Dan the Elgar Dog and other Statues

When I was talking about statues around Hereford a little while ago, I was told about a statue of a dog down by the river, in King George V Playing Fields. So yesterday I went to find it.

This is the bulldog that belonged to the organist at Hereford Cathedral, who was a friend of Elgar's. The story goes that they were walking along the riverbank one day when the dog fell in. It's quite a steep bank there - there's another memorial nearby to all the people who have drowned in the Wye, adding sternly "Don't Let It Be You".
The dog paddled furiously to a place where he could pull himself out, and shook himself vigorously. The organist said to Elgar something along the lines of: "I bet you can't make a tune out of that!" Elgar took up the challenge, and the tune he wrote became part of the Enigma Variations.

I was also told last week about the three legged statue in Hereford Cathedral. I didn't take a picture, because my camera is a bit weedy indoors, but I went to pay my respects to Sir Richard Pembridge, 14thC knight, with his head resting on his great helm. One of the statue's legs was badly damaged at some point, and a wooden leg was carved to put in its place. Then in the 19thC an alabaster leg was carved as a replacement, and the wooden leg passed into private hands. And now it's back, donated by the owner, and propped up against the pillar beside the tomb.

A little way along the wall from the tomb (opposite the main door of the Cathedral) is the new SAS memorial, in rather beautiful polished blue stone, very plain, and with a modern window above it, also in blue, with the title Ascension.