THE KING CHARLES SPANIELS. 



431 



Charles (black and tan), Prince Charles or 

 Tricolour (white, black and tan), Blenheim 

 (white and red), and Ruby (all red). 



At the time of the formation of the Toy 

 Spaniel Club, in 1886, the foreign varieties 

 of miniature Spaniels, Pekinese and Japan- 

 ese, were then practically unknown in this 

 country, and therefore the name of Toy 

 Spaniel had belonged exclusively to the 

 King Charles varieties. 



It would undoubtedly have been a very 

 great pity for the loving little faithful 

 friends, playmates, and pets of King Charles 

 II. to have been deprived of their name. 



In the fourth chapter of Macaulay's 

 " History of England " we read of this 

 monarch that " he might be seen before 

 the dew was off the grass in St. James's 

 Park, striding among the trees, playing 

 with his Spaniels and flinging corn to his 

 ducks, and these exhibitions endeared him 

 to the common people, who always like 

 to see the great unbend." 



Dr. John Caius referred to the breed 

 thus : — 



r A chamber 1 



companion. 

 A pleasant 

 playfellow. 

 A pretty 

 worme. 



J 



gener- 

 ally 

 called 



Cams 

 dclicatus. 



Dr. Caius connected these little Spaniels 

 with the Maltese dogs, and wrote : " The 

 dogges of this kinde doth Callimachus call 

 Melitoeos of the Iseland Melita in the sea 

 of Sicily (what at this time is called Malta, 

 an Iseland indeede famous and renowned 

 with couragious and puissant souldiours 

 valliauntly fighting under the banner of 

 Christ their unconquerable captaine), where 

 this kind of dogges had their principal 

 beginning." 



He described them as " delicate, neate, 

 and pretty kind of dogges, caUed the 

 Spaniel gentle or the comforter," and 

 further said: "These dogges are little, 

 pretty, proper, and fyne, and sought for 

 to satisfie the delicatenesse of daintie 

 dames and wanton women's wills, instru- 

 ments of foUy for them to play and dally 



withall, to tryfle away the treasure of 

 time, to withdraw their mindes from their 

 commendable exercises. These puppies the 

 smaller they be, the more pleasure they 

 provoke as more meete playfellowes for 

 minsing mistrisses to beare in their bosoms, 

 to keepe company withal in their chambers, 

 to succour with sleepe in bed, and nourishe 

 with meate at board, to he in their lappes, 

 and licke their lippes as they ryde in their 

 waggons, and good reason it should be so, 

 for coursenesse with fynenesse hath no 

 fellowship, but featnesse with neatnesse 

 hath neighbourhood enough." 



A strange superstition was in vogue in 

 those early days with regard to the little 

 Spaniel, and it was believed in by this 

 doctor of medicine who, under the heading 

 of " the vertue which remaineth in the 

 Spaniell Gentle otherwise called the Com- 

 forter," told how these little dogs were able 

 to assuage sickness of the stomach in the 

 following manner. They were worn as 

 plasters by sick and weakly people, and, 

 through the intermingling of heat, the 

 disease from which the human being was 

 suffering changed places, and passed into 

 the little dog, when the person became well 

 and the dog sometimes died. Dr. Caius 

 testified to the efficacy of the cure, and 

 men as well as women wore these little 

 living plasters. 



The faithfulness of a Spaniel belonging 

 to Mary Queen of Scots is recorded in the 

 narrative of her execution. " Then one 

 of the executioners, pulling off her garters, 

 espied her little dogg which was crept 

 under her clothes, which could not be gotten 

 forth but by force, yet afterwards would 

 not departe from the dead corpse, but came 

 and lay between her head and her shoulders, 

 which being imbued with her bloode, was 

 carryed away and washed as aU things ells 

 were that had any bloode, was either 

 burned or clean washed."* 



There would appear to be much diver- 

 gence of opinion as to the origin of this 

 breed, and the date of its first appearance 

 in England, but it is generally thought 

 that it is of Japanese origin, and was 

 * Ellis's Letters, second series, vol. ii. 



