Note 300 — APRIL.

That these afternoon rambles with the dogs were not always so tranquil may be gathered from an incident described by Mr. Adolphus, in which an unsuspecting cat at a cottage door was demolished by Nimrod in one of his gambols.—Life, vol. ix. p. 362. This deer-hound was an old offender. Sir Walter tells his friend Richardson, à propos of a story he had just heard of Joanna Baillie's cat having worried a dog: "It is just like her mistress, who beats the male race of authors out of the pit in describing the higher passions that are more proper to their sex than hers. Alack-a-day! my poor cat Hinse, my acquaintance, and in some sort my friend of fifteen years, was snapped at even by the paynim Nimrod. What could I say to him but what Brantôme said to some ferrailleur who had been too successful in a duel, 'Ah! mon grand ami, vous avez tué mon autre grand ami.'"