170 THE RAVEN 



Stafford the ridge of a thatched wall in a very 

 exposed place in the allotments, and stuck to it 

 through all weathers. Pets usually come to a sad 

 or premature end. Waterton's pet raven, Marco, 

 perished from a blow of one of his best friends, an 

 angry coachman, on whom, in a moment of play 

 or of excitement, he had inflicted a sharp nip. So 

 sharp and strong is a raven's beak that he can 

 hardly ever touch the hand without bringing blood 

 and cutting rather deep. Dickens's pet raven, 

 "Grip," developed an "unfortunate taste for white 

 paint and putty," and died of the slow poison, as 

 is narrated in Dickens's own preface to Barnaby 

 Rudge and, at greater length, in his "Life" by 

 Forster. My pet raven, "Jacob," met with the 

 most ignominious and unworthy fate of all. He 

 either walked or slipped into a barrel of liquid 

 pigs'-wash and was found by me therein. An 

 open verdict of "found drowned" was all that 

 could be said about him. 



Another of my pet ravens, the native of Millicent 

 Clump, could not be allowed such unfettered liberty 

 at Harrow, as he might have had in his native air of 

 Dorset. He was kept in a large aviary where, if his 

 opportunities for mischief were less, his progress 

 in language was greater. His own name, " Jacob," 



