PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
Volume 109, November 9, 1895.
edited by Sir Francis Burnand
FIRST IN THE FIELD.
Weather breaks. Delightful prospect! Going strong!
ROUNDABOUT READINGS.
I have been staying recently at Oxford, the home of perennialyouth—and of innumerable dogs. In fact, it was the canine aspectof Oxford that impressed me on this occasion more than any other.Nearly every self-respecting undergraduate keeps his dog, and themediæval, academic look of the place is pleasantly tempered by thesecareless, happy, intrusive, "warlike wearers of the wagging tail,"who career up the High, make the meadows to resound with theirbarkings, and bring the bicycled rowing coach to eternal smash onthe tow-path. There being, roughly speaking, some 3,000 undergraduates,the floating population of Oxford dogs cannot be lessthan 2,500.
Perhaps, however, the most remarkable thing about Oxford dogsis the variety of their migrations. Some dogs, of course, remainconstant to one owner. Others spend their lives under the generalownership of the whole University. These know the best rooms forbones from term to term; they can track the perfumed ash-pan toits lair, and indulge in hideous orgies of fish-heads and egg-shells.The most prominent representative of this class is, of course, OrielBill, who has, perhaps, the most gorgeously ugly and tenderlypathetic face ever granted by nature to a bull-dog.
But ordinary dogs, though they remain nominally the possessionof one original owner, migrate from sub-owner to deputy-sub-owner,and thence to pro-deputy-sub-owner, with a wonderful rapidity.For instance, I once gave a retriever puppy to an Oxford friend.This is the life-history of that amiable animal, so far as I can gatherit up to a recent date.
A. (my friend) kept the dog faithfully for a term. As he wasgoing down, it occurred to A. that Ponto would be happier in Oxfordthan in London, so when the following term began, Ponto, still inhis gay puppyhood, was once more found in Oxford under a differentmaster, B. B. kept Ponto in his lodgings in the High. They wereprettily furnished; there were cretonnes, and embroidered cushions,and handsome rugs. One day Ponto was left in solitary charge forone short hour. Upon B.'s return he found that remarkable dogsleeping soundly, with a well-gnawed slipper under each of his forepaws,amidst a ruin of tattered stuffs. Not a hanging, not a cushion,not a rug remained entire. This was too much, and Ponto promptlybecame the fleeting property of C., a Balliol man, who changed hisname to Jowler (this happened in the time of the late Master), andtaught him to worry cats.
After three weeks of glorious scrimmages amongst the surroundingfeline inhabitants, Jowler took it into his head to get lost for aweek. C. mourned him, but took no further steps when he found himliving under the protection of D., a Brasenose man, totally unknownto A., the original owner. D. took him home in the vac, broke himto the gun, imbued him with an extraordinary fondness for beer, andre-christened him "Hebby."
At the beginning of the followi