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Washington, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

alexander pope tells a dog anecdote

Sir William Trumball has told me a story, which he heard from one that was present; King Charles I. being with some of his court during his troubles, a discourse arose what sort of dogs deserved pre-eminence, and it being on all hands agreed to belong either to the spaniel or grey-hound, the king gave his opinion of the part of the grey-hound, because (he said) it has all the good-Diture of the other without the fawning. A good piece of satire upon his courtiers, with which I will conclude my discourse of dogs.


-- Alexander Pope (1688- 1744), from a 19th-century anthology called Elegant Extracts: or Useful and Entertaining Passages in Prose, Vicesimus Knox, ed. (London: 1824) p. 557.

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