THE TOY SPANIELS. 



BY Miss MARION E. BAKNISTER. 



>HE origin of the King Charles and Blenheim Spaniels 

 is obscure, and beyond the fact that (as claimed by 

 some writers) they came from Spain, little is known 

 concerning it. King Charles II. first rendered them popu- 

 lar, in England, by the care and attention he gave to the 

 breeding and rearing of good specimens. Dr. Caius writes 

 of them as follows: 



Of the delicate, ncate, and pretty kind of dogges called the Spaniel gentle, 

 or the comforter, in Latine Melitseus or Fotor. These dogges are little, pretty, 

 proper, and fine, and sought for to satisfy the delicatenesse of daintie dames 

 and wanton women's wills. Instrumentes of folly for them to play and dally 

 withall, to tryfle away the treasure of time. These puppies, the smaller Ihey 

 be, the more pleasure they provoke, as more meete play-fellowes for mincing 

 mistresses to beare in their bosoms. 



According to the good Doctor, the superstitious people 

 of the middle ages, even in enlightened England, believed 

 that these little dogs possessed curative powers. On this 

 subject he writes: 



We find that these little dogges are good to Assuage the sicknesse of the 

 stomacke, being oftentimes thereunto applyed as a plaster preservative, or 

 borne in the bosom of the diseased and weake person, which effect is per- 

 formed by theyr moderate heate. Moreover, the disease and sicknesse chaungeth 

 his place, and entreth (though it be not precisely marcked) into the dogge, 

 which experience can testify, for these kinde of dogges sometimes fall sicke, 

 and sometimes die, without any harme outwardly inforced, which is an argu- 

 ment that the disease of the gentleman or gentlewoman, or owner whatsoever, 

 entreth into the dogge by the operation of heate intermingled and infected. 



Sir William Jardine, in the " Naturalist's Library" 

 (1843), speaks of the King Charles Spaniel as "a beautiful 

 breed, in general black and white, and presumed to be the 

 parent of the Cocker, who is usually black, and shorter in 

 the back than the Spaniel." 



(655) 



