THE MEDIEVAL DOGGIE AND EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THEM

Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri @ sparkypus.com

Illustration from Livre de chasse c.1387-1389.  Gaston Phébus,  Count de Foix 

It’s obvious from the amount of depictions of dogs from the medieval period they were highly prized by our ancestors, both for work and play. They are everywhere!  Their delightful little figures pop up on tombs, heraldry and manuscripts regularly.  When depicted on a tomb effigy of a lady especially, they are thought to represent fidelity.  Of course that seems plausible  but casting that aside,  I believe that often actual pets were being represented, and remembered,  unlike the lions, representing strength,  that were found at the feet of the effigies of males.  Indeed some of their names are on the tombs.  Lady Cassy’s little dog ‘Terri‘ was shown and named on her brass at Deerhurst, Gloucestershire and since the brass was commissioned by Lady Cassy after the death of her husband ‘it is likely that the name of the dog represents personal initiative on her part‘( 1 ).  Another dog named on an effigy at Ingham was “Jakke“.

Lady Cassy’s little dog, Terri, wearing a collar of bells.  Deerhurst, Gloucestershire.

Here is ‘Jakke’.  He lies at the foot of Sir Brian de Stapleton Holy Trinity Church Ingham Norfolk.  Rubbing of a stolen brass.   Photo jmc4 Church Explorer

Quite often the dogs on the monuments to their owners wore collars festooned with bells such as those on Bishop Langham’s tomb who opted for dogs instead of the usual lions found on a male’s tomb.  Richard Willoughby specifically requested that bells adorn the collar of the dog at the bottom of his wife’s gown on her effigy at Wollaton, Nottinghamshire.

Richard Willoughby specifically requested the dog at the bottom of his wife’s gown on her effigy to be adorned with bells.  Wollaton, Notts.

Blanche Mortimer’s effigy has a little dog, now sadly headless, peeping out from beneath  her spread gown on her tomb at Much Marcle, Herefordshire.

Blanche Mortimer’s s little dog, still with her on her monument.  Much Marcle, Herefordshire.  

And there they are, for all posterity at their mistresses and masters feet, looking for all the world as if they are about to roll over for a belly scratch at any moment.

Numerous dogs can be found on misericords  – this one on a leash from the Church of St Botolph, Boston, Lincolnshire, c.1390.  Photo @Spencer Means

January, from Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, 1413-16. Herman, Paul and Jean de Limbourg.  Note the white greyhound, wearing a wonderful collar, being hand fed and the two little white dogs allowed on the table to help themselves…

Lucky were the dogs that ended up living in a rich man’s household where they led the most pampered lives their diets better than the poor people.  John Bromyard, a 14th century preacher complained how the wealthy provided for their dogs ‘more readily than for the poor, more abundantly, and more delicately to, so that whereas the poor are so famished, they would greedily devour brown bread, dogs turned up their noses at the sight of wafer-bread, and spurn what is offered to them, trampling it under their feet. They must be offered the daintiest flesh, the first and choicest portion of every dish. If full, they refuse it then there is a wailing about them,  as though they were ill (2)’.  But hopefully even the poorest households valued their dogs or ‘mungrell curres‘  as a 13th century writer put it…  These loyal dogs, it was noted,  would rather die by the hand of a stranger in defending their master’s belongings that let them be stolen: ‘the mungrell curres, which serve to keep the bottles and bags, with vittell, of ditchers and hedgers will be sooner killed of a straunger than beaten off from their masters apparell and victuall’.

Detail from the Devonshire Hunting Tapestry showing a noble lady with her hunting dogs.

Hunting dogs were especially highly valued and it seems treated like pieces of Dresden china.   Their owners were given such advice as “alway bi nyght and bi day I wil þat some childe lye or be in þe kenel wiþ þe houndes for to kepe hem from fyghteng’ .  However if the worse come to worse there was also helpful advice on how to treat a wound that had been caused by a bite from another dog, to wit, an ointment made from leeks, garlick, chives and rue should be applied to the effected part (3).   Further advice, should you require more, was that the Kennelmen who looked after the dogs should be ‘gracious, very courteous, and gentle, loving dogs by nature… ‘ with helpful advice on how to build the correct type of kennel to ensure the dog’s well being and comfort:  ‘þe hidre door of þi kenel shuld alway be opyn by cause þat þe houndes may go withoute to play hem whan hem likeþ, for it is a grete likyng for þe houndes whan þei may goon in and out at here lust … And in þe kenel shuld be picched small stonys … in to þe nombre of vi stonys þat þe houndes myght pisse þeraȝenst; also a kenel shuld have a gootere or ii wherby al þe pisse of þe houndes and alle [oþer] waters may renne out þat noon abide in þe kenel … Also in þe kenel shuld be a chymene for to warme þe houndis, whan þei ben a cold or whan þei ben wete or for reyne or for passyng and swymmyng of reuers’ (4).

Hunting dogs and their various needs being tended to.  Gaston de Foix’s Book of the Hunt.  Gaston de Foix would later lose his life in a bear hunt.  

Guicennas, a German knight, explained how to raise a good ‘limer’ (tracking hound):  Be kind to him, and stroke his head gently, and then give him a piece of cheese – not over much, but a little at a time — and take care not to make him quest (after game) so as to tire him, but let him rest and show him that you are good and kind towards him … And whoever does as I have said will have a good limer.  Because of this medieval love of hunting hounds lists were drawn up of suitable names which have survived.   These names total to 1065 so you will excuse me if I just limit here to a few: Plumstede, Puffyne, Lufkyn, Mabbe, Nero, Perkyn, Alberte, Ector, Olyuere,  Offa, Persyvale, Pompeye, Rowlande, Romulus, Dygger, Merymowthe, Sable, Amyable, Cherefull, Plodder, Synfull, Lusty, Wrecche, Garlik, Juell, Nightingale, Merlyon, Florense, Tynker, Beste-of-all, Boy, Joliboye, Baby, Malaperte, Nedy, Pastey, Tullymully, Marmyn,  Mouse, Go-bifore and Go-hyhynde.

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