LITER ART AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 391 



Lzed him. I think he looked upon himself as the binding link 

 between the bitter Tory of the old regime, and the moderate 

 Conservative of the new. There was evidently a feeling of par- 

 tisanship in his mind as he took up his position at the door of Mr. 

 Blackwood's shop, either to throw the Professor oif or take him up, 

 as the case might be. I never knew so eccentric a dog as Tory ; 

 he had many friends, but his w r ays were queer and wandering. 

 There was no place of public amusement he did not attend ; his 

 principles were decidedly those of a dog about town ; and though 

 serious, grave, and composed in deportment, he preferred stir and 

 excitement to rest and decorum. Tory was never known to go to 

 church, but at the door of the theatre, or at the Assembly Rooms, 

 he has been seen to linger for hours. He was a long-backed yellow 

 terrier, with his front feet slightly turned out, and an expression of 

 countenance full of mildness and wisdom. Tory continued his 

 visits to Gloucester Place, and his friendship for the Professor, for 

 several years, but he did not neglect other friends, for he exhibited 

 his partiality for many individuals in the street, accompanying them 

 in their walk, and perhaps going home w r ith them. This erratic and 

 independent mode of existence brought him much into notice. 

 There must be many in Edinburgh who remember his knowing 

 look and strange habits. 



One other such companion must be mentioned, the last my father 

 ever had ; he belonged to his son Blair, and was originally the 

 property of a cab-driver in Edinburgh. Grog was his name, and 

 it argues the unpoetical position he held in early life. He was the 

 meekest and gentlest, and almost the smallest doggie I ever saAv. 

 His color was a rich chestnut brown ; his coat, smooth and short, 

 might be compared to the wing of a pheasant ; and as he lay nest- 

 ling in the sofa, he looked much more like a bird than a dog. I 

 think he never followed my father in the street, their intimacy be- 

 ing confined entirely to domestic life ; he was too petit to venture 

 near Christopher as he strode along the street, but many a little 

 snooze he took within the folds of his ample coat, or in the pocket 

 of his jacket, or sometimes on the table among his papers. I can- 

 not pretend to say of what breed Grog had come ; he had little, 

 comical, turned-out feet ; he was a cosy, coaxing, mysterious, half- 

 mouse, half-bird-like dog ; a fancy article, and might have been 

 bought very fitly from a bazaar of lady's work, made up for the 



