[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sts,—Somewhat akin to the
story of the pony and the pig in the Spectator of March 12th is the following narrative in the life of Sir Walter Scott, illustrating his fondness for animals and their attachment to him. I find it in a volume entitled " Stories of Remarkable Persons," by the late Dr. William Chambers, who gives Sir Walter's son-in-law, Lockhart, as voucher for the authenticity of the story :- " At Abbotsford, in the autumn of 1820, when a large party, including Sir Humphry Davy, Dr. Wollaston, and Henry Mackenzie were sallying out—Scott on his pony, with Maida gambolling about him—there was some commotion and laughter when it was discovered that a little black pig was frisking about and apparently resolved to be one of the party for the day. Scott tried to look stern, and cracked his whip at the creature, but was in a moment obliged to join in the general cheers. Poor piggy was sent home. This pig,' says Lockhart, had taken, nobody could tell how, a most sentimental attachment to Scott, and was constantly urging his pretensions to be admitted a regular member of his tail along with the greyhounds and terriers ; but indeed I remember him suffering another summer under the same sort of pertinacity on the part of an affectionate hen. I leave the explanation for philosophers—but such were the facts.' " Carisbrooke, I.W.
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