402 British Dogs. 



CHAPTER III. THE KING CHARLES SPANIEL. 



BY CORSINCON. 



THE "Merry Monarch" did many more foolish things than take under 

 his royal care and favour, thereby raising to the position of a court 

 idol, the beautiful toy spaniel that still bears his name. Harsh censors 

 may say this trifle is a fit emblem of a frivolous time, and sneer at 

 court voluptuaries toying with pets which in greater times had been by 

 their sterner and manlier forefathers contemptuously treated as " fisting 

 curres," and only looked upon as "meet playfellows for mincing mis- 

 tresses." 



Be that as it may, the royal favour of Charles has secured for this dog 

 a popularity which has ebbed and flowed ever since, and is never likely to 

 disappear. No matter what pet dog may be in the ascendant, for the 

 time being the royal spaniel has always his votaries, and on the whole 

 succeeds pretty well in keeping the pride of place due to his exalted 

 association. 



Being a court favourite, he of course got painted, and no less an artist 

 than Vandyke has immortalised him on canvass, but there he is repre- 

 sented as a liver and white dog, although doubtless they varied in colour. 

 There is but little difference between dark liver and black, and both 

 these, as also red are specially spaniel colours. It is easy to conceive 

 the ones selected by the painter to be individual favourites, and not 

 chosen as representatives of the breed in that one particular. 



Landseer and Frith have both chosen the black, white, and red in 

 painting these dogs, doubtless as the more effective from an artistic 

 point of view, and the tri-coloured variety was the most popular half a 

 century ago and to a later time. A writer in 1802 referring to the breed of 

 King Charles, says " they were supposed to be the small black curly sort 

 which bear his name, but they were more likely to have been of the 

 distinct breed of cockers, if judgment may be consistently formed from 

 the pictures of Vandyke, in which they are introduced." From this 

 writer, it would appear that, eighty years ago, the black, by which pro- 

 bably he meant black and tan, were considered the correct thing. 



From all of these facts and statements, with many others of a similar 



