BRITISH DOGS. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



FEW subjects, and certainly no animal, has been treated with so much 

 written eloquence as the Dog, nor do we grudge the lavish encomiums 

 heaped upon him, for they are well deserved. 



That we do not follow in the usual course pursued by writers on this 

 subject there are several reasons. First, the felt want of ability to give 

 expression to our views and feelings in language at once sufficiently 

 laudatory and appropriate ; secondly, that the several writers who have 

 assisted in compiling this book may be trusted to do justice to the 

 breeds they treat of in better terms than we can ; and, lastly, that as the 

 book is intended to be in great part descriptive of the varieties as seen 

 and classified at our dog shows, and therefore a practical work, both for 

 the experienced exhibitor and the tyro whose love for the dog needs no 

 stimulus, panegyrics on his good qualities are not needed. 



In carrying out our purpose, we have, on a plan we will presently 

 more fully explain, grouped the dogs, and, as far as possible, given a full, 

 minute, and accurate description of each variety as it at present exists 

 and is recognised at our principal dog shows, and illustrated these 

 descriptions by faithful portraits of dogs of the day that are acknowledged 

 by the highest authorities to be true representatives of their class. 



The subdivision of classes is now so great, and the points that separate 

 one from another in some cases so minute, that an illustration in 

 very case is needless, but wherever a sufficient difference of type to 



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