Dog's Mouth, and open it by main Force. This is the only Way to part them.

Coursing the Hare

(From On a Country Life)

A

T other times you may pursue the chase,

And hunt the nimble hare from place to place.

See, when the dog is just upon the grip,

Out at a side she'll make a handsome skip
And ere he can divert his furious course,

She, far before him, scours with all her force :
She'll shift, and many times run the same ground;
At last, outwearied by the stronger hound,

She falls a sacrifice unto his hate,

And with sad piteous screams laments her fate.

James Thomson.

On a Dog

CALM

ALM though not mean, courageous without
rage,

Serious not dull, and without thinking sage;
Pleas'd at the lot that Nature has assign'd,
Snarl as I list, and freely bark my mind;

As churchman wrangle not with jarring spite,
Nor stateman-like caressing whom I bite;
View all the canine kind with equal eyes,
I dread no mastiff, and no cur despise :
True from the first, and faithful to the end,
I baulk no mistress, and forsake no friend.
My days and nights one equal tenour keep,
Fast but to eat, and only wake to sleep:
Thus stealing along life I live incog,
A very plain and downright honest Dog.
William Hamilton.

Buffon's Word for the Dog

(From his Histoire Naturelle)

IT may be said that the dog is the only animal

whose loyalty will stand trial; the only one who always knows his master and the friends of the family; the only one who, when a stranger comes, knows it; the only one who knows his own name and recognises his master's voice; who does not trust himself; who, when he has lost his master, cries after him; who, on a long road which he has only followed once, remembers and recovers the way; finally, the only one whose natural talents are plain and whose education always turns out well. George Louis Leclerc Buffon.

Fighting Dogs

(From Tom Thumb the Great)

L

O, when two dogs are fighting in the streets, With a third dog one of the two dogs meets, With angry teeth he bites him to the bone,

And this dog smarts for what that dog has done. Henry Fielding.

An Appreciation

SENSE and fidelity are wonderful recommend

ations; and when one meets with them, and can be confident that one is not imposed upon, I cannot think that the two additional legs are any drawback. At least I know that I have had friends who would never have vexed or betrayed me, if they had walked on all fours.

Horace Walpole.

Epitaph: On a favourite Lap-dog

I

NEVER bark'd when out of season;

I never bit without a reason;

I ne'er insulted weaker brother;

Nor wrong'd by force nor fraud another.

Though brutes are plac'd a rank below,
Happy for man could he say so!

Thomas Blackcock.

The English Bull-dog, Dutch Mastiff, and Quail

A

SNUB-NOS'D dog, to fat inclin'd,
Of the true hogan-mogan kind,
The favourite of an English dame,
Mynheer Van Trumpo was his name.
One morning as he chanc'd to range,
Met honest Towzer on the 'Change;
And whom have we got here, I beg?
Quoth he, and lifted up his leg;

An English dog can't take an airing,
But foreign scoundrels must be staring.

I'd have your French dogs, and your Spanish,
And all your Dutch, and all your Danish,

By which our species is confounded,
Be hang'd, be poison'd, or be drowned;
No mercy on the race suspected,
Greyhounds from Italy excepted:

By them my dames ne'er prove big-bellied,
For they, poor toads, are Farrinellied.
Well, of all dogs it stands confessed,
Your English bull-dogs are the best ;

I say it, and will set my hand to't;

Cambden records it, and I'll stand to't.
'Tis true we have too much urbanity,
Somewhat o'ercharg'd with soft humanity;
The best things must find food for railing,
And every creature has its failing.

Christopher Smart.

An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog

OOD people all, of every sort,

GOOD

Give ear unto my song;

And if you find it wondrous short,
It cannot hold you long.

In Islington there was a man,
Of whom the world might say,
That still a godly race he ran,
Whene'er he went to pray.

A kind and gentle heart he had,
To comfort friends and foes;
The naked every day he clad,

When he put on his clothes.

And in that town a dog was found,

As many dogs there be,

Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound,
And curs of low degree.