at when roused by the
distant sound, the poor beast should have plunged, encumbered as he
was with the rope he had just burst asunder, so gallantly into the
water--an element he was ill-adapted to move in, and in which his
master declared he had never seen him before.

[Illustration]

[Illustration: THE BLENHEIM SPANIEL.]

THE SPANIEL.

"Though once a puppy, and a fop by name,
Here moulders one whose bones some honour claim;
No sycophant, although of Spanish race,
And though no hound, a martyr to the chase.
Ye pheasants, rabbits, leverets rejoice,
Your haunts no longer echo to his voice;
This record of his fate, exulting view--
He died worn out with vain pursuit of you.
'Yes,' the indignant shade of _Fop_ replies,
'And worn with _vain pursuits_, man also dies.'"
COWPER.

Poor Doll! the very name of spaniel reminds me of you. How well do I
now see your long pendent ears, your black expressive eyes, your
short, well-rounded mouth, your diminutive but strong legs, almost
hidden by the long, silky hair from your stomach, and hear you sing
as you lie on the rug before a good fire in the winter, after a hard
day's cock or snipe-shooting, wet and tired with your indefatigable
exertions! Yes--strange as it may sound, Doll would sing in her way,
as I have stated in a previous page; and such was her sagacity, that
in process of time when I said, "Sing, Doll," she gave vent to the
sounds, and varied them as I exclaimed, "Louder, louder." All this
time she appeared to be fast asleep.--And what a dog she was in thick
cover, or in rushy swamps! No day was too long for her, nor could a
woodcock or snipe escape her "unerring nose:"--

"Still her unerring nose would wind it--
If above ground was sure to find it."

Monsieur Blaze also tells us, that a gentleman had a dog which he
taught to utter a particular musical note, and that the animal made a
cry which very much resembled it. He then sounded another note close
to the ear of the dog, saying to him, "Too high, or too low,"
according to the degree of intonation. The animal finished by pretty
correctly giving the note which was required.

An account is given in the "Bibliotheque Universelle," of a spaniel,
who, if he heard any one play or sing a certain air, "L'ane de notre
moulin est mort, la pauvre bete," &c., which is a lamentable ditty, in
the minor key, the dog l