1 62 ANIMAL ARTISANS 



all their wits about them, and scarcely need more than 

 a hint from the dog as to where they should go. In 

 Penrith on market-days in autumn there is a great in- 

 vasion of sheep, often lambs of the year, which, being 

 bred on the fells, are sold for keeping on the lower 

 ground in winter. Of the three parties to the visit 

 sheep, dogs, and shepherds the first are usually quite 

 composed, the dogs almost as much at their ease, and 

 the only members who lose their heads completely 

 are the shepherds, who shriek and scream at their 

 dogs and flocks as if demented. At a cross-road, or 

 if there is much traffic, a sheep sometimes becomes 

 separated from the rest, while the shepherd is franti- 

 cally waving his arms and stick. The writer has 

 seen one quietly run up beside the dog and push 

 against it, as if to inquire what it had best do. The 

 dog, looking up with his tongue out, evidently con- 

 cluded that his master did not know either ; but 

 after waiting still a minute, he trotted off with the 

 sheep alongside of him to the flock. 



Perhaps the most incongruous pair of animal friends 

 at present in England belong to the late Lord Lil- 

 ford's collection of cranes and wildfowl, still main- 

 tained at Lilford Hall, near Oundle. A large crane was 

 selected as the object of an intense and jealous affec- 

 tion by a goose. The goose, which was of a curious 

 Australian species, with a very short bill and speckled 

 body, practically annexed the crane altogether. When 

 the writer last saw it, it was feeding close by the 

 tall crane, and never went more than a few yards 

 from it, or allowed it to be out of its sight for a 



