“Pepper, near this silent grotto, Thy fair virtues lie confest; Fidelity thy constant motto,-- Warmth of friendship speaks the test.” [Illustration: CHARLES II. AND PET SPANIEL, AT DAWNEY COURT, BUCKS, SEAT OF THE DUCHESS OF CLEVELAND. (_From old and rare print._)] Little Princess Amelia, the darling of all who knew her, petted every thing that came in her reach--her family, her servants, her horses, kittens, dogs and birds. One painting represents her as a chubby, winsome baby, playing with a King Charles; another shows her as a merry little girl with her pet bird. When she had grown up into a young lady, her sister Augusta gave her a bird which she greatly prized. Two days after her death it was brought by an attendant to the donor. The Princess Amelia had so ordered it, she said, requesting only that it should not be returned the day of her death, nor yet the day after, lest its presence might affect her sister too deeply in those first hours of sorrow. [Illustration: PRINCESS AMELIA AND HER DOG. (_From painting by Hoppner, in St. John’s Palace._)] Both Victoria and Prince Albert had many favorites, which in being painted by Landseer have established a claim to immortality. The artist Leslie tells a pretty story of the young queen on her coronation day. The ceremony took an unconscionable time, and when she returned from it, she heard her pet spaniel barking wildly in the room where he was shut up. “Oh! there is Dash,” she cried, and hastened to lay off her splendid robes so that she might give him his long-deferred bath. There is a burial-place on the terrace at Windsor, as at Sans-Souci, and in one sunny corner rest the bones of this early favorite. Eos and Cairnach, Prince Albert’s dogs, were painted together by Landseer, and form a most dignified, graceful group. Islay, one of the Queen’s terriers, was painted with a mackaw and several love-birds, which reveals another trait of his royal mistress. She is very fond of birds, and in the fowl-house, in the Home Park, are preserved the bodies of various feathered pets who have paid their last debt to nature. The most celebrated is a dove, which many years ago, when she visited Ireland with Prince Albert, was thrown into her carriage--a living message of good will. She cherished it to the end of its life; and its descendants still flutter around the towers of Windsor. Her stables, too, contain favorites. Prince Albert’s horse survived, an honored inmate, until quite lately; and the cream-colored Herrenhausen horses dream their lives away here in luxurious ease, being used by Her Majesty only on state occasions.