CHAPTER V. Anecdote of the Duke of Wharton.—Similar one of Lord Byron. Monument to his dog.-Inscription on a skull made into a cup.-Amourous connexions.-Anecdote of false sensibility.-Lord Byron made the subject of a novel. IT is related of Philip, the profligate Duke of Wharton, that in his travels he purchased a bear's cub of which he became so extremely fond as to make it his constant attendant both night and day, to the great annoyance of his tutor. On reaching Geneva, this extraordinary man, suddenly departed for Lyons, leaving young Bruin behind him with the following letter to the poor governor; "Being no longer able to bear with your ill-usage, I have thought proper to be gone from you; however, that you may not want 86 DUKE OF WHARTON'S company, I have left you the bear, as the most suitable companion in the world that could be picked up for you." Whether Lord Byron had read the history of this eccentric nobleman, who was a wit and a poet, the writer of the present sketch has not the means of determining; but it is somewhat remarkable, that while a student at Cambridge, he should have indulged himself in a similar humour, by making a young bear the associate of his studies; and what is no less singular, on quitting the university, his lordship left the animal in possession of his chambers, to stand, as he expressed it, candidate for the next vacant fellowship. Whimsical as this coincidence is, it appears to be more than accidental, especially as in both instances the choice of the favourites resulted rather from a wish to give offence to others than to gratify any particular attachment. It would betray a narrow spirit to scrutinize with severity the propensities and amusements of youth; but when those inclinations and sports have a peculiarity in them different from juvenile pursuits in general, they are no longer matters of trifling interest, but become circumstances of import in the EXTRAVAGANCE. 87 illustration of character. He who, under the regimen of academic discipline, manifests an impatience of restraint, and a contempt of the laws of decorum, gives plain indications of what may be expected from him when he shall have attained the entire command of his own actions. The eventful and melancholy story of the Duke of Wharton may be mentioned in confirmation of the truth of this observation. Possessed of talents which only required a proper direction to have proved beneficial to the world, this extraordinary man, by becoming his own master, while yet a minor, had such opportunities of following the impulse of his passions, that his mind, for want of government, at length took delight in nothing but extravagance. Though he married for love, he soon abandoned his wife, and went abroad, where he not only dissipated his patrimony, upon low connexions, but changed his religion, if indeed he ever had any, and at the age of thirty-two closed his mortal, but short career, in a Spanish convent, whither he had been removed out of charity. Such was the end of a noble genius who might have 88 ANECDOTE OF A DOG. shone one of the brightest ornaments of the British peerage, if he had been guided by principle and had laid the reins upon his imagination. But to return to the immediate object of these memoirs. On leaving college, and getting rid of his shaggy chum, the noble lord adopted another favourite of the four-footed kind but of a different species. This was a large Newfoundland dog, in the instruction of which he took as much delight, as Sir Ashton Lever formerly did in the education of horses. Among the early amusements of his lordship, were swimming and managing a boat, in both of which exercises he acquired great dexterity, even in his childhood. In his aquatic exercises near Newstead Abbey, he had seldom any other companion than his dog to try whose sagacity and fidelity he would sometimes fall out of the boat, as if by accident, upon which the animal never failed to jump overboard and seizing his master, would drag him instantly to the shore. There was, however, a very prudential reason for this artifice, since the dog being practised in the performance of a necessary piece of service; might on some occasion or other prove of great benefit in saving human life. On losing this faithful creature in the autumn of 1808, his lordship caused a monument to be erected commemorative of its attachment: and bearing an inscription which is so little to the credit of the author, that four lines only, and those not the worst in the piece, must here suffice as a precious evidence of early misanthropy : "Ye, who perchance behold this simple urn, Now this panegyric upon a dog, the whole of whose virtue lay in mechanical instinct, when the writer had a parent living, with many other relatives and acquaintance, the sincerity of whose friendship he had no right to call in question, can be considered as nothing better than an intended violation of good manners, and a direct insult upon moral feeling. That this young nobleman acted well in placing a grateful token of remembrance over the remains of an affectionate animal, cannot be denied; but in doing this, he should have been careful to keep his praises within the bounds of decent propriety, and not have |