92 BIOGRAPHICAL [CHAP. xn. 



arrival of a large and lively hornet. No one else ventured 

 to interfere with the enemy, but Miss Ormerod waited quietly 

 till the insect came close to her, caught it in her hand, and 

 forthwith deposited it in one of the little chip boxes which 

 she generally carried in her pockets. I leave you to imagine 

 the astonishment and admiration of the other guests, and 

 the quiet chuckle with which my aunt wound up her story 

 with the remark, ' Of course I knew it was a " drone," by 

 the length of the antennae.' " 



Miss Ormerod was not the least nervous in the sense of 

 being afraid. When just a girl living at Sedbury she 

 became the centre of admiration of the workmen on her 

 father's estate by fearlessly seizing a farmyard dog by the 

 back of the neck and hauling him off her own dog, who 

 had been rudely assaulted. Great was the applause of 

 " Miss Eleanor's sperrit." 



Another incident with a dog of a much more dangerous 

 character is best given in her own words : " I only remember 

 one instance of rabies. The animal attacked was one of 

 two beautiful Clumber spaniels which had been left one day 

 at our house with a message that the sender, a friend of my 

 .brother, desired him to select one of them, and accept it as 

 a gift. The two pretty creatures, named Caesar and Pompey, 

 were introduced into our establishment, and one of them 

 Caesar became a great favourite with my father. How 

 long it was after their arrival I do not remember, but one day 

 Caesar vanished, and in the course of the afternoon, although 

 he was not one of the house dogs, he came to me as I was 

 standing in the front hall. To my astonishment when I 

 noticed him as usual, he gave a kind of scream, or extraor- 

 dinary howl, such as I had never heard before, and I saw 

 that the expression of his eyes was wild and distressed to an 

 entirely unnatural degree. The strange scream made me sus- 

 pect what might be wrong, and I called one of the head men. 

 We took the dog, who was perfectly gentle, into the butler's 

 pantry and shut the door so that he might not escape, 

 whilst we tried to find out what was amiss. I did not much 

 like the business, but it happened I was the only one at 

 home, excepting a lady relation, who, thinking " discretion 

 the better part of valour," mounted herself pro tern, out of 

 harm's way, on the top of a very large stone table, and 

 awaited results in safety. I knew that offering water was a 

 very partial test, but I had some poured out. The effect 

 was instantaneous. The moment the poor dog heard the 

 sound he almost flew to me, as if for protection, and tried to 



