How have I not come across Turnspit dog's before? Poor things. They were literally bread to turn meat on the spit. You can see one working in the wheel of this picture. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnspit_
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Is this where ‘underdog’ comes from? I’d imagine Memoirs of British Quadrupeds is harder to find than Fly Fishing by JR Hartley!
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The breed went extinct in the 19th century, IIRC. The practical archaeologists at Hampton Court kitchens have done some work on it; might be able to provide info.
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Just a passing interest this evening, but I’m feeling very sorry for the poor mites.
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I remember learning about them from a Lucy Worsley documentary. It made me so sad.
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I seem to remember had one actually demostrating its job on one of her programmes! Just before she stuffed a little boy up a chimney!!






