2i 8 Dog Shows and Doggy People 



who was much attached to her, and when she strayed away felt her 

 loss so deeply that he put off an important engagement and (like 

 Silas Wegg) dropped into poetry about her, and for years afterwards 

 used to pour forth praises of her many virtues, and recite to his 

 grandchildren the poetry written about her. Some of his love for 

 animals seems to have descended on me : I have never been able 

 to regard dogs from a mere fancier's standpoint. 



" My dogs have always been members of the family ; I do not like 

 to think what my life would have been without their love and 

 companionship. One of the worst specimens, as a dog, was a 

 nondescript bhck-and-tan named Pickles, who lived with me for 

 sixteen years, and who raised nearly ^100 for a charitable object by 

 appealing to the ' Dogs of England.' After the death of Pickles 

 and her daughter Dinky, who died two years afterwards, aged fifteen, 

 I was dogless for some time ; I did not want any more heart stings. 



" But I was one day offered a Dalmatian which wanted a home ; 

 this I accepted, and for years he followed the carriage and was well, 

 known for twenty miles round London. Through following my 

 pony-cart on long distant excursions Old Sam got to know the 

 principal hotels and put-up houses in all directions, and would often 

 trot off ten or fifteen miles by himself to call at some of these places 

 where he had been hospitably entertained. My Dalmatians have 

 been so often detained in this way, and brought home by waiters late 

 at night as lost dogs, that I have been obliged to put collars on them 

 with the inscription engraved, ' To Restaurant Proprietors Please 

 do not detain this dog.' 



" Lady Godiva is perhaps the most travelled of all my team ; 

 she has run from London to Brighton, London to Ramsgate, London 

 to Oxford, London to Birmingham, and in the summer of 1895 she 

 astonished the people of Coventry. She ran down the whole of the 

 way with me by road ; but when we reached the outskirts, I lifted her 

 up into the trap and took off her collar, and thus for the second time 

 Lady Godiva rode through the town of ' Peeping Tom ' with 

 * nothings on ' ! 



" Dalmatians must be rare in the provinces. When I take mine on 

 a driving tour the children are delighted ; but there is diversity of 

 opinion as to their breed, the majority inclining to favour their being 

 Blood-hounds. 



" At Canterbury, when I drove them into an inn yard, an aged 

 ostler stood gazing at them open-mouthed, saying, ' Eh, sir, it makes 

 me think of my young days to see them dogs of yourn. I ain't seed 



