| King Charles's Spaniel
so called from the fondness of Charles II for it — who usually had some
of them following him, wherever he went — belongs likewise to the
cockers. Its form and character are well preserved in one of the
paintings of the unfortunate parent of that monarch and his family. The
ears deeply fringed and sweeping the ground, the rounder form of the
forehead, the larger and moister eye, the longer and silken coat, and
the clearness of the tan, and white and black colour, sufficiently
distinguish this variety. His beauty and diminutive size have consigned
him to the drawing-room or parlour.
Charles the First had a breed of spaniels, very small, with the hair
black and curly. The spaniel of the second Charles was of the black and
tan breed.
The King Charles's breed of the present day is materially altered for
the worse. The muzzle is almost as short, and the forehead as ugly and
prominent, as 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, and for these the
dealers do not scruple to ask twenty, thirty, and even fifty guineas.
This breed of dog was cultivated with such jealous care by the late
Duke of Norfolk, that no solicitation or entreaty could induce this
nobleman to part with one of these favourites, except under certain
peculiar stipulations and injunctions, as detailed in the following
interview of Mr. Blaine with the late Duchess of York.
"On one occasion,
when we were accompanying Her Royal Highness to her menagerie, with
almost a kennel of canine favourites behind her, after drawing our
attention to a jet black pug pup she had just received from Germany, she
remarked that she was going to show me what she considered a present of
much greater rarity, which was a true King Charles's breed sent to her
by the Duke of Norfolk. 'But,' she observed, 'would you believe he could
be so ungallant as to write word that he must have a positive promise
not from myself, but from the Duke of York, that I should not breed from
it in the direct line?'"
Notwithstanding these selfish restrictions on
the part of this noble patron of the spaniel, this breed of dog has
become quite common in England, and not a few have found their way to
this country. — L.
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