SOME PETS OF FAMOUS AUTHORS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 184, 4 August 1900, Page 7 (Supplement)

SOME PETS OF FAMOUS AUTHORS.

A volume might be written «f f«m»u* pcepk am dthsir pet?, aa* it ttouM lie interesting reading. Many b«eUs of fei»gri.pti;r have, scattered along their pages, tesder reminiscences of an atachment to some dumb animal, from Boswell's "Jehnson" and Cowper's "Letters," down to one of the latest works of the kind, "The Life and Correspondence of Charles Kiugsley," Johnson's cat "Hodge," for which he used to go out to buy oysters, "lest the servants, having that trouble, should take a' dislike to the poor creature;" niul Cowper's hares, which used to amuse him in his dull, weary hours at Oliiey, are as well kuowri as the two men themselves.

Charles Kingsley seems -to have loved every living creature nround him, and he Taught his children to respect even the most loathsome insects. Mrs Kingsley tells how v fiiimly of runaway toads made their home in n hole of the green bank at Eversley, and the scythe was never allowed to approach their retreat. He had two little friends in a pair of sand-wasps, which lived iv a crack of the window In his drawing-room, one of Which he had saved from drowning in a basin of water; and every spring he would look out eagerly for them or their youug, which came out of, or returned to, the same crack.

He petted the white stable cat and the black house cat, and sat up with a sick dog during the last two nights of its suffering life. Wherever he went he was followed about the parish by his faithful little Dandy L'inmont, whose intelligent face was always to be seen at the lectures and school lessons, and was

KNOWN TO EVERY COTTAGER IX THE

PLACE, being almost as much esteemed by them na by the Kiugsley children, whose attached friend he was for ten years.

Dogs, perhaps, have been pets with a greater number of famous persoiw than any other nniinnl. Every one will remember S'r Walter Scott's canine pets, of which he luul more than a score. The most prized was the old Scotch hound Maida, his companion for many years, whose grave is near the gate at Abbotsford, with the monument and inscription that he designed for her. Then there were the two pet greyhounds, Douglas aud Percy, which attended him everywhere. They had a privileged place in his library, one of the windows being left open in all weathers, so that they might pass in and out when they pleased.

Lord Byron had a famous dog, Boatswain, whose picture is still to be seen at N'ewstoad Abbey, and Hood's dog Dash will be remembered as the one that Barry Cornwall said -should have been named Hover. He accompanied Charles Lamb in many of his walks, nearly worrying the life out of tha gentle essayist, who could hardly manage ro keep in sight of his restless fourfooted companion, and was in constant terror lc-s-t he should lose him.

Walter Savage Laudor was another lover of dogs. He had a number of them. I'arlgi. whicb followed him in all his tramps; Gullto, given to him by the sculptor Story,whose place was to lie at his feet; and, most celebrated of all, Pomero, the little white Pomeranian dog that was sent to him from Flesole to Bath, where he was then living. Fnv twelve years Laiulor and his dog were always together, noticeable figures wherever they went, and Pomero was written about and talked about nearly At much as was Ms master. s Wordsworth's companion on his mountain rambles was a dog, tor whose death he slucei'dy mourned, and to whose memory he PAID AN EXQUISITE TRIBUTE IN

VERSE. There have been other famous lovers of dogs. Sir Edwin Landseer was especially foni of them, aud many of his pets he has made to live agnin on the immortal canvas. Mrs Browning was greatly atnehed to a s'ul-eivhalred, hazel-eyed spaniel that Miss Mitford gave to her. "Flushie" lives in literature as the subject of one of his mis-trer-w' tenderest poems. Goethe hated dogs; his pet wag n live snake, which he kept iv a chimney corner, a repulsive companion one would think. The p<-t of Tiberius, the Roman Emperor, wcm also a snake; yet the two men were wholly unlike In every particular. Jem Paul Richter's pets were a mouse, a squirrel, and a white spider. Hogarth, the painter, was fond of cats, and at his home at Chiswick he hud a garden where he buried hi& favourites, placing little tablets to mark the spot and distinguish their individual sepulchres. The cat has been a favourite with a number cf well-known people. Pope made companions or. several and he showed the best s!di of his character to them. Dryilen had also a stately favourite cat, with a temper as b'tter and as biting as his own pen.

Gray, author of the beautiful ''Elegy in a Country Churchyard," wrote an ''Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes." In this little poem he bewails the fate of the demure and almost historic Seliun. Dante made a pet of a large black cat. Theophile Gautier had a white cat of great benuty named Don Pier-, rot He Navarre, of which he was extravagantly fond. This amiable animal died of consumption. He had a regular physician, and wni fed on asses' milk, but he finally succumbed to the disease, and the poet describes his death iv moving terms.