memory of this fact the stag's horns were nailed upon a tree just by, and (the dog being named Hercules) this rhythm was made upon them : 'Hercules killed Hart a greese, And Hart a greese killed Hercules.' The tree to this day bears the name of the Hart's-horn Tree. The horns in process of time were almost grown over by the growth of the tree, and another pair was put up in their place." Nicholson and Burns's History of Westmoreland and Cumberland. Wordsworth said "The tree has now disappeared, but I well remember its imposing appearance as it stood, in a decayed state, by the side of the high road leading from Penrith to Appleby." This was in Inglewood Forest. See Notes to Wordsworth's Poems, vol. iv. "This summer (1658), by some mischievous people, secretly in the night, was there broke off and taken down from the tree near the pales of Whinfield Park (which for that cause was called the Hart-horn Tree) one of those hart's-horns which were set up in the year 1333, at a general hunting, when Edward Balliol, then King of Scots, came into England, by permission of King Edward III., and lay for awhile in Robert Lord Clifford's castles in Westmoreland; where the said King hunted a great stag, which was killed near the said oak-tree, in memory whereof the horns were nailed up in it, growing, as it were, naturally in the tree, and remained there ever since, till that in the year 1648 one of these horns were broken down by some of the army; and the other was broken down, as aforesaid, this year; so now there is no part thereof remaining, the tree itself being so decayed, and the bark of it so peeled off that it cannot last long; whereby we may see time brings to forgetfulness many memorable things in this world, be they ever so carefully preserved; for this tree, with the hart's-horns in it, was a thing of much note in these parts." Lives of the Veteriponts and Cliffords, and of Anna Countess of This tale is very differently told by Bewick; but he does not give his authority. The distance run by the stag, he estimates at one hundred and twenty miles. "The last wild wolf was killed in Scotland in 1682." Surtees, vol, ii. p. 172. "The last presentment for killing wolves made in the County of Cork, about 1710." Bewick. The last wild wolf in England is said to have been killed near Pytchley, Northamptonshire. "South-sea dogs learn to bark." Philosophical Transactions, vol. xvi. p. 271. In England, a man was not, till very recently, legally liable for injury done by his dog, unless aware that the creature had dangerous or mischievous propensities. Continental law is said to be different. This may have arisen from the greater love for them perhaps existing in this country. Probably there is no civilized land where the canine race is more the companion of man than in Great Britain, or any nation which has so many valuable varieties of it. Trials are not uncommon in Wales in consequence of the destruction of sheep on the mountains by dogs. In these cases it appears that dogs combine. They rendezvous at a certain spot, and after committing the deed of blood, disperse in different directions, and are never seen returning in a direct line from the place of murder to their respective homes, but invariably do so by a circuitous route, evidently with a view of preventing detection. Sheep-dogs in Radnorshire, a county in which there is much unenclosed land, can, the farmers say, recognise every sheep in their flock. CHAPTER XVI. DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DOG IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES. THE presence of the dog throughout the world is nearly as extensive as that of man, and reaches from the polar regions to the tropics and the southern ocean. He is an inhabitant of every continent, and also of the islands of the Pacific, and it is only in the Andamans, and perhaps some small insulated spots, that he has not been found accompanying the human race. No animal has so wide a range, or varies so widely in appearance. Columbus when he discovered America, found dogs resembling mastiffs and small hounds, but they did not bark. He also discovered what might now be thought an equal curiosity on the northern part of that continent, to wit, a people who "loved their neighbour as themselves." In every land, either savage or civilized, the dog displays the same fondness and inviolable faith towards man; he voluntarily attaches himself to him and will defend him even against animals of his own species. In no part of the world in modern times has his noble character been so fully developed as among the nations of Europe, and particularly of Great Britain "In thee alone, fair Land of Liberty, Is found the perfect hound - Fossil remains would appear to indicate that the existence of the canine race on the earth is more ancient than that of the human; to the establishment of which in its necessities and struggles with wild animals it may have largely contributed. In those remote ages when the aboriginal races, rude hunters and fishers of the Baltic coasts and Western Ocean shores, ignorant of agriculture, lived by the chase alone, using hatchets of flint and instruments of bone, being as yet unacquainted with iron-when the wild bull and beaver, the red deer and roe, the lynx, wolf, and wild swan, tenanted those regions the dog appears to have been the only domesticated animal, and friend and ally of man. The remains of the dog are found with the bones of wild animals in the shell mounds or refuse heaps of Denmark, where they have been embedded for thousands of years. They were of a smaller race than those which succeeded in the so-called age of bronze, as they also were inferior in size and strength to those of the age of iron, when the horse, ox, and sheep were also domesticated by man, and he likewise had increased in stature and in intellect. These Lapland-like men of puny stature ventured far from land in canoes hollowed from a single fir, to pursue the deep-sea fisheries for the cod and herring, and were doubtless welcomed on their return by their faithful companions. The dogs lived, partially at least, on the bones of quadrupeds, and those of birds, and probably on the offals of fish. Amongst the ancient Swiss the dog was also domesticated with other animals employed in the service of man. Their bones are discovered around the sites of the ancient lake A middle-sized race dwellings of those extinct races of men. VOL. I. P |