SHOOTING PONEY LADY MASSARENE's DOG. 197 



Ladyship, as she was taking one of her accustomed walks, with her canine guard : 

 a man, who was walking on the road, came up, and taking off his hat, said " / 

 supposes as how. Ma'am, you be a dog-fancier, or mayhap you exhibit with these 

 here animals at different pleaces, as may be agreable ; if so be, as it may be suit- 

 able, I should be glad to join company, having a few dancing dogs of my own." 



Her Ladyship laughed, but with her accustomed grace and good-humour, in- 

 formed the man " She was not in that line of business." 



Sporting Magazine, June 1818. 



SAGACITY AND STAUNCHNESS IN A SHOOTING PONEY. " Being on a shooting 

 party the 18th of September 1819, mounted on a favourite old shooting poney, we 

 had beaten all day, without any success, when, on a sudden, to my great astonish- 

 ment, my poney stopped short, and I could not persuade him to move, either by 

 dint of whip or spur : I desired my keeper to forward, when the poney immediately 

 drew after him, and a covey of fifteen rose : T shot and bagged my bird. 



" The above is an extraordinary instance of the sagacity of horses. have been 

 used to ride the poney, shooting, for the last fifteen years." 



DEATH, WAKING, AND BURIAL OF THE EARL AND COUNTESS OF 



MASSARENE'S DOG. 



In a cause lately tried at Dublin, the lessees of the Earl of Massarene, versus 

 George Doran and the Countess of Massarene, his wife, in which a verdict was 

 given for the plaintiff, the following, among other curious evidence, occurred : 

 Mrs. Sowen, of Dublin, said, the Lord and Lady Massarene came to live in her 

 house, in the year 1802. She recollected an extraordinary occurrence respecting 

 the death of a dog. When the dog became ill, Lady Massarene took it out in a 

 carriage in order to obtain medical advice. Then brought it home, took it to the 

 drawing-room, and made a sad lamentation. Witness went in to know what was 

 the matter ; she beheld the dog lying on the carpet, Lady Massarene, on her knees 

 weeping over it, and Lord Massarene by her side, consoling her. His Lordship 

 then took the dog in his arms, and carried it to an open window, to give it a little 

 air ; after some time, he brought it in, and laid it again on the carpet. Lady 

 Massarene exclaimed, the dog is dying fast ; it is certainly gone ! His Lordship 

 assured her it was not, and told her that he had seen many people die, but that 

 was not the way they died ; and in order to convince- her, that the dog was not so 

 near death, as she supposed, he would shew her the manner in which people com- 

 monly die : he then stretched himself upon the carpet, continued quiet for a little 

 time, then turned himself from side to side, began to distort his features, stare 

 with his eyes, throw about his arms, work himself into the appearance of convul- 



D D 



