The Queen and the Collie

Victoria first visited Scotland in 1842, a full twenty years before the creation myth would have us believe.  Without a doubt, the Queen most certainly knew of the working collie by 1847 when she toured the Scottish hill country for over four weeks, becoming enamored with the rugged beauty and pastoral quaintness.

The next year she bought Balmoral Castle in Scotland and began writing about her many sojourns there in a diary called “Journal of Our Life in the Highlands.”

Unlike the seclusion and aloofness that would mark her later life, during the late 40s and 50s the Queen particularly relished in her incognito visits to the modest and poor villagers who neighbored her estate.

It is pretty inconceivable that her intimate visits with Scottish working men and women would have excluded Scottish working dogs.

I propose that the Collie history was revised to emphasize the 1860s because that date would suggest a more intimate connection between the Queen, the dogs, and the burgeoning show culture.

Despite the popularity of all things Scottish, and Queen Victoria’s attraction to the Collie, Sheep-Dog entries, which included Rough, Smooth, and Shaggy Collies as well as Old English Sheepdogs, were not numerous.

The first decade of formal canine exhibitions producing only 26 known opportunities to promote the breed, although there may well have been occasions where records failed to survive the passage of time. 1861 saw just three shows, at Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester, scheduling suitable classes. The situation remaining unchanged at the end of the decade, with Sheep-Dog classes confined to Crystal Palace, the first show to schedule separate classes for Rough and Smooth Coated Sheepdogs, Birmingham and Manchester in 1870.

With infectious disease rife amongst the canine population, and a readily available pool of suitable stock for very small monetary outlay via the many country markets, breeders, as we understand the phrase, did not exist in the collie world.

Few exhibitors survived beyond a show season, only Mr J. W. Palethorpe, of whom we know nothing, proved a consistent winner throughout the early development of the Show Collie, but either his interest did not continue into the 1870s, or his stock did not improve sufficiently to compete in a more competitive age, and only two exhibitor’s, from this era, can interest the modern fancier.

– Collies Through the Ages 1861-1870

Neither of those exhibitors were the Queen or her representatives.

Of greatest interest is Mr White’s appearance at Islington in June 1869, when his un-named collie took third place under Messrs Walker and Sykes. The only collie known to have been owned by this gentleman is the world renowned Cockie, whom he was exhibiting at Birmingham’s National the following year. The second name of significance is Mr Panmure Gordon, one of the Scottish Kennel Club’s founding members and its first president, who exhibited his Hamish, at Crystal Palace’s ‘First Grand Exhibition’, June 1870, to take second prize in the Rough-coated Sheep Dog class. Could this collie be behind the strangely named bitch, Hamish III, who, as foundation bitch of the prolific family d, influenced the breed for more than forty years?

– Collies Through the Ages 1861-1870

Despite having ample evidence of the Scottish Kennel Club’s first president and the founder of the English Kennel Club showing their own Collies, the history and the stud books have no mention of the Queen’s dogs, their breeding, showing, winning, or influence on the breed.

By the beginning of the 1870s Dog Shows were proliferating throughout the British Isles, but with no controlling body, and rules, such as they were, set by each show promoting association, the fancy would have descended into notoriety, had it not been for the foresight of one man.

The Victorian era produced many visionary men and women who became legendary leaders within their chosen field, Mr Sewallis Evelyn Shirley MP, of Ettington Park, Warwickshire and Lough Fea, Ireland, was just such a force in the canine world. His influence instrumental in the establishment of ‘The Kennel Club’ in 1873 which created a respectability for the fancy far beyond the expectations of its twelve founding members who envisaged nothing more than a show promoting society.

The Kennel Club’s founder, Mr. Shirley, was also active in Rough Collies, his Trefoil, whose short but successful show career lasted no longer than a single show season, is arguably the first collie to own a recognizable pedigree, which undoubtedly explains why he dominated future breeding programs. Today every Collie, whether Rough or Smooth, can trace its ancestry back to Trefoil, in tail male line, through the next link in the chain.

– Collies Through the Ages, 1871-1880