IN OTHER ANIMAI3. 231 



chapel, though pelted by the church boys for so doing. His 

 master .... never went ; and the interpretation put upon 

 the dog's conduct was that he wished to attract his master ' 

 to church attendance. It is at least a coincidence that when 

 his master met with an accidental death by drowning, the 

 animal ceased to attend chapel. Dr. Macaulay too speaks 

 of many church-going collies as e more regular attendants 

 than their masters.' 



It is obvious that, in many cases at least, such dogs 

 value church attendance as a privilege, for which they are 

 prepared to make, and do make, great sacrifices. Not only 

 do they travel long distances afoot in all weathers, but they 

 deprive themselves of shelter and food, and expose them- 

 selves to their masters' wrath, and to the certainty rather 

 than the risk of ignominious punishments. Whatever, 

 then, be the dog's motive in attending church under such 

 circumstances, it would appear to be at least a strong one. 

 It may be a love of society, either of its own kind or of 

 man; for in wild pastoral regions, where population is 

 sparse, the Sunday congregations of farmers, shepherds, 

 peasants, and their dogs constitute one of the very rare and 

 favourable opportunities of meeting with their kind. It 

 may be an allied dread of monotony, a longing for relaxation 

 of a certain kind, a love of novelty and variety. If such 

 motives operate as is quite likely it cannot truthfully be 

 averred that they do not also operate largely sometimes, it 

 may be, exclusively in the church-going of man himself. 



We know, as Hood says, that 



A daw's not reckoned a religious bird 

 Because it keeps a-cawing from a steeple. 



Nor is a shepherd's collie to be considered religious simply 

 because it regularly attends church, even at great personal 

 sacrifice, risk, or inconvenience sometimes. So long ago as 

 1791 Salmagundi thus remarked of *a favourite dog, who 

 regularly accompanied his mistress to church ' : 



'Tis held by folks of deep research 

 He's a good dog who goes to church : 



As good I hold him every whit 

 Who stays at home and turns the spit ; 

 or though good dogs to church may go, 

 going there don't make them so. 



