Patti has many pets, and always takes some dog with her on her travels, causing great commotion at hotels. She also leaves many behind her as a necessity. She has an aviary at her castle in Wales, and owns several most loquacious parrots. Miss Mitford’s gushing eulogy upon one of her numerous dogs is too extravagant to be quoted at length: “There never was such a dog. His temper was, beyond comparison, the sweetest ever known. Nobody ever saw him out of humour, and his sagacity was equal to his temper.... I shall miss him every moment of my life. We covered his dead body with flowers; every flower in the garden. Everybody loved him, dear saint, as I used to call him, and as I do not doubt he now is. Heaven bless him, beloved angel!” Mr. Fields writes: “Miss Mitford used to write me long letters about Fanchon, a dog whose personal acquaintance I had made some time before while on a visit to her cottage. Every virtue under heaven she attributed to that canine individual, and I was obliged to allow in my return letters that since our planet began to spin nothing comparable to Fanchon had ever run on four legs.” Mrs. Browning was fond of pets, especially of her dog Flush, presented by Miss Mitford, which she has immortalized in a sonnet and a long and exquisite poem: FLUSH OR FAUNUS. You see this dog. It was but yesterday I mused forgetful of his presence here; Till thought on thought drew downward tear on tear; When from the pillow, where wet-cheeked I lay, A head as hairy as Faunus’ thrust its way Right sudden against my face, two golden, clear, Great eyes astonished mine; a drooping ear Did flap me on either cheek to dry the spray. I started first; as some Arcadian Amazed by goatly god in twilight grove; But as the bearded vision closelier ran My tears off, I knew Flush, and rose above Surprise and sadness; thanking the true Pan Who by low creatures leads to heights of love. The poem is equally beautiful: TO FLUSH, MY DOG. Other dogs may be thy peers Haply in these drooping ears And this glossy fairness. But of _thee_ it shall be said, This dog watched beside a bed Day and night unweary; Watched within a curtained room, Where no sunbeam brake the gloom Round the sick and weary. Roses gathered for a vase In that chamber died apace, Beam and breeze resigning; This dog only waited on, Knowing that when light is gone Love remains for shining.