CHARACTER AND ANTIQUITY OF THE POODLE. 191 



who is also a member of the family, and always comes off victor, while he never hesitates 

 to attack a Newfoundland or St. Bernard twice his size should he feel himself in any way 

 insulted. Another of the writer's Poodles, this time of the white French breed, was sometimes 

 wont to take a dislike to a passer-by in the street, and suddenly rising on his hind legs would 

 dance round him, uttering a most menacing bark and showing a startling display of teeth, to 

 the intense alarm and astonishment of his victim, whom, however, he was careful never to 

 bite, apparently looking upon the whole matter as a practical joke. Again, a third, of the 

 large black German breed, was a little too officious in defending the house from visitors, and 

 would keep people waiting outsids the garden gate until a servant came to guarantee the 

 good faith of the applicant for admission. This gentleman had one frailty : he was addicted 

 to pocket-picking, having been taught this doubtful accomplishment in his early youth ; and 

 finally had to be sent away owing to his devotion to what the ' Artful Dodger ' would have 

 called ' fogle-hunting.' 



" Marvellous anecdotes, far too numerous to detail here, are told of the Poodle's faith- 

 fulness, affection, and versatile talent, ranging from the celebrated Munito, who in 1818 

 astonished all Paris by his clever card and arithmetical tricks, or the once well-known Paris 

 Poodle of the Pont Neuf, who used to dirty the boots of passers-by in order that his master 

 a shoeblack might have the benefit of cleaning them, to a white Poodle who, snubbed by 

 his lady-love, committed suicide at Queenstown a few years since. Like a child, however, he 

 requires careful handling, for while he is very easily trained, he is exceptionally sensitive, and 

 is far more efficiently taught when treated rather as a sensible being than as a mere quadru- 

 pedal automaton, and will learn twice as quickly if his master can make him understand the 

 reason for performing his task. 



"The history of the Poodle and the details of his lineage are somewhat obscure. That he 

 is of German origin there is no doubt, the name being identical in both languages Pudel and 

 he there is ordinarily classed as the Canis familiar is Aquaticus, being very closely allied to 

 the more crisp and curly-haired water-fowl dog well known to our sportsmen of the marshes. 

 He assuredly dates his existence from some centuries since, for in various illuminated 

 manuscripts of the sixteenth century, and notably in one depicting an episode in the life of 

 Margaret of York, the third wife of Charles the Bold of Burgundy, and in another repre- 

 senting a family group of Maximilian of Austria and his wife and child (' The Abridged 

 Chronicles of Burgundy') there is certainly the portrait of a shaven dog, which, allowing for 

 the artistic shortcomings of that period, closely resembles the Poodle of the present day. 

 Again, in Martin de Vos' picture of ' Tobit and his Dog,' which also dates from the l6th 

 century, the faithful animal is an unmistakable shaven Poodle, while in two of the series 

 'of paintings of the story of 'Patient Griselda,' by Pinturicchio (1454 1513), in the National 

 Gallery, a small shaven Poodle is conspicuous amongst the various spectators of Griselda's 

 vicissitudes of fortune. Thus, as far as ancestry goes, he is doubtless entitled to the numerous 

 quarterings so valued by the Teutonic nobility. Why, however, the Poodle should have been 

 half-shaved from time immemorial is not clear, unless it be to imitate the Lion Dog (Cants 

 Leoninus), of which a degenerate scion still exists, I believe, in Malta. At the present day the 

 Poodle is found throughout Europe from Amsterdam to Naples, where, completely shaven, he 

 may be seen taking his siesta under the shadow of some friendly wall or doorway. Poodles, 

 however, considerably differ in the various countries. Thus, in Eastern Germany and on the 

 confines of Russia he is as a rule black, and the Russian Poodle proper should be lithe and 

 agile ; while coming more into Central Germany the black Poodle seems to thicken in the 



