OPENING ADDEESS. 15 



his aspiring younger rivals. In one of these combats it is 

 supposed that he received a wound which made him fo r 

 a time rather lame ; in consequence of which the keeper, 

 he thinks in / 1830, enticed him into the yard behind 

 his house, and there doctored him until his recovery, upon 

 which in a few months he was restored again to the full 

 range of the park. From that period, however, he never 

 forgot the benefits he had received in the keeper's yard, 

 and in subsequent severe seasons would often make his 

 way into it and go to the bin from which the keeper had 

 been accustomed to give acorns, &c, during his illness; 

 and if he could contrive to open, would proceed to help 

 himself. Even at other times, if the keeper met him in 

 the park and called to him by his name, he would stop 

 and stand still, look round him, and on recognising his 

 friend would leave his hairy comrades and meet the 

 caresses of his benefactor. On the keeper naming this 

 once to Lord Stanley while walking in the park, and Billy 

 in sight, the keeper called to him, and Lord Stanley, in 

 the man's company, went up to him, spoke to, and patted 

 him. From that time Lord Stanley shared also in the 

 influence the keeper had over him, so as even to be able 

 to introduce other persons to Billy's acquaintance, — 

 among them myself ; but I have never ventured to exer- 

 cise the same familiarity with him as my son or the 

 keeper, though whenever I have met him in the park, and 

 called him by name, he would stop, recognise it, and ad- 

 vance towards me, even if I was in a carriage, though he 

 would not then come very near up to it. He did not seem 

 to care even if his friends had a gun in their hands ; but a 

 dog, especially a strange one, he had a great dislike to. 

 Some dogs that the keeper kept in his back yard, Billy 

 was very good friends with there, but if he met them 

 loose in the park they were as strangers to him. 



