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CHAPTER X L I X . 

 THE PEKINESE. 



BY THE LADY ALGERNON GORDON-LENNOX. 



'■ .4 crush-nosed, human-hearted dog." 



Browning. 



F 



'E\V of the 



MRS DOUGLAS MURRAY'S 

 AH CUM (IMPORTED!. 



m a n y 

 breeds of 

 foreign dogs 

 now established 

 m England 

 ha\-e attained 

 snch a measure 

 of popularity in 

 so short a time 

 as the Pekinese. 

 Of their early 

 history little is 

 known, beyond the fact that at the looting 

 of the Summer Palace of Pekin, in i86o, 

 bronze effigies of these dogs, known to be 

 more than two thousand years old, were 

 found within the sacred precincts. The 

 dogs were, and are to this day, jealously 

 guarded under the supervision of the Chief 

 Eunuch of the Court, and few have ever 

 found their way into the outer world. 



In writing a true account of the breed it 

 may be unavoidable to dispel some of the 

 existing impressions with reference to the 

 so-called " imported dogs." Pekin Spaniels 

 can be imported without difficulty, as they 

 abound in the various towns of China, but 

 in the case of the Palace dog it is an alto- 

 gether different matter, and the two should 

 on no account be confounded, as will presently 

 be explained. 



So far as the writer is aware, the history 

 of the breed in England dates from the 

 importation in i860 of five dogs taken from 

 the Summer Palace, where they had, no 

 doubt, been forgotten on the flight of the 

 Court to the interior. Admiral Lord John 

 Hay, who was present on active service, 

 gives a graphic account of the finding of 



these little dogs in a part of the garden 

 frequented by an aunt of the Emperor, 

 who had committed suicide on the approach 

 of the Allied Forces. Lord John and an- 

 other naval officer, a cousin of the late 

 Duchess of Richmond's, each secured two 

 dogs ; the fifth was taken by General Dunne, 

 who presented it to Queen Victoria. Lord 

 John took pains to ascertain that none had 

 found their way into the French camp, 

 and he heard then that the others had all 

 been removed to Jehal with the Court. 

 It is therefore reasonable to suppose that 

 these five were the only Palace dogs, or 

 Sacred Temple dogs of Pekin, which reached 

 England, and it is from the pair which lived 

 to a respectable old age at Goodwood that 

 so many of the breed now in England trace 

 their descent. 



Many years ago Mr. Alfred de Rothschild 

 tried, through his agents in China, to secure 

 a specimen of the Palace dog for the writer, 

 in order to carry on the Goodwood strain, 

 but without success, even after a correspond- 

 ence with Pekin which lasted more than 

 two years ; but we succeeded in obtaining 

 confirmation of what we had always under- 

 stood : namely, that the Palace dogs are 

 rigidly guarded, and that their theft is 

 punishable by death. At the time of the 

 Bo.xer Rebellion, only Spaniels, Pugs, and 

 Poodles were found in the Imperial Palace 

 when it was occupied by the Allied Forces, 

 the little dogs having once more preceded 

 the Court in the flight to Si-gnanfu. 



The Duchess of Richmond occasionally 

 gave away a dog to intimate friends, such as 

 the Dowager Lady Wharncliffe, Lady Dorothy 

 Nevill, and others, but in those days the 

 Pekinese was practically an unknown quantity 



