568 BRITISH DOGS 



Pug up to its former distinguished position in this country, foremost 

 and most successful was the then Lady Willoughby d'Eresby, who 

 succeeded, by crossing a dog obtained in Vienna with a bitch of 

 a strong fawn colour imported from Holland, and afterwards by 

 carefully selecting from their stock dogs for breeding, in establishing 

 the once celebrated Willoughby strain. The same excellent authority 

 states that the pale-coloured Morrison strain is lineally descended 

 from a stock in the possession of Queen Charlotte, and through 

 them, no doubt, to inherit the blood of the favourites of King 

 William III., who, it seems, from historical memoranda, first 

 established the breed in this country. The late Mr. Morrison, it 

 is assumed, obtained the breed through the servants of the Royal 

 household, and by careful breeding established a strain that bears 

 his name. It appears, therefore, that both the Willoughby and 

 Morrison strains were strong in Dutch blood, the Morrison being 

 the more purely Dutch. 



No doubt there were many other sources to which the present 

 race of Pugs is partly due, but it is not now usual to call every fawn 

 or stone-coloured Pug a Willoughby, and the paler yellowish ones 

 Morrisons ; the two strains have been frequently united, and in a 

 class of twenty almost every shade of colour between the two that 

 mark these strains is met with. 



The popularity of the Pug seems to have been at neap tide at 

 the beginning of last century, if we may judge from the following 

 remarks of a cynical writer of that period : " Perhaps in the 

 whole catalogue of the canine species there is not one of less 

 utility, or possessing less the power of attraction, than the Pug 

 dog ; applicable to no sport, appropriated to no useful purpose, 

 susceptible of no predominant passion, and in no way remarkable 

 for any extra eminence, he is continued from era to era for what 

 alone he might have been originally intended the patient follower 

 of a ruminating philosopher, or the adulating and consolatory 

 companion of an old maid." With these views and sentiments 

 Pug-lovers, whether " ruminating philosophers," maids, or matrons, 

 are not likely to be in sympathy. One would suppose the writer to 

 have been a cantankerous old bachelor, caring for nothing but his 

 pipe, his Pointer, and his gun. 



In the First Edition of " British Dogs " were quoted the opinions in 

 detail given by many eminent breeders of that time ; but as since 

 then the Pug Dog Club has been formed, and has practically 

 adopted the late Mr. Hugh Dalziel's description (printed below), 

 although with important omissions, it is needless to repeat the 

 letters now. 



" The general appearance and symmetry of the Pug are decidedly 

 square and cobby ; a lean, leggy dog and a long-backed, short-legged 



