CHAPTER XLV 

 THE PEKINESE AND THE JAPANESE 



FEW of the many breeds of foreign dogs now established in 

 England have attained such a measure of popularity in so 

 short a time as the Pekinese. Of their early history little is 

 known, beyond the fact that at the looting of the Summer 

 Palace of Pekin, in 1860, bronze effigies of these dogs, known to 

 be more than two thousand years old, were found within the 

 sacred precincts. The dogs were, and are to this day, jealously 

 guarded under the supervision of the Chief Eunuch of the 

 Court, and few have ever found their way into the outer 

 world. 



So far as the writer is aware, the history of the breed in 

 England dates from the importation in 1860 of five dogs taken 

 from the Summer Palace, where they had, no doubt, been 

 forgotten on the flight of the Court to the interior. Admiral 

 Lord John Hay, who was present on active service, gives a 

 graphic account of the finding of these little dogs in a part of 

 the garden frequented by an aunt of the Emperor, who had 

 committed suicide on the approach of the Allied Forces. 

 Lord John and another naval officer, a cousin of the late 

 Duchess of Richmond's, each secured two dogs ; the fifth 

 was taken by General Dunne, who presented it to Queen 

 Victoria. Lord John took pains to ascertain that none had 

 found their way into the French camp, and he heard then that 

 the others had all been removed to Jehal with the Court. 

 It is therefore reasonable to suppose that these five were the 

 only Palace dogs, or Sacred Temple dogs of Pekin, which 

 reached England, and it is from the pair which lived to a 



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