SIR ROBERT PEEL'S DOG-STORIES.
[To TER EDF/OR OF THE " SPECTATOR.")
Silk—Being keenly interested in your dog-stories, I venture to send you two which were told me by the late Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, which had happened when he was a young man studying with a private tutor at a place near Ipswich.
There was a well-to-do farmer in the neighbourhood, a great breeder of cattle, who had a small smooth terrier to which he was very much attached, and which was always with him. On one occasion he went to sell some of his beasts at Ipswich, and, as usual, his dog followed him. Prices ran high that day, and the farmer got a. far larger sum than he expected for his bullocks. When the market was over he went to drink a glass of beer with a friend who kept a public- house in the town, and boasted to the publican of his success, adding "I'm going to sleep at my daughter's to-night, but shall go home to-morrow morning; and won't my missus be pleased when she sees the money P" His friend congratulated him, and the farmer having paid his score, took up his hat to leave the public-house, whistling to his dog, as he did so, to follow him. But, to his astonishment, she would not come. In vain he called her, first encouragingly, then angrily ; the dog would not obey, but hid under the settles and in the back yard, eluding all pursuit. "Well!" exclaimed the farmer, " that's the most extraordinary thing I ever knew. That creature has been like my shadow ever since she was a puppy. She even insists on going to church with me. What has aappened to her I can't think !" Then recommending her to the care of his friend "till she came to her senses," he went away, very dissatisfied, leaving the dog behind. The next morning he started early on horseback to return to his farm, having called in vain for his dog, who had disappeared. The road led through a narrow lane with high banks on either side. As he came into this lane his dog suddenly started up before his horse, and by barking, running backwards and forwards, and by everything a dog could do, tried to prevent her master's going on. When she found it was useless to try and stop him, she dashed forward up the steep bank, and in a moment a man came rolling over and over down to the road, with the dog at his throat, while another man was seen scrambling up the bank and making his escape. The farmer dismounted and ran towards the man, who said in a stifled voice, "Call off your dog, who is throttling me, and I will confess all." The farmer did so, and the man confessed that he and "his pal" had been at the further end of the public-house in a. dark corner, when the farmer had been boasting of the money he had got at the sale, that then and there they had made a plot to rob him on his way home, and if he resisted to murder him. But they never mild get rid of the dog. Her instinct warned her that there was some mischief brewing against her master, and she never lost sight of them for a moment the whole night through. When they started in the morning for the lane, she followed them, though at a safe distance; and when they concealed themselves in the brushwood of the bank, she lay down and watched them till she beard the hoofs of her master's horse, when she dashed forward to stop him as I have related. Some other men came up, and the
would-be robber was arrested and brought to trial at the Assizes, where Sir Robert was present and heard the whole evidence. The dog was produced in Court as having saved her master's life, and her extraordinary instinct and fidelity made such an impression on Sir Robert that he was never weary of repeating the story.
He was equally keen about another case, which happened to Hogg, the Ettrick shepherd. He had a collie whom
he had trained from a puppy, and who literally under- stood everything he said. One evening there came on a terrible snowstorm, and that so suddenly that he had not had time to collect his flock and bring them under
shelter. Taking his dog on his knees, as was his custom when he had anything to tell her, he explained to her
that she must go " east " and he "west," and gather home the scattered flock. She understood at once, and started off as directed. Hogg went in the opposite direction, and brought back his portion of the sheep in safety; but his dog and the rest did not appear, and he began to fear that all had perished in a drift. Towards mid- night, however, he heard a scratching at his cabin door, and on opening it saw, to his great joy, his faithful collie and the whole of the remainder of the flock. Not one was missing. But the dog had something in her mouth which she deposited at his feet, and then rushed out again into the storm and pitch darkness. He took it up and found it was—a puppy ! The poor beast had evidently had a struggle in her mind between her duty to her master and her duty to her young. She had had her puppies on the way, and had compromised the matter by bringing home one with the sheep, and had then gone to seek the others. At last she returned with a second puppy in her mouth. But the effort had been too great—she put the second puppy in the shepherd's lap and then fell down and died ! Sir Robert said that Hogg cried like a child when he told the story, and that he never could get over her loss.—I am, Sir, Sze., July 25th. MARY ELISABETH HERBERT..
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