Maria sits sadly under a tree with her dog. Stipple engraving by R. Cooper, 1808, after W. Hamilton.

Episode in Laurence Sterne, A sentimental journey through France and Italy, 1768: "When we had got within half a league of Moulines, at a little opening in the road leading to a thicket, I discovered poor Maria sitting under a poplar. She was sitting with her elbow in her lap, and her head leaning on one side within her hand: -- a small brook ran at the foot of the tree. I bid the postilion go on with the chaise to Moulines--and La Fleur to bespeak my supper;--and that I would walk after him. She was dress'd in white, and much as my friend described her, except that her hair hung loose, which before was twisted within a silk net.--She had superadded likewise to her jacket, a pale green riband, which fell across her shoulder to the waist; at the end of which hung her pipe.--Her goat had been as faithless as her lover; and she had got a little dog in lieu of him, which she had kept tied by a string to her girdle: as I looked at her dog, she drew him towards her with the string.--"Thou shalt not leave me, Sylvio," said she. I look'd in Maria's eyes and saw she was thinking more of her father than of her lover, or her little goat; for, as she utter'd them, the tears trickled down her cheeks."