Is spread throughout ye world.—A.C.M.D. 1516."
In the yard, to the right of the doorway of the mansion, we saw the figure of Scott's favorite dog Maida, with a Latin inscription—
"Maidæ marmorea dormis sub imagine, Maida,
Ad januam domini: sit tibi terra levis."
Which in our less expressive English we might render—
At thy lord's door, in slumbers light and blest,
Maida, beneath this marble Maida, rest:
Light lie the turf upon thy gentle breast.
One of the most endearing traits of Scott was that sympathy and harmony which always existed between him and the brute creation.
Poor Maida seemed cold and lonely, washed by the rain in the damp grass plat. How sad, yet how expressive is the scriptural phrase for indicating death! "He shall return to his house no more, neither shall his place know him any more." And this is what all our homes are coming to; our buying, our planting, our building, our marrying and giving in marriage, our genial firesides and dancing children, are all like so many figures passing through the magic lantern, to be put out at last in death.