This was the sad lot of the turnspit dog,as mentioned by Fag in Scene i of Act II : to be condemned to run for hours inside a wheel, unable to share in the feast it was helping to prepare and spurred on by blows and threats.

The picture above shows one running in the cage in order to trun the spit and roast the meat in an 18th century kitchen. They were a special breed of dog, long of body and short in leg.

This link shows a stuffed example of a turnspit dog, which is on view in the Abergavenny musesum in Wales.

In many 18th cnetury kitchens (especially at inns) where a roast or joint might be needed every day, two dogs were employed on a one-on, one-off basis. Apparently, the dogs knew which days were 'their' days, from which we might possibly get the saying that 'every dog has his day'. LOL

Young boys were also used to turn spits.But their work was ended by the invention of spits turned by a fan installed in the kitchen chimney ,which turned the meat as the heat rose in the flue Aftertr this invention in the mid 18th century most dogs and boys were not used for this purpose any longer.

But not in Bath.

John Wood the Elder, the architect of most of Bath's classical buildings in his book An Essay Towards a Description of Bath 2nd Edition (1749) page 416 noted that the people and most expecially the cooks, prefered to sue the dogs, whowere paid

Lucky them.

There are some anecdotes, perhaps apocryphal, of dogs who, when called upon to perform on their 'off day' because the dog whose day it was went missing, chased down their defaulting partner and forced him into the kitchen Another story involves the secondary vocation of the turnspit dog. It seems people took them to church to serve as foot-warmers during long winter sermons. During one such service in Bath, the Bishop of Gloucester is said to have preached on the subject of 'Ezekiel saw the wheel'. At the mention of the word 'wheel', all the dogs ran from teh church.