It may interest some of the readers of this little story to be informed, that a few years before the event which has been related took place, the unhappy man's wife died, leaving four very young children. She was a most industrious woman, of excellent character, and her great misery on her death-bed was the reflection that these children—two boys and two girls—would be left to the care of her drunken husband. She was comforted, however, in her dying moments, by one whose heart and hand have always been ready to relieve the distressed, with the assurance that her children should be taken care of. So when the excellent Queen Adelaide heard of the circumstance, she immediately sent for the four children, placed them under the charge of a proper person, educated and maintained them, placed them in respectable situations in life, and continued to be their friend till her death. This is one of numerous instances which could be related by the author of her Majesty's silent, but unbounded benevolence.
It is time, however, to resume my anecdotes of terriers.
A gentleman of my acquaintance had a favourite dog of this description, which generally slept in his bed-room. My friend was in the habit of reading in bed. On calling upon him one morning, he took me into his bed-room, and showed me his bed-curtains much burnt, and one of his sheets. The night before he had been reading the newspaper in bed, with a candle near him, and had gone to sleep. The newspaper had fallen on the candle, and thus set fire to the curtain. He was awoke by his dog scratching him violently with his fore-feet, and was thus in time to call for assistance, and save the house from being burnt down, and also probably to save his own life.
Another of my acquaintances has a very small pet terrier, a capital rat-killer, who always evinces great antipathy to those animals. She lately produced three puppies, two of which were drowned. After hunting for them in every direction, she returned to her litter, where she was found the next morning not only suckling her own whelp, but a young rat; and thus she continued to do till it reached maturity. The morning on which her puppies were drowned there had been a battue of rats, some of which were wounded and escaped. One of these latter was the young rat in question. This, no doubt, was taken possession of for the purpose of relieving her of her superabundant milk.
A gentleman who had befriended an ill-used terrier acquired such an influence over the grateful dog, that he was obedient to the least look or sign of his master, and attached himself to him and his children in a most extraordinary manner. One of the children having behaved ill, his father attempted to put the boy out of the room, who made some resistance. The dog seeing the bustle, supposed his master was going to beat the boy, and therefore tried to pull him away by the skirts of his coat, thus showing his affection and sagacity at the same time.
Captain Brown relates the following:—
Sir Patrick Walker writes me:—"Pincer, in appearance, is of the English terrier breed, but in manner indicates a good deal of the Scotch colley, or shepherd's dog. He has a remarkably good nose, is a keen destroyer of vermin, and is in the habit of coming to the house for assistance ever since the following occurrence:—He came into the parlour one evening when some friends were with us, and looking in my face, by many expressive gestures, evinced great anxiety that I should follow him. Upon speaking to him, he leaped, and his whine got to a more determined bark, and pulled me by the collar or sleeve of the coat, until I was induced to follow him; and when I got up, he began leaping and gambolling before me, and led the way to an outhouse, to a large chest filled with pieces of old wood, and which he continued by the same means to solicit to be moved. This was done, and he took out a large rat, killed it, and returned to the parlour quite composed and satisfied.
"Similar occurrences have frequently taken place since, with this addition, that as I sometimes called the servant, he often leaves me and runs in the same manner to get his assistance, as soon as he finds me quitting the room to follow him. In no instance has Pincer ever been wrong, his scent is so very good. Once, when he had got assistance, he directed our attention to some loose wood in the yard; and when part of it was removed, he suddenly manifested disappointment, and that the object of pursuit was gone. His manner and look seemed more than instinct, and at once told his story. After a little pause, and some anxious looks, he dashed up a ladder that rested against a low out-house, and took a large rat out of the spout, whither it had apparently escaped whilst Pincer came for assistance."
Terriers appear to have a strong instinctive faculty of finding their way back to their homes, when removed from them to long distances, and even when they have seas to cross. There are instances of their having done this from France, Ireland, and even Germany. Their powers of endurance, therefore, must be very great, and their energies as well as affections equally strong. They have also an invincible perseverance in all they do, to which every fox-hunter will bear his testimony. In my youth, when following the hounds, I have been delighted in witnessing the energy of a brace of terriers, who were sure to make their appearance at the slightest check, running with an ardour quite extraordinary, and incessant in their exertions to be with the busiest of the pack in their endeavours to find. If the fox takes to earth, the little brave terrier eagerly follows, and shows by his baying whether the fox lays deep or not, so that those who are employed in digging it out can act accordingly. In rabbit-shooting in thick furze or breaks, the terrier, as I have often witnessed, will take covert with the eagerness and impetuosity of a foxhound. On one of these occasions I saw an enormous wild cat started, which a small terrier pursued and never quitted, notwithstanding the unequal contest, till it was shot by a keeper. As vermin-killers, they are superior to all other dogs. The celebrated terrier Billy was known to have killed one hundred rats in seven minutes.
Nor are their affections less strong than their courage. A gentleman in the neighbourhood of Bath had a terrier which produced a litter of four puppies. He ordered one of them to be drowned, which was done by throwing it into a pail of water, in which it was kept down by a mop till it appeared to be dead. It was then thrown into a dust-hole, and covered with ashes. Two mornings afterwards, the servant discovered that the bitch had still four puppies, and amongst them was the one which it was supposed had been drowned. It was conjectured that in the course of a short time the terrier had, unobserved, raked her whelp from the ashes, and had restored it to life.