3-021-022 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"The Rival Pets", by E. Castan, in the exhibition at the French Gallery, Pall-Mall, 1868. Engraving of a painting. 'Quite unconscious of observation, these peasant girls are chatting about their respective pets. Very sleek and pretty, gentle, and affectionate is the one; very sagacious, faithful, and courageous, however rough, is the other, no doubt; but we are not sufficiently trustworthy as dog-fanciers to determine their rival claims to good breeding. The dogs themselves are evidently, according to their wont, forming their own private opinion of each other, based on olfactory and such other evidence as may weigh in the canine mind; but whatever the conclusions at which they will arrive, no danger is to be apprehended from their rivalry. You need not, little one, restrain your sister's favourite'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.