIER AND THE FOSSIL. 
 
 George Cuvier was perhaps the first man who, by his 
 Letters of Horace Walpole," edited by Peter Cunningham, 
 
 * 
 ix., 319.
 
 RHINOCEROS AND ELEPHANT. 237 
 
 admirable works and researches, gave zoology its true place 
 among the sciences. 
 
 His discoveries of the structure of molluscous and other 
 animals of the obscurer orders are perhaps eclipsed by his 
 researches in osteology. He has enabled the comparative 
 anatomist to tell from a small portion of bone not only the 
 class, but the order, genus, and even the species to which 
 animal that bone belonged. 
 
 Mrs Lee,* in her Life of the Baron, gives an example of 
 his enthusiasm in his researches. 
 
 M. Laurillard was afterwards his secretary and the 
 draftsman who executed nearly all the drawings in his 
 " Ossemens fossiles." At the time of this story he had not 
 particularly attracted Cuvier's notice. 
 
 " One day Cuvier came to his brother Frederic to ask 
 him to disengage a fossil from its surrounding mass, an 
 office he had frequently performed. M. Laurillard was 
 applied to in the absence of F. Cuvier. Little aware of 
 the value of the specimen confided to his care, he cheerfully 
 set to work, and succeeded in getting the bone entire from 
 its position. M. Cuvier, after a short time, returned for 
 his treasure, and when he saw how perfect it was, his 
 ecstasies became incontrollable ; he danced, he shook his 
 hands, he uttered expressions of delight, till M. Laurillard^ 
 in his ignorance both of the importance of what he had done, 
 and of the ardent character of M. Cuvier, thought he was 
 mad. Taking, however, his fossil foot in one hand, and 
 dragging Laurillard's arm with the other, he led him up- 
 stairs to present him to his wife and sister-in-law, saying, ' I 
 
 * " Memoirs of Baron Cuvier," by Mrs R. Lee (formerly Mrs T 
 Ed. Bowdich), 1833, p. 93.
 
 * 
 
 238 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 have got my foot, and M. Laurillard found it for me.' Ifc 
 seems that this skilful operation confirmed all M. Cuvier's 
 previous conjecture concerning a foot, the existence and form 
 of which lie had already guessed, but for which he had long 
 and vainly sought. So occupied had he been by it, that, 
 when he appeared to be particularly absent, his family 
 were wont to accuse him of seeking his fore-foot. The 
 next morning the able operator and draftsman was engaged 
 as secretary." 
 
 SOW. 
 
 A VERY gross but useful animal, which can, by feeding, 
 be stuffed into such a state of fatness as only one who has 
 seen a Christmas cattle show in England could believe it 
 possible for beast to acquire. Dean Eamsay, in a happy 
 anecdote, refers to a good quality of the sow as food. He 
 tells, that a Scottish minister had been persuaded to keep 
 a pig, and that the good wife had been duly instructed in 
 the mysteries of black-puddings, pork-chops, pig's-head, 
 and other modes of turning poor piggy to account. The 
 minister remarked to a friend, " Nae doubt there 's a 
 hantle o' miscellaneous eating aboot a pig." The author 
 of " A Ramble," published by Edmonstone and Douglas 
 in 1865, has devoted some most amusing pages of his 
 work to an account of " Pig-sticking in Chicago," as wit- 
 nessed by him during the late American war. The whole- 
 sale and scientific off-hand way in which living pigs enter 
 into one part of a machine, and come out prepared pork, 
 could only have been devised by a Yankee. 
 
 The essay of Charles Lamb on Roast Pig, and his his-
 
 sow. 239 
 
 tory of how the Chinaman discovered it, is a most charac- 
 teristic bit of the productions of Elia. We have cut from 
 a recent paper, what seems an authentic story, of one of 
 this race having obtained a kind of mausoleum. We hope 
 it is not a hoax, but that it is as genuine as all that is in 
 one of " Murray's Handbooks : " 
 
 MONUMENT TO A PIG. " Up to the present time," 
 Jays the Europe of Frankfort, " no monument that we are 
 aware of had ever been erected to the memory of a pig. 
 The town of Luneburg, in Hanover, has wished to fill up 
 that blank ; and at the Hotel de Ville, in that town, there 
 is to be seen a kind of mausoleum to the memory of a 
 member of the swinish race. In the interior of that com- 
 memorative structure is to be seen a glass case, inclosing 
 a ham still in good preservation. A slab of black marbla 
 attracts the eye of visitors, who find thereon the following 
 inscription in Latin, engraved in letters of gold ' Passer- 
 by, contemplate here the mortal remains of the pig which 
 acquired for itself imperishable glory by the discovery of 
 the salt springs of Luneburg.' " 
 
 THE WILD BOAE (Sus scrofa). 
 
 We have a specimen of the family of swine in that well- 
 known and useful animal, with whose portrait Sir Charles 
 Bell furnishes the reader, as an example of a head as re- 
 mote as possible from the head of him who designed and 
 executed the Elgin marbles. Although the learned ana- 
 tomist brought forward the profile of this animal as the 
 type of a " non-intellectual " being, yet there are instances 
 enough on record to show that pigs are not devoid of in-
 
 240 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 telligence, and are even, when trained, capable of con- 
 siderable docility. " Learned pigs," however, such as are 
 exhibited at country fairs, are a rare occurrence, and the 
 family to which they belong is essentially one " gross " in 
 character, and far from gainly in appearance. The most 
 handsome of the race is one from West Africa, recently 
 added to the Zoological Gardens, and described by Dr 
 Gray under the name of PotamocJuxrus penicillatus. The 
 wild swine of Africa are, with this bright exception, any- 
 thing but handsome, either in shape or colour; and the 
 large excrescences on their cheeks and face give the " wart- 
 hogs" a ferocious look, which corresponds with their habits. 
 In the East there are several species of wild swine. One 
 of the most celebrated is the Babyrusa of the Malay pen- 
 insula, distinguished by its long recurved teeth, with 
 which it was once fancied that they suspended themselves 
 from trees, or rather supported themselves when asleep. 
 Mrs M'Dougall* refers to the wild hogs of Borneo, which 
 seem to be dainty in their diet, as they think nothing of 
 a swim of four miles from their jungle home to places on 
 the river where they know there are trees laden with ripe 
 fruit. These Borneo swine are active creatures too, as 
 they can leap fences nearly six feet high. In South 
 America the sow family is represented by the Peccaries 
 (Dicotyles), of which there are two species, one of which 
 is very abundant in the woods, and forms a most import- 
 ant article in the diet of the poor Indians. They, too, can 
 swim across rivers, and although their legs are short, they 
 can run very fast. 
 
 It is chiefly in the warmer parts of the world that the 
 * " Letters from Sarawak," p. 104. 1854.
 
 sow. 241 
 
 species of this family are found. They are all distin- 
 guished by the middle toes of each foot being larger than 
 the others, and armed with hoofs,* the side toe or toes 
 being shorter, and scarcely reaching the ground. The nose 
 terminates in a truncated, tough, grissly disk, which is 
 singularly well adapted for the purpose of the animals, 
 which all grub in the ground for their food. In some 
 parts of France it is said that they are trained to search 
 for truffles. 
 
 Having briefly alluded to different species " de grege 
 porci," we now limit ourselves to our immediate subject. 
 
 The wild boar, at no very remote period, was found in 
 the extensive woods which covered great portions of this 
 island. The family of Baird derives its heraldic crest of 
 a wild boar's head from a grant of David I., King of Scot- 
 land. This monarch was hunting in Aberdeenshire, and 
 when separated from his attendants, the infuriated pig 
 turned upon him ; one of his people came up and killed 
 it, and in memory of his feat received from the grateful 
 king the device still borne by the family. The name of 
 a Scottish parish, and of one of the oldest baronial families 
 in Scotland Swinton of Swinton, in Berwickshire is 
 derived also from this animal, the first of the Swintons 
 having cleared that part of the country from the wild 
 swine which then infested it. It is curious to know that 
 some large fields in the neighbourhood of Swinton still 
 carry in their names traces of these early occupants. Dr 
 Baird informed the writer that there are four of these 
 fields so distinguished : " Sow-causeway," and " Pike- 
 
 * " Divides the hoof, and is cloven-footed, yet cheweth not the 
 cud" (Lev. ii. 7). 
 
 Q
 
 242 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 rigg," where the wild swine used to feed ("pick their 
 food ") ; " Stab's Cross," where Sir Alan Swinton with his 
 spear pierced some monarch of the race ; and " Alan's 
 Cairn," where a heap of stones was raised as a monument 
 of his hardihood. In the southern part of our island only 
 the nobility and gentry were allowed to hunt this animal ; 
 and in the reign of William the Conqueror any one con- 
 victed of killing a wild boar in any of the royal demesnes 
 was punished with the loss of his eyes. 
 
 In many parts of the Continent the wild boar is still far 
 from rare, and affords, to those who are fond of excite- 
 ment, that peculiar kind of " pleasure " which involves a 
 certain amount of danger. Scenes somewhat similar to 
 those depicted by Snyders may still be witnessed in some 
 parts of Germany ; and in the sketches of Mr Wolf, the 
 able artist whose designs illustrate these papers, we have 
 seen animated studies of this truly hazardous sport. 
 
 The nose of the wild boar is very acute in the sense of 
 smell. A zealous sportsman tells us, " I have often been 
 surprised, when stealing upon one in the woods, to ob- 
 serve how soon he has become aware of my neighbourhood. 
 Lifting his head, he would sniff the air inquiringly, then, 
 uttering a short grunt, make off as fast as he could."* 
 The same writer has also sometimes noticed in a family of 
 wild boars one, generally a weakling, who was buffeted 
 and ill-treated by the rest. " Do what he would, nothing 
 was right ; sometimes the mother, uttering a disapproving 
 grunt, would give him a nudge to make him move more 
 quickly, and that would be a sign for all the rest of his 
 relations to begin showing their contempt for him too. 
 * Boner's " Chamois Hunting in the Mountains of Bavaria," p. 97.
 
 sow. 243 
 
 One would push him, and then another ; for, go where he 
 might, he was sure to be in the way. 1 ' In the extensive 
 woods frequented by this animal in Europe, abundant 
 supplies of food are met with in the roots of various plants 
 which it grubs up, in the beech-mast, acorns, and other 
 tree productions, which, during two or three months of 
 the year, it finds on the ground. Although well able to 
 defend itself, it is a harmless animal, and being shy, 
 retires to those parts of the forests most remote from the 
 presence of man. A site in the neighbourhood of water 
 is preferred to any other. 
 
 Travellers in the East frequently refer to this animal 
 and to its ravages when it gets into a rice-field or a vine- 
 yard ; for although its natural food be wild roots and wild 
 fruits, if cultivated grounds be in the neighbourhood, its 
 ravages are very annoying to the husbandmen, who can 
 fully and feelingly understand the words of the Psalmist, 
 " The boar out of the wood doth waste it" (Ps. Ixxx. 13). 
 
 Messrs Irby and Mangles,* as they approached the 
 Jordan, saw a herd of nine wild pigs, and they found the 
 trees on the banks of a stream near that river all marked 
 with mud, left by the wild swine in rubbing themselves. 
 A valley which they passed was grubbed up in all direc- 
 tions with furrows made by these animals, so that the soil 
 had all the appearance of having been ploughed up. 
 
 Burckhardt mentions the occurrence of the wild boar 
 and panther together, or the ounce, as he calls it, on the 
 mountain of Kieha, and also in the wooded part of Tabor. 
 He mentions " a common saying and belief among the 
 Turks, that all the animal kingdom was converted by 
 * " Travels " (Home and Colonial Library), p. 147.
 
 244 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 their prophet to the true faith, except the wild boar and 
 buffalo, which remained unbelievers ; it is on this account 
 that both these animals are often called Christians. We 
 are not surprised that the boar should be so denominated ; 
 but as the flesh of the buffalo, as well as its Lebeu or 
 sour milk, is much esteemed by the Turks, it is difficult 
 to account for the disgrace into which that animal has 
 fallen among them ; the only reason I could learn for it 
 is, that the buffalo, like the hog, has a habit of rolling in 
 the mud, and of plunging into the muddy ponds in the 
 summer time up to the very nose, which alone remains 
 visible above the surface." * Wild boars were frequently 
 fallen in with by this traveller during his Syrian travels 
 in the neighbourhood of rush-covered springs, where they 
 could easily return to their " wallowing in the mire ; " he 
 also met with them on all the mountains he visited in his 
 tour. In the Ghor they are very abundant, and so injuri- 
 ous to the Arabs of that valley that they are unable to 
 cultivate the common barley on account of the eagerness 
 with which the wild swine feed on it, and are obliged to 
 grow a less esteemed kind, with six rows of grains which 
 the swine will not touch. 
 
 Messrs Hemprich and Ehrenberg tell us that the wild 
 boar is far from scarce in the marshy districts around 
 Rosetta and Damietta, and that it does not seem to differ 
 from the European species. The head of a wild boar 
 which these travellers saw at Bischerre, a village of 
 Lebanon, closely resembled the European variety, except 
 in being a little longer. The Maronites there, who ate its 
 flesh in their company, called it chansir,^ a name evi- 
 
 * "Travels in Syria and the Holy Land," p. 9. 
 t Symbolse Physicse.
 
 sow. 245 
 
 dently identical with the Hebrew word chasir, which 
 occurs in the Bible. The Turks, according to Ehrenberg, 
 keep swine in their stables, from a persuasion that all 
 devils who may enter will be more likely to go into the 
 pigs than the horses, from their alliance to the former 
 unclean animals. A. White, in "Excelsior" 
 
 THE RIVER PIG, OR PAINTED PIG OF THE CAMAROON.* 
 
 The other day we revisited the Zoological Gardens, and 
 found that two old friends had got the one, a companion, 
 the other, a neighbour. The latter was the bulky hippo- 
 potamus, now most bearish, and more and more unmis- 
 takably showing the minute accuracy of those master lines 
 in the Book of Job, in which Behemoth's portrait, pose, and 
 character are depicted. The former was the subject of 
 this article evidently, as far as colour goes, " the chieftain 
 of the porcine race." 
 
 The poet tells us, however, " Nimium ne crede colori ;" 
 and observation, as well as the Scripture, shows us daily 
 that " fair havens " in summer are but foul places to 
 " winter in ;" that fair speeches, and a flattering tongue, 
 and the kisses of an enemy, " are deceitful ;" and that 
 beneath a fine spotted or barred coat, the jaguar and the 
 tiger, the cobra and the hornet, conceal both the power 
 and the propensity for mischief. So with our old friend 
 Potamochcerus. The pretty creature, beauty is relative - 
 the Cameroon pig is the prettiest, the gaudiest of the race, 
 the pretty creature, we repeat, is of a fine bay red, made 
 
 * Potamochcerus penicellatus. Hora/tos, a river ; x?P*> a P'g > 
 penicellatus, pencilled. It is said to be the Sus porous of Linnaeus.
 
 246 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 to look more bright from the circumstance of the face, ears, 
 and front of the legs being black, while the red is relieved, 
 and the black is defined, by the pencilled lines of white 
 which edge the ears, streak over and under the eye, and 
 ornament the long whiskers, another long white line tra- 
 versing the middle of the back ; a very attractive combina- 
 tion of colour the painting of " Him who made the 
 world" and one which must make the Potamochoerus 
 penicellatus most conspicuous among the bright green 
 shrubs and dark marshes of the rivers of equinoctial Africa, 
 on whose banks the race has been planted. The present 
 largest specimen was taken, when a " piggie," by a trading 
 captain, as it was swimming across the Cameroon River. 
 He brought it to Liverpool ; Dr Gray, of the British 
 Museum, gave an account of it in the " Illustrated Pro- 
 ceedings of the Zoological Society of London for 1852" 
 an excellent work where its figure, drawn and coloured 
 by the hand of Wolf, shows the condition of the African 
 sow four years ago. It was then a round, comfortable, 
 kind-looking creature, which one might almost have fondled 
 as a pet. The pig now looks rather a dangerous beast, and 
 its beauty is not increased by its face having grown longer, 
 and by the bump and hollow on each cheek being larger 
 and deeper ; nor is its mouth so attractive or innocent, 
 now that its tusks those ivory daggers and knives of the 
 family of Swine have grown longer. The creature, partly 
 it may be from familiarity, jumps up against the iron 
 palisade which separates the visitor from its walk, but a 
 poor pannage as a substitute for its African home. We 
 would advise him to read the notice : " Visitors are 
 requested not to tease the animals;" " not to touch"
 
 sow. 247 
 
 would be a good reprint for few, we fancy, would try to 
 tease. 
 
 One, however, especially a lady, likes to know and to 
 feel texture ; and sadly used the fine, mild Edward Cross, 
 of Exeter Change and the Surrey Zoological Gardens, once 
 the Nestor as well as the King among keepers of wild 
 beasts a gentle, gentlemanly, white-haired, venerable man, 
 sadly, we say, used Mr Cross to lament that there were 
 parasols, and that he could not keep them out of his 
 garden. Mr C. told the writer that he lost many a beast 
 and bird from the pokes of that insinuating weapon. We 
 dissuade any lady from touching or going near a zebra's 
 mouth, or the horns of an ibex or an algazel, or the pointed 
 bill of a heron or stork, or from putting her hand near this 
 fine painted pig. 
 
 Up jumps Potamochoerus eye rather vindictive, how- 
 ever and mark, as that big specimen is foreshortened 
 before you, the profile of the little companion pig of the 
 same species, standing within a few feet, but safe from the 
 poke of any umbrella or parasol ; look how innocent and 
 inviting how quiet, and sleek, and polished, and painted, 
 and mild it looks, all but that little suspicious eye, with 
 its wink oblique, and its malicious twinkle. 
 
 Of the habits of this pig we can find no written record, 
 though in the journals of the Scottish or Wesleyan Mis- 
 sionaries there may be some notices of it. We do not 
 know whence the Society procured the second specimen, 
 but it shows that Africa's wild animals, like its chain of 
 internal Caspian seas, and its mountain-ranges and rivers, 
 are becoming gradually known. Old Bosnian, who was 
 chief factor for the Dutch on the Gold Coast 150 years
 
 248 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 ago, refers to the swine near Fort St George d'Elmina 
 being not nearly so wild as those of Europe, and adds, 
 " I have several times eaten of them here, and found 
 them very delicious and very tender meat, the fat being 
 extraordinarily fine." * He evidently refers to some other 
 species. 
 
 Travellers in South Africa have made us familiar with 
 the habits, and specimens in the Zoological Gardens, in a 
 pannage close to that of the " painted pig," show us the 
 form and ugliness, of the bush pig and flat pig (CJioiro- 
 potamus Africanus) of that southern land, with their long 
 heads, long legs, upturned tails, and horrid tusks. They 
 have a strange habit of kneeling on their fore-legs. In 
 South Africa they abound ; and the natives our excellent 
 friend, the Rev. Henry Methuen, tells us often bring their 
 jaws for barter. They are of a dingy, dirty gray; the 
 boar is two feet and a half high, and his tusks sometimes 
 measure " eleven inches and a half each from the jaw- 
 bone," are five inches and a half in circumference at the 
 base, and are thirteen inches apart at their extremities. 
 
 No animal is more formidably armed ; and his rapidity 
 and lightness of movement make him a very marked object 
 to the African Nimrod, who, midst " clumps of bush" 
 be they Proteaca3, heaths, or Diosmese not unfrequently 
 comes on a herd of wild pigs " headed by a noble boar," 
 with tail erect. We could enter largely on the history of 
 this active species, and quote many a stirring anecdote of 
 travellers' rencontres with this fearless animal. The lion 
 skulks away from him, but the rhinoceros at least one 
 
 * " A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea, 
 written originally in Dutch." London, 1705, p. 247.
 
 sow. 249 
 
 species the buffalo, with, his formidable front of horn and 
 bone, and the bush pig, with his dreaded tusks, show but 
 little fear ; and it is well for the huntsman that he has a 
 sure eye, a steady hand, and a double-barrelled gun, and 
 not a few Caffir followers to help him, should his eye be 
 dim, his hand waver, or his gun " flash in the pan." Dogs 
 avail but little ; a deadly gash lays open their ribs, and a 
 side-thrust of a wild boar will cut into the most muscular 
 leg, and for ever destroy its tendons. We have done with 
 pigs, and would only recommend a visit a frequent visit 
 to that paradise of animals, the Zoological Gardens, where, 
 a fortnight ago, we saw wild boars from Hesse Darmstadt ; 
 wild boars from Egypt ; bush pigs from Africa ; peccaries 
 from South America ; and two painted pigs from West 
 Africa ; all " de grege porci" and in excellent health : to say 
 nothing of two hippopotamuses ; four " seraphic" giraffes ; 
 antelopes (we did not number them) ; brush turkeys from 
 Australia ; an apteryx from New Zealand ; the curious 
 white sheathbills from the South Seas ; the refulgent 
 metallic green and purple-tinted monaul, or Impeyan 
 pheasant, strutting with outspread, light-coloured tail, just 
 as he courts his plain hen-mate on the Indian mountains ; 
 a family of the funny pelicans cleanliness, ugliness, and 
 contentment in one happy combination; a band of fla- 
 mingoes ; eagles and vultures ; the harpy that Picton of 
 the birds looking defiance as he stands, with upraised 
 crest, flashing eye, and clenched talons, over his food ; the 
 wily otter ; the amiable seal, which carries us to the seas 
 and rocks of much-loved Shetland, with their long, wind- 
 ing voes, their bird-frequented cliffs, and outlying skerries ; 
 the Indian thrush, which reminds one of a " mavis " at
 
 250 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 home ; the parrot-house, with its fine contrasts of colour 
 and its discordant noises ; Penny's Esquimaux dog poor 
 fellow, a prisoner, unlike to what he was when, with our 
 dear friends Dr Sutherland and Captain Stewart, this very 
 dog breasted the blast before a sledge in the Wellington 
 Channel.* Look at that wondrous sloth, organised for a 
 life in a Brazilian forest those two restless Polar bears ; 
 and though last, not least, those wonders of the great 
 deep, " the sea-anemones," the exquisite red and white 
 " feathery" tentacles of the long cylindrical-twisted ser- 
 pulse, and marvellously-transparent streaked shrimps, all 
 leg, and feeler, and eye, and "nose" in the salt-water 
 tanks in the Vivarium. A. White, in " Excelsior" 
 
 S. BlSSET AND HIS LEARNED PlG. 
 
 S. Bisset, formerly referred to, when at Belfast bought a 
 black sucking pig, and after several experiments succeeded 
 in training a creature, so obstinate and perverse by nature, 
 to become most tractable and docile. In August 1783, he 
 took his learned pig to Dublin for exhibition. " It was 
 not only under full command, but appeared as pliant and 
 good-natured as a spaniel. He had taught it to spell the 
 names of any one in the company, to tell the hour, minute, 
 and second, to make his obeisance to the company, and he 
 occasioned many a laugh by his pointing out the married 
 and the unmarried. Some one in authority forced him to 
 
 * See Dr Sutherland's interesting account in his " Journal of a 
 Voyage in Baffin Bay and Barrow's Straits in the years 1850, 1851 ;" 
 a truly excellent work on the Arctic regions, by one who is now 
 Surveyor of Natal.
 
 sow. 251 
 
 leave Dublin, and he died broken-hearted shortly after at 
 Chester, on his way to London, where forty and more years 
 before he had first been induced to train animals." * 
 
 QUIXOTE BOWLES FOND OF PIGS. 
 
 Southey records of Quixote Bowles that he " had a 
 great love for pigs ; he thought them the happiest of all 
 God's creatures, and would walk twenty miles to see one 
 that was remarkably fat. This love extended to bacon ; he 
 was an epicure in it ; and whenever he went out to dinner, 
 took a piece of his own curing in his pocket, and requested 
 the cook to dress it." f 
 
 ON JEKYLL NEARLY THROWN DOWN BY A VERY SMALL PIG. 
 
 " As Jekyll walk'd out in his gown and his wig, 
 He happen'd to tread on a very small pig ; 
 * Pig of science,' he said, ' or else I 'm mistaken, 
 For surely thou art an abridgment of Bacon' " J 
 
 GOOD ENOUGH FOR A PIG. 
 
 An Irish peasant being asked why he permitted his pig 
 to take up its quarters with his family, made an answer 
 abounding with satirical naivete. " Why not ? Doesn't the 
 place afford every convenience that a pig can require ?" 
 
 * See Biography in G. H. Wilson's Eccentric Mirror, i.,No. 3, p. 30. 
 
 + " Common-Place Book," iv. p. 514. 
 
 J Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 107. Ibid., p. 337.
 
 252 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 Mrs Fry, in 1827, visited Ireland on one of her Chris- 
 tian and philanthropic tours. In a letter to her children 
 from Armagh she says " Pigs abound ; I think they have 
 rather a more elegant appearance than ours, their hair often 
 rather curled. Perhaps naturalists may attribute this to 
 their intimate association with their betters ! " * 
 
 THE COUNTRYMAN'S CRITICISM ON THE PIGS IN GAINS- 
 BOROUGH'S PICTURE OP THE GIRL AND PIGS. 
 
 Thomas Gainsborough, the great English painter, exhi- 
 bited, in 1782, among pictures of noblemen, gentlemen, 
 and ladies, his well-known " Girl and Pigs." f 
 
 Wolcot, better known as " Peter Pindar," in his first 
 " Ode to the Royal Academicians," refers to this picture. 
 
 " And now, Muse, with song so big, 
 Turn round to Gainsborough's Girl and Pig, 
 Or Pig and Girl, I rather should have said ; 
 The pig in white, I must allow, 
 Is really a well painted sow, 
 I wish to say the same thing of the maid." 
 
 " The expression and truth of nature in the Girl and 
 Pigs," remarks Northcote, " were never surpassed. Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds was struck with it, though he thought 
 Gainsborough ought to have made her a beauty." Rey- 
 nolds, indeed, became the purchaser of the painting at one 
 hundred guineas, Gainsborough asking but sixty. During 
 its exhibition, it is said to have attracted the attention of 
 a countryman, who remarked " They be deadly like pigs, 
 
 * " Memoir of the Life of Elizabeth Fry," vol. ii. p. 30. 1847. 
 t " Life of Thomas Gainsborough, E.A.," by the late George 
 William Fulcher, edited by his Son, p. 122. 1856.
 
 sow. 253 
 
 but nobody ever saw pigs feeding together but what one 
 on 'em had a foot in the trough." 
 
 HOOK AND THE LlTTER OF PlGS. 
 
 Once a gentleman, who had the marvellous gift of shap- 
 ing a great many things out of orange-peel, was displaying 
 his abilities at a dinner-party before Theodore Hook and 
 Mr Thomas Hili, and succeeded in counterfeiting a pig. 
 Mr Hill tried the same feat ; and after destroying and 
 strewing the table with the peel of a dozen oranges, gave it 
 up, with the exclamation, " Hang the pig ! I can't make 
 him." "Nay, Hill," exclaimed Hook, glancing at the 
 mess on the table, " you have done more ; instead of one 
 pig, you have made a litter." * 
 
 Hook, we may add, was an original wit. He did not, 
 like most professed wits, study his sayings before, and 
 arrange with his seeming opponent for an imaginary war 
 of words. He was an impromptu wit. 
 
 JESTS ABOUT SWINE. 
 
 Lord Chancellor Hardwicke's bailiff, having been ordered 
 by his lady to procure a sow of a particular description, 
 came one day into the dining-room when full of company, 
 proclaiming with a burst of joy he could not suppress 
 " I have been at Royston Fair, my lady, and I have got a 
 BOW exactly of your ladyship's size." t 
 
 John was thought to be very stupid. He was sent to a 
 * Mark Lemon, " Jest Book," p. 328. t Ibid., p. 2.
 
 254 HEADS AND TALKS. 
 
 mill one day, and the miller Sciid " John, some people say 
 you are a fool ! Now, tell me, what you do know, and 
 what you don't know." "Well," replied John, "I know 
 millers' hogs are fat!" "Yes, that's well, John; now, 
 what don't you know?" "I don't know whose corn fats 
 'em." * 
 
 PIGS AND SILVER SPOON. 
 
 The Earl of P kept a number of swine at his seat 
 
 in Wiltshire, and crossing the yard one day, he was sur- 
 prised to see the pigs gathered round one trough, and 
 making a great noise. Curiosity prompted him to see 
 what was the cause, and on looking into the trough he per- 
 ceived a large silver spoon. A servant-maid came out, and 
 began to abuse the pigs for crying so. " Well they may," 
 said his lordship, " when they have got but one silver spoon 
 among them all." 
 
 We have heard of one nobleman in Strathearn, who, 
 when a young man, used to be thus addressed by his 
 mother "William ! how are the children and your pigs ?"t 
 
 SYDNEY SMITH ON BEAUTIFUL PIGS. 
 
 DEFINITION OP BEAUTY BY A UTILITARIAN. 
 
 " Go to the Duke of Bedford's piggery at Woburn, and 
 you will see a breed of pigs with legs so short, that their 
 
 * Mark Lemon, " Jest Book," p. 31. The latter of these jests is 
 attributed by Dean Ramsay to a half-witted Ayrshire man, who said 
 he " kenned a miller had aye a gey fat sow." Reminiscences, p. 197. 
 
 f Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 269. This worthy nobleman 
 was and is much attached to his home-farm. He is well known in 
 Perthshire.
 
 sow. 255 
 
 stomachs trail upon the ground ; a breed of animals en- 
 tombed in their own fat, overwhelmed with prosperity, 
 success, and farina. No animal could possibly be so dis- 
 gusting, if it were not useful ; but a breeder who has 
 accurately attended to the small quantity of food it requires 
 to swell this pig out to such extraordinary dimensions, 
 the extraordinary genius it displays for obesity, and the 
 laudable propensity of the flesh to desert the cheap regions 
 of the body, and to agglomerate on those parts which are 
 worth ninepence a pound, such an observer of its utility 
 does not scruple to call these otherwise hideous quadrupeds 
 a beautiful race of pigs ! " * 
 
 JOSEPH STURGE, WHEN A BOY, AND THE PIGS. 
 
 When Joseph Sturge, that good Quaker, was in his sixth 
 year, his biographer, Henry Eichard,t records that he 
 was on a visit to a friend of his mother's at Frenchay, 
 near Bristol. Sauntering about one day, he came near 
 the house of an eccentric man, a Quaker, who was much 
 annoyed by the depredations of his neighbour's pigs. 
 Half in jest, and half in earnest, he told the lad to drive 
 the pigs into a pond close by. Joseph, nothing loath, set 
 to work with a will, delighted with the fun. The woman, 
 to whom the pigs belonged, came out presently, broom in 
 hand, flourishing it over the young sinner's head. The 
 tempter was standing by, and sought to cover his share of 
 the transaction by shaking his head and saying " Ah, 
 
 * " Wit and Wisdom of Rev. Sydney Smith," third edition, p. 253. 
 From a lecture at Royal Institution. 
 
 f " Memoirs of Joseph Sturge," by Henry Eichard.
 
 256 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 ' Satan finds some mischief still 
 For idle hands to do.' 
 
 The child looked up at him indignantly, and said, ' Thee 
 bee'st Satan then, for thee told'st me to do it.' " 
 
 H O K S E. 
 
 THE noblest animal employed by man, and consequently 
 the subject of many volumes of anecdote, a study for the 
 painter and sculptor, from the days of the Greek and As- 
 syrian artists to the present day. Charles Darwin and Sir 
 Francis Head have given graphic descriptions of the catch- 
 ing of the wild horse, which swarms on the Pampas of 
 South America. 
 
 How pathetic to see the led horse following the bier of 
 a soldier ! It was, perhaps, the most affecting incident in 
 the long array of the funeral of the great Duke. 
 
 In the Museum at Brussels, Dr Patrick Neill observed, 
 in 1817, " the stuffed skin of the horse belonging to one of 
 the Alberts, who governed the Low Countries in the time 
 of the Spaniards. It was shot under him in the field, and 
 the holes made in the thorax by the musket bullets are 
 still very evident." * 
 
 Poor Copenhagen, the Duke's charger at Waterloo, was 
 buried. Many would have liked his skin or skeleton. 
 The Duke resisted all attempts to give his old friend up 
 for such a purpose. We hope no resurrectionist succeeded 
 in getting up his bones, years after his burial at Strath- 
 fieldsaye. 
 
 * " Journal of Horticultural Tour," p. 306. 

 
 HORSE. 257 
 
 BELL-ROCK HORSE. 
 
 The Bell-Rock Lighthouse, built on a dangerous range 
 of rocks twelve miles soutli by east from Arbroath, was 
 begun by Robert Stevenson on the 17th August 1807, and 
 finished in October 1810. Mr Jervise* records that "one 
 horse, the property of James Craw, a labourer in Arbroath, 
 is believed to have drawn the entire materials of the 
 building. The animal latterly became a pensioner of the 
 Lighthouse Commissioners, and was sent by them to graze 
 on the Island of Inchkeith, where it died of old age in 
 1813. Dr John Barclay, the celebrated anatomist, had its 
 bones collected and arranged in his museum, which he be- 
 queathed at his death to the Royal College of Surgeons, 
 and in their museum at Edinburgh the skeleton of the 
 Bell-Rock horse may yet be seen." 
 
 BURKE AND THE HORSE. 
 
 An anecdote of the humanity of the great Edmund 
 Burke in the year 1762 has been preserved.! " An Irish- 
 man, of the name of Johnson, was astonishing the town by 
 his horsemanship. All London crowded to see his feats of 
 agility and his highly-trained steeds. Dr Johnson and Bos- 
 well talked of this man's wonderful ability, and the Doctor 
 thought that he fully deserved encouragement on philo- 
 sophical grounds. He proved what human perseverance 
 
 *" Memorials of Angus and the Mearns," by Andrew Jervise 
 (1861), p. 175. 
 
 f " History of the Life and Times of Edmund Burke," by Thomas 
 Macknight, vol. i. p. 160. 
 
 R
 
 258 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 could do. One who saw him riding on three horses at once, 
 or dancing upon a wire, might hope, that with the same 
 application in the profession of his choice, he should at- 
 tain the same success. Burke, always ready to encourage 
 his countrymen, and curious in all the ramifications of 
 ingenuity, went frequently to the circus. The favourite 
 performance of the evening was that of a handsome black 
 horse, which, at the sound of Johnson's whip, would leave 
 the stable, stand with much docility at his side, 
 then gallop about the ring, and on hearing the crack of 
 the lash again return obediently to its master. On one 
 unfortunate occasion, the signal was disregarded. The 
 horse-rider flew into a rage, and by a blow between the 
 ears, struck the noble animal to the earth. The spectators 
 thought the horse was dying, but they had little time to 
 reflect on the sight before they were surprised at seeing a 
 gentleman jump into the ring, rush up to Johnson, and 
 with his eyes flashing, and every muscle in the face quiver- 
 ing with emotiorf, shout out, ' You scoundrel ! I have a 
 mind to knock you down.' And Johnson would certainly 
 have been laid sprawling in the sawdust beside his pant- 
 ing steed, had not the friends of the gentleman interposed, 
 and prevented him inflicting such summary chastisement. 
 This incident was long remembered. When the relater of 
 it, many years afterwards, heard Burke declaiming, on 
 the floor of the House of Commons, against injustice and 
 oppression, his mind naturally reverted to the time when 
 he saw the same hatred of all cruelty displayed by the 
 same individual as he stood over the prostrate body of the 
 poor black horse, prepared to punish the miscreant who 
 had felled it to the ground."
 
 HORSE. 259 
 
 DAVID GARRICK AND HIS HORSE. 
 
 In 1778 Sir Joshua Reynolds visited Dr Warton at 
 Winchester College. Here he was particularly noticed 
 by George III. and his queen, who were then making a 
 tour through the summer encampments. The father of 
 Lord Palmerston, and David Garrick, the great actor, with 
 others, visited Warton at the same time. 
 
 Mr Northcote * relates that a whimsical accident oc- 
 curred to Garrick at one of the reviews, which Sir Joshua 
 afterwards recounted with great humour. 
 
 " At one of those field-days in the vicinity, Garricfc 
 found it necessary to dismount, when his horse escaped 
 from his hold and ran off ; throwing himself immediately 
 into his professional attitude, he cried out, as if on Bos- 
 worth field, ' A horse ! a horse ! my kingdom for a horse ! ' " 
 
 This exclamation, and the accompanying attitude, ex- 
 cited great amazement amongst the surrounding spectators, 
 who knew him not j but it could not escape his majesty's 
 quick apprehension, for, it being within his hearing, he 
 immediately said, "Those must be the tones of Gar- 
 rick ! see if he is not on the ground." The theatrical and 
 dismounted monarch was immediately brought to his 
 majesty, who not only condoled with him most good 
 humouredly on his misfortune, but flatteringly added, that 
 his delivery of Shakspeare could never pass undiscovered. 
 
 This anecdote of Garrick at Winchester is told in the 
 Rev. John Wool's " Life of Warton." Mr Taylor says 
 " One can't help suspecting Roscius took care to make his 
 speech when he knew the king was within earshot a little 
 
 * "Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds," &c., by James Norfchcote, Esq., 
 E.A. (2d edition), vol. ii. p, 80.
 
 260 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 bit of that ' artifice' of his which has left such an impres- 
 sion in the theatre, that the phrase, ' As deep as Garrick,' 
 is still current stage slang." * 
 
 BERNARD GILPIN'S HORSES STOLEN AND RECOVERED. t 
 The biographer of the saintly Bernard Gilpin, the apostle 
 of the northern counties of England in the days of 
 Edward VI., and Queens Mary and Elizabeth, relates 
 that, by the carelessness of his servant, his horses were one 
 day stolen. The news was quickly propagated, and every 
 one expressed the highest indignation. The thief was 
 rejoicing over his prize, when, by the report of the country, 
 he found whose horses he had taken. Terrified at what he 
 had done, he instantly came trembling back, confessed the 
 fact, returned the horses, and declared he believed the 
 devil would have seized him directly had he carried them 
 off, knowing them to have been Mr Gilpin's. The bio- 
 grapher gives an instance of his benevolent temper. " One 
 day returning home, he saw in a field several people crowd- 
 ing together; and judging that something more than 
 ordinary had happened, he rode up to them, and found 
 that one of the horses in a team had suddenly dropped 
 down, which they were endeavouring to raise ; but in vain, 
 for the horse was dead. The owner of it seeming much 
 dejected with his misfortune, and declaring how grievous a 
 loss it was to him, Mr Gilpin bade him not be disheartened ; 
 " I '11 let you have, honest man, that horse of mine," and 
 
 * " Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds," by C. R. Leslie and 
 Tom Taylor, M.A., vol. ii. p. 219. 
 
 t " Lives of Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, and of Bernard 
 Gilpin," by William Gilpin, M.A. (3d edition), 1780, p. 275.
 
 HORSE. 261 
 
 pointed to his servant's. " Ah ! master," replied the coun 
 tryman, " my pocket will not reach such a beast as that." 
 " Come, come," says Mr Gilpin, " take him, take him ; and 
 when I demand my money, then thou shalt pay me." * 
 
 No wonder that the horses of the apostolic rector of 
 Houghton-le-Spring were safe, even in those horse-stealing 
 times, and in that Border county. 
 
 THE HERALD AND GEORGE Ill's HORSE. 
 One day, when Sir Isaac Heard was in company with 
 George III., it was announced that his majesty's horse was 
 ready for hunting. " Sir Isaac," said the king, " are you 
 a judge of horses'?" "In my younger days, please your 
 majesty, I was a great deal among them," was the reply. 
 " What do you think of this, then ? " said the king, who 
 was by this time preparing to mount his favourite ; and, 
 without waiting for an answer, added, "We call him 
 Perfection." "A most appropriate name," replied the 
 courtly herald, bowing as his majesty reached the saddle, 
 {; for he bears the best of characters."! 
 
 ROWLAND HILL AND HIS HORSE AT DUNBAR. 
 Many stories of the excellent but eccentric Rowland 
 Hill are told, but often with considerable exaggeration. 
 The following may be depended on for its accuracy, as it 
 was told by Robert Haldane. i It occurred at Dunbar, in 
 September 1797, during an evangelistic tour Hill and 
 Haldane were making in Scotland. They were sleeping 
 
 * Loc. cit., p. 284. 
 
 t Mark Lemon, " Jest Book," p. 39. 
 
 J " The Lives of Robert Haldane of Airthrey, and of his Brother, 
 James Alexander Haldane," by Alex. Haldane, Esq., of the Inner 
 Temple (1852), p. 223.
 
 262 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 at Mr Cunningham's, when, in the morning, intending to 
 proceed southward, on Mr Hill's carriage being brought to 
 the door, his horse was found to be dead lame. A farrier 
 was sent for, who, after careful examination, reported that 
 the seat of the mischief was in the shoulder, that the disease 
 was incurable, and that they might shoot the poor animal 
 as soon as they pleased. To this proposal Mr Hill was by 
 no means prepared to accede. Indeed, it seemed to Mr Hal 
 dane as precipitate as the conduct of an Irish sailor on board 
 the Monarch, who, on seeing another knocked down sense- 
 less by a splinter, and supposing his companion to be dead, 
 went up to Captain Duncan, on the quarter-deck, in the 
 midst of the action with Languara, off St Vincent, and ex- 
 claimed, "Shall we jerk him overboard, sir?" On that 
 occasion the sailor revived in a short time, and was even 
 able to work at his gun. In the present instance the horse, 
 too, recovered, and was able to carry his master on many a 
 future errand of mercy. Meanwhile, however, the travel- 
 lers availed themselves of Mr Cunningham's hospitality, 
 and remained for two days more at his place, near Dunbar. 
 In the evening Mr Hill conducted family worship, and 
 after the supplications for the family, domestics, arid 
 friends, added a fervent prayer for the restoration of the 
 valuable animal which had carried him so many thousands 
 of miles, preaching the everlasting gospel to his fellow- 
 sinners. Mr Cunningham, who was remarkable for the 
 staid and orderly, if not stiff, demeanour, which character- 
 ised the anti-burghers, was not only surprised but grieved, 
 and even scandalised, at what he deemed so great an im- 
 propriety. He remonstrated with his guest. But Mr 
 Hill stoutly defended his conduct by an appeal to Scrip- 
 ture, and the superintending watchfulness of Him without
 
 HORSE. 263 
 
 whom a sparrow falls not to the ground. He persisted in 
 his prayer during the two days he continued at Dunbar, 
 and, although he left the horse, in a hopeless state, to fol- 
 low in charge of .Ms servant by easy stages, he continued 
 his prayer, night and morning, till one day, at an inn 
 in Yorkshire, while the two travellers were sitting at 
 breakfast, they heard a horse and chaise trot briskly 
 into the yard, and, looking out, saw that Mr Hill's servant 
 had arrived, bringing up the horse perfectly restored. Mr 
 Hill did not fail to return thanks, and begged his fellow- 
 traveller to consider whether the minuteness of his prayers 
 had deserved the censure which had been directed against 
 them. 
 
 A SAYING OF ROWLAND HILL'S. 
 
 Rowland Hill rode a great deal, and exercise preserved 
 him in vigorous health. On one occasion, when asked by 
 a medical friend, who was commenting on his invariably 
 good health, what physician and apothecary he employed, 
 he replied, " My physician has always been a horse, and 
 my apothecary an ass /" * 
 
 HOLCEOFT ON THE HORSE. 
 
 Thomas Holcroft, the novelist and play-writer, when a 
 lad, was a stable boy to a trainer of running horses. In 
 his memoirs he has written a good deal about the habits 
 of the race-horse. He says of them : " I soon learned that 
 th safehold for sitting steady was to keep the knee and 
 the calf of the leg strongly pressed against the sides of the 
 animal that endeavours to unhorse you ; and as little acci- 
 dents afford frequent occasions to remind the boys of this 
 * Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 318.
 
 264 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 rule, it becomes so rooted in the memory of the intelligent, 
 that their danger is comparatively trifling. Of the tempera- 
 ments and habits of blood-horses there are great varieties, 
 and those very strongly contrasted. The majority of them 
 are playful, but their gambols are dangerous to the timid 
 or unskilful. They are all easily and suddenly alarmed, 
 when anything they do not understand forcibly catches 
 their attention, and they are then to be feared by the bad 
 horseman, and carefully guarded against by the good. 
 Very serious accidents have happened to the best. But, 
 besides their general disposition to playfulness, there is a 
 great propensity in them to become what the jockeys call 
 vicious. High bred, hot in blood, exercised, fed and 
 dressed so as to bring that heat to perfection, their tender 
 skins at all times subject to a sharp curry-comb, hard 
 brushing, and when they take sweats, to scraping with 
 wooden instruments, it cannot be but that they are fre- 
 quently and exceedingly irritated. Intending to make 
 themselves felt and feared, they will watch their oppor- 
 tunity to bite, stamp, or kick ; I mean those among them 
 that are vicious. Tom, the brother of Jack Clarke, after 
 sweating a gray horse that belonged to Lord March, with 
 whom he lived, while he was either scraping or dressing 
 him, was seized by the animal by the shoulder, lifted from 
 the ground, and carried two or three hundred yards before 
 the horse loosened his hold. Old Forrester, a horse that 
 belonged to Captain Vernon, all the while that I remained 
 at Newmarket, was obliged to be kept apart, and being 
 foundered, to live at grass, where he was confined to a 
 close paddock. Except Tom Watson, he would suffer no 
 lad to come near him ; if in his paddock, he would run
 
 HORSE. 265 
 
 furiously at the first person that approached, and if in the 
 stable, would kick and assault every one within his reach. 
 Horses of this kind seem always to select their favourite 
 boy. Tom Watson, indeed, had attained to man's estate, 
 and in his brother's absence, which was rare, acted as 
 superintendent. Horses, commonly speaking, are of a 
 friendly and generous nature ; but there are anecdotes of 
 the malignant and savage ferocity of some, that are scarcely 
 to be credited ; at least many such are traditional at New- 
 market. 
 
 Of their friendly disposition towards their keepers, 
 there is a trait known to every boy that has the care of 
 any one of them, which ought not to be omitted. The 
 custom is to rise very early, even between two and three 
 in the morning, when the days lengthen. In the course 
 of the day, horses and boys have much to do. About half 
 after eight, perhaps, in the evening, the horse has his last 
 feed of oats, which he generally stands to enjoy in the 
 centre of his smooth, carefully made bed of clean long straw, 
 and by the side of him the weary boy will often lie down ; 
 it being held as a maxim, a rule without exception, that 
 were he to lie even till morning, the horse would never lie 
 down himself, but stand still, careful to do his keeper no 
 harm.* 
 
 In one of Thomas Holcroft's novels, " Alwyn ; or, The 
 Gentleman Comedian, "founded on his own adventures when 
 a travelling actor, he gives the character of an enthusiast 
 who had conceived the idea of establishing a humane 
 asylum for animals, the consequences of which he describes. 
 " I am pestered, plagued, teased, tormented to death. I 
 * "Memoirs of Thomas Holcroft" (ed. 1852), pp. 40, 41.
 
 266 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 believe all the cats in Christendom are assembled in Ox- 
 fordshire. I am obliged to hire a clerk to pay the people; 
 and the village where I live is become a constant fair. A 
 fellow has set up the sign of the Three Blind Kittens, and 
 has the impudence to tell the neighbours, that if my whims 
 and my money only hold out for one twelvemonth, he 
 shall not care a fig for the king. I thought to prevent 
 this inundation, by buying up all the old cats and seclud- 
 ing them in convents and monasteries of my own, but the 
 value of the breeders is increased to such a degree, that I 
 do not believe my whole fortune is capable of the purchase. 
 Besides I am made an ass of. A rascal, who is a known 
 sharper in these parts, hearing of the aversion I had to 
 cruelty, bought an old one-eyed horse, that was going to 
 the dogs, for five shillings ; then taking a hammer in his 
 hand, watched an opportunity of finding me alone, and 
 addressed me in the following manner : ' Look you, master, 
 I know that you don't love to see any dumb creature 
 abused, and so, if you don't give me ten pounds, why, I 
 shall scoop out this old rip's odd eye with the sharp end 
 of this here hammer, now, before your face.' Ay, and 
 the villain would have done it too, if I had not instantly 
 complied ; but what was worse, the abominable scoundrel 
 had the audacity to tell me, when I wanted him to deliver 
 the horse first, for fear he should extort a further sum 
 from me, that he had more honour than to break his word. 
 A whelp of a boy had yesterday caught a young hedge- 
 hog, and perceiving me, threw it into the water to make 
 it extend its legs ; then with the rough side of a knotty 
 stick sawed upon them till the creature cried like a child ; 
 and when I ordered him to desist, told me he would not,
 
 HORSE. 267 
 
 till I had given Mm sixpence. * There is something worse 
 than all this. The avaricious rascals, when they can find 
 nothing that they think will excite my pity, disable the 
 first animal which is not dignified with the title of Chris- 
 tian, and then bring it to me as an object worthy of com- 
 miseration; so that, in fact, instead of protecting, I destroy. 
 The women have entertained a notion that I hate two- 
 legged animals ; and one of them called after me the other 
 day, to tell me I was an old rogue, and that I had better 
 give my money to the poor, than keep a parcel of dogs and 
 cats that eat up the village. I perceive it is in vain to 
 attempt carrying on the scheme much longer, and then my 
 poor invalids will be worse off than they were before." * 
 
 A JOKE OF LORD MANSFIELD'S ABOUT A HORSE. 
 
 Lord Campbell f tells an anecdote of George Wood, a 
 celebrated special pleader at the time when Lord Mansfield 
 was Chief-Justice. Though a subtle pleader, George was very 
 ignorant of horse-flesh, and had been cruelly cheated in the 
 purchase of a horse on whicli he had intended to ride the 
 circuit. He brought an action on the warranty that the 
 horse was " a good roadster, and free from vice." At the 
 trial before Lord Mansfield, it appeared that when the 
 plaintiff mounted at the stables in London, with the in- 
 tention of proceeding to Barnet, nothing could induce the 
 animal to move forward a single step. On hearing this 
 
 * " Memoirs of the late Thomas Holcroft," written by himself 
 (ed. London, 1852), p. 112. 
 
 f "Lives of the Chief-Justices of England" (Lord Ellen- 
 borough), vd iii. p. 100.
 
 268 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 evidence, the Chief-Justice with much gravity exclaimed, 
 " Who would have supposed that Mr Wood's horse would 
 have demurred when he ought to have gone to the country." 
 Any attempt, adds Lord Campbell, to explain this excellent 
 joke to lay gents would be vain, and to lawyers would be 
 superfluous. 
 
 GENERAL SIR JOHN MOORE AND HIS HORSE AT THE 
 BATTLE OF CORUNNA. 
 
 Charles Napier served in Lord William Bentinck's 
 brigade during the retreat of the truly great and ill-used 
 Mooreat thebattle of Corunna; he was covered with wounds, 
 and was carried off a prisoner. In his "Biography" 
 General Sir William Napier* has published a most inter- 
 esting description of the part his brother took in that 
 battle, and written in his own words. I extract a few 
 vivid lines in which Moore and his horse are brought be- 
 fore you. A heavy French column was descending rapidly 
 on the British line at the part where Napier was. " Sud- 
 denly I heard the gallop of horses, and turning saw Moore. 
 He came at speed, and pulled up so sharp and close he 
 seemed to have alighted from the air ; man and horse 
 looking at the approaching foe with an intenseness that 
 seemed to concentrate all feeling in their eyes. The sud- 
 den stop of the animal, a cream-coloured one, with black 
 tail and mane, had cast the latter streaming forward, its 
 ears were pushed out like horns, while its eyes flashed fire, 
 and it snorted loudly with expanded nostrils, expressing 
 terror, astonishment, and muscular exertion. My first 
 thought was, it will be away like the wind ; but then I 
 
 * VoL i. pp. 94-115
 
 HORSE. 269 
 
 looked at the rider, and the horse was forgotten. Thrown 
 on its haunches the animal came, sliding and dashing the 
 dirt up with its forefeet, thus bending the general for- 
 ward almost to its neck ; but his head was thrown back, 
 and his look more keenly piercing than I ever before saw 
 it. He glanced to the right and left, and then fixed his 
 eyes intently on the enemy's advancing column, at the same 
 time grasping the reins with both his hands, and pressing 
 the horse firmly with his knees ; his body thus seemed 
 to deal with the animal, while his mind was intent on the 
 enemy, and his aspect was one of searching intenseness, 
 beyond the power of words to describe ; for a while he 
 looked, and then galloped to the left, without uttering a 
 word." 
 
 NEITHER HORSES NOR CHILDREN CAN EXPLAIN THEIR 
 COMPLAINTS. 
 
 Dr Mounsey, the Chelsea doctor, an eccentric physi- 
 cian, who was a great friend of David Garrick, related to 
 Taylor that he was once in company with another physi- 
 cian and an eminent farrier. The physician stated that 
 among the difficulties of his profession, was that of dis- 
 covering the maladies of children, because they could not 
 explain the symptoms of their disorder. " Well," said the 
 farrier, " your difficulties are not greater than mine, for 
 my patients, the horses, are equally unable to explain their 
 complaints." "Ah !" rejoined the physician, "my brother 
 doctor must conquer me, as he has brought his cavalry 
 against my infantry ! " * 
 * " Physic and Physicians : a Medical Sketch-Book," vol. i. p. 59.
 
 270 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 HORSES WITH NAMES. 
 
 In this country most horses have a name, but in Ger- 
 many this custom must be unusual. Perthes, when on his 
 way from Hamburg to Frankfort, remarked at Bohmte 
 " It is a pleasing custom they have here of giving proper 
 names to horses. The horse is a noble and intelligent 
 animal, and quite as deserving of such a distinction as the 
 dog; and when it has a name, it has made some advance 
 towards personality."* 
 
 " OLD JACK" OP WATERLOO BRIDGE. 
 
 In building Waterloo Bridge, the finest of Eennie's 
 bridges, the whole of the stone required was hewn in some 
 fields on the Surrey side. Nearly the whole of this mate- 
 rial was drawn by one horse called " Old Jack," a most 
 sensible animal. Mr Smiles, in his " Life of John 
 Rennie,"t thus speaks of this favourite old horse "His 
 driver was, generally speaking, a steady and trustworthy 
 man ; though rather too fond of his dram before breakfast. 
 As the railway along which the stone was drawn passed in 
 front of the public-house door, the horse and truck were 
 usually pulled up, while Tom entered for his ' morning.' 
 On one occasion the driver stayed so long that ' Old Jack,' 
 becoming impatient, poked his head into the open door, and 
 taking his master's coat collar between his teeth, though in 
 a gentle sort of manner, pulled him out from the midst of 
 his companions, and thus forced him to resume the day's 
 work" 
 
 * " Memoirs of Frederick Perthes," vol. i. p. 309. 
 t " Lives of the Engineers," voL ii. 5. 185.
 
 HORSE. 271 
 
 SYDNEY SMITH AND HIS HORSES. 
 
 Sydney Smith, when rector of Foston-le-Clay, in York- 
 shire, a living which he got from Lord Chancellor Erskine 
 in 1806, was in the habit of riding a good deal. His 
 daughter says that, " either from the badness of his horses, 
 or the badness of his riding, or perhaps from both (in 
 spite of his various ingenious contrivances to keep himself 
 in the saddle), he had several falls, and kept us in con- 
 tinual anxiety."* He writes in a letter " I used to think a 
 fall from a horse dangerous, but much experience has con- 
 vinced me to the contrary. I have had six falls in two 
 years, and just behaved like the three per cents, when they 
 fall. I got up again, and am not a bit the worse for it any 
 more than the stock in question." In speaking'of this he 
 says, " I left off riding for the good of my parish and the 
 peace of my family; for, somehow or other, my horse and 
 I had a habit of parting company. On one occasion I 
 found myself suddenly prostrate in the streets of York, 
 much to the delight of the Dissenters. Another time my 
 horse Calamity flung me over his head into a neighbouring 
 parish, as if I had been a shuttlecock, and I felt grateful 
 it was not into a neighbouring planet ; but as no harm 
 came of it, I might have persevered perhaps, if, on a cer- 
 tain day, a Quaker tailor from a neighbouring village to 
 which I had said I was going to ride, had not taken it into 
 his head to call, soon after my departure, and request to 
 see Mrs Sydney. She instantly, conceiving I was thrown, 
 if not killed, rushed down to the man, exclaiming, ' Where 
 
 * " Memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith," by his daughter, Lady 
 Holland, vol. i. pp. 172-174.
 
 27'2 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 is he 1 where is your master ? is he hurt?' The astonished 
 and quaking snip stood silent from surprise. Still more 
 agitated by his silence, she exclaimed, ' Is he hurt ? I in- 
 sist upon knowing the worst !' ' Why, please, ma'am, it is 
 only thy little bill, a very small account, I wanted thee to 
 settle,' replied he, in much surprise. 
 
 " After this, you may suppose, I sold my horse ; how- 
 ever, it is some comfort to know that my friend, Sir 
 George, is one fall ahead of me, and is certainly a worse 
 rider. It is a great proof, too, of the liberality of this 
 county, where everybody can ride as soon as they are 
 born, that they tolerate me at all. 
 
 " The horse ' Calamity,' whose name has been thus intro- 
 duced, was the first-born of several young horses bred on 
 the farm, who turned out very fine creatures, and gained 
 him great glory, even amongst the knowing farmers of 
 Yorkshire ; but this first production was certainly not en- 
 couraging. To his dismay a huge, lank, large-boned foal 
 appeared, of chestnut colour, and with four white legs. It 
 grew apace, but its bones became more and more con- 
 spicuous ; its appetite was unbounded grass, hay, corn, 
 beans, food moist and dry, were all supplied in vain, and 
 vanished down his throat with incredible rapidity. He 
 stood, a large living skeleton, with famine written in his 
 face, and my father christened him ' Calamity.' As 
 Calamity grew to maturity, he was found to be as sluggish 
 in disposition as his master was impetuous ; so my father 
 was driven to invent his patent Tantalus, which consisted 
 of a small sieve of corn, suspended on a semicircular bar of 
 iron, from the ends of the shafts, just beyond the horse's 
 nose. The corn, rattling as the vehicle proceeded, stimu-
 
 HORSE, 273 
 
 lated Calamity to unwonted exertions ; and under the 
 hope of overtaking this imaginary feed, he did more work 
 than all the previous provender which had been poured 
 down his throat had been able to obtain from him." 
 
 He was very fond of his young horses, and they all 
 came running to meet him when he entered the field. He 
 began their education from their birth ; he taught them to 
 wear a girth, a bridle, a saddle ; to meet flags, music ; to 
 bear the firing of a pistol at their heads from their earliest 
 years; and he maintained that no horses were so well 
 broken as his ! At p. 388 she records, " At ten we always 
 went down-stairs to prayers in the library. Immediately 
 after, if we were alone, appeared the ' farmer' at the door, 
 lantern in hand. ' David, bring me my coat and stick,' 
 and off he set with him, summer and winter, to visit his 
 horses, and see that they were all well fed, and comfort- 
 able in their regions for the night. He kept up this 
 custom all his life ! " 
 
 Sydney Smith, when at Foston, used to exercise his skill 
 in medicine on the poor, and often did much good ; his 
 daughter gives some instances of his practice as a farrier. 
 
 " On one occasion, wishing to administer a ball to Peter 
 the Cruel,* the groom, by mistake, gave him two boxes of 
 opium pills in his bran mash, which Peter composedly 
 munched, boxes and all. My father, in dismay, when he 
 heard what had happened, went to look, as he thought, for 
 the last time on his beloved Peter ; but soon found, to his 
 great relief, that neither boxes nor pills had produced any 
 visible effects on him. Another time he found all his pigs 
 
 * A horse which he called so. 
 
 S
 
 :2 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 intoxicated, and, as he declared, 'grunting "God save the 
 King" about the stye,' from having eaten some fermented 
 grains which he had ordered for them. Once he adminis- 
 tered castor-oil to the red cow, in quantities sufficient to 
 have killed a regiment of Christians; but the red cow 
 laughed alike at his skill and his oil, and went on her way 
 rejoicing."* 
 
 Sydney Smith tells a story, or made one, of a clergyman 
 who was rather absent. " I heard of a clergyman who 
 went jogging along the road till he came to a turnpike. 
 ' What is to pay?' ' Pay, sir, for what V asked the turn- 
 pike man. ' Why, for my horse, to be sure. 5 ' Your horse, 
 sir? what horse? here is no horse, sir.' ' No horse ? God 
 bless me !' said he, suddenly, looking down between his 
 legs, ' I thought I was on horseback.' "t 
 
 JUDGE STORY AND THE NAMES HE GAVE HIS HORSES. 
 
 The son and biographer of the eminent American judge, 
 Joseph Story, relates of him J " To dumb creatures he 
 was kind and considerate, and indignant at any ill usage of 
 them. His sportive nature showed itself in the nicknames 
 which, in parody of the American fondness of titles, he 
 
 * " Memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith," by his daughter, Lady 
 Holland, vol. i. p. 117. 
 
 + Mrs Marcet, in Lady Holland's Memoirs of her Father, the 
 Eev. Sydney Smith, vol. i. p. 364. 
 
 J " Life and Letters of Joseph Story, Associate Justice of the 
 Supreme Court of the United States, and Dane Professor of Law at 
 Harvard University," edited by his son, Wm. W Story, vol. iL 
 p. 611.
 
 nonsE. 275 
 
 gave to his horses and dogs, as, ' The Eight Honourable Mr 
 Mouse/ or ' Colonel Roy.' " 
 
 WORDSWORTH ON CRUELTY TO HORSES IN IRELAND. 
 
 The Rev. Caesar Otway,* in a lecture full of interesting 
 anecdotes, records : "I remember an observation made 
 to me by one of the most gifted of the human race one 
 of the stars of this generation the poet of nature and 
 of feeling the good and the great Mr Wordsworth. Hav- 
 ing the honour of a conversation with him, after he had 
 made a tour through Ireland, I, in the course of it, asked 
 what was the thing that most struck his observation here, 
 as making us differ from the English ; and he, without 
 hesitation, said it was the ill treatment of our horses ; 
 that his soul was often, too often, sick within him at the 
 way in which he saw these creatures of God abused." 
 
 USE OP TAIL. SHORT-TAILED AND LONG-TAILED HORSES. 
 
 In an Irish paper was an advertisement for horses to 
 stand at livery on the following terms: "Long-tailed 
 horses at 3s. 6d. per week; short-tailed horses at 3s. 
 per week." On inquiry into the cause of the difference, it 
 was answered, that the horses with long tails could brush 
 the flies off their backs while eating, whereas the short- 
 tailed horses were obliged to take their heads from tht 
 manger, and so ate less.t 
 
 * " The Intellectuality of Domestic Animals: a Lecture Delivered 
 before the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland," p. 25. Dublin. 
 1847. 
 
 t Mark Lemon, " Jest Book," p. 203.
 
 276 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 ASS AND ZEBKA. 
 
 IT is strange that one of the most sagacious of animals 
 should have supplied us with a by-word for "a fool." 
 Coleridge was conscious of this when, in writing his ad- 
 dress to a young ass's foal,* he exclaimed 
 
 " I hail thee, brother, spite of the fool's scorn." 
 
 How well has he expressed his love for " the languid 
 patience " of its face. 
 
 In wanner climes the ass attains a size and condition 
 not seen here, though when cared for in this rougher 
 climate, the donkey assumes somewhat of the size and 
 elegance he has in the East. But who can bear his voice 1 
 Surely Coleridge was very fanciful when, in any condition 
 of asshood, he could write 
 
 " Yea, and more musically sweet to me 
 Thy dissonant, harsh bray of joy would be, 
 Than warbled melodies that soothe to rest 
 The aching of pale Fashion's vacant breast." 
 
 The wild ass, as it roams over the plains of Asia, or is seen 
 in the Zoological gardens along with the gracefully-shaped 
 and prettily-striped zebra, must be admired by every one. 
 
 COLLINS AND THE OLD DONKEY OF ODELL, COWPER'S 
 MESSENGER AT OLNEY. 
 
 In July 1823, William Collins, K.A., visited Turvey, in 
 Bedfordshire. His son remarks " Besides the attractions 
 presented to the pencil by the natural beauties of this 
 * " The Poems of 8. T. Coleridge," pp. 26, 27 (1844).
 
 ASS AND ZEBRA. 277 
 
 neighbourhood, its vicinity to Olney, the favourite resi- 
 dence of the poet Cowper, gave it, to all lovers of poetry, 
 a local and peculiar charm. Conspicuous among its in- 
 habitants at the time when my father visited it was ' old 
 Odell,' frequently mentioned by Cowper as the favourite 
 messenger who carried his letters and parcels. The ex- 
 treme picturesqueness and genuine rustic dignity of the 
 old man's appearance made him an admirable subject for 
 pictorial study. Portraits of him, in water-colours and 
 oils, were accordingly made by my father, who introduced 
 him into three of his pictures. The donkey on which he 
 had for years ridden to and fro with letters, was as carefully 
 depicted by the painter as his rider. On visiting ' old 
 Odell' a year or two afterwards, Mr Collins observed a 
 strange-looking object hanging against his kitchen wall, 
 and inquired what it was. ' Oh, sir,' replied the old man, 
 sorrowfully, 'that is the skin of my poor donkey. He 
 died of old age, and I did not like to part with him alto- 
 gether, so I had his skin dried, and hung up there.' Tears 
 came into his eyes as he spoke of the old companion of 
 all his village pilgrimages. The incident might have 
 formed a continuation of Sterne's exquisite episode in the 
 ' Sentimental Journey.' " * 
 
 In his picture of " The Cherry-Seller," painted for Mr 
 Higgins of Turvey House, old Odell and his donkey are 
 chief figures. 
 
 GAINSBOROUGH KEPT AN Ass. 
 The Eev. William Gilpin, in his "Forest Scenery," 
 
 * ".Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, E.A.," by his son, 
 W. Wilkie Collins, vol. i. p. 232.
 
 278 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 refers to the picturesque beauty of the ass in a landscape 
 Berghem often introduced it ; " and a late excellent land- 
 scape-painter (Mr Gainsborough), I have heard, generally 
 kept this animal by him, that he might have it always at 
 hand to introduce in various attitudes into his pictures. 
 I have heard also that a plaster cast of an ass, modelled 
 by him, is sold in the shops in London." * 
 
 IRISHMAN ON THE RAMSGATE DONKEYS. 
 
 In former times, when excise officers were not so sharp, 
 there was a good deal of smuggling carried on at Rams- 
 gate. Sir Thomas Dick Lauder t tells an anecdote of an 
 Irishman there, who being asked to name the hardest 
 wrought creature in existence, replied, " Och ! a Ramsgate 
 donkey, to be sure ; for, faith, afthur carrying angels all 
 day, be the powers he is forced to carry speerits all 
 night" 
 
 Ass's FOAL. 
 
 Douglas Jerrold and a company of literary friends were 
 out in the country. In the course of their walk they 
 stopped to notice the gambols of an ass's foal. A very 
 sentimental poet present vowed that he should like to 
 send the little thing as a present to his mother. " Do," 
 replied Jerrold, " and tie a piece of paper round its neck, 
 bearing this motto, 'When this you see, remember me.'" J 
 
 * Edition of Sir T. D. Lauder, Bart., vol. ii. p. 273. 
 
 t " Gilpin's Forest Scenery," vol. ii. p. 275. Edited by Sir T. D. 
 Lauder. 
 
 * Mark Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 129.
 
 ASS AND ZEBRA. 279 
 
 Ass. 
 
 A judge, joking a young barrister, said " If you and I 
 were turned into a horse and an ass, which would you 
 prefer to be ] " " The ass, to be sure," replied the bar- 
 rister. " I 've heard of an ass being made a judge, but a 
 horse never." * 
 
 Ammonianus, the grammarian, had an ass which, as it 
 is said, when he attended the lectures upon poetry, often 
 neglected his food when laid before him, though at the 
 same time he was hungiy, so much was the ass taken with 
 the love of poetry, f 
 
 WARREN HASTINGS AND THE REFRACTORY DONKEY. 
 
 The fondness of the first Governor-General of India for 
 horse exercise, and indeed for the horse itself, was quite 
 oriental, as his biographer relates. J He was a fine rider, 
 and piqued himself on his abilities in this way. 
 
 "Nothing pleased him," continues Mr Gleig, "more than 
 to undertake some animal which nobody else could control, 
 and to reduce it, as he invariably did, to a state of perfect 
 docility. The following anecdote, which I have from my 
 friend Mr Impey, himself an actor in the little drama, 
 may suffice to show the extent to which this passion was 
 carried. It happened once upon a time, when Mr Impey 
 
 * Lemon, "Jest Book," p. 307. 
 
 ^ Photius, quoted by Southey in his " Common-Place Book,'' first 
 series, p. 588. 
 
 J " Memoirs of the Life of the Right Hon. Warren Hastings, com- 
 piled from original papers," by the Rev. G. R. Gleig, M. A., vol. iii. 
 p. 367.
 
 280 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 was, with some other boys, on a visit at Daylesford, that 
 Mr Hastings, returning from a ride, saw his young friends 
 striving in vain to manage an ass which they had found 
 grazing in the paddock, and which one after another they 
 chose to mount. The ass, it appears, had no objection 
 to receive the candidates for equestrian renown succes- 
 sively on his back, but budge a foot he would not ; and 
 there being neither saddle nor bridle, wherewith to re- 
 strain his natural movements, he never failed, so soon as 
 a difference of opinion arose, to get the better of his rider. 
 Each in his turn, the boys were repeatedly thrown, till at 
 last Mr Hastings, who watched the proceedings with great 
 interest, approached. 
 
 " Why, boys," said he, "how is it that none of you can 
 ride ?" 
 
 " Not ride !" cried the little aspirants ; " we could ride 
 well enough, if we had a saddle and a bridle ; but he's 
 such an obstinate brute, that we don't think even you, 
 sir, could sit him bare-backed." 
 
 "Let's try," exclaimed the Governor-General. 
 
 Whereupon he dismounted, and gave his horse to one 
 of the children to hold, and mounted the donkey. The 
 beast began to kick up his heels, and lower his head as 
 heretofore; but this time the trick would not answer. 
 The Governor-General sat firm, and finally prevailed, 
 whether by fair means or foul, I am not instructed, in 
 getting the quadruped to move wheresoever he chose. He 
 himself laughed heartily as he resigned the conquered 
 thistle-eater to his first friends ; and the story when told, 
 as told it was, with consummate humour, at the dinner- 
 table, afforded gneat amusement to a large circle of guests.
 
 ASS AND ZEBRA. 281 
 
 NORTHCOTE, THE KOYAL ACADEMICIAN, AN ANGEL AT AN 
 
 Ass. 
 
 Fuseli, the artist, was a most outspoken man. His 
 biographer* says that he never concealed his sentiments 
 with regard to men, even to their faces. 
 
 " Every one knows," writes Mr Knowles, "who is ac- 
 quainted with art, the powers which Northcote displays 
 when he paints animals of the brute creation. When his 
 picture of 'Balaam and the Ass' was exhibited at the 
 Macklin Gallery, Northcote asked Fuseli's opinion of its 
 merits, who instantly said, ' My friend, you are an angel 
 at an ass, but an ass at an angel.' " 
 
 SYDNEY SMITH'S ACCOMPLISHED DONKEY, WITH FRANCIS 
 JEFFREY ON HIS BACK. 
 
 Lady Holland t gives the following picture of her 
 father's pet donkey : 
 
 " Amongst our rural delights at Heslington was the 
 possession of a young donkey which had been given up 
 to our tender mercies from the time of its birth, and in 
 whose education we employed a large portion of our spare 
 time ; and a most accomplished donkey it became under 
 our tuition. It would walk up-stairs, pick pockets, follow 
 us in our walks like a huge Newfoundland dog, and at 
 the most distant sight of us in the field, with ears down 
 
 * " The Life and Writings of Henry Fuseli, Esq., M.A., R.A.," 
 the former written and the latter edited by John Knowles, Esq., 
 F.R.S., vol. i. p. 364. 
 
 t " A Memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith," by his daughter, Lady 
 Holland, &c., vol. i. p. 152.
 
 282 DEADS AND TALES. 
 
 and tail erect, it set off in full bray to meet us. These 
 demonstrations on Bitty's part were met with not less 
 affection on ours, and Bitty was almost considered a mem- 
 ber of the family. 
 
 " One day, when my elder brother and myself were 
 training our beloved Bitty with a pocket-handkerchief for 
 a bridle, and his head crowned with flowers, to run round 
 our garden, who should arrive in the midst of our sport 
 but Mr Jeffrey. Finding my father out, he, with his usual 
 kindness towards young people, immediately joined in our 
 sport, and to our infinite delight, mounted our donkey. 
 He was proceeding in triumph, amidst our shouts of 
 laughter, when my father and mother, in company, I be- 
 lieve, with Mr Homer and Mr Murray, returned from their 
 walk, and beheld this scene from the garden-door. 
 Though years and years have passed away since, I still 
 remember the joy-inspiring laughter that burst from my 
 father at this unexpected sight, as, advancing towards his 
 old friend, with a face beaming with delight, and with ex- 
 tended hands, he broke forth in the following impromptu : 
 
 ' Witty as Horatius Flaccus, 
 As great a Jacobin as Gracchus ; 
 Short, though not as fat as Bacchus, 
 Riding on a little jackass.' 
 
 These lines were afterwards repeated by some one to Mr 
 
 at Holland House, just before he was introduced 
 
 for the first time to Mr Jeffrey, and they caught his fancy 
 to such a degree that he could not get them out of his 
 head, but kept repeating them in a low voice all the time 
 Mr Jeffrey was conversing with him. 
 
 "I must end Bitty's history, as he has been introduced,
 
 ASS AND ZEBRA. 283 
 
 by saying that he followed us to Foston ; and after serving 
 us faithfully for thirteen years, on our leaving Yorkshire, 
 was permitted by our kind friend, Lord Carlisle, to spend 
 the rest of his days in idleness and plenty, in his beautiful 
 park, with an unbounded command of thistles." 
 
 SYDNEY SMITH ox THE SAGACITY OF THE Ass ; A LADY 
 
 SCARCELY SO WISE AS ONE. 
 
 The Rev. Sydney Smith* writes to Colonel Fox in Octo- 
 ber 1836 : 
 
 " MY DEAR CHARLES, If you have ever paid any 
 attention to the habits of animals, you will know that 
 donkeys are remarkably cunning in opening gates. The 
 way to stop them is to have two latches instead of one. A 
 human being has two hands, and lifts up both latches at 
 once ; a donkey has only one nose, and latch a drops, as 
 he quits it to lift up latch b. Bobus and I had the grand 
 luck to see little Aunty engaged intensely with this 
 problem. She was taking a walk, and was arrested by a 
 gate with this formidable difficulty : the donkeys were 
 looking on to await the issue. Aunty lifted up the first 
 latch with the most perfect success, but found herself 
 opposed by a second ; flushed with victory, she quitted the 
 first latch, and rushed at the second; her success was 
 equal, till in the meantime the first dropped. She tried 
 this two or three times, and, to her utter astonishment, 
 with the same results; the donkeys brayed, and Aunty 
 was walking away in great dejection, till Bobus and I 
 recalled her with loud laughter, showed her that she had 
 
 * " Memoirs and Letters of Rev. Sydney Smith," vol. ii. p. 393.
 
 284 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 two hands, and roused her to vindicate her superiority 
 over the donkeys. I mention this to you to request that 
 you will make no allusion to this animal, as she is remark- 
 ably touchy on this subject, and also that you will not 
 mention it to Lady Mary ! " 
 
 Lady Holland relates a practical joke of her father's, 
 which the witty canon carried out at his rectory of Combe 
 Florey. " Opposite was a beautiful bank, with a hanging 
 wood of fine old beech and oak, on the summit of which 
 presented themselves, to our astonished eyes, two donkeys 
 with deers' antlers fastened on their heads, which ever and 
 anon they shook, much wondering at their horned honours ; 
 whilst the attendant donkey boy, in Sunday garb, stood 
 
 grinning and blushing at their side. ' There, Lady ! 
 
 you said the only thing this place wanted to make it per- 
 fect was deer ; what do you say now ? I have, you see, 
 ordered my game gamekeeper to drive my deer into the 
 most picturesque point of view. Excuse their long ears, a 
 little peculiarity belonging to parsonic deer. Their voices, 
 too, are singular ; but we do our best for you, and you 
 are too true a friend of the Church to mention our defects.' 
 All this, of course, amidst shouts of laughter, whilst his own 
 merry laugh might be heard above us all, ringing through 
 the valley, and making the very echoes laugh in chorus." 
 
 ASSES' DUTY FREE ! 
 
 During the debate on Sir Robert Peel's tariff, the ad- 
 mission of asses' duty free caused much merriment. Lord 
 T., who had just read " Vestiges of the Natural History of 
 Creation," remarked that the House had, he supposed,
 
 ASS AND ZEBRA. 285 
 
 passed the donkey clause out of respect to its ancestors. 
 " It is a wise measure," said a popular novelist, " especially 
 as it affects the importation of food ; for, should a scarcity 
 come, we should otherwise have to fall back on the food of 
 our forefathers." "And, pray, what is that?" asked an 
 archaeologist. " Thistles," replied Lord T.* 
 
 THACKERAY AND THE EGYPTIAN DONKEY. 
 
 When the English author landed at Alexandria, there 
 were many scenes and sounds to dispel all romantic no- 
 tions; among these "a yelling chorus of donkey boys 
 shrieking, 'Ride, sir ! donkey, sir ! I say, sir !' in excel- 
 lent English. The placid sphinxes, brooding o'er the 
 Nile, disappeared with that wild shriek of the donkey boys. 
 You might be as well impressed with "Wapping as with 
 your first step on Egyptian soil. 
 
 " The riding of a donkey is, after all, not a dignified 
 occupation. A man resists the offer first, somehow as an 
 indignity. How is that poor little, red-saddled, long-eared 
 creature to carry you ? Is there to be one for you and an- 
 other for your legs ? Natives and Europeans, of all sizes, 
 passed by, it is true, mounted upon the same contrivance. 
 I waited until I got into a very private spot, where nobody 
 could see me, and then ascended why not say descended 
 at once] on the poor little animal. Instead of being 
 crushed at once, as perhaps the writer expected, it darted 
 forward, quite briskly and cheerfully, at six or seven miles 
 an hour ; requiring no spur or admonitive to haste, except 
 
 * " A Century of Anecdote from 1760 to 1860," by John Timbs, 
 F.S.A., vol. i. p. 252 (1864).
 
 286 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 the shrieking of the little Egyptian gamin, who ran along 
 by asinus's side."* 
 
 BEST TO LET MULES HAVE THEIR OWN WAY. 
 
 Dr John Moore, in crossing the Alps, found they had 
 nothing but the sagacity of their mules to trust to. " For 
 my own part," he says, " I was very soon convinced that it 
 was much safer on all dubious occasions to depend on 
 theirs than on my own. For as often as I was presented 
 with a choice of difficulties, and the mule and I were of 
 different opinions, if, becoming more obstinate than he, I 
 insisted on his taking my track, I never failed to repent it, 
 and often was obliged to return to the place where the 
 controversy had begun, and follow the path to which he 
 had pointed at first. 
 
 " It is entertaining to observe the prudence of these 
 animals in making their way down such dangerous rocks. 
 They sometimes put their heads over the edge of the pre- 
 cipice, and examine with anxious circumspection every 
 possible way by which they can descend, and at length are 
 sure to fix on that which, upon the whole, is the best. 
 Having observed this in several instances, I laid the bridle 
 on the neck of my mule, and allowed him to take his own 
 way, without presuming to control him in the smallest 
 degree. This is doubtless the best method, and what I 
 recommend to all my friends in their journey through life, 
 when they have mules for their companions." t 
 
 * " Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo," by Mr M. 
 A. Titmarsh, p. 177 (1846). 
 
 f " View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and Ger- 
 many," vol. i. pp. 191, 192 (9th edition).
 
 CAMEL. 287 
 
 ZEBBA. " Un cine ray$e." 
 A FRENCHMAN'S "DOUBLE-ENTENDUE." 
 
 When, in 1805, Patrick Lattin, an officer of the Irish 
 Brigade, was residing in Paris, a M. de Montmorency, 
 whose Christian name was Anne, made his appearance, 
 announcing that he was enabled to return to France, in 
 consequence of the First Consul having scratched his name 
 on the list of Emigres. " A present done," observed Lattin, 
 " mon cher Anne, tu, es un Zkbre un ane rayee." * 
 
 CAMEL. 
 
 TRULY the Ship of the Desert, and one that by Lewis 
 and Henry Warren has afforded the subject of many a 
 pleasing picture. The camel has a most patriarchal look 
 about him. 
 
 CAPTAIN WILLIAM PEEL, R.N. REMARKS ON CAMELS. 
 
 Captain William Peel, in his " Ride through the Nubian 
 Desert" (p. 89), writes " We met once at a hollow, where 
 some water still remained from the rains, 2000 camels, all 
 together admirably organised into troops, and attended by 
 only a few Arabs. On another occasion, we passed some 
 camels grazing at such a distance from the Nile, that I 
 asked the Arab attending where they went to drink 1 He 
 said, he marches them all down together to the Nile, and 
 they drink every eleventh day. It is now the cool season, 
 
 * Quoted in Timba' " Century of Anecdote," vol. i. p. 223 (1864).
 
 288 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 and the heat is tempered by fresh northerly breezes. The 
 Arab, of course, brings water skins for his own supply. 
 All these camels were breeding stock. They live on thorns 
 and the top shoots of the gum-arabic tree, although it is 
 armed with the most frightful spikes. But very little 
 comes amiss to the camel ; he will eat dry wood to keep 
 up digestion, if in want of a substitute. Instinct or ex- 
 perience has taught him to avoid the only two tempting- 
 looking plants that grow in the desert, the green eusha 
 bush, which is full of milk-coloured juice, and a creeper, 
 that grows in the sand where nothing else will grow, and 
 which has a bitter fruit like a melon. I was surprised to 
 learn that the leopard does not dare to attack the camel, 
 whose tall and narrow flanks would seem to be fatally ex 
 posed to such a supple enemy. Nature, however, has given 
 him a means of defence in his iron jaw ajid long powerful 
 neck, which are a full equivalent for his want of agility. 
 He can also strike heavily with his feet, and his roar would 
 intimidate many foes. I never felt tired of admiring this 
 noble creature, and through the monotony of the desert 
 would watch for hours his ceaseless tread and unerring 
 path. Carrying his head low, forward, and surveying 
 everything with his black brilliant eye, he marches reso- 
 lutely forward, and quickens his pace at the slightest cheer 
 of the rider. He is too intelligent and docile for a bridle ; 
 besides, he lives on the march, and with a sudden sweep 
 of the neck will seize, without stopping, the smallest straw. 
 When the day's march is over, he passes the night in look- 
 ing for food, with scarcely an hour to repose his limbs, and 
 less than that for sleep. He closes the eye fitfully, the 
 smallest noise will awake him. When lying down for rest,
 
 CAMEL. 289 
 
 every part of the body is supported ; his neck and head lie 
 lightly along the sand, a broad plate of bone under the 
 breast takes the weight off his deep chest, and his long legs 
 lay folded under him, supporting his sides like a ship in a 
 cradle." 
 
 A CAPTAIN IN THE ROYAL NAVY MEASURES THE PROGRESS 
 
 OF " THE SHIP OP THE DESERT." 
 
 The dromedary has long and deservedly been called 
 " the Ship of the Desert." A very gallant captain in the 
 Royal Navy, the late Captain William Peel, son of the 
 Prime Minister, calculated its rate of motion much after the 
 manner in which he might have measured the path of his 
 ship. He writes * " In crossing the Nubian Desert I paid 
 constant attention to the march of the camels, hoping it 
 may be of some service hereafter in determining our posi- 
 tion. The number of strides in a minute with the same foot 
 varied very little, only from 37 to 39, and 38 was the aver- 
 age; but the length of the stride was more uncertain, 
 varying from 6 feet 6 to 7 feet 6. As we were always 
 urging the camels, who seemed, like ourselves, to know the 
 necessity of pushing on across that fearful tract, I took 7 
 feet as the average. These figures give a speed of 2.62 
 geographical miles per hour, or exactly three English miles, 
 which may be considered as the highest speed that camels 
 lightly loaded can keep up on a journey. In general, it 
 will not be more than two and a half English miles. My 
 dromedary was one of the tallest, and the seat of the saddle 
 was 6 feet 6 above the ground." 
 
 * " A Ride through the Nubian Desert," by Captain W. Peel, 
 K.N., p. 49. 
 
 T
 
 290 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 LOKD METCALFE ON A CAMEL WHEN A BOY. 
 
 Charles Metcalfe, "first and last Lord Metcalfe," to 
 whose care were successively intrusted the three greatest 
 dependencies of the British crown, India, Jamaica, and 
 Canada, and who died in 1846, was sent to Eton when 
 eleven years old. His biographer relates,* that " it is on 
 record, and on very sufficient authority, that he was once 
 seen riding on a camel. ' I heard the boys shouting,' said 
 Dr Goodall, many years afterwards, ' and went out and saw 
 young Metcalfe riding on a camel ; so you see he was 
 always orientally inclined.' " This anecdote will serve as 
 a comrade to that told by Mr Foss, in his " Lives of the 
 Justices of England," of Chief-Baron Pollock. When a 
 lad, one of his schoolmasters, fretted by the boyish energy 
 and exuberant spirits of his scholar, said petulantly, " You 
 will live to be hanged." The old gentleman lived to see 
 his pupil Lord Chief-Baron, and, not a little proud of his 
 great scholar, said, " I always said he would occupy an 
 elevated position." 
 
 STAGS AND GIRAFFE. 
 
 THE deer family is rather numerous, and found in many 
 different parts of the world. Reindeers abound in some 
 parts even of Spitzbergen, and with musk oxen can find 
 their food even under the winter snows of the Parry Islands. 
 
 * " Life and Correspondence of Charles Lord Metcalfe," by John 
 William Kaye, voL i., p. 8.
 
 STAGS AND GIRAFFE. 291 
 
 The wapiti and heavy large-headed elk or moose, retreat 
 before the advancing civilisation of North America. The 
 Indian mountains and plains have noble races of deer. 
 No species, however, is more celebrated than our red 
 deer. The giraffe is closely allied to the stag family. 
 The Arabs name it the seraph, and indeed, that is the 
 origin of its now best-known English name. Visitors 
 should beware of going too near the male, for we have seen 
 the dent made by one of the giraffe's bony knobs on a 
 pannel close to its stall. We have heard of a young lady, 
 who entered the garden one of those summer days when 
 straw bonnets had great bunches of ripe barley mingled 
 with artificial poppies as an ornament, and, going too near 
 the lofty pallisade, found to her confusion and terror that 
 the long lithe tongue of the giraffe had whisked off her 
 Leghorn, flowers and all, and had begun leisurely to munch 
 it with somewhat of the same gusto with which it would 
 have eaten the branch of a graceful mimosa. 
 
 EARL OF DALHOUSIE AND THE FEROCIOUS STAG. 
 
 Mr Scrope relates an instance of unprovoked ferocity in 
 a red deer at Taymouth, in which the present Earl of Dal- 
 housie might have been seriously injured. 
 
 "In October 1836, the Hon. Mr and Mrs Fox Maule 
 had left Taymouth with the intention of proceeding to- 
 wards Dalguise ; and in driving through that part of the 
 grounds where the red deer were kept, they suddenly at 
 a turn of the road came upon the lord of the demesne 
 standing in the centre of the passage, as if prepared to 
 dispute it against all comers. Mr Maule being aware
 
 292 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 that it might be dangerous to trifle with him, or to 
 endeavour to drive him away (for it was the rutting 
 season), cautioned the postilion to go slowly, and give the 
 animal an opportunity of moving off. This was done, and 
 the stag retired to a small hollow by the side of the road. 
 On the carriage passing, however, he took offence at its too 
 near approach, and emerged at a slow and stately pace, till 
 he arrived nearly parallel with it. Mr Maule then desired 
 the lad to increase his pace, being apprehensive of a charge 
 in the broadside. 
 
 "The deer, however, had other intentions; for as soon as 
 the carriage moved quicker, he increased his pace also, 
 and came on the road about twelve yards a-head of it, for 
 the purpose of crossing, as it was thought, to a lower range 
 of the parks ; but to the astonishment and no little alarm 
 of the occupants of the carriage, he charged the offside 
 horse, plunging his long brow antler into his chest, and 
 otherwise cutting him. 
 
 " The horse that was wounded made two violent kicks, 
 and is supposed to have struck the stag, and then the 
 pair instantly ran off the road ; and it was owing solely to 
 the admirable presence of mind and sense of the postilion, 
 that the carriage was not precipitated over the neighbour- 
 ing bank. The horses were not allowed to stop till they 
 reached the gate, although the blood was pouring from the 
 wounded animal in a stream as thick as a man's finger. 
 He was then taken out of the carriage, and only survived 
 two or three hours. The stag was shortly afterwards 
 killed."* 
 
 * " The Art of Deer-Stalking," p. 33.
 
 STAGS AND GIRAFFE. 293 
 
 THE FRENCH COUNT AND THE STAG. 
 
 Mr Scrope, in his " Deer-Stalking," describes a grand 
 deer-drive to Glen-Tilt, headed by the Duke of Athole. 
 Many an incident of this and subsequent drives was 
 watched by " Lightfoot," who was present, and whose pic- 
 tures, under his name of Sir Edwin Landseer, have ren- 
 dered the life of the red deer familiar to us, in mist, amid 
 snow, swimming in the rapid of a Etighland current, pur- 
 sued and at rest, fighting and feeding, alive and dead, in 
 every attitude, and at every age. 
 
 In this encounter, the Duke killed three first-rate harts, 
 Lightfoot two, and other rifles were all more or less suc- 
 cessful. A French count, whose tongue it was difficult to 
 restrain, and silence is essential to success in the pur- 
 suit, at last fired into a dense herd of deer. 
 
 Mr Scrope adds,* " Everything was propitious circum- 
 tance, situation, and effect ; for he was descending the 
 mountain in full view of our whole assemblage of sportsmen. 
 A fine stag in the midst of the herd fell to the crack of his 
 rifle. ' Hallo, hallo ! ' forward ran the count, and sat upon 
 the prostrate deer triumphing. 'Hi bien, mon ami, vous etes 
 mort, done I Moi, je fais toujours des coups s&rs. Ah ! 
 pauvre enfant ! ' He then patted the sides of the animal 
 in pure wantonness, and looked east, west, north, and 
 south, for applause, the happiest of the happy ; finally he 
 extracted a mosaic snuff-box from his pocket, and with an 
 air which nature has denied to all save the French nation, 
 he held a pinch to the deer's nose ' Prends, mon ami, 
 prends done! ' This operation had scarcely been performed 
 * "Deer-Stalking," p. 229.
 
 294 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 when the hart, who had only been stunned, or perhaps shot 
 through the loins, sprang up suddenly, overturned the 
 count, ran fairly away, and was never seen again. * Arretes, 
 toi tratire ! Arretes, mon enfant I Ah! c'est un enfant, 
 perdu I Allez done & tous les diables ! ' " 
 
 VENISON FAT. KEYNOLDS AND THE GOURMAND. 
 
 Northcote* says " I have heard Sir Joshua Reynolds 
 relate an anecdote of a venison feast, at which were as- 
 sembled many who much enjoyed the repast. 
 
 "On this occasion, Eeynolds addressed his conversa- 
 tion to one of the company who sat next to him, but to 
 his great surprise could not get a single word in answer, 
 until at length his silent neighbour, turning to him, said, 
 ' Mr Eeynolds, whenever you are at a venison feast, I 
 advise you not to speak during dinner-time, as in en- 
 deavouring to answer your questions, I have just swal- 
 lowed a fine piece of the fat, entire, without tasting its 
 flavour.' " 
 
 STAG-TKENCH AT FRANKFOKT-ON-THE-MAINE. 
 
 Goethe was born at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, August 
 28th, 1749. In his autobiography f he says " The street 
 in which our house was situated passed by the name of the 
 Stag-trench ; but as neither stags nor trenches were to be 
 seen, we naturally wished to have the expression explained. 
 They told us that our house stood on a spot that was once 
 
 * " Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds," vol. i., p. 124. 
 f " Truth and Poetry from my own Life ; the Autobiography of 
 Goethe," edited by Parke Godwin, part i., p. 3.
 
 SHEEP AND GOATS. 295 
 
 outside the town, and that where the street now ran had 
 formerly been a trench in which a number of stags were 
 kept. The stags were preserved and fatted here, be- 
 cause the Senate every year, according to an ancient cus- 
 tom, feasted publicly on a stag which was always at hand 
 in the trench for such a festival, in case princes or knights 
 interfered with the city's right of chase outside, or the 
 walls were encompassed and besieged by an enemy. This 
 pleased us, and we wished that such a lair for tame wild 
 animals could have been seen in our times. Where is 
 there a boy or girl who could not join in the wish of this 
 man, who has been called the first European poet and 
 literary man of the nineteenth century 1 " 
 
 GIRAFFE. 
 
 " Fancy," said Sydney Smith to some ladies, when he 
 was told that one of the giraffes at the Zoological Gardens 
 had caught a cold, " fancy a giraffe with two yards of 
 sore throat.'' 
 
 In one of the numbers of Punch, published in 1864, the 
 quiz of an artist has made the giraffes twist their necks 
 into a loose knot by way of a comforter to keep them 
 from catching a cold, or having a sore throat. He has 
 very audaciously caused to be printed under Ma cut, 
 " A FACT." 
 
 SHEEP AND GOATS. 
 
 THESE are animals, at least the former, which seem to 
 have been created in a domestic state. They are repre-
 
 296 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 sented on the most ancient monuments. A head of a 
 Lybian ram of very large size, in the British Museum, has 
 great resemblance to nature, and there is one slab at least 
 among the Assyrian monuments where sheep and goats, as 
 part of the spoil of a city, are rendered with great skill. In 
 the writings of the Ettrick Shepherd, many curious anec- 
 dotes of Scottish sheep are given. 
 
 How MANY LEGS HAS A SHEEP 1 
 
 When the Earl of Bradford was brought before the Lord 
 Chancellor to be examined upon application for a statute 
 of lunacy against him, the Chancellor asked him, " How 
 many legs has a sheep 1 ?" "Does your lordship mean," 
 answered Lord Bradford, " a live sheep or a dead sheep ?" 
 " Is it not the same thing ?" said the Chancellor. "No, 
 my lord," said Lord Bradford, " there is much difference : 
 a live sheep may have four legs, a dead sheep has only 
 two ; the two fore-legs are shoulders ; there are only two 
 legs of mutton."* 
 
 GOETHE ON Roos's ETCHINGS OF SHEEP. 
 
 In the " Conversations of Goethe with Eckerman and 
 Soreff in 1824, he handed me some etchings by Roos, 
 the famous painter of animals ; they were all of sheep, in 
 every posture and position. The simplicity of their coun- 
 tenances, the ugliness and shagginess of the fleece all 
 was represented with the utmost fidelity, as if it were 
 nature itself. 
 
 * Mark Lemon, " Jest Book," p. 1 8. 
 
 t Translated from the German by John Oxenford, vol. i,, p. 138.
 
 SHEEP AND GOATS. 297 
 
 " I always feel uneasy," said Goethe, " when I look at 
 these beasts. Their state so limited, dull, gaping, and 
 dreaming excites in me such sympathy, that I fear I shall 
 become a sheep, and almost think the artist must have 
 been one. At all events, it is most wonderful how Roos 
 has been able to think and feel himself into the very soul 
 of these creatures, so as to make the internal character peer 
 with such force through the outward covering. Here you 
 see what a great talent can do when it keeps steady to 
 subjects which are congenial with its nature." 
 
 " Has not, then," said I, " this artist also painted dogs, 
 cats, and beasts of prey with similar truth ; nay, with this 
 great gift of assuming a mental state foreign to himself, 
 has he not been able to delineate human character with 
 equal fidelity?" 
 
 " No," said Goethe ; " all that lay out of his sphere, but 
 the gentle, grass-eating animals sheep, goats, cows, and 
 the like he was never weary of repeating ; this was the 
 peculiar province of his talent, which he did not quit during 
 the whole course of his life. And in this he did well A 
 sympathy with these animals was born with him, a know- 
 ledge of their psychological condition was given him, and 
 thus he had so fine an eye for their bodily structure. 
 Other creatures were perhaps not so transparent to him, 
 and therefore he felt neither calling nor impulse to paint 
 them." * 
 
 * Roos must have been limited in his powers, unlike our Land- 
 seer, who paints dogs, sheep, horses, cows, stags, and fowls with 
 equal power.
 
 298 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 LORD COCKBTJRN AND THE SHEEP. 
 
 Lord Cockburn, the proprietor of Bonaly, that pretty 
 place on the slopes of the Pentlands, was sitting on the 
 hill-side with the shepherd, and, observing the sheep repos- 
 ing in the coldest situation, he observed to him, " John, 
 if I were a sheep, I would lie on the other side of the hill." 
 The shepherd answered, " Ay, my lord, but if ye had been 
 a sheep, ye would hae had mair sense." * 
 
 WOOLSACK. 
 
 Colman and Banister, dining one day with Lord Erskine, 
 the ex-chancellor, amongst other things, observed that he 
 had then about three thousand head of sheep. " I per- 
 ceive," interrupted Colman, " your lordship has still an 
 eye to the woolsack." f 
 
 SANDY WOOD AND HIS PETS, A SHEEP AND A EAVEN. 
 
 Alexander Wood, a kind-hearted surgeon, who died in 
 his native town of Edinburgh in May 1807, aged eighty- 
 $wo, is alluded to by Sir Walter Scott in a prophecy put 
 into the mouth of Meg Merrilees in "Guy Mannering" 
 " They shall beset his goat; they shall profane his 
 raven," &c. 
 
 The editor of " Kaye's Edinburgh Portraits"! savs that, 
 
 * Dean Ramsay's " Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Charac- 
 ter," 10th edition, p. 19. 
 
 t Mark Lemon, " Jest Book," p. 214. 
 
 J There are two copperplates devoted to the figure and portrait 
 of "lang Sandy Wood," as he was called.
 
 SHEEP AND GOATS. 299 
 
 besides his kindness of disposition to his fellow-creatures, 
 " he was almost equally remarkable for his love of animals. 
 His pets were numerous, and of all kinds. Not to men- 
 tion dogs and cats, there were two others that individually 
 were better known to the citizens of Edinburgh a sheep 
 and a raven, the latter of which is alluded to by Scott in 
 ' Guy Mannering.' Willy, the sheep, pastured in the 
 ground adjoining to the Excise Office, now the Royal Bank, 
 and might be daily seen standing at the railings, watching 
 Mr Wood's passing to or from his house in York Place, 
 when Willy used to poke his head into his coat-pocket, 
 which was always filled with supplies for his favourite, and 
 would then trot along after him through the town, and 
 sometimes might be found in the houses of the doctor's 
 patients. The raven was domesticated at an ale and porter 
 shop in North Castle Street, which is still, or very lately 
 was, marked by a tree growing from the area against the 
 wall. It also kept upon the watch for Mr Wood, and would 
 recognise him even as he passed at some distance along 
 George Street, and, taking a low flight towards him, was 
 frequently his companion during some part of his forenoon 
 walks ; for Mr Wood never entered his carriage when he 
 could possibly avoid it, declaring that unless a vehicle 
 could be found that would carry him down the closes and 
 up the turnpike stairs, they produced nothing but trouble 
 and inconvenience." 
 
 GENERAL CARNAC AND HIS SHE-GOAT. 
 
 It is pleasant to see, and not rare to find in men of 
 warlike habits, a love for animals. The goat or deer that
 
 300 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 used often to march before a regiment with the band as they 
 proceeded to a review in Bruntsfield Links, when the writer 
 and his friends were boys, about 1826 to 1832, he well 
 remembers. Nor is Edinburgh garrison singular. 
 
 General Carnac, in 1770, communicated to Dr William 
 Hunter some observations on the keenness of smell and 
 its exquisite sensibility. He says " I have frequently ob- 
 served of tame deer, to whom bread is often given, and 
 which they are in general fond of, that if you present 
 them a piece that has been bitten, they will not touch it. 
 I have made the same observation of a remarkably fine 
 she-goat, which accompanied me in most of my campaigns 
 in India, and supplied me with milk, and which, in grati- 
 tude for her services, I brought from abroad with me." * 
 
 JOHN HUNTER AND THE SHAWL- GOAT. 
 
 HUNTER'S METHOD OF INTRODUCING STRANGE ANIMALS PEACEFULLY 
 TO OTHERS IN HIS MENAGERIE. . 
 
 It is pleasant to meet with a notice of the pursuits of 
 the great anatomist, John Hunter, in a rather out-of-the- 
 way book.t The ingenious way in which he introduced 
 strange animals into his menagerie is worthy of notice. 
 
 " The variety of birds and beasts to be met with at 
 Earl's Court (the villa of the celebrated and much-lamented 
 Mr John Hunter) is matter of great entertainment. In 
 the same ground you are surprised to find so many living 
 
 * " Philosophical Transactions," LXI. p. 176 (1771). Paper on 
 Ny\-ghau, with plate, by George Stubbs, engraved by Basire. 
 
 t Baird, " Report on the County of Middlesex," quoted in view 
 of the agriculture of Middlesex, &c., pp. 341, 342, by John Middle- 
 ton, Esq. London: 1798.
 
 SHEEP AND GOATS. 301 
 
 animals in one herd, from the most opposite parts of the 
 habitable globe. Buffaloes, rams, and sheep from Turkey, 
 and a shawl-goat from the East Indies, are among the most 
 remarkable of those that meet the eye ; and as they feed 
 together in the greatest harmony, it is natural to inquire, 
 what means are taken to make them so familiar, and well 
 acquainted with each other. Mr Hunter told me, that 
 when he has a stranger to introduce, he does it by order- 
 ing the whole herd to be taken to a strange place, either a 
 field, an empty stable, or any other large out-house, with 
 which they are all alike unaccustomed. The strangeness 
 of the place so totally engages their attention, as to pre- 
 vent them from running at, and fighting with, the new 
 comer, as they most probably would do in their own fields 
 (in regard to which they entertain very high notions of 
 their exclusive right of property), and here they are con- 
 fined for some hours, till they appear reconciled to the 
 stranger, who is then turned out with his new friends, 
 and is generally afterwards well-treated. The shawl-goat 
 was not, however, so easily reconciled to his future com- 
 panions; he attacked them, instead of waiting to be 
 attacked ; fought several battles, and at present appears 
 master of the field. 
 
 " It is from the doum that grows under the coarse hair of 
 this species of goat, that the fine India shawls are manu- 
 factured.* This beautiful as well as useful animal was 
 brought over only last June from Bombay, in the Duke of 
 Montrose Indiaman, Captain Dorin. The female, unfor- 
 tunately, died. It was very obligingly presented by the 
 
 * The wool which grows on different parts of their bodies, under 
 very long hair, is obtained by gently combing them.
 
 302 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 directors to Sir John Sinclair, the President of the British 
 Wool Society. It is proposed, under Mr Hunter's care, to 
 try some experiment with it in England, by crossing it 
 with other breeds of the goat species, before it is sent to 
 the north." 
 
 As anything that met with Mr Hunter's approval must 
 have been a judicious arrangement, I may quote from the 
 same source the passage about the buildings for his cattle 
 at Earl's Court. 
 
 " Mr Hunter has built his stables half under ground ; 
 also vaults, in which he keeps his cows, buffaloes, and hogs. 
 Such buildings, more especially the arched byres, or cow- 
 houses, retain a more equal temperature at all times, in 
 regard both to heat and cold, and consequently are cooler 
 in summer and warmer in winter ; and in situations where 
 ground is so valuable as in the neighbourhood of London, 
 are an excellent contrivance. Mr Hunter has his hay-yard 
 over his buffaloes' stables. The expense of vaulting does 
 not exceed that of building and roofing common cow- 
 houses ; and the vaults have this essential advantage or 
 preference, that they require no. repairs." He then gives 
 an account of some buffaloes which Mr Hunter had trained 
 to work in a cart, and which became so steady and tract- 
 able, that they were often driven through London streets 
 in the loaded cart, much, no doubt, to the astonishment 
 of passers-by. With a glimpse of a very beautiful little 
 cow at Earl's Court, from a buffalo and an Alderney, which 
 was always plump and fat, and gave very good milk, we 
 must take leave of John Hunter's menagerie.
 
 SHEEP AND GOATS. 303 
 
 COMMODORE KEPPEL " BEARDS " THE DEY OF ALGIERS. 
 A GOAT. 
 
 Sir Joshua Eeynolds, when twenty-five, sailed to the 
 Mediterranean in 1749 with the Hon. Augustus Keppel, 
 then a captain in the navy, and afterwards Viscount Kep- 
 pel. In 1750, Commodore Keppel returned to Algiers to 
 remonstrate with the dey on the renewed depredations of 
 the Corsairs. The dey, surprised at his boldness, for he 
 anchored close to the palace, and attended by his captain 
 and a barge's crew, went boldly into the presence of the 
 Algerine monarch to demand satisfaction, exclaimed, that 
 he wondered at the insolence of the King of Great Britain 
 sending him a beardless boy. 
 
 Keppel was only twenty-four, but he is said to have 
 answered, " that had his Majesty, the King of Great 
 Britain, estimated the degree of wisdom by the length of the 
 beard, he would have sent him a goat as an ambassador." 
 Northcote is in doubt of the truth of this speech having 
 been made, but says, that it is certain Keppel answered 
 with great boldness.* The tyrant is said to have actually 
 ordered his mutes to advance with the bow-string, telling 
 the commodore that his life should answer for his audacity. 
 Keppel quietly pointed out to the dey the squadron at 
 anchor, and told him, that if it was his pleasure to put 
 him to death, there were Englishmen enough on board to 
 make a funeral pile of his capital. The dey cooled a 
 little, allowed the commodore to depart, and made satis- 
 faction for the damage done, and promised to abstain from 
 violence in future. 
 
 * " Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds," vol. L, p. 32.
 
 304 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 CALVES AND KINE. 
 
 THE little anecdote of Gilpin and the three cows illustratel 
 one elegant use of the subjects of the following paragraphs. 
 What home landscape like that painted by Alfred Tenny- 
 son would be perfect without its cows ? Many anecdotes 
 of them could be collected. The Irish are celebrated for 
 their "bulls," one of them is not the worse for having 
 " Bulls " for its subject. Patrick was telling, so the story 
 goes, that there were four " Bull Inns " in a certain Eng- 
 lish town. "There are but three," said a native of the place, 
 who knew them well ; " the Black Bull, the White 
 Bull, and the Ked Bull, where is the fourth ? " " Sure 
 and do you not know, the Dun Cow the best of them 
 all ] " replied the unconscious Milesian. 
 
 A GREAT CALF. 
 
 Sir William B , being at a parish meeting, made 
 
 some proposals, which were objected to by a farmer. 
 Highly enraged, " Sir," says he to the farmer, " do you 
 know, sir, that I have been at the two universities, and at 
 two colleges in each university ? " " Well, sir," said the 
 farmer, " what of that 1 I had a calf that sucked two 
 cows, and the observation I made was, the more he sucked, 
 the greater calf he grew." * 
 
 RATHER TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING. VEAL 
 
 ad nauseam. 
 
 At the table of Lord Polkemmet, when the covers were 
 * Mark LemoD, " Jest Book," p. 36.
 
 CALVES AND KINE. 305 
 
 removed, the dinner was seen to consist of veal broth, a 
 roast fillet of veal, veal cutlets, a florentine (an excellent 
 Scotch dish, composed of veal), a calf's head, calf's foot 
 jelly. The worthy judge observing an expression of sur- 
 prise among his guests, who, even in Shetland in early 
 spring would have had the veal varied with fish, broke out 
 in explanation, " Ou. ay, it 's a cauf ! when we kill a beast, 
 we just eat up one side, and down the tither." 
 
 Boswell, the friend and biographer of Johnson, when a 
 young man, went to the pit of Covent Garden Theatre, in 
 company with Dr Blair, and in a frolic imitated the low- 
 ing of a cow ; and the universal cry in the gallery was, 
 " Encore the cow ! encore the cow ! " This was complied 
 with, and in the pride of success, Boswell attempted to imi- 
 tate some other animals, but with less success. Dr Blair, 
 anxious for the fame of his friend, addressed him thus, 
 " My dear sir, I would confine myself to the cow."* 
 
 ADAM CLARKE AND HIS BULLOCK PAT. 
 
 The Rev. Adam Clarke, LL.D., after one of his evan- 
 gelical visits to Ireland, returned to his home at Millbrook. 
 In writing to his sons he says " Not only your mother, 
 sisters, and brother, were glad to see me, but also my poor 
 animals in the field, for I lost no time in going to visit 
 them. I found the donkey lame, and her son looking 
 much like a philosopher; it was strange that even the 
 bullock, whom we call Pat, came to me in the field, and 
 held out his most honest face for me to stroke it. The 
 * Mark Lemon, " Jest Book," p. 111.
 
 306 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 next time I went to him he came running up, and actually 
 placed his two fore-feet upon my shoulders, with all the 
 affection of a spaniel ; but it was a load of kindness I could 
 ill bear, for the animal is nearly three years old ; I soon 
 got his feet displaced ; strange and uncouth as this mani- 
 festation of affectionate gratitude was, yet with it the 
 master and his steer Pat were equally well pleased; so 
 here is a literal comment on ' The oxknoweth his owner;' 
 and you see I am in league with even the beasts of the 
 field."* 
 
 SAMUEL FOOTE AND THE Cows PULLING THE BELL OP 
 WORCESTER COLLEGE CHAPEL. 
 
 Samuel Foote was a student at Worcester College, Ox- 
 ford, and when there he practised many tricks, and soon 
 found out what was ridiculous in any man's character. 
 
 His biographert records one of these tricks which he 
 played off on Dr Gower, the provost of the college. " The 
 church belonging to the college fronted the side of a lane 
 where cattle were sometimes turned out to graze during 
 the night, and from the steeple hung the bell rope, very 
 low in the middle of the outside porch. Foote saw in this 
 an object likely to produce some fun, and immediately set 
 about to accomplish his purpose. He accordingly one 
 night slyly tied a wisp of hay to the rope, as a bait for the 
 cows in their peregrination to the grazing ground. The 
 
 * "An Account of the Religious and Literary Life of Adam Clarke, 
 LL D., F.A.S.," by a Member of his Family, vol. ii., p. 346. 
 
 t " Memoirs of Samuel Foote, Esq.," by Wm. Cooke, Esq., vol. i., 
 p. 13.
 
 CALVES AND KINE. 307 
 
 scheme succeeded to his wish. One of the cows soon after 
 smelling the hay as she passed by the church door, in- 
 stantly seized on it, and, by tugging at the rope, made the 
 bell ring, to the astonishment of the sexton and the whole 
 parish. 
 
 "This happened several nights successively, and the inci- 
 dent gave rise to various reports, such as not only that the 
 church was haunted by evil spirits, but that several spectres 
 were seen walking about the churchyard in all those hide- 
 ous and frightful shapes which fear, ignorance, and fancy 
 usually suggest on such occasions. 
 
 " An event of this kind, however, was to be explored, 
 for the honour of philosophy, as well as for the quiet of 
 the parish. Accordingly the doctor and the sexton agreed 
 to sit up one night, and on the first alarm to run out and 
 drag the culprit to condign punishment. Their plan being 
 arranged, they waited with the utmost impatience for 
 the appointed signal ; at last the bell began to sound its 
 usual alarm, and they both sallied out in the dark, deter- 
 mined on making a discovery. The sexton was the first in 
 the attack. He seized the cow by the tail, and cried out, 
 ' It was a gentleman commoner, as he had him by the tail 
 of his gown;' while the doctor, who had caught the cow 
 by the horns at the same time, immediately replied, ' No t 
 no, you blockhead, 'tis the postman, and here I have hold 
 of the rascal by his blowing-horn.' Lights, however, were 
 immediately brought, when the character of the real 
 offender was discovered, and the laugh of the whole town 
 was turned upon the doctor."
 
 308 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 THE GENERAL'S Cow. 
 
 At Plymouth there is, or was, a small green opposite 
 the Government House, over which no one was permitted 
 to pass. Not a creature was allowed to approach save the 
 
 general's cow. One day old Lady D having called at 
 
 the general's, in order to make a short cut, bent her steps 
 across the lawn, when she was arrested by the sentry call- 
 ing out and desiring her to return. " But," said Lady 
 
 D , with a stately air, " do you know who I am ?" " I 
 
 don't know who you be, ma'am," replied the immovable 
 sentry, " but I knows you b'aint you b'aint the gemraVs 
 
 cow." So Lady D wisely gave up the argument and 
 
 went the other way. * 
 
 GILPIN'S LOVE OF THE PICTURESQUE CARRIED OUT. A 
 REASON FOR KEEPING THREE Cows. 
 
 Lord Sidmouth told the Rev. C. Smith Bird that he 
 was partly educated at Cheam, by Mr Gilpin, the author 
 of many volumes on " Picturesque Scenery." He was but 
 a poor scholar, but seems to have been loved by his pupils. 
 He carried out his regard for the picturesque, as would 
 appear by the following anecdote t 
 
 " In visiting the Rev. Mr Gilpin at his house in the 
 New Forest on one occasion, his lordship observed three 
 cows feeding in a small paddock, which he knew to be all 
 
 * Mark Lemon, " Jest Book, p. 246. 
 
 + Lord Sidmouth lived near Burghfield, where Mr Bird kept 
 pupils, and was curate. See " Sketches from the Life of the Rev. 
 Charles Smith Bird."
 
 CALVES AND KINE. 309 
 
 that Mr Gilpin had to feed them in. He asked Mr Gilpin 
 how he came to have so many cows when he had so little 
 land? ' The truth is,' said he, ' I found one cow would 
 not do she went dry.' ' Well,' said Lord Sidmouth, 
 ' but why not be content with another ? Two, by good 
 management, might be made to supply you constantly with 
 milk.' ' Oh, yes,' said the old gentleman, ' but two would 
 not group.' 
 
 KING JAMES ON A Cow GETTING OVER THE BOEDER. 
 
 In the " Life of Bernard Gilpin," his biographer refers to 
 the inhabitants of the Borders being such great adepts in the 
 art of thieving, that they could twist a cow's horn, or mark 
 a horse, so as its owners could not know it, and so subtle 
 that no vigilance could watch against them. A person 
 telling King James a surprising story of a cow that had 
 been driven from the north of Scotland into the south of 
 England, and escaping from the herd had found her way 
 home ; " The most surprising part of the story," the king 
 replied, " you lay least stress on that she passed unstolen 
 through the debateable land."* 
 
 DUKE OF MONTAGUE AND HIS HOSPITAL FOR OLD Cows 
 AND HORSES. 
 
 The Rev. Joseph Spencef records that "the Duke of 
 Montague has an hospital for old cows and horses j none 
 
 * " Lives of Hugh .Latimer and Bernard Gilpin," by the Rev. 
 William Gilpin, p. 271. 
 
 t Anecdotes. Supplement, p. 249 (Singer's edition). Spence died 
 in 1768, aged 70.
 
 310 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 Of his tenants near Boughton dare kill a broken-winded 
 horse; they must bring them all to the reservoir. The duke 
 keeps a lap-dog, the ugliest creature he could meet with ; 
 he is always fond of the most hideous, and says he was at 
 first kind to them, because nobody else would be." 
 
 PHILIP IV. OP SPAIN IN THE BULL-RING. 
 
 This king, whose form and features are so well known 
 from the pictures of Velasquez, was entertained magni- 
 ficently by his great favourite Olivares, in 1631. At this 
 festival, which was in honour of the birthday of the heir 
 apparent, the sports of ancient Rome were renewed in the 
 bull-ring of Spain. In his life by Mr Stirling,* it is 
 recorded that " a lion, a tiger, a bear, a camel in fact, a 
 specimen of every procurable wild animal, or, as Quevedo 
 expressed it in a poetical account of the spectacle, 'the 
 whole ark of Noah, and all the fables of ^Esop,' were turned 
 loose into the spacious Plaza del Parque, to fight for the 
 mastery of the arena. To the great delight of his Cas- 
 tilian countrymen, a bull of Xarama vanquished all his 
 antagonists. The ' bull of Marathon, which ravaged the 
 country of Tetrapolis,' says the historian of the day, ' was 
 not more valiant ; nor did Theseus, who slew and sacrificed 
 him, gain greater glory than did our most potent sovereign. 
 Unwilling that a beast which had behaved so bravely 
 should go unrewarded, his majesty determined to do him 
 the greatest favour that the animal himself could have 
 possibly desired, had he been gifted with reason to wit, to 
 Blay him with his own royal hand ! Calling for his fowl- 
 * " Velasquez and his Works," by William Stirling, p. 62.
 
 CALVES AND KINE. SI 1 
 
 ing-piece, lie brought it instantly to his shoulder, and the 
 flash and report were scarcely seen and heard ere the 
 mighty monster lay a bleeding corpse before the trans- 
 ported lieges. Yet not a moment,' continues the chron- 
 icler, ' did his majesty lose his wonted serenity, his com- 
 posure of countenance, and becoming gravity of aspect; 
 and but for the presence of so great a concourse of wit- 
 nesses, it was difficult to believe that he had really fired 
 the noble and successful shot.' " 
 
 SYDNEY SMITH AND HIS CATTLE. His " UNIVERSAL 
 
 SCRATCHES," 
 
 The Rev. Sydney Smith, when at Foston, used to 
 call for his hat and stick immediately after dinner, and 
 sallied forth for his evening stroll. His daughter,* who 
 often accompanied him, remarks "Each cow and calf, and 
 horse and pig, were in turn visited, and fed, and patted, 
 and all seemed to welcome him ; he cared for their com- 
 forts as he cared for the comforts of every living being 
 around him. He used to say, ' I am all for cheap luxuries, 
 even for animals; now all animals have a passion for 
 scratching their back bones. They break down your gates 
 and palings to effect this. Look ! there is my universal 
 scratcher, a sharp-edged pole, resting on a high and a low 
 post, adapted to every height, from a horse to a lamb. 
 Even the Edinburgh Reviewer can take his turn. You 
 have no idea how popular it is. I have not had a gate 
 broken since I put it up. I have it in all my fields.' " 
 
 * Lady Holland's " Memoirs of her Father, the Rev. Sydney 
 Smith," vol. i., p. 118.
 
 312 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 REV. AUGUSTUS TOPLADY ON THE FUTURE STATE OF 
 ANIMALS. 
 
 The Rev. Josiah Bull, in the " Memorials of the Rev. 
 William Bull of Newport, Pagnel," * the friend of Cowper, 
 the poet, and the Rev. John Newton, tells the following 
 anecdote, in which a favourite theory of the author of that 
 exquisite hymn, " Rock of Ages Cleft for Me," is alluded 
 to, and somewhat comically illustrated by the author of 
 the " Olney Hymns : " 
 
 " Mr Newton had been dining with Mr Bull, and they 
 were quietly sitting together, following after ' the things 
 whereby they might edify one another,' and that search 
 aided by ' interposing puffs' of the fragrant weed. It was 
 in that old study I so well remember, ere it was renovated 
 to meet the demands of modern taste. A room some 
 eighteen feet square, with an arched roof, entirely sur- 
 rounded with many a precious volume, with large, old case- 
 ment windows, and immense square chairs of fine Spanish 
 mahogany. There these good men were quietly enjoying 
 their tete-a-teie, when they were startled by a thundering 
 knock at the door; and in came Mr Ryland of Northampton, 
 abruptly exclaiming, ' If you wish to see Mr Toplady, you 
 must go immediately with me to the " Swan." He is on 
 his way to London, and will not live long.' They all pro- 
 ceeded to the inn, and there found the good man, emaci- 
 ated with disease, and evidently fast hastening to the 
 grave. As they were talking together, they were attracted 
 by a great noise in the street, occasioned, as they found 
 
 * " Memorials of the Rev. William Bull of Newport, Pagnel," &c., 
 by his grandson, the Eev. Josiah Bull, M.A. 1864.
 
 CALVES AND KINE. 313 
 
 on looking out, by a bull-baiting which was going on 
 before the house. Mr Toplady was touched by the cruelty 
 of the scene, and exclaimed, ' Who could bear to see 
 that sight, if there were not to be some compensation 
 for these poor suffering animals in a future state]' 
 ' I certainly hope,' said my grandfather, ' that all the 
 bulls will go to heaven ; but do you think this will be 
 the case with all the animal creation 1 ' ' Yes, certainly,' 
 replied Mr Toplady, with great emphasis, ' all, all ! ' 
 ' What ! ' rejoined Mr Newton, with some sarcasm in 
 his tone, ' do you suppose, sir, there will be fleas in 
 heaven ? for I have a special aversion to them.' Mr Top- 
 lady said nothing, but was evidently hurt ; and as they 
 separated, Mr Newton said, ' How happy he should be to 
 see him at Olney, if God spared his life, and he were to 
 come that way again.' The reply Mr Toplady made was 
 not very courteous ; but the good man was perhaps suffer- 
 ing from the irritation of disease, and possibly annoyed by 
 the ridicule cast upon a favourite theory." 
 
 RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM WINDHAM, M.P., ON THE 
 FEELINGS OF A BAITED BULL. 
 
 That great parliamentary orator, the Right Honourable 
 William Windham, lived before the days when humanity 
 to animals was deemed a fit subject for legislation. 
 
 In his speech against " the bill for preventing the prac- 
 tice of bull-baiting" (April 18, 1800),* he refers to the 
 introduction of such a measure as follows " In turning 
 
 * " Speeches in Parliament of the Right Honourable William 
 Windham, to which is prefixed some account of Lia Life," by 
 Thomas Amyot, Esq., vol. i pp. 332, 353 (1812).
 
 314 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 from the great interests of this country, and of Europe, to 
 discuss with equal solemnity such measures as that which 
 is now before us, the House appears to me to resemble 
 Mr Smirk, the auctioneer, in the play, who could hold 
 forth just as eloquently upon a ribbon as upon a Raphael." 
 He speaks of bull-baiting as being, " it must be confessed, 
 at the expense of an animal which is not by any means a 
 party to the amusement ; but then," he adds, " it serves 
 to cultivate the qualities of a certain species of dogs, which 
 affords as much pleasure to their owners as greyhounds do 
 to others. It is no small recommendation to bull-dogs 
 that they are so much in repute with the populace." In 
 a second speech, May 24, 1802, he said that he believed 
 " the bull felt a satisfaction in the contest, not less so 
 than the hound did when he heard the sound of the horn 
 that summoned him to the chase. True it was that young 
 bulls, or those which were never baited before, showed 
 reluctance to be tied to the stake ; but those bulls which, 
 according to the language of the sport, were called game 
 bulls, who were used to baiting, approached the stake, 
 and stood there while preparing for the contest, with the 
 utmost composure. If the bull felt no pleasure, and was 
 cruelly dealt with, surely the dogs had also some claim to 
 compassion ; but the fact was that both seemed equally 
 arduous in the conflict ; and the bull, like every other 
 animal, while it had the better side, did not dislike his 
 situation it would be ridiculous to say he felt no pain 
 yet, when on such occasions he exhibited no signs of terror, 
 it was a demonstrable proof that he felt some pleasure." 
 
 The " sober loyal men " of Stamford, it would seem, had 
 petitioned for the continuance of their annual sport, which
 
 WHALES. 315 
 
 Lad been continued for a period of five or six hundred years, 
 and who were displeased with their landlord, the Marquis 
 of Exeter, for his endeavours to put down their cruel sport. 
 Windham refers to " the antiquity of the thing being 
 deserving of respect, for respect for antiquity was the best 
 preservation of the Church and State ! 1 " 
 
 WHALES. 
 
 LAST and greatest of the mammalia are the whales. The 
 adventures of hardy seamen, like Scoresby, in the pursuit 
 of the Greenland whale, or Beale in the more dangerous 
 chase of the spermaceti, in southern waters, form the sub- 
 jects of more than one readable volume. But here we give 
 no such extracts, but content ourselves with four short 
 skits, having the cetacea for their subject. 
 
 In these days of zoological gardens, they have suc- 
 ceeded in bringing one of the smallest of the order, a 
 porpoise, to the Zoological Gardens. His speedy dissolu- 
 tion showed that even the bath of a hippopotamus or an 
 elephant was too limited for the dwelling of this pre-emi- 
 nently marine creature. But he had begun to show an 
 intelligence, they say, which, independently of all zoologi- 
 cal and anatomical considerations, showed that he had 
 nothing in common with a fish, but a somewhat similar 
 form, and an equal necessity for abundance of the pure 
 liquid element. 
 
 WHALEBONE. 
 
 A thin old man, with a rag-bag in his hand, was pick- 
 ing up a number of small pieces of whalebone, M hich lay
 
 316 HEADS AND TALES. 
 
 on the street. The deposit was of such a singular nature, 
 that we asked the quaint-looking gatherer how he supposed 
 they came there ? " Don't know," he replied, in a squeak- 
 ing voice ; " but I s'pect some unfortunate female was 
 wrecked hereabout somewhere."* 
 
 A Scotch lady, who was discomposed by the introduc- 
 tion of gas, asked with much earnestness, " What 's to 
 become o' the puir whales ? " deeming their interests mate- 
 rially affected by this superseding of their oil." t 
 
 VERY LIKE A WHALE. 
 
 The first of all the royal infant males 
 Should take the title of the Prince of Wales : 
 Because, 'tis clear to seamen and to lubber, 
 Babies and whales are both inclined to blubber. + 
 
 CHRISTOPHER NORTH ON THE WHALE. 
 
 Tickler. What fish, James, would you incline to be, if 
 put into scales ? 
 
 Shepherd. A dolphin : for they hae the speed o' licht- 
 nin. They '11 dart past and roun' about a ship in full sail 
 before the wind, just as if she was at anchor. Then the 
 dolphin is a fish o' peace, he saved the life o' a poet of 
 auld, Arion, wi' his harp, and oh ! they say the cretur 's 
 beautifu' in death. Byron, ye ken, comparin' his hues to 
 those o' the sun settin' ahint the Grecian isles. I sud like 
 to be a dolphin. 
 
 Mark Lemon, " Jest Book," p. 122. t Ibid., p. 201. 
 
 t Ibid., p. 142.
 
 WHALES. 317 
 
 ShepJierd. Let me see I sud hae nae great objections 
 to be a whale in the Polar Seas. Gran' fun to fling a 
 boatfu' o' harpooners into the air or, wi' ae thud o' your 
 tail, to drive in the stern posts o' a Greenlandman. 
 
 Tickler. Grander fun still, James, to feel the inextricable 
 harpoon in your blubber, and to go snoving away beneath 
 an ice-floe with four miles of line connecting you with your 
 distant enemies. 
 
 Shepherd. But, then, whales marry but ae wife, and are 
 passionately attached to their offspring. There they and 
 I are congenial speerits. Nae fish that swims enjoys so 
 large a share of domestic happiness. 
 
 Tickler. A whale, James, is not a fish. 
 
 Shepherd. Isna he ? Let him alane for that. He 's 
 ca'd a fish in the Bible, and that 's better authority than 
 Buffon. Oh that I were a whale ! * 
 
 With these sentences, we conclude this book, as well as 
 our selections on the whale. In the Museum at Edin- 
 burgh may be seen one of the finest, if not the most per- 
 fect, skeleton of a whale exhibited in this kingdom. Our 
 young readers there can soon see, by examining it from 
 the gallery, that the whale is no " fish." 
 
 * " Noctes Ambrosianse," Works of Professor Wilson, vol. 
 ii., p. 4.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ADDisoxand Steele on the peculiarities 
 of the natural history collectors, 5-8 
 
 Albert's horse at Brussels, 256. 
 
 Ammonianus and his ass, 279. 
 
 Androcles and the lion, 167-169. 
 
 Ant-eater, the great, 225-229. 
 
 Arctic fox, 142-H8. 
 
 Ass, Sydney Smith on sagacity of, 283. 
 
 Ass and zebra, 276. 
 
 Ass's foal, 278. 
 
 Asses with deers' antlers fastened on 
 heads, 284 ; duty free, 284. 
 
 Asylum for animals, 265, 266. 
 
 Austrian general and a bear, 58, 59. 
 
 Aye-aye, its singular structure and 
 habits, 36-38. 
 
 BABOONS, Lady Anne Barnard on, 
 
 24, 25. 
 Babylon, bas-relief of dog found at, 
 
 86, 87. 
 
 Babyrusa, 240. 
 Back, Sir George, anecdote of Arctic 
 
 lemming, 196. 
 
 Badger, 71 ; anecdotes of, 72-75. 
 Baird, origin of name, 241. 
 Barrentz on white or Polar bear, 64. 
 Barnard, Lady Anne, pleads for the 
 
 baboons, 24, 25 ; on some rabbits, 
 
 222. 
 
 Bats, fantastic faces of, 38, 39. 
 Bearable pun, 61. 
 Bears, 56, 57 ; anecdotes of, 58-70. 
 Beechey, Captain, on Polar bear, 63 ; 
 
 on the walrus, 184-186, 187. 
 Bell, Professor, on cats, 149. 
 Bell, Sir Charles, on the head of a pig, 
 
 239. 
 
 Bell-Rock horse, 257. 
 
 Bentham, Jeremy, and his p<rt cat, 
 
 150-152 ; and the mice, 205, 206. 
 Berwickshire, names of places in, de- 
 rived from swine, 241. 
 Bess, a pet hare of the poet Cowper's, 
 
 216. 
 Bisset and his trained monkeys, 25, 
 
 26 ; musical cats, 152, 153 ; trained 
 
 hares and turtle, 221, 222 ; learned 
 
 pig, 250. 
 
 Black Dwarfs cat, 157. 
 Blomfield, Bishop, bitten by a dog 
 
 88. 
 
 Boar, wild, 239-245. 
 Border, cow getting across, 309. 
 Borneo, the home of the orang, 11. 
 Boswell imitates the lowing of a cow, 
 
 305. 
 Bradford, Earl of, on the number of 
 
 legs of a sheep, 296. 
 Bristol, Bishop of, comparing Cam- 
 bridge freshmen to puppies, 89. 
 Brock, or badger, 72. 
 Brown, Dr John, "Rab" and "Our 
 
 Dogs," 78. 
 Browning, Mrs Elizabeth Barrett, lines 
 
 on her dog Flush, 89-93. 
 Browning's, Robert, description of rats, 
 
 199. 
 
 Bull, an Irish, 304. 
 Bull, Rev. Win., Newton, and Toplady, 
 
 anecdote of, 312. 
 Bull-baiting at Olney, 313 ; Windham 
 
 on, 314. 
 
 Bull-ring, Philip IV. in, 310. 
 Bullock and Dr Adam Clarke, 305, 
 
 306.
 
 320 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Burke, Edmund, question when inter 
 rupted, 149 ; anecdote of bis hu- 
 manity, 257, 258. 
 
 Burns' " Twa Dogs," 81, 82 ; the field- 
 mouse, 206-208. 
 
 Bush-pig, 148. 
 
 Bussapa, the tiger-slayer, 162-164. 
 
 Buxton, Sir Thomas Fowell, Bart., 
 and his dog Speaker, 93, 94. 
 
 Byron on his dog, 79 ; on Boatswain, 
 a Newfoundland dog, 94, 95 ; pets, 
 26, 27 ; bear at Cambridge, 59. 
 
 " CALAMITY." a horse of Sydney 
 
 Smith's, 272. 
 Calf, a great, 304. 
 Calves and kine, 304. 
 Camel, Captain Win. Peel on, 287- 
 
 289. 
 Campbell, Colonel, account of Bussapa 
 
 and the tiger, 162-164. 
 Canova's sculptured lions and the 
 
 child, 171-173. 
 
 Carnac and the she-goat, 299. 
 Cats, 149-161. 
 
 Cat's letter, by Montgomery, 156. 
 Cattle of Sydney Smith, and their uni- 
 versal scratcher, 311. 
 Chalmers, Dr, and the guinea-pig, 223, 
 
 224 
 CJieiroptera, the order which contains 
 
 the bats, 38, 39. 
 Children and horses cannot explain 
 
 their complaints, 269. 
 Chimpanzee, Mr Mitchell on the 
 
 habits of a young one, 22-42. 
 China, roasted pups eaten in, 78. 
 Chiromys Madagascariensis, its habits, 
 
 36-C8. 
 
 Choiropotamus Africanus, 140. 
 Choiseul, Madame de, and her pet 
 
 monkey rnd parrot, 33, 34. 
 Chunie, the elephant, 230. 
 Clare's dog and Curran, 98. 
 Clarke, Dr Adam, on Shetland seals, 
 
 175, 176 ; his bullock Pat, 305. 
 Clive's, Lord, handwriting misunder- 
 
 gtood, 230. 
 
 Cockburn, Lord, and the sheep at 
 
 Bonaly, 298. 
 
 Collie at Cultershaw, 82. 
 Collins, Wm., R.A., and Sir David 
 
 Wilkie, 3 ; the rat-catcher with th 
 
 ferret, 76 ; his dog Prinny, 96, 97 ; 
 
 paints Odell's old donkey, 277. 
 Collins, W. Wilkie, Sir David Wilkie's 
 
 first remark on him, 3, 4. 
 Constant and his cat, 153. 
 Cook's sailor, who took a fox-bat for 
 
 the devil, 40. 
 
 Cooke, Major-General, 189. 
 Coon, a gone, 71. 
 Couthon and the spaniel, 195. 
 Cowper*s narrative of his pet hares, 
 
 213-219 ; dog Beau and the water- 
 lily, 79-81. 
 
 Cows, anecdotes of, 306-311. 
 Cross, Edward, of Exeter Change and 
 
 Walworth, 33. 
 
 Cruelty to horses in Ireland, 275. 
 Cunningham, Major, on Ladak dog, 
 
 86. 
 
 Curran on Lord Clare's dog, 98. 
 Cuvier and the fossil, 236. 
 Cynocephali, or African baboons, 9, 
 
 24, 25. 
 
 DALHOTJSIE, Earl of, and the ferocious 
 
 red-deer, 291. 
 Dandle Dinmont educates his terriers, 
 
 122. 
 Davis, Sir George, and the lion, 170, 
 
 171. 
 Deer family, 290, 291 ; their sensibility 
 
 of smell, 300. 
 Dessin Island, rabbits on, blind of one 
 
 eye, 222. 
 Dickens on sellers of bears' grease, 
 
 59, 60. 
 Dog and the French murderers, 104, 
 
 105. 
 
 Dog-cheap, 100. 
 Dogmatic, 113. 
 Dog-rose. 133. 
 Dogs, 77-87. 
 Douglas, General, and the ruts, 201.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 321 
 
 Dragon-fly exhibited at ashow, 61. 
 Dresden, Battle of, General Moreau 
 
 killed at, 113. 
 
 Drew on the instinct of dogs, 98-100. 
 Dromedary, Capt. Peel on its rate of 
 
 motion, 289. 
 
 Dunbar, Rev. Rowland Hill at, 261. 
 Durian, an eastern fruit, 14. 
 
 EABL'S Court, Hunter's menagerie at, 
 
 300-302. 
 
 Eastern dogs, 84, 85. 
 Echidna aeuleata, 192. 
 Edentata, 228. 
 Edmonstone, Dr, on Shetland seals, 
 
 176-182. 
 Eglintoun, Countess of, her fondness 
 
 for rats, 200, 201. 
 
 Elephant and his trunk, 232; anec- 
 dotes of, 234-236. 
 Epomophorus, a genus of tropical bats 
 
 alluded to by the poet-laureate, 39. 
 Erskine's sheep and the woolsack, 298. 
 Esquimaux dogs, 78, 86. 
 Ettrick Shepherd's monkey, 27, 28; 
 
 on fox-hunting, 139-141; on whales, 
 
 316. 
 
 FABRICIUS on Arctic fox, 143. 
 
 Ferret, 75, 76. 
 
 Field mouse turned up by Robert 
 
 Burns, 206-208. 
 Findhorn fisherman and monkey, 29, 
 
 30. 
 Flush, lines to her dog, by Mrs 
 
 Browning, 89-93. 
 Foote, Samuel, makes cows pull bell 
 
 at Oxford, 306. 
 Forster, Dr, on the fox-bats of the 
 
 Friendly Islands, 42, 43. 
 Fournieron the squirrel, 196. 
 Fowler the tailor and Gainsborough 
 
 the artist, 2, 3. 
 Fox, Charles James, on the poll-cat, 
 
 77. 
 
 Fox, 138. 
 Fox-hunting, from the " Nodes," 139- 
 
 141. 
 
 Fox-bats, particulars of their history, 
 
 41-47. 
 Frederick the Great and his Italian 
 
 greyhounds, 104. 
 French count at deer-stalking, 293, 
 
 294; dogs, time of Louis XI., HO ; 
 
 marquis and his monkey, 30, 31. 
 Fry, Mrs, on Irish pigs, 252. 
 Fuller, Thomas, on destructive field- 
 mice, 208, 209. 
 
 Fuller on Norfolk rabbits, 223. 
 Fuseli on Northcote's picture of 
 
 Balaam and the Ass, 281. 
 Future state of animals, Toplady on, 
 
 312. 
 
 GAINSBOROUGH and Fowler the tailor, 
 2,3; his wife and .their dogs, 100, 
 101 ; pigs, countryman on, 252 ; 
 kept an ass, 277. 
 
 Garrick and the horse, 259. 
 
 Gell, Sir William, his dog, 101. 
 
 General's cow at Plymouth, 308. 
 
 George III. at Winchester, meets 
 Garrick, 259. 
 
 George IV. visited at Windsor by 
 " Happy Jerry," 32. 
 
 Gilpin's, Bernard, horses stolen and 
 recovered, 260. 
 
 Gilpin's, Rev. Mr, love of the pic- 
 turesque, 308. 
 
 Gilray's caricature of Fox and 
 Burke as dogs, 724. 
 
 Gimcrack, thewidow, her letter to Mr 
 Bickerstaff on her husband's peculi- 
 arities, 6-8. 
 
 Giraffe, anecdotes of, 291-295. 
 
 Glirine animals, 195, 212 
 
 Goats, anecdotes of, 299, 300. 
 
 Goethe on stag-trench at Frankfort, 
 294; on Roos's etchings of sheep, 
 296. 
 
 Good enough for a pig, 251. 
 
 Gordon, Duchess of, and the wolf-dog, 
 102, 103 
 
 Gorilla and its story, 9-22. 
 
 Graham, Rev. W., on dogs in the 
 East, 86.
 
 322 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Orange, the, near Edinburgh, 30. 
 
 Gray compares poet-laureate to a 
 rat-catcher, 204, 205. 
 
 Gray, Dr, gets large specimen of go- 
 rilla, 17. 
 
 Greenland seal, 181. 
 
 Grotta del Cane, the poor dog at, 
 111, 112. 
 
 Guilford, Lord Keeper, and the 
 rhinoceros, 230. 
 
 Guinea pig, Dr Chalmers, 223, 224. 
 
 Gunn, Mr, on tiger-wolf, 192, 193. 
 
 HAFF-FISH, the Shetland name for 
 
 seal, 179. 
 
 Hairs or hares, 220. 
 Hall, Robert, and the dog, 106. 
 Hamilton, Sir Win., his definition of 
 
 man, 1, 2. 
 
 Hanover rats, 202, 203. 
 Happy Jerry, the rib-nosed mandrill, 
 
 31, 32. 
 
 Hardwicke's lady, sow, 253. 
 Hares, Mrs Browning on Cowper's, 
 
 212 ; petted by Cowper the poet, 
 
 213-219. 
 Hastings and the refractory donkey, 
 
 279. 
 Heard, the herald, on the horse of 
 
 George III., 261 
 Hedgehogs, 48. 
 Hill, Rev. Rowland, prayed for his 
 
 horse, 261, 262. 
 
 Holcroft on race-horses, 263-265. 
 Hood's dog Dash, 110. 
 Hook and.the litter of pigs, 253. 
 Hooker's sea-bear in Regent's Park, 
 
 175. 
 Hospital for old cows and horses, 
 
 309. 
 Horse, 256 ; that carried stones to 
 
 build Bell-Rock lighthouse, 257. 
 Horse exercises, a saying of Rowland 
 
 Hill's, 263. 
 
 Horsemanship of Johnson the Irish- 
 man, 257, 258. 
 
 Horsfield, Dr, on the Javanese fox- 
 bat, 45, 46. 
 
 Hunter, John, and the dead tiger, 
 165 ; his menagerie at Earl's Court, 
 300, 302. 
 
 Hunters of Polmood, dog that be- 
 longed to, 107. 
 
 IMPET, Warren Hastings, and the 
 
 ass, 279, 280. 
 India shawls, 301. 
 Inglefield, Capt., on the affection of a 
 
 Polar bear and her two cubs, 65. 
 Irish clergyman and the dogs, 108. 
 Irishman on rat-shooting, 203. 
 Irving, Washington, and the dog, 
 
 108, 109. 
 Ivory dust, 233. 
 
 JACKAL, 148, 149. 
 
 Jeffrey on a donkey ; Sydney Smith's 
 
 lines on 281, 282. 
 Jekyll treading on a small pig, 251; 
 
 on a squirrel, 195. 
 Jerrold, Douglas, and his dog, 109. 
 
 KANGAROO Cooke, 189. 
 
 Kangaroos, Charles Lamb on, 188, 
 
 189. 
 Keppel, Commodore, and the Dey of 
 
 Algiers, 303. 
 King James, on a cow getting over 
 
 the Border, 309. 
 
 LAIRD of Bainamoon and the brock, 
 75. 
 
 Lamb, Charles, and the dog, 110 ; on 
 Kangaroos, 188, 189 ; on the hare, 
 212. 
 
 Lamlseer's "Monkeyana," 10; stags, 
 293. 
 
 Lap-dogs before the House of Com- 
 mons, 124. 
 
 Lauder, Sir Thomas Dick, adven- 
 tures of a monkey in Morayshire, 
 29, 30. 
 
 Laurillard, Cuvier's assistant, 237. 
 
 Lawyer's horse, 268. 
 
 Lemming, and Arctic voyager, 196; 
 habits of the Arctic, 197, 198.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 323 
 
 Leifchild, Dr, at Hoxton, 12T. 
 Leopard, its ferocity when wounded, 
 
 161. 
 Letter from the gorilla, now in British 
 
 Museum, 13-17. 
 Lightfoot, name for Sir Edwin Land- 
 
 seer, 293. 
 
 Lion and tiger, 166. 
 Lien, hunts on Assyrian monuments, 
 
 wa. 
 
 Lions on monument of Clement XII., 
 
 171-173. 
 Listen the surgeon and his cat, 153, 
 
 154. 
 Livingston, Dr, on paralysing effect 
 
 of lion's bite, 162. 
 Luther observes a dog at Lintz, 111. 
 Lyon, Capt , on Arctic fox, 144, 145. 
 Lytton, Sir Edward Bulwer, on the 
 
 pets of some of the Revolutionary 
 
 butchers, 195, 196. 
 
 MACAITLAY, Lord, on the last days of 
 
 King William III., 50-56. 
 M'Clintock on Arctic fox, 144. 
 M'Dougall on habits of Arctic lem- 
 ming, 197. 
 Macgillivray, John, on a fox-bat from 
 
 Fitzroy Island, 45. 
 Mackenzie, Mrs Colin, on the habits 
 
 of the apes at Simla, 35, 36 ; on the 
 
 tiger being worshipped, 166. 
 Man, Professor Owen on his position, 
 
 1 ; definition of, by Linnaeus, 12 ; 
 
 defined in the Linnaean manner, 4. 
 Mandrill and George IV., 31, 32. 
 Mansfield's, Lord, joke about a horse, 
 
 267. 
 
 Marat, the citizen, and his doves, 198. 
 Markham, Mr Clement, on the Polar 
 
 bear, 69. 
 
 Marwpialia, 188-191. 
 Mastiff and the soldier, 97. 
 Matthews, Henry, on the Grotta del 
 
 Cane, 112. 
 Mayerne, Dr, and his balsam of bats, 
 
 47. 
 Metcalfe, when a boy, on camel, 290. 
 
 Miller, Hugh, on badger-baiting ia 
 
 the Canongate, 72-74. 
 Miscellaneous eating about a pig, 238. 
 Mitchell, D. W., on the habits of n 
 
 young chimpanzee, 22-24. 
 Mitchell's antipathy to cats, 155. 
 Model dog of the artist Collins, 96, 97. 
 Mole, iU habits, 49. 
 Monkey revered by Hindoos, 35. 
 Monkeys, 9 ; liable to lung disease in 
 
 British islands, 22; Rev. Sydney 
 
 Smith on, 34, 35 ; poor relations, 34. 
 Montagu, Duke of, and his hospital 
 
 for old cows, Ac., 309. 
 Montgomery, James, his translation 
 
 of a definition of man, 4; and his 
 
 cats, 155, 156. 
 Moore, General, and his horse at 
 
 Corunna, 268. 
 Moore on Gilpin and Boatswain, two 
 
 dogs, 95, 96. 
 Moore, Dr John, sketch of a French 
 
 marquis and his monkey, 30, 31. 
 More, Hannah, on dog of Garrick's, 
 
 105. 
 
 Moreau and his greyhound, 113. 
 Moses, a dog of Mrs Schimmelpen- 
 
 ninck's, 122 
 
 Moth larvas eating at night, 37. 
 Mounsey, anecdote of, 269. 
 Mouse that amused Baron von Trenck, 
 
 209, 210. 
 
 Mules should have|their own way, 286. 
 Museum of John Hunter, 164, 165. 
 Musical cats, 152, 153. 
 Musk rat, 200. 
 Alyrmecophagajubata, 225-229. 
 
 NAMES given to horses, 270-274. 
 Napier, Charles, and the lion in the 
 
 Tower, 173. 
 Natural history collectors of the days 
 
 of Addison and Steele, 5, 8. 
 Neill, Dr Patrick, 5. 
 Nelson and the Polar bear, 67-69 ; in 
 
 Arctic seas, 186. 
 Newfoundland dog, 1281 
 N'Geena, or gorilla, 18,
 
 324 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Nicol, George, the bookseller and 
 hunter, 165. 
 
 Norfolk, Duke of, and his spaniels, 
 114. 
 
 North, Sir Dudley, visits the rhino- 
 ceros, 231. 
 
 North, Lord, and the dog, 115~ 
 
 Northcote's Balaam and the Ass, 281. 
 
 Norton, Hon. Mrs, address to a dog, 83. 
 
 ODELL and his old donkey, 277. 
 
 Old Jack, a horse that drew stones for 
 
 building Waterloo Bridge, 270. 
 Old lady and the beasts on the mound, 
 
 173. 
 Ommaney, Capt., and the Polar bear, 
 
 70. 
 
 Opossum, 190. 
 
 Ornithorhynchus, the duck-bill, 192. 
 Owen, Professor, on the gorilla, 18 ; on 
 
 the aye-aye, 38. 
 
 PARASOLS, how ladies used them at 
 
 Cross's menagerie, 33. 
 Parrot and monkey, anecdote of two 
 
 pets, 33, 34. 
 
 Parry, Capt., on flesh of Polar bear, 66. 
 Paton, Sir J. Noel, ha* studied phy- 
 siognomies of bats, &c., 38. 
 Peale, Titian, on a tame fox-bat, 44. 
 Peccaries of South America, 240. 
 Peel, Capt. Wm., on camel, 287-289. 
 Peracyon, 19. 
 Perchance, a lap-dog, 98. 
 Perthes derives hints from his dog, 
 
 115. 
 Peter the Great and his dog Lisette, 
 
 161, 117. 
 
 Phascolomys vombatus, 193. 
 Philip IV. in bull-ring, 310. 
 Phillips, Sir Richard, eats jelly of 
 
 ivory dust, 233. 
 
 Phoca barbata, 180; vitulena, 177. 
 Pied Piper of Hamelin, extract from, 
 
 199. 
 
 Pig, monument to, 239. 
 Pigs and silver spoons, 254. 
 Plants liked by hares, 218. 
 
 Polar bear, its history, 61-70. 
 Poll-cat, Fox and the, 77. 
 Polkemmet, Lord, a dinner on veal, 
 
 305. 
 Poison and the last Scottish wolf, 135- 
 
 137. 
 
 Ponsonby and the poodle, 118. 
 Porpoise in Zoological Gardens, 315. 
 Pope on dogs, 95. 
 Porcupine ant-eater, 192. 
 Postman and carrier dog at Moffat, 
 
 113. 
 Postmen, Capt. Osborn, on Arctic 
 
 foxes as, 146. 
 Potamochcerus, 240, 245. 
 Prinny, a pet dog of Collins the artist, 
 
 96, 97. 
 
 Prison mouse, 209, 210 . 
 Pteropus conspicittatus, 44 ; mtdlus, 
 
 45. 
 Puss, a pet hare of the poet Cowper's 
 
 214, 215. 
 
 Quadrumana, 9-38. 
 
 Queen of Charles I. and the lap-dog 
 
 107. 
 Quixote Bowles fond of pigs, 251. 
 
 BABBITS, a family all blind of one 
 
 eye, 222. 
 Raccoon, 71. 
 Race-horses, Holcroft's anecdotes of, 
 
 263-265. 
 
 Ramsgate donkeys, Irishman on, 278. 
 Rats and mice, 198. 
 Rats' whiskers good for artists' brushes, 
 
 204. 
 
 Ravages of rats, 203. 
 Raven, pet of Wood the surgeon, 299. 
 Red-deer at Taymouth, 291, 292. 
 "Relais," a dog belonging to Louis 
 
 XII., 111. 
 Revolutionary butchers and their pets, 
 
 195, 196. 
 
 Rhinoceros and elephant, 229. 
 Richardson, Sir J., on Arctic fox, 143. 
 River pig, 245. 
 Rodent animals, 195, 212.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 325 
 
 Rodney, Lord, and his dog Loup, 119. 
 Rogue elephant, skull of one, 230. 
 Roos's etchings of sheep, Goethe on, 
 
 296, 297. 
 Ross, Sir James, on Arctic fox, 142, 
 
 145. 
 
 Rowan berries, dog that fetched, 128. 
 Ruddiman and his dog Rascal, 119. 
 
 SAND liked by hares, 218. 
 Schimmelpenninck, Mrs, her fondness 
 
 for dogs, 121. 
 Scott, Sir Walter, when a boy, saw 
 
 Burns, 84 ; his fondness for his dogs, 
 
 122 ; on a fox, 138 ; visit to the 
 
 Black Dwarf, 157. 
 "Scratcher" of Sydney Smith, 311. 
 Scriptures, dogs mentioned in the, 84, 
 
 103, 106. 
 
 Seals, their intelligence, 174-182. 
 Semnopithecus Entdlus, an Indian 
 
 monkey, 35. 
 
 Sergent and his spaniel, 196. 
 Shaved bear at Bristol, 61. 
 Shawl-goat at John Hunter's mena- 
 gerie, 801. 
 Sheep, anecdotes of, 295-298; and 
 
 goats, 295 ; pet, of Alex. Wood the 
 
 surgeon, 299. 
 Shepherd dogs, 82. 
 Sheridan and the dog, 109 ; on the 
 
 dog-tax, 123. 
 Shetland seals, 174-182. 
 Sidmouth, Lord, educated by the Rev. 
 
 Mr Gilpin, 308. 
 Skins of rabbits, 223. 
 Sloth, Sydney Smith on, 224. 
 Smith, Rev. Sydney, on the differences 
 
 between man and monkeys, 34, 35 ; 
 
 his answer to Landseer, 78 ; remark 
 
 on a dog, 88 ; his dislike of dogs, 
 
 124, 125 ; on pigs, 254 ; and his 
 
 horses, 271-274. 
 Smith and the elephant, 234. 
 Sorrel, the horse of William III., 51. 
 Southey and his critics, 48 ; on dogs, 
 
 126 ; loved cats, 158-160. 
 Sow and swine, 238-255. 
 
 Spencer, Lord, and Rev. Sydney 
 Smith, 124, 125. 
 
 Spermophilus Parryi, 197. 
 
 Sportsmen, exaggeration of some, 221. 
 
 Squirrel, 195. 
 
 Stags, anecdotes of, 291-293. 
 
 Stag-trench at Frankfort, 294: 
 
 Stanhor/fc 1 , Earl, on Jacobites calling 
 adherents of Court "Hanover rats," 
 202, 203; on the poet Cowper'a 
 tastes, 220. 
 
 Stapelia, a plant at the Cape, 25. 
 
 Stirling Castle, "Lion's den" at, 
 162. 
 
 Stokes, Capt. Lort, on the red-necked 
 fox-bat, 43. 
 
 Story, Judge, names he gave his 
 horses, 274. 
 
 Sturge and the pigs, 255. 
 
 Surgeon, an enthusiastic fox-hunting, 
 138. 
 
 Swinton, origin of name, 241. 
 
 Sykes, Colonel, on the flesh of a fox- 
 bat, 45. 
 
 Syria, wild boar in, 244. 
 
 TAIL, short-tailed and long-tailed 
 
 horses, 275. 
 
 Tailor and the elephant, 235. 
 Tamandua, or ant-eater, 226. 
 Tennyson, lines on man, and modern 
 
 systems, 10 ; lines describing tropi- 
 cal bats, 39. 
 Thackeray on the Egyptian donkey, 
 
 285. 
 Thalassarctos maritimus the polar 
 
 bear, 61-70. 
 
 Thylacinus Harriiii, 191. 
 Tibetan mastiff, 86, 87. 
 Tiger and lion, 161. 
 Tigers' claws and whiskers regarded as 
 
 charms, 165. 
 
 Tiger-wolf of Tasmania, 190-194. 
 Tiney, a pet hare of Cowper"s, 216. 
 Toplady on future state of animala, 
 
 312. 
 
 Tonton, Walpole's pet dog, 129, 130. 
 Trained monkeys, 26.
 
 326 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Trenck and the tame mouse in prison, 
 
 209. 
 
 Trichechus rosmarut, 183. 
 True, on dog being a good judge of 
 
 eloquence, 127. 
 
 ULYSSES and his dog, 133. 
 Vrsus lotor, why raccoon*was so 
 called, 71. 
 
 VEAL ad nauseam, 304. 
 Venison fat, 294. 
 Vvlpes lagopus, 142. 
 
 WALKER, Dr David, on Polar bear, 62. 
 
 Wallace, Alfred, on orang-utan, 11 ; 
 on great ant-eater, 227. 
 
 Walpole, Horace, the young lady's pet 
 monkey and her parrot, 33, 34 ; pet 
 dog Rosette, lines on, 129. 
 
 Walrus, history of, 182-188. 
 
 Waterton, Charles, letter from, on 
 young gorilla, 18-20 ; letter to Mrs 
 Wombwell on her young gorilla, 21 ; 
 "Hanover rats," 202. 
 
 Watt, James, on rats' whiskers, 204. 
 
 Wellington's story of musk rat, 200. 
 
 Whalebone, 315. 
 
 Whales, 315, 317. 
 
 Whateley, Archbishop, and his dogs, 
 
 131, 132 ; on a cat that rung the 
 
 bell, 160. 
 Wild boar, 239-245. 
 Wilkie, Sir David, and the baby, 3, 4 ; 
 
 and the puppy, 133. 
 William III. , his death, as related by 
 
 Lord Macaulay, 49-56. 
 Wilson, the American ornithologist, 
 
 and the mouse, 211. 
 Windham.Bight Hon. William, on Capt. 
 
 Phipps's Arctic expedition, 67, 68 ; 
 
 on the feelings of a baited bull, 313. 
 Wolf, 135. 
 Wolf-dog, Hungarian, anecdote of, 102, 
 
 103. 
 
 Wombat, 193. 
 
 Wood, Sandy, and his pets, 298, 299. 
 Wordsworth on cruelty to horses in 
 
 Ireland, 275. 
 
 ZEBRA, Lattin's joke, 287. 
 Zoological Gardens, 249. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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