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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



it was some time before Maida was sufficiently 

 roused to ramp forward two or three bounds, and 

 join the chorus with a deep-mouthed bow-wow. 

 It was but a transient outbreak, and he returned 

 instantly, wagging his tail, and looking up dubi- 

 ously in his master's face, uncertain whether he 

 would receive censure or applause. ' Ay, ay, old 

 boy ! ' cried Scott, ' you have done wonders ; you 

 have shaken the Eildon hills with your roaring . 

 you may now lay by your artillery for the rest of 

 the day. — Maida,' continued he, ' is like the great 

 gun at Constantinople ; it takes so long to get it 

 ready, that the smaller guns can fire off a dozen 

 times first.' " 



Maida accompanied his master to town, where 

 he occupied the place of the lamented Camp. In 

 the sanctum at Castle Street, Maida lay on the 

 hearth-rug, ready when called on to lay his head 

 across his master's knees, and to be caressed and 

 fondled. On the top step of a ladder for reach- 

 ing down the books from a higher shelf sat a 

 sleek and venerable tomcat, which Scott face- 

 tiously called by the German name Hinse of Hins. 

 feldt. Lockhart mentions that Hiuse, " no longer 

 very locomotive, usually lay watching the pro- 

 ceedings of his master and Maida with an air of 

 dignified equanimity. When Maida chose to leave 

 the party, he signified his inclinations by beating 

 the door with his huge paw ; Scott rose and 

 opened it for him with courteous alacrity — and 

 then Hinse came down purring from his perch, 

 and mounted guard by the footstool, vice Maida 

 absent on furlough. Whatever discourse might 

 be passing was broken, every now and then, by 

 some affectionate apostrophe to these four-footed 

 friends. Dogs and cats, like children, have some 

 infallible tact for discovering who is, and who is 

 not, really fond of their company ; and, I venture 

 to say, Scott was never five minutes in any room 

 before the little pets of the family, whether dumb 

 or lisping, had found out his kindness for all 

 their generation." 



In letters to his eldest son, Scott seldom fails 

 to tell him how things are going on with the do- 

 mesticated animals. For example: "Hamlet 

 had an inflammatory attack, and I began to 

 think he was going mad, after the example of 

 his great namesake ; but Willie Laidlaw bled 

 him, and he recovered. Pussy is very well." 

 Next letter : " Dogs all well — cat sick — supposed 

 with eating birds in their feathers." Shortly 

 afterward : " All here send love. Dogs and cat 

 are well. I dare say you have heard from some 

 •ther correspondent that poor Lady Wallace " (a 

 favorite pony) "died of an inflammation after two 



days' illness. Trout " (a favorite pointer) " has re- 

 turned here several times, poor fellow, and seems 

 to look for you ; but Henry Scott is very kind to 

 him." In a succeeding letter we have the ac- 

 count of an accident to Maida : " On Sunday, 

 Maida walked with us, and in jumping the paling 

 at the Greentongue park contrived 10 hang him- 

 self up by the hind-leg. He howled at first, but 

 seeing us making toward him, he stopped crying, 

 and waved his tail, by way of signal, it was sup- 

 posed, for assistance. He sustained no material 

 injury, though his leg was strangely twisted into 

 the bars, and he was nearly hanging by it. He 

 showed great gratitude, in his way, to his de- 

 liverers." 



At Abbotsford, in the autumn of 1S20, when 

 a large party, including Sir Humphry Davy, Dr. 

 Wollaston, and Henry Mackenzie, were sallying 

 out — Scott on his pony Sybyl Grey, with Maida 

 gamboling about him — there was some commo- 

 tion and laughter when it was discovered that a 

 little black pig was frisking about and apparently 

 resolved to be one of the party for the day. Scott 

 tried to look stern, and cracked his whip at the 

 creature, but was in a moment obliged to join in 

 the general cheers. Poor piggy was sent home. 

 " This pig," says Lockhart, " had taken, nobody 

 could tell how, a most sentimental attachment to 

 Scott, and was constantly urging his pretensions 

 to be admitted a regular member of his tail along 

 with the greyhounds and terriers ; but, indeed, 

 I remember him suffering another summer un- 

 der the same sort of pertinacity on the part of 

 an affectionate hen. I leave the explanation for 

 philosophers — but such were the facts." 



Mr. Adolphus, a visitor to Abbotsford in 1830> 

 when the health of the great writer was breaking 

 down under his honorable and terribly imposed 

 taskwork, gives us not the least striking instance 

 of Scott's wonderful considerateness toward ani- 

 mals. " In the morning's drive we crossed sev- 

 eral fords, and, after the rain, they were wide and 

 deep. A little, long, wise-looking, rough terrier, 

 named Spice, which ran after us, had a cough, 

 and as often as we came to a water, Spice, by 

 the special order of his master, was let into the 

 carriage till we had crossed. His tenderness to 

 his brute dependents was a striking point in the 

 benignity of his character. He seemed to consult 

 not only their bodily welfare, but their feelings, 

 in the human sense. He was a gentleman even 

 to his dogs." When too roughly frolicsome, he 

 rebuked them gently, so as not to mortify them, 

 or spoil the natural buoyancy of their character. 



We could extend these memorabilia, but have, 



