PERFORMING AND TOY BREEDS 231 



breed, and the number of specimens kept, with every 

 care and consideration shown for their happiness and 

 comfort. Her Majesty's collection, when I saw them, 

 some time since, consisted almost entirely of what I 

 should call "off colours" that is, not white, black, brown 

 or blue, but shades and mixtures of those and other 

 colours, some exceedingly pretty, and although some- 

 what larger in size, being mostly " small-medium/' and 

 not so fine in head as many of the dogs now shown, are 

 so good in other respects, that they have often success- 

 fully competed with well-known specimens, when Her 

 Majesty has entered any at the Royal Agricultural Hall 

 and Crystal Palace Shows. A great many are also kept 

 by persons in the higher, middle and lower ranks of life, 

 both in this country and the continent of Europe 

 (where, no doubt, the breed originated), and it is a 

 common occurrence, when a popular judge is officiating 

 at one of the larger shows, to see over fifty entries of 

 Pomeranians in the various classes. I have frequently 

 had one hundred, and sometimes even more entries to 

 judge, at the larger shows, and a puzzling job to under- 

 take, on a dull day, in a failing light, is to tackle a class 

 of from twenty to twenty-five black specimens, and try 

 to find out the respective merits of each when there are 

 probably ten or a dozen really good ones amongst the 

 lot, though, to an outsider, they all look much alike. 

 Small, good specimens fetch very long prices, and the 

 breed is exceedingly popular. 



The illustrations of this variety are Miss Hamilton's 

 White Dog, the most successful winner of his colour 

 ever shown, H. M., the Queen's Red Dog, a beautiful 



