Gents Mag 1891 part 2 p.135

---

	introduction, lists
	list, 4th qtr 19th century
	previous page next page
	Gentleman's Magazine 1891 part 2 p.135 which he had just left. So he went to the nearest farmer's house, and acquainted the inmates that certain poachers were in the fields, and a party set out to take them. "But," he said, "wherever we went, 'Will-o'-the-wisp' was always somehwere else." "Peggy-wi'-th'-lantern" - this ignis fatuus or a ball of wildfire" is like Bardolph's nose in the matter of moisture; it prefers a wet meadow of tenacious soil, in November, on a still night. The deep ones who have studied her think that she is neither more nor less than a conflict of gases arising from the earth. The philosopher adds that the world is a large "Peggy" - its bright things are never to be realised; following her is like going Straight down the crooked lane And all round the square. I must not forget the sheep, which have to endure what the "fantastic blaze" exults in. The damp atmosphere infects them with a kind of catarrh, and makes them what the shepherds call "phantom-headed." And they appear to be most susceptible to all coming changes in the weather - before a winter storm, for instance, they are seen to become very nervous. In the list of living things among which the moorland farmer lives I have omitted my old friends the dogs, two of which find a place near him, when his work is over, not far from the fire. In one of the characteristic letters which I sometimes receive from my "Yorkshire shepherd" occurs a passage which I will venture to introduce in this place. Speaking of a celebrated Scotch dog, he says a photograph would greatly assist those who wish to study this breed of Collie: "it would bring symmetry and intelligence together, as he has a good head. The late Duke of Wellington, I have been told, used to say that he liked to see a man with a long head - it bespoke a long memory, and I quite think so in sheep-dogs. I am sorry to say that many of the dogs we have lack that propensity, although they are descendants of the dog Rik, whose offspring were kept in this neighbourhood, and were so highly esteemed that they had them stuffed and put into a glass case (of course, after they were dead); but I think we have not many here that merit that bestowal." I am not quite sure whether my friend means the phrase in parenthesis for a joke, or to correct any suspicion I might have that the dogs were killed before time in order that they might be conveniently stuffed. I do not think that I wish any evil to landlords; I am sure that I wish every blessing on good ones, of whom I could name many;
	next page

Lakes Guides menu.

---