like other Spaniels, has long hair, very long pendent ears, and an
elevated tail. It is one of the smallest of its kind, and is chiefly
used for flushing Woodcocks and Pheasants in thickets and copses, into
which the Setter, and even the Springer, can scarcely enter.
THE SPRINGER
is used for the same purpose as the Cocker, but is a larger, stronger,
and steadier Dog.
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.”
[Illustration: KING CHARLES’S SPANIELS. (_After Sir Edwin Landseer._)]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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