Scally - The Story of a Perfect Gentleman

By Ian Hay

First published in 1915, this delightful story tells the story of Excalibur or scallywag to his friends and family, found as a puppy climbing out of a golf course pond with a brick around his neck, Scally grows into a giant, loveable dog and we follow his adventures with the wonderful young family who found him. This story is all the more amazing considering the author John Hay Beith under the pen name Ian Hay, was serving in the British Army on the Western Front at the time it was first published. This text has been republished here for its historical and cultural significance. Including a specially commissioned introduction on dogs in fiction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: White Press
• Release date: Jul 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781473349698

Book preview

SCALLY:

THE STORY OF A PERFECT GENTLEMAN

by

IAN HAY

Copyright © 2013 Read Books Ltd.

This book is copyright and may not be

reproduced or copied in any way without

the express permission of the publisher in writing

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Contents

Dogs in Fiction

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

The leading object proved to be a small, wet, shivering,

whimpering puppy

Dogs in Fiction

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.

- Will Rogers

We have had a long and complex relationship with our canine companions, and dogs have not always been the cherished and adored animals that they are today. Prior to the eighteenth century, most dogs were kept not as pets, but primarily for working, hunting and guarding. In the oldest sayings about dogs, they are in fact infrequently portrayed as faithful, loyal creatures – but more often appear as vicious and ravening beasts. ‘To throw someone to the dogs’ (which first appeared in 1556) is to cast them into ruin, and the later phrase of ‘Dog-eat-dog’ (1794) depicts a world that is cruel and self-serving. Perhaps the most renowned of these images of dogs as voracious creatures is ‘the dogs of war’ of Shakespeare’s Julius Ceasar, used to express the unleashed savagery accompanying battle.

Unsurprisingly given this reputation, dogs generally lived rather wretched lives until the middle of the nineteenth century. Little by little however, their status and esteem improved – and this has been reflected in literature and language ever since. From the mid-seventeenth century onwards, words describing their new role as pets started to appear, including ‘dog-baskets’, ‘dog-biscuits’, ‘dog-food’ and even ‘dog-doctors.’ The first reference to the dog as ‘man’s best friend’ appeared in 1841, just as dogs were becoming sentimentalised, and even anthropomorphised animals. By this point, they were seen to have personalities and feelings, rather than mere workers or carriers of disease and rabies... and this reputation has only been strengthened in the present day.

The amount of fictional-literature including dogs is particularly striking – far outnumbering their age-old enemies; the cats. Perhaps the oldest and most famous example of a dog in fiction comes from The Odyssey however. This is Homer’s epic poem, in part a sequel to the Iliad, believed to have been composed near the end of the eighth-century BCE. It contains one of the first dogs ever to be named in Western literature; Argos – the most devoted and dependable companion a man (or woman) could ask for. When Odysseus departs on his travels, Argos waits for him to return for twenty long years. On the hero’s homecoming, the steadfast hound is the only one able to recognise the peripatetic protagonist. Having finally been re-united with his master, Argos – by now a very old dog, is able to die in peace.

Episodes of canine loyalty are peppered throughout fiction and real-life alike; take the legend of ‘Greyfriars Bobby’ in nineteenth-century Edinburgh, who supposedly spent fourteen years guarding the grave of his owner, until he died himself on 14th January 1872. Even

Reviews for Scally - The Story of a Perfect Gentleman

[4hounds · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Delightful and sweet. More of a short story, really. Sort of Terhune-ish, with a nice romance.