British Dogs. 



and although there may be little original in what has been written for 

 there are many echoes and but few voices still it is pleasant sometimes 

 to see old friends in new dresses, and instructive to view even familiar 

 things through other eyes than our own. It is always interesting to 

 compare the opinion of the past with those of the present, and to mark 

 the changes that take place, and, to go no further back, those who have 

 followed dog shows from their establishment, cannot fail to be struck 

 with the very great change which has taken place in many varieties for 

 better or worse, and which are worth while considering. 



Before proceeding to explain our grouping of the dogs it may be of 

 interest to very briefly notice the classification and arrangement adopted 

 by the principal writers on the subject. The arrangement of dogs by 

 our dog show committees cannot be considered very satisfactory where 

 there are the two great divisions of sporting and non- sporting. 

 No doubt this system has arisen from the fact that the first publicly 

 recognised dog shows were for sporting dogs only, and the division was 

 made when other classes were added ; but the distinction appears to us 

 to be perfectly useless and rather confusing. Why, for instance, should 

 a fox terrier, used for bolting foxes, be in the sporting division, and 

 a Dandie Dinmont terrier, used for bolting otters, be in the non-sporting 

 division? The arrangement is arbitrary and useless, and those who 

 frame dog show schedules seem simply to have followed each other in the 

 matter like sheep through a gap without their bell-wether. We have, 

 therefore, discarded dog show catalogues as a guide to our arrangements. 



We will now hark back to one of the oldest English writers on dogs, 

 and we believe the first to attempt a classification, Dr. Johannus Caius. 

 In his treatise on " Englishe Dogges" he adopted a classification very 

 quaintly expressed, but which has much to recommend it, its principle 

 being based on the dog's relation to man, and the uses to which man puts 

 him ; and he makes three great divisions, namely, sporting dogs, useful 

 dogs otherwise employed, and toys. He says : "All English dogges be 

 eyther of, A gentle kind, serving the game, A homely kind, apt for sundry 

 necessary uses, or A Currish kind, meet for many toyes." The first of 

 these he subdivides into two kinds, those used in hunting, including 

 harriers, terriers, bloodhounds, gazehounds, greyhounds, lyemmers, and 

 tumblers, and those used in fowling, which includes the land spaniel, 

 water spaniel, setter, and the fisher. The second division, or "homely 



