27 JUNE 1931, Page 18

PIGS AS COMPANIONS

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sue,—Those who have read Lockhart's Life of Scott will re- member a delightful description of a scene at Abbotsford in its Palmy days, when a great company mustered on horseback before the porch one fine September morning, bound for a coursing match on Newark Hill. Sir Humphrey Davy was there, and Dr. Wollaston, who, " with his serene and noble countenance might have passed for a sporting Archbishop," and Sir Henry Mackenzie, ." the patriarch of belles-lettres in Scotland." Among them, too, were Willie Laidlaw, the Border farmer, prototype of Dandy Dinmont, and Scott's faithful henchman, Tom Purdie. The cavalcade was led by Sir Walter on his pony, " Sybil Grey," and " Maida," his favourite grey- hound, gamboled around. Then, to the amusement of the assembled company and slight embarrassment of the recipient of its attentions, a little black pig frisked about the pony's legs, evidently determined to take part in the expedition. " Papa's pet," as his daughter Anne called it, was dragged'away amid cheers and the procession started.

This pig had conceived a sentimental attachment to Sir Walter, and in Lockhart's words " was constantly urging its pretensions to be a regular member of his tail along with grey- hounds and terriers." At another time, he adds, Scott was subject to the same sort of pertinacity on the part of an affectionate hen. As we are soon to celebrate the centenary of the death of Sir Walter Scott, we might well re-read the whole of this chapter in Lockhart's Life (Vol. III., chap. xlix.). One finds there the wide humanity which endeared him to his own generation, and which rails forth our admiration and affection, though it is now_ more than a hundred years since Sir Walter and that merry company coursed the hare on

Newark Hill.—I am, Sir, &c., M. I. 0ouovi:E. Clifton, Bristol.