MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, AT THE AGE OF TEN.
(From the painting in Lord Napier’s collection. )
Baitings, whether of bull, bear, or lion, were greatly in vogue during his reign. Henry VIII. also enjoyed them, but preferred the chase, and his account-books are full of items referring to hawk and hound. Spaniels, mastiffs, greyhounds; their muzzles, collars and chains; their keeper’s salary; the cost of their transportation in accompanying the king from place to place—all these items help to swell the bill of His Majesty’s personal expenses. Occasionally, too, they get into mischief, killing some poor fellow’s sheep or cow, a loss invariably paid for, and as duly chronicled in the account-book. Dogs are often given to the king, who of course does not fail to reward the donor. One man presents him with a mastiff that has been taught to fetch and carry, and gets twenty shillings for his gift. Another time four shillings, eight pence are paid “to one that made the dogges draw water.” A poor woman gets “four shillings, eight pence in rewarde for bringinge of Cutte, the kynge’s dog.” He had been lost at least once before, as is proved by an entry of ten shillings “for bringing back Cutte, the kynges spanyell.” Other five shillings went for restoring “Ball, that was lost in the forreste of Walltham.”
From this and similar evidence we may infer that the dogs of yesterday comported themselves very much like the dogs of to-day; that they learned tricks, and were skilled in field-sports; that occasionally they poached; that they were lost, and again found—after the time-honored fashion of dogs.
LADY MARGARET LENOX, MOTHER Of LORD DARNLEY.
(In the Hampton Court Collection.—From a rare print. )
About this time, there seems to have been a growing attachment on the part of the court ladies to “lytel dogges” as pets. When Catherine of Aragon was queen, each maid of honor to Her Majesty was allowed one maid, and a spaniel . Anne Boleyn followed the example of her predecessor—at least where dogs were concerned. The tell-tale account-books name several of her favorites, but refer most often to a greyhound, Urian, which, owing to an unruly disposition, was often in trouble. Once it killed a cow, but Henry recompensed the cow’s owner by a present of ten shillings.
This was in Anne’s day of prosperity, when she and hers could do no wrong in the king’s sight. A few years later, when the son she had hoped for was born dead, and Henry’s dislike was apparent to all; when ill, sad and apprehensive, we see her once more with her dogs. The king is away, taking his pleasure, and she mopes alone at Greenwich Palace. Here, in what was called the Quadrangle Court, we are told that she “would sit for hours in silence and abstraction, or seeking a joyless pastime playing with her little dogs, and setting them to fight each other.”