TTbc 1foon. Orantleg if. Berfedes 459 



Grantlcy Berkeley always loved to make pets of 

 animals, some of them strange enough a cormorant, 

 for example, which used to eat from his hand and sit 

 on his shoulder, and a stoat, which nestled in the 

 pockets of his shooting -coat. But none of his stories 

 of his own pets is so funny as this one of a raven 

 which belonged to a neighbour : 



" The bird was tame and pinioned, and had strayed 

 from his owner's house into the orchard of the village 

 curate. A lot of rooks having visited the parson's 

 cherries, the reverend gentleman kept his gun in readi- 

 ness, and seeing the raven under his trees, he stalked 

 him by the aid of a hedge. Bang went the fruit- 

 avenging gun, and the raven having felt a shot or two 

 rattle on his feathers, began to hop and flap along the 

 ground as fast as he could. Up ran the parson, think- 

 ing to secure the offender, to be impaled as a future 

 scarecrow, when just as he was about to grasp the raven, 

 the bird opened his mouth to bite, and cried, ' Damn 

 your blood ! ' So startled was the divine, that he threw 

 down his gun, and ran away." 



Amongst Berkeley's animal favourites dogs took the 

 first place. One of the most notable of them was 

 Smoker, his famous deerhound and retriever " the only 

 dog I ever saw," says his master, "who was singly a 

 match for any stag." Once Smoker dashed at a stag at 

 bay, and though pinned through the back by the deer's 

 horn, which only missed his spine by a hair's breadth, 

 the gallant dog shook himself free, charged the stag 

 again, and would probably have been impaled had not 

 the huntsman come in the nick of time and rescued him. 



