276 TOUR IN SU T H EEL AN DSH I RE. 



most determined prospensity to steal meat and other eat- 

 ables. Neither flogging nor good feeding prevents him, and 

 he carries on his operations in so cunning and so systematic 

 a manner, that I dread taking him to any friend's house 

 without instantly fastening him up. As long as any person 

 is looking at him, he remains in a state of apparently 

 the most innocent quietude; but the moment no eye is 

 on him, dbiit evasit ; and to a certainty some joint of 

 meat has vanished with him, but whither, or how, no one 

 knows. 



Sometimes he manages not even to be suspected. On one 

 occasion five pounds of beefsteak suddenly disappears. Every 

 dog about the place is suspected except Gripp, and he, " poor 

 brute!" the cook affirms, "cannot be the thief; for he never 

 moved from the fire, where he was drying himself, and he 

 is the quietest dog in the world : " so says iny friend's cook, 

 at the very time that the poor good dog is suffering the most 

 painful indigestion from having swallowed so much raw meat 

 in addition to his regular meals, and the extra scraps that he 

 has inveigled out of the cook by his unsophisticated innocence. 

 The next day half a haunch of roebuck is gone : but Gripp 

 still keeps his place in the good graces of everybody. " It 

 couldn't be Gripp," is the universal cry ; " he wouldn't do 

 such a thing!" At last Mr. Gripp is caught in the very act 

 of swallowing the remains of a pound of butter, straggling in 

 vain to bolt it at once ; but the slippery lump will not go down. 

 Then comes a long train of circumstantial evidence, and a 

 dozen recent robberies are brought home to him 



Now the beast was already well fed, and was only impelled 

 to steal by an hereditary irrestible impulse, handed down to 

 him from his grandfather and father, who both belonged to a 

 race of poachers in a country town, and had been taught to 

 find their own living. Beyond a question, Gripp inherited 

 his system of morality from his respectable ancestors, to 

 whom also he bore the strongest personal resemblance. 



By the same rule, never keep the puppies of a notorious 

 sheep-killiug dog, nor of a bad-tempered dog : they are sure to 

 have the same inclinations and tempers as their parents ; and 

 you will find it most difficult, if not impossible, to cure them 

 of these faults. The breeders and teachers of dogs would 

 much facilitate their own labours did they pay more atten- 

 tion to the dispositions and habits of the parents of the 

 puppies whom they take in hand. 



