310 British Dogs. 



number of others, were among the earlier breeders, and the Duke of 

 Buccleuch has kept up the breed, but I do not know with what degree 

 of purity. Nicol Milne, of Faldonside, has had the breed for about half 

 a century, and for many years E. Bradshaw Smith, of Blackwood House, 

 has owned a large and important kennel, but whether he had authenticated 

 pedigrees with those dogs with which he commenced his kennel, I am unable 

 to say, or even whether a careful register of the produce of the kennels 

 has been kept, if so, it does not appear to be available for public use, 

 or even to the Dandie Dinmont Club, of which Mr. Smith is vice-president, 

 if I may judge from a duplicate of pedigree of my own dog, furnished me 

 by Mr. W. Foster, who is compiling the Dandie Dinmont Terrier Stud 

 Book, for, going back through Mr. Pool's Dirk to Mr. Smith's Pepper and 

 Jennie II., there is not merely a hiatus, but a full stop. 



Although Mr. Davidson fixed the character of these dogs for us, it has 

 never been said of him that he created the breed, and how they were 

 first produced must remain a matter of speculation ; but that he is a 

 manufactured article, and not a true terrier, I think there can be no 

 doubt, and no theory I have heard broached seems to me to have so 

 much evidence in favour of its correctness as that of " Stonehenge," 

 given in his book " The Dog," published in 1859, namely, a cross with 

 a low-legged Scotch terrier with the otter hound or rough harrier. The 

 Dandie Dinmont muzzle is too massive and square for a terrier, and in 

 that feature, and unmistakably in the size, shape, and set on of his ears 

 and the carriage of his stern he shows the hound cross. 



I will go further, and say although I know I shall be considered a 

 schismatic for venturing to express such a heterodox opinion a judicious 

 infusion of foreign blood would be a good thing for the breed, if of no 

 other use than to check the tremendous mortality among puppies of which 

 nearly all breeders complain, and for this purpose there is no dog so well 

 suited in shape and style as the rough-coated La Vendee hound, a hand- 

 some specimen of which was shown a few years ago by Dr. Seton he 

 was long and low with immense bone, head, ears, eye, muzzle, stern, 

 coat, and colour fairly corresponding to the Dandie, and as to disparity 

 of size, that would be quickly set right by selection. 



If we come to consider the points and qualities, physical and moral, of 

 the Dandie breed generally, all are now pretty well agreed, although hair 

 splitters still wrangle over a pound in weight, the exact texture of the 



