Bertie Goes to Barnes

The Bellews are of Norman stock. We trace our lineage, without using too much imagination, back to the 13th century. Bertie has a fertile imagination claiming he’s mentioned in Greek documents circa 400 BC.

Yesterday we went to Barnes where Bertie met his match; Marco, a Greek Hare Hound, descended from the ancient ‘Laconikoi’ dogs of the Peloponnese.  He played with Bertie and showed us the way to an enclosed area where for the first time we let Bertie off the lead. He ran around close to us, playing with Marco, and was quickly completely whacked.

Marco is a bilingual aristocrat. He calls himself a Ελληνικός Ιχνηλάτης. As a puppy he was given as a gift to a judge in Crete. One wonders what favour the judge had done to be given such a special present. Unfortunately, the judge neither wanted a dog nor had time to look after one. Marco was chained up outside his flat and neighbours came to feed him. By the time he was two he was what’s called ‘damaged’. An English neighbour took an interest in him and he ended up going to live with his present owners in West London. It took some time and patience to get him back to normal but yesterday he was a veray parfit gentil Grecian hound, as Chaucer might have put it.

It was a hot day so when we got home I had a cold lager in a pewter tankard – a present from my colleagues when I was made redundant four years ago. It is engraved “Happy Retirement” and that is what it is proving to be.