Some Poeis' Dogs. 315 



Like dogs, like devik goe, goe howie and barke. 

 Depart in darknesse, for your deeds were darke." 



But not only, of course, does every mood of the canine 

 character find abundant recognition in our poets, but every 

 variety also of the animal j above all, each variety of hound 

 used in sport. 



" Trusty household guardians,' mastifis fell 

 Nightly to watch the walls, 

 Stout terriers that in high-hilled Sutherland 

 Beat up the wild cat's lodge or badgers rouse ; 

 And russet bloodhounds, wont near Annand's stream 

 To trace the sly thief with avenging foot, 

 Close as an evil conscience, stiil at hand : 

 Fleet greyhounds that outrun the fearful hare 

 And many a dog beside the faithful scent 

 To snuff his prey, on eager heel to scour 

 The purple heath and snap the flying game." * 



Supreme of course as a creature of the chase is the fox, 

 and its correlative, the foxhound, is therefore proportion- 

 ately conspicuous. 



" Of horn and mom and hark and bark. 

 And echo's answering sounds, 

 All poets' wit hath ever writ 

 In doggrel verse of hounds." 



A reasonable quantity of rubbish was only therefore to 

 be expected. But bearing in mind the excessive sympathy 

 of the poets for the birds of sport and their habitual 

 lamentations over pheasants and partridges, the robust tone 

 in which they approve of the doings of foxhounds, beagles, 

 staghounds, otter-hounds, badger-hounds, spaniels, pointers, 

 and the rest, comes upon the student of poetical psychology 

 as a surprise. It would be too much, of course, to say 

 that the general tendency of poets to dislike wild beasts 



' Levden. 



