Juliana Berners. 



the nobility in the East preferred to talk of their hounds 

 rather than of politics, just as is the case at the 

 present day with some of our country squires. Small 

 dogs as pets and companions were known amongst the 

 Egyptians. Empresses caressed and fondled them long 

 before Great Britain had become a mighty power in the 

 world. Civilisation could afford to keep such luxuries 

 which semi-barbarity could not. As our civilisation 

 increased, the huge, savage dogs which our conquerors 

 imported to the Roman arena were allowed to languish, 

 and the fierce mastiff gave place to the more .gentle 

 hound, followed by the spaniel, and later by the pet dogs 

 and little terriers. By selection the latter could easily 

 be manufactured. At the present time, any person with 

 the taste and inclination so to do, could produce a new 

 variety of dog, say in ten years. No wonder, then, that at 

 the present time so many breeds and varieties are dis- 

 tributed throughout the universe. Possibly in England 

 there are more than in any other country, not excepting 

 even America, whose citizens have of late years emulated 

 us by their admiration of these favoured little quadrupeds. 



That gallant lady, Dame Juliana Berners, with whose 

 quaint and early treatise on angling most devotees of Izaak 

 Walton are well acquainted, discoursed with equal ability 

 upon hunting and cognate subjects. In that portion of the 

 " Book of St. Albans " dealing with venerie, and which 

 was published in 1486, some ten years or so before the 

 angling addition, the terrier is only casually alluded to, for 

 the reason, no doubt, that the wild boar and the stag were 

 far ahead in the estimation of the hunter than the fox 

 even the hare in those days receiving more attention as a 

 quarry than reynard. One would very much like to have 



B 2 



