RAVENS. 1S5 



at Chapel-le-Frith, distant fourteen miles, where it was allowed 

 to remain, and where it lived for many years. 



A writer in the Naturalists Magazine says that he remem- 

 bers seeing on a post near the Elephant and Castle Inn, at 

 which such a multitude of coaches used to stop, an inscription 

 on " Ralph," a Raven of great celebrity, who had been in his 

 days a distinguished member of the Elephant and Castle 

 establishment. Those who recollected him gave several in- 

 stances of his sagacity, amongst others, that of his knowledge 

 of, and intimacy with, several of the coachmen ; with his 

 particular favourites and friends he would frequently take 

 short jaunts out on the coach top, until he met some other 

 coach, whose driver he also knew, passing in ' a homeward 

 direction, when he would immediately change coaches and 

 return. 



A still more curious anecdote of attachment and observa- 

 tion in Ravens is given in the weekly periodical, the Saturday 

 Magazine, which, from its application to the subject before us, 

 we here repeat. It occurred many years ago, at the Red Lion 

 Inn, Hungerford. A gentleman who lodged there, thus tells 

 the story : — "Coming into the inn-yard," says he, "my chaise 

 ran over and bruised the leg of a favourite Newfoundland dog, 

 and while we were examining the injury, Ralph, the Raven, 

 looked on also, and was evidently making his remarks on 

 what was doing ; for the minute my dog was tied up under 

 the manger with my horse, Ralph not only visited him, but 

 brought him bones, and attended him with particular marks of 

 kindness. I observed it to the ostler, who told me that the 

 bird had been brought up with a dog, and that the affection 

 between them was mutual, and all the neighbourhood had 

 been witnesses of the many acts of kindness performed by the 

 one to the other. Ralph's friend, the dog, in course of time, 

 had the misfortune to break his leg, and during the long 

 period of his confinement, the Raven waited on him constantly, 

 carried him his provisions, and scarcely ever left him alone. 

 One night, by accident, the stable-door had been shut, an I 

 Ralph had been deprived of his friend's company all night ; 

 but the ostler found, in the morning, the door so pecked away, 



