Chapter 2 Chapter One Three Mile Marker

Everyone knows that the family tree of the protagonist of the following memoirs has been lost for many years, so it is not surprising that the source and origin of his name are unknown.Millions of years ago, the country now called "Spain" boiled restlessly in the chaos of its inception.As the centuries progressed, plants began to appear; as long as there were plants, there would be rabbits according to the laws of nature; and where there were rabbits, God decreed that there should be dogs.This point is beyond doubt and beyond reproach.However, when it comes to why the dog that catches rabbits is named "Spaniel", it is full of doubts and difficult to answer.Several historians pointed out that when the Carthaginians landed in Spain, all the soldiers shouted in unison: "Span! Span!" - because rabbits were everywhere in the bushes and trees, the whole land was full of rabbits, and Carthage "Span" in Chinese means rabbit.Henceforth, that piece of land was called Hispania, the land of the rabbits; and the dog that immediately started chasing the rabbit was called the spaniel or harrier.

Most people may think that this explanation is sufficient and there is no need to pursue it; however, we who are seeking truth from facts must add another school of argument.According to these scholars, the word "Hispania" has nothing to do with the Carthaginian "Span", but is derived from the Basque "espaa", which means "marginal". ” or “boundary”.If so, we'll have to banish all romantic images of rabbits, bushes, dogs, and soldiers from our minds, and simply assume that spaniels are called spaniels because Spain is called "Espaa". ".As for the theory of the third group of antiquities researchers, it is believed that just as lovers nicknamed their mistresses "monster" or "monkey", Spaniards also deliberately called their favorite dogs "bend" or "bump" ("espaa " also has this meaning), in fact, everyone knows that the spaniel looks just the opposite.However, this speculation may be too whimsical to be credible.

Skipping over the above theories, and many others that are not worth mentioning, we come to Wales in the middle of the tenth century; Introduced by the Spanish family of Furr.By the middle of the tenth century, the spaniel had become a famous and valuable dog breed.Howard Dat writes in his "Book of the Law": "The king's spaniels are worth a pound." Gentlemen, just think what a pound bought in 948 A.D.— Wives, slaves, horses, turkeys, geese—it's easy to imagine how rare and famous the spaniel was.It came and went to kings, and its lineage was admired and admired by many famous kings; it was long before the ancestors of the Plantagenets, Tudors and Stuarts were after other people's plows and trodden in other people's fields. Nafford in the palace; long before the Howards, the Cavendishes or the Russells rose from the peddlers like the Smiths, Joness and Tompkins, the spaniel family stood out and stood alone.As the centuries went by, the main branch branched out one after another. After careful tracking and verification by British historians, at least seven famous spaniel families were recorded——Cronber, Sussex, Norfolk, Kuroda, Coca, and Irish Water. and English water; all descended from the same prehistoric spaniel ancestor, but each possessed distinct characteristics and enjoyed the privilege of having them.By the time of Queen Elizabeth, there seemed to be an aristocracy among the dogs, and Sir Sidney wrote this testimony in his book "Xanadu": "...the spirit