CLEVER DOGS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") Ss,—In the Spectator of the 10th inst. a correspondent describes the purchase of cakes by a clever dog at Greenock. I should like to be allowed to help preserve the memory of a most worthy dog-friend of my youth, well remembered by many now living who knew Greenwich Hospital some thirty or five and-thirty years ago.
At that time there lived there a dog-pensioner called "Hardy," a large brown Irish retriever. He was so named by Sir Thomas Hardy, when Governor (Nelson's Hardy), who at the same time constituted him a pensioner, at the rate of one penny per diem, for that he had one day saved a life from drowning just opposite the Hospital. Till that time he was a poor stranger and vagrant dog, —friendless. But thenceforward he lived in the Hospital, and spent his pension himself at the butcher's shop, as he did also many another coin given to him by numerous friends. Many is the halfpenny which, as a child, I gave "Hardy," that I might see him buy his own meat, —which he did with judgment, and a due regard to value. When a penny was given to him, he would, on arriving at the shop, place it on the counter and rest his nose or paw upon it until he received two halfpennyworths,—nor would any persuasion induce him to give up the coin for the usual smaller allowance. I was a young child at the time, but I had a great veneration for" Hardy," and remember him well, but lest my juvenile memory might have been in fault, I have, before writing this letter, compared my recollections with those of my elders, who, as grown people, knew " Hardy " for many years, and confirm all the above facts. There, indeed, was the right dog in the right place. Peace to his shade !—I am, Sir, &c.,
J. D. C.
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