104 THE RAVEN 



destiny was given to the grappling-hook or engine 

 which now tore down stones from the walls of a 

 besieged city, and now, again, when planted on the 

 walls of the besieged, would, by a sudden swing, 

 whip up one of the besiegers from the ground and 

 fling him far into the city. 



More memorable even than these tributes to 

 the strength and courage of the raven, is one 

 rendered by the same stalwart people to the socia- 

 bility, the cleverness, the mischief of a tame bird, 

 which had managed to become the pet of the whole 

 city. The indignation excited at Saltburn-on-Sea, 

 in Yorkshire, a few years ago, by the killing of a 

 tame raven, the favourite, for years, of its inhabitants 

 and its summer visitors, by a thoughtless tripper, 

 may, perhaps, be still remembered ; and at Bland- 

 ford, Dr Williamson Daniel possesses a magnificent 

 raven which roams freely over the town and neigh- 

 bourhood, and whose death would be regarded as a 

 calamity even by Lord Portman's keepers, who, 

 unfortunately, do not spare the wild ravens which 

 occasionally still try to nest in his domains. But 

 no English town would, I suppose, do for a tame 

 raven quite what imperial Rome is related, by Pliny 

 the Elder, with every circumstance of time and 

 place, to have done for one particular bird. In the 



