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THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 



dona, the Hon. R. C Hill (afterwards 

 Viscount Hill), Mr. J. H. Dawes, Mr. C. W. 

 Hodge, and Mr. F. Adcock. 



From the very beginning His IMajesty 

 the King (then Prince of Wales) took the 

 warmest interest in the Club's welfare, and 

 became its patron in the first year of its 

 existence. From that time until the present, 

 the Kennel Club has continued to receive 

 many marks of royal favour. On his acces- 

 sion to the throne His Majesty signified his 

 gracious intention to continue his patronage, 

 and on the death of Mr. Shirley in 1904 

 His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught 

 was elected by acclamation to the vacant 

 presidentship of the club, a position which 

 he was pleased to accept. 



At its foundation the membership of 

 the club was limited to one hundred, but 

 later it was decided that the number of 

 members should not exceed three hundred, 

 and this rule remains unaltered to the 

 present time. 



The first business of the newly formed 

 club was to draw up a code of rules for the 

 guidance of dog shows, and a further code 

 for the guidance of field trials of sporting 

 dogs. The former were ten in number, 

 and the latter eleven. Both these codes 

 now appear crude and archaic. To take 

 two instances from the " Rules for Dog 

 Shows." One enacted that if a dog were 

 entered without being clearly identified, 

 it should forfeit any prize which had been 

 awarded to it, and that if the omission were 

 detected in time the dog should not be 

 allowed to compete. In the other rule, the 

 need of strict veterinary inspection was not 

 insisted upon, and only where the total 

 entry of dogs amounted to two hundred was 

 it considered essential that a duly appointed 

 veterinary inspector should be in attend- 

 ance. It appears remarkable, now that 

 strict veterinary inspection is a sine qua non, 

 to find that, perhaps by inadvertence, this 

 rule was the next year omitted altogether. 

 It did, however, appear again in 1876, but 

 was again omitted for a number of years, 

 and although the presence of a veterinary 

 inspector was implied, no rule existed pro- 

 viding for his compulsory appointment. 



In the year 1879 a thorough revision of 

 both the show and field trial rules had 

 become a pressing necessity, and sub- 

 committees were appointed to undertake 

 this revision. When the new show rules 

 came into force in 1880, their number had 

 been augmented to fifteen. Two of these 

 new rules were of far-reaching importance. 

 The first made provision for the registration 

 of dogs ; the other imposed penalties upon 

 persons guilty of fraudulent or discreditable 

 conduct. Such offences were now for the 

 first time taken cognisance of in the rules, 

 although the committee had on many oc- 

 casions previously dealt with such charges, 

 when complaints had been laid before them. 

 The rules for field trials, which, when 

 first framed in 1874, numbered eleven, 

 were by the revision of 1879 increased to 

 thirty-one, the old rules having been found 

 totally inadequate to the purpose for which 

 they had been originally framed, owing to 

 the increasing popularity and importance 

 of these meetings. 



Since 1880 the rules have been many 

 times revised, and have received many 

 additions as occasion has arisen, and scarcely 

 a general meeting of the members takes 

 place without some needed amendment or 

 addition being made to the code. 



After formulating codes of rules, the 

 earliest undertaking of the newly-formed 

 club was the compilation of a Stud Book. 

 In arranging for the preparation of this 

 book, Mr. Shirley consulted the late ^Ir. 

 Walsh, at that time editor of The Field. 

 That gentleman strongly recommended that 

 IVIr. Frank C. S. Pearce should be entrusted 

 with this important task, and he was ulti- 

 mately selected for the office. Mr. F. C. S. 

 Pearce was the son of the Rev. Thomas 

 Pearce, a well-known writer on sporting 

 and canine subjects, who, under the nam de 

 guerre of " Idstone," was a popular and 

 regular contributor to the columns of The 

 Field, and the author of an excellent treatise 

 on " The Dog." The selection was in 

 every respect an excellent one, the work 

 was commenced forthwith, and the first 

 volume of the Kennel Club Calendar and 

 Stud Book was published in December, 



