Tag Archives: Victorian dogs

Pugs, Then and Now

copyright © The Libby Hall Collection

Can you believe the canine is a pug? Wow, 100 or so years of breeding really has changed their appearance. Today’s pug looks as if it was compressed in a waste disposal unit. Everything is shorter and more compact–the snout, the torso, the legs. Of course, this is the reason pugs have the health problems they do. But I must confess, and yes, this so isn’t PC, pugs are much cuter now!

The above photo came from a collection owned by Libby Hall, an ex-pat living in London. Over the years she collected more than 5,000 photos of dogs from family photo albums and published four books highlighting them. My mother, who’s been busy researching dogs in Victorian England, found this site where you can see a bunch of photos from her collection. A few show famous people and their dogs–Queen Victoria, Charles Dickens–but most feature ordinary folks posing with their best friends. So click yourself over to Spitalfields Life and take a look.

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