18 JUNE 1954, Page 15

THE other clay I came across a jar that con-

tained goose grease. It had been collected and laid aside on the insistence of a friend who firmly believed in the stuff as a remedy for a cold on the chest. 1 do not doubt the effectiveness of goose grease. I can imagine that it keeps out the cold as well as any- thing next to whale blubber or one of the other things favoured by Eskimo tribes. Fortunately from the time we filled our jar no one in the family suffered anything so bad as to justify his or her being anointed. We had the grease as a sort of talisman. The thought of being rubbed with it may have in itself been a preventative. When I happened across the jar from time to time it reminded me of other old-fashioned remedies such as the chest protector of brown paper soaked in camphorated oil and the old sock similarly treated and fastened about the sufferer's neck before he retired to bed. We have no stock of grease now. If we arc afflicted before we have another goose to cook we may suffer, for, when I tried to get the fire to burn, I anointed the damp sticks with the grease. I am sure it must be better for keeping out colds. It is a poor thing for lighting fires. It made a most unpleasant smell and left the sticks smouldering as before.

A Roving Dog How extraordinarily individual in charac- ter some animals are. A friend was telling me about his Airedale dog named Rover, a large, intelligent and very affectionate animal that could not have been given a more apt