LETTER LVIII 



TO THE SAME 



MY near neighbour, a young gentleman in the service 

 of the East-India Company, 1 has brought home a dog and 

 a bitch of the Chinese breed from Canton, such as are 

 fattened in that country for the purpose of being eaten : 

 they are about the size of a moderate spaniel ; of a pale 

 yellow colour, with coarse bristling hairs on their backs ; 

 sharp upright ears, and peaked heads, which give them a 

 very fox-like appearance. Their hind legs are unusually 

 straight, without any bend at the hock or ham, to such a 

 degree as to give them an aukward gait when they trot. 

 When they are in motion their tails are curved high over 

 their backs like those of some hounds, and have a bare 

 place each on the outside from the tip midway, that does 

 not seem to be matter of accident, but somewhat singular. 

 Their eyes are jet-black, small, and piercing ; the insides 

 of their lips and mouths of the same colour, and their 

 tongues blue. The bitch has a dew-claw on each hind 

 leg; the dog has none. When taken out into a field the 

 bitch showed some disposition for hunting, and dwelt on 

 the scent of a covey of partridges till she sprung them, 

 giving her tongue all the time. The dogs in South America 

 are dumb ; but these bark much in a short thick manner 

 like foxes, and have a surly, savage demeanour like their 

 ancestors, which are not domesticated, but bred up in 

 sties, where they are fed for the table with rice-meal and 



1 Mr. Charles Etty, the son of Gilbert's great friend, the Rev. Andrew Etty, 

 Vicar of Selborne, who died in 1784, (See Gilbert's letter to Mrs. Barker, in 

 Bell's ed., ii. p. 156.) [R. B. S.] 



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