Thank you, Lighter. Obviously a phrase Scott used a lot around then ~~ only 4 months between those entries. I should still love to know whether Scott knew the collection you cite; or whether it was a phrase which occurred independently to him; or whether it was a commonplace metaphor of the time for inflated writing redolent of barking dogs...

And how it got into a seamen's song current, according to Whall, about 40 years later later...

~M~