234 DOGS 



but, like Christopher, who pleads guilty to the 

 inexcusable cruelty of cat-hunting, at times he was 

 betrayed into indiscretions. By the way, Lord 

 Byron's Boatswain is another historical character. 

 It is not every one who can afford to buy a well- 

 bred St. Bernard. Fifty pounds is a long price to 

 pay, and prize-winners have fetched ten times that 

 money. But he is a magnificent dog to possess, 

 though perhaps his sagacity has been overrated, 

 for he is the hero of many legends. It was to the 

 monks of the hospice on the high St. Bernard pass, 

 rather than to the dogs, that so many wayfarers, 

 perishing in the snowdrifts, were indebted for their 

 rescue. No doubt the dogs' noses came in usefully 

 when the good monks were blinded by the blizzard, 

 and the traveller, shrouded in the snow, had been 

 settling for his last sleep. As the deerhound, if 

 banished from the forests of the north, will surely 

 survive in England, much more will that be the 

 case with the St. Bernard, whatever may befall him 

 in the Alps. He is not only become fashionable, 

 but the cream of the fashion, and it is a fashion 

 likely to last. Nearly forty years ago, what with 

 rough winters, avalanches, and other accidents, the 

 race in Switzerland must have been nearly extinct. 

 When I slept at the Hospice I saw, to my regret, 

 that there was only one bitch there with a weakly 

 puppy. To be sure, there were other puppies at 

 milk in the Martigny Valley, but puppies they were, 

 and there was the risk of distemper. It was a relief, 

 in returning from Italy by the Simplon Pass, to 



