of education consists of nothing more than merely to keep them tolerably close to the sportsman; since, if they are suffered to ramble out of gun-shot, the game rises at too great a distance, the object is thus defeated which they were intended to promote, and a mortification, much better felt than can be described, must inevitably ensue. Their beauty and affectionate disposition will always excite attention; but they are, after all, perhaps better calculated for coursing than the fowlingpiece, as they may be usefully employed in driving a hare from a copse or thicket, while a pointer, or particularly a setter, will answer all the purposes of pheasant or woodcock shooting. However, if sporting on a grand scale, and the utmost pinnacle of perfection, are the objects to be attained, let dogs be kept for the moors or grouse alone, others for the partridge, and the pheasant and woodcock consigned to the small land spaniel or springer.

"See how with emulative zeal they strive!

Thread the loose sedge, and through the thicket drive!
No babbling voice the bosom falsely warms,

Or swells the panting heart with vain alarms,
"Till all at once their choral tongues proclaim
The secret refuge of the lurking game.

Swift is their course, no lengthen'd warnings now
Space to collect the scatter'd thoughts allow;
No wary pointer shows with cautious eyes,
Where from his russet couch the bird shall rise:
Perhaps light running o'er the mossy ground,
His devious steps your sanguine hopes confound;
Or, by the tangled branches hid from sight,
Sudden he tries his unexpected flight.
Soon as the ready dogs their quarry spring,
And swift he spreads his variegated wing,
Ceas'd is their cry; with silent look they wait
Till the loud gun decides the event of fate;

Nor, if the shots are thrown with erring aim,
And proudly soars away the unwounded game,
Will the staunch train pursue him as he flies
With useless speed, and unavailing cries.
No open view along the encumber'd field,
To the cool aim will time and distance yield;
But the nice circumstance will oft demand,
The quickest eyesight and the readiest hand;
Swift as he rises from the thorny brake,
With instant glance the fleeting mark to take,
And with prompt arm the transient moment seize,
'Mid the dim gloom of intervening trees.
His gaudy plumage, when the male displays
In bright luxuriance to the solar rays,
Arrest with hasty shot his whirring speed,
And see unblam'd the shining victim bleed;
But when the hen to thy discerning view,
Her sober pinion spreads of duskier hue,
The attendant keeper's prudent warning hear,
And spare the offspring of the future year.

PYE.

"The interesting little dog now under consideration is a favourite in most countries; and has occasionally been much caressed by royalty itself. The chief order of Denmark, now called the order of the Elephant, was instituted in memory of a spaniel called Wildbrat, which had showed attachinent to the monarch when deserted by his subjects. The motto to the order is, Wildbrat was faithful.

6

"Charles II. was generally accompanied to the council by a favourite spaniel, and a particular strain of the spaniel breed is still distinguished by the name of this monarch. His successor, James II., manifested a similar attachment; and it is reported of him by Bishop Burnet, that being once in danger from a storm at sea, and obliged to quit the ship to save his life, he vocife

rated most impatiently- Save the dogs and Colonel Churchill!'

"There is a circumstance noticed in early English history, which seems to prove that one of the landings of the Danes in England was occasioned by the sagacity and affection of a spaniel. Lodebrock, of the blood royal of Denmark, and father of Humbar and Hubba, being in a boat with his hawks and his dog, was unexpectedly driven on the coast of Norfolk by a storm, where, being discovered and suspected as a spy, he was brought to Edmund, at that time king of the East Angles. He made himself known to Edmund, who treated him with kindness, and with whom he soon became a great favourite, particularly on account of his skill and dexterity in the chase. The king's falconer became jealous of this attention, waylaid Lodebrock, murdered him, and concealed the body among some bushes. He was very soon missed at court, and the king manifested great impatience to know what was become of him; when his dog, who had stayed in the wood by the corpse of his master till famine forced him thence, came and fawned on the king, and enticed him to follow him. The body was found, and the murderer ultimately discovered. As a punishment for so atrocious a crime, he was placed alone in Lodebrock's boat, and committed to the mercy of the sea, which, it seems, bore him to the shore which Lodebrock had quitted. The boat was recognised, and the assassin, to avoid the punishment which awaited him, said that Lodebrock had been put to death by order of Edmund; which exasperated the Danes so much, that they determined on the invasion of England.

"The gamekeeper of the Rev. Mr. Corsellis was constantly attended by a spaniel, which he had reared; and