The Pug 697 



of Moss" and Mr. George Lowe ("Leatherhead") in one of his "Pillars of 

 Stud Book" contributions to the English Kennel Gazette, stated that Moss, 

 the dam of Click was said to be a Willoughby pug. Mr. Lowe and all the 

 English writers who copied what he said might very readily have found out 

 from Mrs. Mayhew, who was then alive, the history of the Click breeding. 

 It is not too late to repair their error as we have in New York Mr. Reginald 

 F. Mayhew, Mrs. Mayhew's son, and he has kindly favoured us with the 

 following communication on the early show pugs and their origin: — 



"When shows were first promoted in England it was generally accepted 

 that pugs had been imported to that country from Holland, Russia and 

 China. How near or how wide of the mark were those responsible for this 

 I will leave to others. I do know, however, that this was the opinion har- 

 boured by such authorities as Lord Willoughby D'Eresby, Charlie Mor- 

 rison, Mr. Rawlins, Mr. Bishop and my mother. 



"At the outset the winning English pugs were of Dutch origin, and 

 among the chief breeders were my mother and Mr. Morrison, the latter 

 being landlord of an old-fashioned roadhouse, in the outskirts of Chelsea. 



"In those days pugs were cropped, and in general type were tight 

 skinned, straight faced, apricot fawn in colour, and as a rule had good, wide 

 set eyes, which gave them a fairly good expression. 



"A few years afterward — in the later sixties — Lord Willoughby be- 

 came a prominent factor in pugdom, so much so that the term Willoughby 

 pug was as common an expression in the breed as Laverack setter in English 

 setters. Lord Willoughby, who lived near us at Twickenham, obtained his 

 original specimens from a tight-rope walker known as the female Blondin, 

 who brought them from St. Petersburg. They were silver fawns, the ma- 

 jority being smutty in colour, with pinched faces and small eyes, but better 

 wrinkled than the Dutchmen. 



"Reverting to their colour, I have seen so many born practically black 

 in those old days, and consigned to the bucket on that account, that I have 

 often marvelled that more recent exhibitors should have been so deluded as 

 to consider the introduction of the black pugs a novelty. In fact, when 

 Lady Brassey introduced the black variety her specimens had the inherent 

 faults of the Willoughby strain — pinched faces, small eyes and legginess — 

 plus tight skins. And so it is to-day, to a less marked degree, in specimens 

 of this shading. In fact, the only really good headed black I have seen here 

 was Mrs. Howard Gould's Black Knight. 



