Perhaps because she had a lonely childhood at Kensington Palace and relied on animals for companionship, Queen Victoria had a special penchant for them, and in particular, dogs. She was fond of repeating a quote from the philosopher, Schopenhauer: “If it were not for the honest faces of dogs, we should forget the very existence of sincerity.”

Almost singlehandedly, Queen Victoria made the keeping of dogs as pets popular. No longer regarded as merely working animals, dogs came to be welcomed into the average home as family members, and it was mostly due to Victoria. Among her dogs was a Skye Terrier, a King Charles spaniel, a Greyhound (who was mostly Prince Albert’s dog), brought from Germany, several spitzes, a Deerhound, a couple of collies, and several Pomeranians, one of whom – “Turri” – lay on her deathbed at her request. She lavished love on these dogs, commissioned many portraits of them (especially after discovering Edwin Landseer), and, because she sincerely believed that animals had souls, buried her deceased dogs with the greatest of ceremony. A few of their graves were given monuments, such as her Spaniel, “Dash,” her favorite Collie, “Noble,” and Prince Albert’s Greyhound, “Eos.”