PET RAVEN AT STAFFORD 169 



case in other counties have at least one happy or 

 unhappy imbecile, living among them who such is 

 the kindliness of the people is almost always the 

 village pet rather than the village butt. The raven 

 soon detected the weakness of the Stafford imbecile, 

 and would demonstrate around him, and make 

 vigorous attacks on his legs whenever he passed 

 through the yard. He showed similar insight 

 and contempt for intellectual weakness, when I kept 

 him, for a term or two, in the gardens of Trinity 

 College, Oxford. The son of the gardener, who 

 helped his father in the more mechanical part of 

 his work, happened not to be strong in his mind. 

 The raven instantly recognised the difference be- 

 tween the two men, and while he never molested the 

 father in his work, he never left the son alone in his. 

 Sometimes, he would fly up to my window, while I 

 was giving a lecture, it may be on some Greek play, 

 to my pupils, and would interpolate remarks which, 

 if they were a sore interruption to the lecture, seemed 

 often quite as much to the point as some of the 

 remarks of the Chorus, through which we were 

 painfully labouring. He was quite impervious to 

 rain or frost or snow. When the snow was deep 

 on the ground, he would play in it or roll over in it 

 like a dog. He chose for his roosting-place at 



