368 British Dogs. 



"varmint" look, his racing build shows speed and nimbleness, most 

 useful qualities in rabbitting, ratting, and kindred sports. They are 

 excellent, too, as water dogs, and the coat short and hard, with a close 

 soft inner jacket, is a first rate wet resister. 



Irish terrier fanciers have not been free from the weakness of claiming 

 for the breed a long and pure descent. 



Mr. Eidgway says : " It is a pure breed indigenous to Ireland," that 

 it " has been known in Ireland as long as that country has been an island, 

 and I ground my faith on their age and purity on the fact that there exists 

 old manuscripts in Irish mentioning the existence of the breed at a very 

 remote period." 



Surely man never yet " grounded his faith " on a more slender basis. 

 The patriarch Job, in an old manuscript written in a language older than 

 Irish, refers to the " dogs of his flock," so when his descendants take to 

 sheepdog showing they may " ground their faith " in the antiquity and 

 purity of their colleys by Mr. Eidgwuy's example, and with as much 

 logical and historical support. In English manuscripts of the 13th 

 century, the existence of terriers in this island is referred to, but which, if 

 any, of the numerous varieties we now have, approach in form the dog 

 of that time it would be difficult to say. 



No matter whether the terrier under consideration was "indigenous" 

 to Ireland, or whether he is of still more ancient blood, a true Milesian 

 engaged in worrying Grecian rats before Ireland was the island of the 

 Irish, Mr. Eidgway did a vast deal better service to the breed by 

 drawing up a standard of excellence and code of points descriptive of 

 the dog than by vain attempts to prove his long and pure descent. 



It has been felt that the descriptive points, originally drawn up by Mr. 

 Eidgway, and agreed to by twenty-four others, is scarcely elaborated 

 enough for the increasing difficulties that arise in distinguishing between 

 merit when the competition is close, and I therefore have pleasure 

 in submitting remarks on the breed, and a more minute description of 

 points drawn up by Mr. G. Jamison. 



Thesel place following those of Mr. Eidgway as given in " Stonehenge's" 

 work, and as I think there is a tendency to swerve from the original 

 lines, which is very different from a necessary elaboration of points, I 

 offer comments, explanatory of my own views, leaving readers interested 

 in the breed to form their own conclusions. 



