1817-22. ENUMERATION OF PETS. 1 9 



were of the most varied description. We rejoiced successively 

 in a tame owl, a sparrow-hawk, hedgehog, tortoise, guinea-pig, 

 rabbits, etc. The hedgehog was long a favourite. It used to 

 sleep all day coiled up by the fire ; and towards dusk it began 

 to move, and would run about, with its grunting cry ; coming, 

 when called on, for a bit of apple, or a cockroach one of its 

 favourite delicacies. But it chanced on one occasion that a 

 poor, barefooted Italian boy, with his hurdy-gurdy and white 

 mice, became an object of compassion to us ; mother was readily 

 induced to provide him with stockings and an old pair of 

 shoes, and in gratitude for these and other services, he pre- 

 sented us with a pair of white mice. A cage was made, which 

 by and by expanded into a sort of mouse-palace of two storeys, 

 with parlour, breeding- cage, etc. A part of it was apportioned 

 to a pair of black and white mice procured by some means or 

 other ; and as they multiplied on our hands, our great ambition 

 was to teach a rough little Scotch terrier that we had famous 

 for rat- hunting, to lie and let our tame mice run about his 

 shaggy coat. The mice were entirely devoid of fear, but Coxy 

 used occasionally to show his teeth in a way that did not 

 promise very well for his discrimination between white and 

 ordinary mice had he been left with them alone. From 

 George's letter, however, it would seem he had been trying 

 the same experiment with Mr. Grey Cat, and, though the 

 case was a harder one to deal with, apparently with equal 

 success. 1 



" Meanwhile, the museum was receiving his special care. In 

 a letter from mother to me, of date 24th August 1830, she says, 

 ' George has just come in from seeing Maclagan. On his way 

 home, he saw a shop full of curiosities. If I can find time, I 



1 Letters of this date, of the brothers to each other, give amusing evidence of the 

 deep affection entertained for the mice. In one, the following passage occurs : 

 ''There was no mention made of the mice in any of the letters, but from that, I 

 suppose they are quite well, for if anything had been wrong with them, it would 

 have been mentioned in every one of the letters." Parallel instances to this, of late 

 date, might be found in George's more than once rescuing mice about to be made 

 the subjects of experiments in his laboratory. No such things, he said, should be 

 done there. Any talk of poisoning mice always seemed to distress him ; and when 

 such death was unavoidable for them, he endeavoured to insure that the poison used 

 should be that most speedy in its effect. 



