as dangerous to a dog's stomach, and to most stomachs, as the less
agreeable change from good feed to starvation. He has been
succeeded in place and favour by another Dash, not less amiable in
demeanour and far more creditable in appearance, bearing no small
resemblance to the pet spaniel of my friend Master Dinely, he who
stole the bone from the magpies, and who figures as the first Dash
of this volume. Let not the unwary reader opine, that in assigning
the same name to three several individuals, I am acting as an humble
imitator of the inimitable writer who has given immortality to the
Peppers and the Mustards, on the one hand; or showing a poverty of
invention or a want of acquaintance with the bead-roll of canine
appellations on the other. I merely, with my usual scrupulous
fidelity, take the names as I find them. The fact is that half the
handsome spaniels in England are called Dash, just as half the tall
footmen are called Thomas. The name belongs to the species.
Sitting in an open carriage one day last summer at the door of a
farmhouse where my father had some business, I saw a noble and
beautiful animal of this kind lying in great state and laziness on
the steps, and felt an immediate desire to make acquaintance with
him. My father, who had had the same fancy, had patted him and
called him 'poor fellow' in passing, without eliciting the smallest
notice in return. 'Dash!' cried I at a venture, 'good Dash! noble
Dash!' and up he started in a moment, making but one spring from the
door into the gig. Of course I was right in my guess. The
gentleman's name was Dash.



NUTTING.