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Our  Canaries 
CHAPTER  XVIII. 
THE    LONDON  FANCY. 
ALAS  !  one  might  almost  say  a  relic  of  the  past — in  no  sense  "  a  nameless  wight," 
but  in  many  respects  a  name  without  an  objective.  For  the  name  exists 
and  is  so  often  before  the  Fancy  that  like  a  treasured  memory  very  few  fanciers, 
even  of  the  briefest  experience,  will  be  found  who  are  not  familiar  with  it,  but  of 
the  bird  itself,  to  whom  it  is  a  birthright,  exceedingly  few  have  a  "nodding 
acquaintance  "  with  it,  and  the  vast  majority  have  scarcely,  if  ever,  set  eyes  upon 
the  living  reality;  yet  in  the  olden  days,  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  years  ago,  it  was  so 
well  known  and  commonly  kept  by  Canary  breeders  as  to  be  known  simply  by  the 
name  of  "  The  Fancy  Canary."  It  is  also  found  among  the  very  earliest  distinct 
varieties  cultivated  with  a  definite  object.  Thus,  a  very  old  work,  published  as 
long  ago  as  1779,  gives  a  detailed  description  of  what  a  Fancy  Canary  should  be, 
which  clearly  applies  to  the  London  Fancy  as  we  now  term  it.  Indeed,  the  simple 
term  Fancy  Canary  persisted  right  down  to  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
and  is  so  described  in  a  lengthy  article  on  the  subject  which  appeared  in  the 
Illustrated  London  News  at  the  close  of  1846.  At  this  time  the  variety  must  have 
reached  the  zenith  of  its  fame,  and  had  no  less  than  eight  Societies  in  the 
Metropolis  to  foster  its  cultivation,  and  offer  prizes  for  competition  at  their  annual 
shows.  Chief  among  these  Societies  seem  to  have  been  the  "  Royal,"  "  Friendly," 
**  Hand  in  Hand,"  and  "Amateurs";  the  two  principal  shows  of  the  year  being 
held  by  the  Royal  Society  at  the  Gray's  Inn  Cofiee  House  during  the  last  week  in 
November,  and  the  Friendly  at  the  British  Coffee  House  in  Cockspur  Street  during 
the  first  week  in  December,  these  annual  events  being  invariably  wound  up  b}'  a 
dinner  and  social  evening  held  by  the  members  of  the  various  Societies. 
ITS  SHROUDED  ORIGIN. 
We  feel  tempted  to  say  that  too  much  has  already  been  written  of  vain 
probings  and  profitless  speculations  concerning  its  origin.  That  knowledge  was 
never  preserved  for  posterity  ;  therefore  neither  will  such  speculations  gratify  our 
desire  for  light  on  the  subject,  nor  probably  assist  our  descendants  to  resuscitate 
the  breed.  That  the  early  pioneers  left  the  sheet  of  record  so  utterly  blank,  and, 
furthermore,  that  the  numerous  bodies  of  fanciers  which,  as  we  have  just  shown, 
existed  in  later  times  should  have  preserved  no  connected  record  of  their  transac- 
tions, or  any  account  of  the  progressive  changes  which  their  efforts  must  have 
effected  in  the  appearance  of  the  birds;  should  indeed  have  left  so  trifling  an 
account  of  the  birds  themselves  and  their  methods  of  breeding  them,  is  a  matter 
for  sincere  regret.  But  we  must  not  blame  these  pioneers  lest  we  blame  them  un- 
justly. The  days  of  education  for  the  masses  had  not  then  dawned,  and  the 
person  who  could  so  much  as  make  a  decipherable  hieroglyphic  of  his  name  was 
