THE LION DOGS OF BAGATELLE

Direct Descendants of the Duchess of Richmond's Royal Pekingese

Reginald McIntosh Cleveland

IF one could trace the fate of all one's gifts in this careless world, the record would be chiefly of fleeting pleasure, soon transformed to bored tolerance and ending in complete neglect. The exception which proves this rather pessimistic rule, however, is certainly to be found at "Bagatelle," the charming country place of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Hastings, in the Long Island colony of Old Westbury. It all began when Lady Algernon Gordon Lennox^ presented to her friend; Mrs. Hastings, in 1912, a pair of Pekingese dogs— lion dogs—of proud lineage from her Goodwood kennels. Instead of making mere spoiled . pets of her new canine possessions Mrs. Hastings, always deeply interested in horses and dogs, took the newcomers seriously, buiU an altogether delightful, and at the same time practical, kennel for them and proceeded to breed Pekingese with so much skill and with such a definite picture of the desired type in her mind that from the original pair she has established a kennel of lion dogs of remarkable excellence and evenness of quality.

It would be hard to imagine a better home for Pekes than the kennels at Bagatelle. By using the lower story of a circular water tower for sleeping pens it has been possible to let the runs, with their sensible green fencing, radiate fan wise from the center.

FOUR generations are now at Bagatelle ineluding the pair which came from Lady Algernon, Goodwood Kwanglee of Bagatelle and Goodwood Shameen. These Goodwood dogs trace their ancestry to three Pekingese brought to the Duchess of Richmond by her nephew from the Palace at the time of the entry into Peking in i860, so that the blood represented at Bagatelle is of the purest royal strain. Some of the manifold advantages of true line breeding are manifest in the foundation pair. Thus the sire of Kwanglee is Goodwood Ming, who is also the grandsire, on the sire's side, of Shameen. Similarly, Goodwood Chun, grandsire on the dam's side of Kwanglee is a great-grandsire on the dam's side of Shameen. It is not unlikely that some of the remarkable quality of looking alike which the present Bagatelle dogs show is due to breeding of this careful character carried on intensively by Mrs. Hastings.

Goodwood Kwanglee is an unusually attractive individual of the Pekingese breed. He has plenty of substance, a good mask, abundant and broadly waved coat and the highly typical rolling gait, viewed from the front, which stamps the ideal lion dog. He has won many prizes but was set back in points for championship honors because when the suffix "of Bagatelle" was added to his name, a certain rule was overlooked. Needless to say this does not diminish his worth as a sire, a fact which is amply demonstrated in his progeny.

THE particularly rich color—a dark, glowing shade with no paleness or washed-out charter—which marks the Bagatelle dogs, apears to come especially from the female line, hameen, or "Teddy Bear" as she is called for lort, has this coloring strongly and so has her daughter Bagatelle Sen. A striking pair of Sen's progeny sired by Mrs. Harby's champion Nowata Chun of Egham, are now ten months old; the dog named Chin Chin and his sister, a namesake of the Emperor's dog Feng Hou, whose memory is wreathed with legends of devotion and courage.

The original Goodwood dogs are grandparents on the dam's side of the dog which has the honor of having won his championship. Fie is also by Chun of Egham out of Bagatelle Sun and bears the imposing name Wang Tai, whichisconvenicntly abbreviated to "Doodles" when he is summoned for a frolic with his mistress. He is a splendid specimen with fine carriage, a good, square head, wcll-carried, plumy tail and the right look to him all over. He and the younger dogs all show improvement from the original stock both in face and body and Mrs. Hastings has been wonderfully successful in getting the desired depth of frame and slimness of loin without waspishness.

ONE of the most alluring corners of the Bagatelle kennels to the visitor is the space set aside for the puppies. In sunny runs, with benches here and there so that they may receive early lessons in deportment and handling, youngsters of several stages of development are thriving at present. The youngest lot is made up of three by the original Goodwood pair, called Shameen, Kwanglee and Mi Foo, each with the prefix Bagatelle, respectively. Then there is another fine litter of fuzzy pups out of Bagatelle Sen by Mrs. Harby's Chun. They are four months old and are called Chun, Ming and Yan Kee. A third litter &y Chun is a musical tribe, called the Sing family, being christened Sing Sing, Sing Song, Sing Hi, Sing Lo and Mi Sing.

Those who have followed the Pekingese classes in the recent bench shows know that the Bagatelle dogs have already made an envied name for themselves and there are dozens of ribbons and trophies in the kennel at Old Westbury which bear testimony to Mrs. Hastings' skill as a breeder. Unless all signs fail these laurels will be added to steadily and the gift of Lord and Lady Algernon Gordon Lennox is destined to stimulate the breeding of Pekingese of the highest class in this country. So that, for all time, the Bagatelle kennels will have a strong influence on the Pekingese type.