The Ingram's dogs

Chin dogs, said to have originated in China, were originally owned in Japan only by the nobility. Later, in the nineteenth century after the opening up of Japan, some were exported to the West and became popular as lap dogs. We know that Minima owned at least one in 1896, as it was sketched by Collingwood, and presumably she soon had as they soon multiplied. Ted Booth, in his oral history, wrote that when his mother visited the Ingrams’ home (year unknown) there were 14 Chin dogs and that later still. when his uncle visited, there were 35.

When Collingwood was in Japan in 1907, he arranged for more Chins to be sent to England, perhaps contributing to the 35, perhaps adding to it.

Memo in Collingwood’s rough notebook, May 1907. Japan

To bring 10 Chin dogs to England for which £10 per dog will be paid: his 3^rd class fare and fares of all the dogs will also be paid. On arrival he will also be given board and lodging for at least three months, failing which his 3^rd class fare back to Japan will be given him.

Ischiyara Kentaho
c/o Nagoya Hotel
Nagoya

Two dog nurses were on the Ingram’s staff. Again thanks to Ted Booth, we are told that each dog had its favourite delicacy to eat and their preferences were indulged. After family dinner the dogs were brought in by the nurses to meet the company, rather as children were in other upper-class family homes. If taken short, a dog would be rushed out of the room by a nurse and soon brought back again. All hard to believe, but less hard if we read Minima’s own account of her pets and her eccentricities in an article she wrote for the Windsor Magazine, My Friends in Fur and Feather.