THE KING CHARLES’S SPANIEL

has all the Spaniel characteristics in an exaggerated form. Its forehead is round and prominent, its coat is long and fine, the silky hair of its pendulous ears sweeps the ground, and its eye is large and moist. It is very small, and is consequently known almost entirely as a drawing-room pet. The King Charles of the present day is an interesting example of deterioration; for, as Mr. Youatt says, “it is materially altered for the worse.” The muzzle is almost as short, and the forehead as ugly and prominent, as in the veriest Bull-dog. The eye is increased to double its former size, and has an expression of stupidity, with which the character of the Dog too accurately corresponds. Still, there is the long ear, and the silky coat, and the beautiful colour of the hair, for which characters the breed is still much prized. The Spaniels which were the special pets of the heartless voluptuary after whom they are named were of the black-and-tan kind. Charles I. preferred a black breed.

THE BLENHEIM SPANIEL

is very similar to the King Charles; and, like it, is almost exclusively a drawing-room pet.

THE CHINESE PUG-DOG

is an interesting variety, which has been produced by those indefatigable people, who love anything queer, and seem to think nothing perfect until it is deformed. Dr. John Edward Grey says of this Dog:—

“It is a small, long-haired Spaniel, with slender legs, and rather bushy tail curled over its back. It differs from the Pug-nosed Spaniel, called King Charles’s Spaniel, in the hair being much longer and more bushy, the tail closely curled up, and the legs being smaller and much more slender. The nose of the Chinese or Japanese Pug is said by some to be artificially produced by force, suddenly or continuously applied; but that is certainly not the case in the skull that is in the British Museum, for the bones of the upper jaw and the nose are quite regular and similar on the two sides, showing no forced distortion of any kind such as is to be observed in the skulls of some Bull-dogs; for I believe that some ‘fanciers’ are not satisfied with the peculiarity, and do sometimes try to increase the deformity by force.”

KING CHARLES’S SPANIELS. (After Sir Edwin Landseer.)

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