The Dalmatian 235 
That we do not see the Dalmatian figured in old paintings does not 
imply that he was not an English dog at the time we speak of, for we 
know that the small beagles were court dogs in Queen Elizabeth’s time, 
but we have not yet seen a picture of any of them, nor any reference to 
any such picture. Beagles were playthings, we fancy, and not taken seriously; 
and these particular spotted hounds were probably looked upon in much 
the same way, as not of the genuine hunting class, and so bred about the 
place for their fancy markings, and, having no particular vocation, were 
taken with carriage parties when that manner of conveyance became 
more common. Coaches were not in anything like common use in Eng- 
land, even among the wealthy, until well into the seventeenth century. 
Who first mentioned the Dalmatian we have not yet found out. Buf- 
fon, possibly, about the middle of the eighteenth century. Up to that 
time English writers on dogs had little to say about any animal not used 
in sport, and in that case colour was not an essential, though sportsmen 
and sporting writers had fancies regarding certain colours. Bewick, at 
the close of the century, included the Dalmatian, or coach dog, in his 
“History of Quadrupeds,” and, as might be expected, gives an excellent 
illustration, even to the padlocked brass collar which was always the correct 
thing for the coach dog. ‘The ears are cropped closely, as was the custom, 
but Bewick wrote: “We do not admire the cruel practice of depriving 
the poor animal of its ears, in order to increase its beauty; a practice so 
general that we do not remember ever to have seen one of these dogs unmu- 
tilated in that way.” Bewick’s Dalmatian has a small black patch at the 
ear and a much larger but lighter one around the eye. The Dalmatian 
of Reinagle in the “Sportsman’s Repository” is a more racing-built dog 
than Bewick’s, and was most likely a portrait dog, as the spots run some- 
what in colour. It has a china eye and is dark around the eyes, and 
has its ears cropped, as was the custom. Captain’s Brown’s Dalmatian 
like all his illustrations, is stiff and wooden, but it has natural ears, 
and he wrote that the barbarous practice of cropping was then (1829) 
quickly dying out. The whole ear is black, and there is a mark around 
the eyes as in the other drawings just named. The description is that he 
is something between the foxhound and pointer. “His head is more acute 
than that of the latter, and his ears fully longer; his general colour is white, 
and his whole body and legs are covered with small, irregular-sized black 
or reddish-brown spots. The pure breed has tanned cheeks and black 
