The late Queen Elizabeth II famously kept her emotions in check, except when it came to her love for her corgi dogs.
Those corgis, however, were not universally adored, according to a new biography by Craig Brown, Q: A Voyage Around the Queen, in which the journalist details dog attacks in the palace, and a weird trick the Queen kept up her sleeve to quieten the beasts down—she played bagpipes when they barked.
In the book, Brown claims that the Queen always kept a set of bagpipes to stop the noise from her canine companions, according to an article in Vanity Fair.
ADVERTISEMENT
“The way to scare off a belligerent corgi is the same as for a belligerent human being: a blast from the bagpipes,” Brown says.
Brown describes the dogs as “temperamental,” cuddly one minute and psycho the next.
According to the book, the Queen Mother and Prince Edward were among those to have been bitten by the small but aggressive hounds, which were originally bred to herd cattle in Wales.
Queen Elizabeth kept corgis throughout her life. Vanity Fair said that she owned 83 corgis, with over 14 generations of breeding.
The final two who outlived the Queen, Muick and Sandy, now reside with Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson.
