The Poodle. 171 



an illustration to this well-trained animal. This 

 had happened something like fifty years ago, but 

 long before that time dogs had been trained to 

 perform certain parts in the circus or elsewhere. 

 In the Bodleian Library there is a manuscript of 

 the fourteenth century, upon which is drawn a 

 performing dog, i.e., one sitting upon its haunches, 

 and Strutt tells us that none of these early illus- 

 trations represent the dog in any other position 

 than the above, when he is supposed to be in the 

 throes of his performance. The Bodleian dog 

 is, however, not a poodle ; it might be a beagle 

 or it might be a terrier, probably it represents the 

 mongrel of that period. " Dogges that dance the 

 morrice " appeared at Bartholomew Fair towards 

 the end of the sixteenth century. 



Early in 1700, there was a showman, Crawley 

 by name, who performed in London and out of 

 it, with a troup of poodles highly to the satisfaction 

 of the curious at that time. " The Ball of Little 

 Dogs" he called his exhibition; the dogs he said 

 came from Louvain (even then we had a taste for 

 something foreign), and had performed before 

 Queen Anne, greatly to Her Majesty's delight. 

 These dogs danced, two of them, with the grandi- 

 loquent titles of Marquis of Gaillerdain and 

 Madame de Poncette, showing extraordinary 



