SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOOTH. 279 



Arrian, Pliny, Oppian, ^Elian, and a host of othei writers of the Empire, 

 descant on the praises oi' the dog, or give anecdotes of his courage, 

 strength, and fidelity. 



In the chivalric ages, he was the companion of knights and princes tie 

 eoul of the manly field-sports of those times. Even prelates followed him 

 to the chase. The abbots of St. Hubert bred a celebrated race of hounds 

 St. Hubert himself, St. Eustace, and many others on the canonized calen 

 dar, were keen hunters. " Whereupon, " says the author of the " Noble 

 Art of Venerie," &c., published in 1611, "we may conceive that (by the 

 grace of God) all good huntsmen shall follow them into Paradise ! " Truly, 

 a consoling religious sequitur ! 



Scott, in his beautifully descriptive poetry, and still more poetical prose, 

 has given us a whole picture gallery of dogs, from the Middle Ages down. 

 The few which start up first in memory, (in my memory,) because, proba- 

 bly, linked with the most interesting associations, are Fangs a genuine 

 Saxon gaunt and unkempt, but stanch as his master, Gurth, the son of 

 Beowulph ; the noble hound of Sir Kenneth ; the " two dogs of black 

 Saint Hubert's breed," that with Fitz-James pursued their quarry into the 

 wild pass of the Trosachs ; the faithful little terrier, which, 



" on the dark brow of the mighty Hellvellyn, 



The much-loved remains of her master defended, 

 And chased the hill fox and the raven away ; " 



and last, not least, Hector Mclntyre's bitch Juno, which stole the butter, 

 and broke the " lachr amatory from Clochmaben," of the glorious old 

 Antiquary. They stand out on the canvas like Landseer's pictures. We 

 pause to hear them bark ! It has often occurred to me that Scott omitted 

 a fine opportunity, indeed, made a hiatus vale dcflendus, in not introducing 

 one or more of the 'Alpine spaniels or dogs of Mount St. Bernard into 

 his Anne of Geierstein, providing it could be done, (on which point I am 

 uninstructed,) without a violent anachronism. When Arthur clung dizzy 

 and stupefied to the trunk of the tree which hung over the beetling vergd 

 of the precipice when the cry of the Swiss maiden announced approach- 

 ing succor, should it not have had for its accompaniment the baying of 

 one of those great dogs of the Alps the deep and far-heard rever Dera- 

 tions of which so often calls help to the perishing traveler, for miles, 

 through the howling storm 1 Should not the dog of Donnerhugel, on the 

 night-watch of Graffs-lust, have been of the same breed huge, shaggy, and 

 daring as himself? The portrait of Barry, a Bernardine dog which saved 

 the lives of forty persons, and finally perished in an avalanche in guid- 

 ing some travelers to St. Pierre, is to be found in every print-shop. It 

 represents him carrying a child on his shoulders clinging by his shaggy 

 hair, which he found in the Glacier of Balsore, and rescued from 

 approaching death. 



Scott is not the only modern poet who has admired and sung the praises 

 of the dog. And I do not recollect the instance of one, who has mentioned 

 him, that is, the tvcll-bred dog, who has not praised him, except Byron 

 in these moody lines : 



"Perchance my dog will whine in vain. 



Till fed by stranger hands ; 

 But long ere I come back again 



Would tear me where he stands." 



In his epitaph on his Newfoundland dog, the noble poet retracted this 

 ungenerous libel, and pays one of the warmest tributes to the fidelity of 

 the aog, on record. 



Volumes of anecdotes of canine sagacity might te easily compiled 



