Pope's sarcastic epigram, " engraved on the collar of a dog, which I gave to his Royal Highness," must not be omitted here.

I am his Highness' dog at Kew;

Pray tell me, Sir, whose dog are you?"

No English writer has drawn the dog more happily than Walter Scott. As in the case of Bevis, his descriptions were no doubt often taken direct from individuals he knew; and with the love he had for them he drew them lovingly. In pathos, we have nothing of the kind which surpasses his verses on the dog of Helvellyn.

HELVELLYN.

1805.

"In the spring of 1805 a young gentleman of talents, and of a most amiable disposition, perished by losing his way on the mountain Helvellyn. His remains were not discovered till three months afterwards, when they were found guarded by a faithful terrier-bitch, his constant attendant during frequent solitary rambles through the wilds of Cumberland and Westmoreland."

"I climb'd the dark brow of the mighty Helvellyn,

Lakes and mountains beneath me gleam'd misty and wide;
All was still, save by fits, when the eagle was yelling,

And starting around me the echoes replied.

On the right, Striden-edge round the Red-tarn was bending,
And Catchedicam its left verge was defending,

One huge nameless rock in the front was ascending,

Where I mark'd the sad spot where the wand'rer had died.

Dark green was that spot 'mid the brown mountain-heather,
Where the Pilgrim of Nature lay stretch'd in decay,
Like the corpse of an outcast abandon'd to weather,
Till the mountain winds wasted the tenantless clay.
Nor yet quite deserted, though lonely extended,
For, faithful in death, his mute favourite attended,
The much-loved remains of her master defended,
And chased the hill-fox and the raven away.

How long didst thou think that his silence was slumber?
When the wind waved his garment, how oft did'st thou start?
How many long days and long weeks didst thou number,

Ere he faded before thee, the friend of thy heart?
And, oh, was it meet, that—no requiem read o'er him—
No mother to weep, and no friend to deplore him,
And thou, little guardian, alone stretch'd before him-
Unhonour'd the Pilgrim from life should depart?

When a Prince to the fate of the Peasant has yielded,
The tapestry waves dark round the dim-lighted hall

With scutcheons of silver the coffin is shielded,

And pages stand mute by the canopied pall:

;

Through the courts, at deep midnight, the torches are gleaming;

In the proudly-arch'd chapel the banners are beaming,

Far adown the long aisle sacred music is streaming,
Lamenting a Chief of the people should fall.

But meeter for thee, gentle lover of Nature,

To lay down thy head like the meek mountain-lamb,
When, wilder'd, he drops from some cliff huge in stature,
And draws his last sob by the side of his dam.

And more stately thy couch by this desert lake lying,

Thy obsequies sung by the grey plover flying,

With one faithful friend but to witness thy dying,
In the arms of Helvellyn and Catchedicam."

Wordsworth likewise composed a poem on the same affecting and tragic event.