Quote Originally Posted by wideopenthrottle View Post
while in England about 12 years ago we visited this tiny little pub in a heritage village called Lacock ....when in the pub we noticed that the fireplace there had a huge spit with gears and a shaft that went through the side...I wondered to myself if they somehow were using the draft from the fire to turn the spit/rotisserie....it wasn't until we were leaving that I noticed the answer to how the spit was turned....it was a 3 foot diameter hamster run with a drawing of a short legged dog and a little sign with writing on it.....it talked about an breed of dog called the "turn-spit" that was breed specifically for running in the cage all day turning a side of beef or a pig or two...they were replaced by machines and are now extinct....I hope that doesn't ever ever ever happen to pointers or retrievers
Not extinct Mr. Wideopenthrottle, but no longer bred for their intended purpose. Here are some photos of different Turnspit Dogges being bred by fanciers of the breed in the British Isles