ancient tapestries, and are reputed to
have been allowed free access at all times to Whitehall, Hampton
Court, and other royal palaces.

There are now four recognised varieties of the English Toy Spaniel,
or, more properly speaking, five, as the Marlborough Blenheims are
considered a distinct type. The latter are said by some to be the
oldest of the Toy Spaniels; by others to have been first brought over
from Spain during the reign of Charles II. by John Churchill, first
Duke of Marlborough, from whose home, Blenheim Palace, the name was
derived, and has ever since been retained.

If we may take the evidence of Vandyck, Watteau, Francois Boucher, and
Greuze, in whose pictures they are so frequently introduced, all the
toy Spaniels of bygone days had much longer noses and smaller, flatter
heads than those of the present time, and they had much longer ears,
these in many instances dragging on the ground.

The Marlborough Blenheim has retained several of the ancestral points.
Although this variety is of the same family, and has the same name, as
the short-nosed Blenheim of the present day, there is a great deal of
difference between the two types. The Marlborough is higher on the
legs, which need not be so fully feathered. He has a much longer
muzzle and a flatter and more contracted skull. The Marlborough
possesses many of the attributes of a sporting Spaniel; but so also
does the modern Blenheim, although perhaps in a lesser degree. He has
a very good scent. Mr. Rawdon B. Lee states that "the Blenheims of
Marlborough were excellent dogs to work the coverts for cock and
pheasant, and that excepting in colour there is in reality not much
difference in appearance between the older orange and white dogs (not
as they are to-day, with their abnormally short noses, round skulls,
and enormous eyes), and the liver and white Cockers which H. B. Chalon
drew for Daniel's _Rural Sports_ in 1801."

This will bear out the statement that the smaller type of Spaniel may
be descended from the Cockers.

The ground colour of this dog is white, with chestnut encircling the
ears to the muzzle, the sides of the neck are chestnut, as are also
the ears. There is a white blaze on the forehead, in the centre of
which should be a clear lozenge-shaped chestnut spot, called the
beauty spot, which by inbreeding with other varieties is fast being
lost. Chestnut markings are on the body and on the sides of the
hind-legs. The coat should incline t