“Near this spot
Are deposited the remains of one
Who possessed Beauty without Vanity,
Strength without Indolence,
Courage without Ferocity,
And all the virtues of Man, without his vices
This praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery
If inscribed over human ashes,
Is but a just tribute to the Memory of Boatswain, a Dog”

– Lord Byron’s inscription on the tomb of his Newfoundland Dog, “Boatswain,”  1808

Boatswain died of rabies. When he contracted the disease, Byron is said to have nursed him without any fear of becoming bitten and infected. The poem (which some say may have been written by Bryron’s friend, John Hobhouse) is inscribed on Boatswain’s tomb which is larger than the one on Byron’s own grave at Byron’s estate, Newstead Abbey.