The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-01-09
Some Pets Of fbe Poets.
Glen Hathaway in Ladies' World.

Onc OF his nrSt pets was a shaggy oneIlanu
pony, scarcely larger than a Newfoundland dog.
He taught it to come Gathering into the dining
room for dainties and lame though he was, he gal
loped it fearlessly the rough Scottish moors.
Later on the names and traits of his horses
are set down in his letters and diaries as if they
were human friends. Few of them liked to be
fed by anyone but their master. Brown Adam would
let no one mount him but Scott, and broke the
bones of two grooms who attempted it. but when
the well known saddle put on his back he would
trot along out of the stable and around the drive
to the mounting stone, to "stand like a rock" till
his master came.
Beautiful snow-white Daisy was less faithful
and though fond of Scott in his presence, forgot
him after short absence and could never be tanned
by him again.
And when Sir Walters great, gay hunting par
lies and breackneck coursing were all over, hear
much of quiet Sybi Grey. named out of line IN
hMarmion," of her masters best poems and
finally of "Douce Davie the Covenanter,' a friedly,
Intelligent pony who bore the old his last
rides about the Abbotsford woods.
He had other, odder outdoor pets, too; for just
because his was such strong and brave and manly
nature it overfowed in kindness to all living
things. Cog and Magog, the great ploughing oxen,
we're remembered by HIM long after they had gone
the way of all flesh
One year at Abbotsford a men struck up great
friendship for him; and another year little black
pig bestowed him an undesired devotion, and
tried to follow him when he rode out hunting
Of course had had dogs-a great many of them,
Indeed. Highland staghound and wiry Skye ter
rier, fowling dogs and graceful greyhounds, were
always with him." writes friend of his. Nor did
he ever fail to care for and talk kindly to his dogs
when they grew bid and feeble and (some would
have said) good for nothing.
L.nong his special favorites were the grey
hounds, Nimrod Hamlet who would kill sheep-a
capital crime in a dog-but who wereforgive and
won from it by his master, and 'the brave percy
who has monument at Abbotsford
Camp was very fierce terrier. but was always
gentle 10 his master and the children, with whom
he was trusted playmate. When he died Scott +.
excused himself from attending dinner party ION
account of the death of dear friend, and AL the
family" SCOTS daughter tells US "stood in tears
about the dogs grave in the garden"
MAZDA was staghound, six feet long from tip
of nose to tail: high and strong in proportion" and
noble and intelligent as he was huge. He was
SCOTS favorte of all pets, and Is one of the ia
nous dogs OF the world. Yet he had a rival in
cat. This Hinse of Hinsefeldt named from
a German fairy story-a fat, sleek old pussy who
used to sit purrng footstool beside Scott while
ne wrote.
As for Mazda, anyone who wants to know more
Of him should read Woodstock" Bevis. the s,1-
perb hound in that novel, who so faithfully guards
mis- young mistress, Alice Lee, follows all his brave
Did masters fortunes devotedly and flies fearlessly
at Cromwell's soldiers for his sake, is MAZDA him
self.
ADbOtStOFd. before
dooor he had so often guarded in life His like
ness was rudely cut the block of stone above
him, and under it was engraved a Latin eptaph,
which runs in English:
Beneath the sculptured form which late you wore
Sleep soundly, MAZDA, at.your masters door.
Another dog with an epitaph was Boatswain,
Lord Byron's Newfoundland. His monument is
still conspicuous ornament in the garden of New
stead Abbey, his masters stately old English home
though he died over eighty years ago; and as his
very long epitaph Is always printed among Byrons
poems his memory is likely to outlast even his
monument. Byron had many large dogs before
and after Boatswain, but no other was loved like
him.
And another epitaph on an animal which is
also noted poem was written for his pet cat by
Thomas Gray, whose perfect "Eegy in a Country
Churchyard, almost everyone has read This cat.
"the pensive Selma, demurest of the tabby kind"
was beautiful, vain and greedy, and was drowned
by accident while trying to steal some goldfish out
Of aquarium. Her full description and the
whole story of her trespass and death preserved
TO this day in her masters works.
A cat of much more solid and respectable char
acter Hodge. who belonged to DR.. Samuel
johnson Hodge pUrred and dozen on the writing
table while his master worked, and when he mewed
to that it was dinner time the poet would
stop writing and go out to buy the cat his regular
ration Of oysters The kindly, queer, gruff old doc
tor feared that if servant set to wait
Hodge, he might perhaps go hungry.
SOuthey also loved cats, though. unlike johnson
and Gray, he had a great many of them. In his
happiest days, Greta Hall, his big, rambling old
country house. was always merry with children.
his and others whom he partly adopted, and
swarming with cats.
house, he declared, could not be completely
furnished for comfort without a child of years
old and kitten of six weeks. Kitten he wrote,
lis in the animal world what a rosebud is in the
garden"
Among the cats Southey wrote most of Lord
Nelson, ugly but excellent and the beautiful Ma
dame Bianch with her niece Pulcheria. who both
ram away, broken-hearted when the children's kind
old nurse died. Ovid and Virgil and Othello the
Moor persisted miserably; but ''the never-enough-
to-be-praised Rumpelstizchen (aftcrward raised
for service against rats TO be His Serene Highness
the Archduke Rumpelstlzchen) and the equally to
be praised Hurlyburybus," both lived and -four
ished-in spite Of their names!
After these examples, who need be laughed out
Of liking for CATS
Those who have read Burns beautiful. tender
poems about "The Twa Dogs" and the old mare
Maggie's New Year and even the wounded hare
md the poor little field mouse, whose bit of home
he broke up when ploughing must feel that the
void, reckless poet had heart to yet every beast
about him. But his especial pets were some sheep