FROM THE "SPECTATOR." 281 



"GREYFRIARS' BOBBY." 



[June 22, 1895.] 



IT must be a quarter of a century since 

 u Grey friars' Bobby " blazed the comet of a 

 season. The authorised version of the story 

 is practically that which appeared in the 

 Spectator of June 15. If the question is not 

 raised now, it will be too late to do so 

 in the future. Was Bobby an impostor ? 

 I have heard his achievements questioned 

 in Edinburgh. I have been informed that 

 Bobby was so trained in hypocrisy that 

 he lost all self-respect. The dog, it was 

 averred, went home with the sexton regu- 

 larly at night, and returned with him to the 

 graveyard in the morning, and then, like any 

 other trained mendicant, took up his pitch on 

 the grave of his quondam master. Trained 

 or not, Bobby was an interesting little 

 fellow, and until his death, he was to be seen 

 by day on his master's grave, which he would 

 leave about one o'clock. Then he regularly 

 paid a visit to Trail's dining-rooms, con- 

 tiguous to the churchyard, where he was sure 



