24 SEPTEMBER 1892, Page 15

ANOTHER DOG STORY.

[To THE EDITOR 07 THE "SPECTATOR."]

SIR,—Will you allow me to record in the Spectator "another dog story " ? It is one that testifies, for the thousandth time, to canine sagacity, and as we are still in the silly season, which has this year in particular been so very prolific in human follies, it may be of special interest to learn some clever doings on the part of beasts. Quite recently, a West- phalian squire travelled by rail from Liixen to Wesel, on the Rhine, for the purpose of enjoying some hunting, and took with him his favourite hound. The hunting party was to have started on a Sunday morning at 9 o'clock ; but, to the squire's great disappointment, his sporting dog could nowhere be discovered. Disconsolate, he arrived on the following Monday afternoon at his house, and to his great delight he was greeted there with exuberant joy by his dog. The latter, who had never made the journey from Liixen to Wesel, had simply run home, thus clearing a distance of eighty English miles through an unknown country. Why the sporting dog should have declined to join the hunt is, perhaps, a greater mystery than the fact of his returning home without any other guidance than his sagacious instinct. Possibly he was a Sabbatarian, and objected to imitate his master's wicked example. So, Sunday papers, please copy !—I am, Sir, &c.,

EIN THIERFREIIND.