"Ouida" and her Dogs.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13432, 2 November 1907, Page 3 (Supplement)

"Ouida" and her Dogs.

Until two years ago Mlle.,de la Ramee occupied at Sant' Alessio,' Lucca," a splendid three-storey villa adjoining a church. She was known (says the Florence corresponden tof 'the " Daily .Mail") as the Lady of the Dogs (Signofa dei'Carii), as she'had invariably 30, and was seen ahvay.s wuJ a number of them around her. Her intense fondness of dog's, coupled?, with a, certain megalomania., caused ner on one famous occasion to give- a. meal of milk, bread, and meat to every dog in Lucca, She paid the bill for this extraordinary banquet willingly, though, as previously when living in Florence, neavy dete were crowding upon her through lien- utter ignorance of the value, of money. I fear that on several occasions about this, time she went foodless a whole day, remarking, "It is sufficient if the dogs eat." Frequently her maid appealed to the owner of the"villa for a supper for her mis-trass. In the end the landlord of the villa turned " Ouida" out. There was a _ dispute about some fiiTniture, and she brought an action against the landlord, and won her care in three courts. The legal expenses, however, still further 'crippled her. purse. After this she went to V.iareggio; then took a small villa '.at Qamajore;':' and' tlieh: rooms in the Hotel de Ruesie at Viareggio. Once again her thoxightkiss expenditure exhausted her resources, and her plight was such 1 that last September' tEe '•Mamma of the Dogs," as Viareggio had named her, passed the night, u'ndpr the trees on the sea-front. Her faithful, beloyed dogs, the reinaining few r of -the large family she had once owned, were by her eids when her maid's' mother found her at liv.? o'clock in the morning on "the beach at Viareggio." Thfe kindly woman took; Mile, de la Ramie to hW humble ebttagV ■at Monti, and kept her ..there for some months..'" That hdinelc'ss night'on tihe cold beach caused. " Ouida " to lose totally the sight of iher left "eye, and 'also brought; about a deafness from which s\he has never recovered. ,' ; - '

In February last "Ouida" took ./wo rooms at the Hotel Grande Bretagne,Viareggio. She stayed there until last Saturday, when, financial straits having again overtaken' her ,Glie leftwith her ex-maid's mother to stay at Massarosa', a village five miles, away. At- Massarosa the air is delightful, but it'is a -melancholy spot. Here in a squalid milkman's cottage " Ouida, ■'"•' now lives. "Ouida" rarely .goes'out..of doors, arid die has few visitors.. Her health has broken down arid she eats little, hjhe wears white dresses of silk muslin, with lengthy, trains, and white gloves' high 'up the arm.. Last winter she Had" a new black 'dress with' a long train. . 'She- : ieada one Englivh' arid two Italian newspapers. Her passion for her dogs does riot diminish one jot,' though she now lias, only fino, Goldoni, and Nerino. She has been heard 'to say that her life would be hope : less. misery without. her dogs. It is her fear of endangering their lives by the change of climate thatpfevents hor returning to England'. At her villa in Florence, in her happier, days, when'she was able to give and .spend money with, impulsive generosity and disregard of arithmetic, siie bad, besides thirty dogs, at. least forty: horses. It is known vthat .Mile, de. .la Ram.ee once went 1 witlibut food'for four days through sheer want. ',