13 FEBRUARY 1904, Page 16

A DOG'S FIDELITY.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]

SIR,—Last week a gamekeeper named Henry Osmond, in the employ of Lord Falmouth, was fatally shot in a poaching affray at the Tregothnan Woods. The evidence shows that Osmond must have die& between 6.30 and 7 o'clock on Tuesday evening, January 26th. His body was not dis- covered until 5 o'clock on the following Wednesday afternoon. All these hours, during which it rained pitilessly, a retriever puppy remained immovable by the side of her dead master, and in her fierce affection would not allow the search party to touch the body. At last it was secured and fastened to a tree, but the faithful animal gnawed through the rope and returned

to its guardianship of the dead, then following the body as it was borne by reverent hands to the keeper's house. Such touching affection deserves, I think, to be put on record in the columns of the Spectator.—I am, Sir, &c.,

A LOVER OF Dam.