366 British Dogs. 



CHAPTER XXV. THE IRISH TERRIER. 



BY CORSINCON. 



THE enthusiasm characteristic of Irishmen has, within the last few years, 

 brought this terrier to the front with a dash. 



Lovers of the breed, those who best knew its inherent good and useful 

 qualities, worked hard, and patiently to gain for it public recognition 

 as a distinct variety, and laboured long before success crowned their 

 efforts. 



Many influences hindered the advance of the Irish terrier in public 

 esteem, and not least among these may be reckoned the internecine war 

 carried on in the public prints by the fanciers of the breed, with all the 

 gusto with which Irishmen are supposed to fight. 



The law of compromise in debateable points was at first ignored, and, 

 it is to be feared, is still but partially recognised and acted upon among 

 them, although the formation of the Irish Terrier Club has done wonders 

 in welding into unanimity opinions and prejudices which it appeared 

 impossible to harmonise. 



If the leaders themselves were for long irreconcilable in their opinions 

 as to what an Irish terrier was, or should be, it is not to be wondered at 

 if this added to the confusion in the public mind. Classes for the breed 

 were instituted at the principal Irish and some of the Scotch dog shows, 

 and as every Irishman who owned a terrier thought and small blame 

 to him that he possessed the genuine article, the benches were filled 

 with animals of the most astonishing diversity of character ; and the 

 critics and the public, who looked at them as the supposed representa- 

 tives of a distinct breed, were principally struck with the intense 

 mongrelism exhibited by them as a whole. 



The impression thus produced was greatly strengthened by the con- 

 tradictory decisions of judges ; and I confess that, between the war of 

 words raging between breeders and the eccentric awards alluded to, it 

 was some considerable time before I could get fixed in my mind the 

 ideal of an Irish terrier as now accepted by all the best breeders and 

 exhibitors. 



Of those who have done so much to popularise this useful hardy terrier, 



