BOOK IV. 

 TOY DOGS. 



CHAPTER I. 

 ROUGH-COATED TOY DOGS. 



THE KING CHARLES AND THE BLENHEIM SPANIELS THE MALTESE DOG THE 



EOTJGH TOY TERRIER. 



THE KING CHAELES AND BLENHEIM SPANIELS. 



HE King Charles and Blenheim Spaniels have respectively received their 

 names, the former from the patronage afforded to them by the " Merry 

 Monarch," and the latter from that of the Marlborough family, among 

 whom at Blenheim they have been pets for many generations. In each 

 case, however, the modern prize winner is of a very different type from 

 the original breed. 



In considering the several points of the dogs hitherto described, I have been 

 guided to a considerable extent by the uses to which they are usually put ; but 

 in the toy dog no such line can be drawn, nor is it possible to compare the 

 modern Blenheim or King Charles and their original breeds with any pretension 

 to arrive at their respective values, except by an appeal to the fashion of the 

 day, which at present settles the question in . favour of modern " show form." 

 According to Vandyke the pets of King Charles II. were liver and white in colour, 

 and of a shape varying greatly from that of Mr. Forder's Young Jumbo, who 

 represents the modern type extremely well. According to the authority of the 

 great painter, who is no doubt thoroughly dependable, their noses were compara- 

 tively long and sharp, and their ears no larger than those of the Chinese dog 

 now commonly imported into England, which are more like those of a fox terrier 

 than of a modern prize King Charles or Blenheim spaniel. Until the early part 

 of the present century these little spaniels, not exceeding 51b. or 61b. in weight, 

 were the fashionable pet dogs; but about fifty years ago the taste of the day 

 changed in favour either of the Oxfordshire Blenheim a little red and white dog- 

 resembling the Cocker Spaniel in miniature or of the then existing King Charles, 



