The Yorkshire Terrier. 433 



of greater size and hardiness, and altogether a rough-and-tumble work- 

 ing vermin dog, with no pretensions to the beauty and elegance of the 

 little "Yorkshire swell," so that it is rather startling to find this petit 

 exquisite still called a Scotch terrier in the catalogue of such an 

 important and excellently managed show as that of Darlington. The 

 Kennel Club, and others who have followed them, in making a class for 

 these dogs, and naming it Yorkshire terriers, have yielded to the per- 

 sistence of the " Country " in pointing out the absurdity of the misnomer 

 in general use, and in passing I would observe that to the same paper 

 very much of the credit is due of exposing the fallacy, and turning into 

 ridicule the idea prevalent seven to ten years ago, and encouraged by the 

 newspaper critics and judges of the time, that a colley should be in colour 

 "black, marked with rich orange tan." 



That the Yorkshire terrier should have been called Scotch by those 

 who, although they may have the credit of producing this dog, probably 

 did not know of the existence of the real Scotch terrier as a breed, 

 suggests that ab least a terrier of Scotland has had something to do with 

 his manufacture. Now, among terriers recognised as Scotch, if not now 

 peculiar to the country, we have the old hard short coated Scotch terrier 

 par excellence ; the short-legged and mixed-coated Dandie ; the Skyes, 

 with the long weasel-like bodies and long hard coat ; and the perky little 

 prick-eared hard and short coate.d Aberdonian ; and, in addition, the 

 Glasgow or Paisley Skye, a more toyish dog, shorter in the back, and 

 comparatively soft and silky in coat, which it probably inherits from 

 a Maltese terrier cross. My theory, then, is, respecting the origin of 

 the Yorkshire terriers (and I admit it is only a theory, for the 

 most diligent and repeated inquiries on my part in all likely or 

 promising quarters have failed in elucidating reliable facts, and none 

 certainly contradictory of my views), is that the dog was what gar- 

 deners call "a sport" from some lucky combination of one of the 

 Scotch terriers, either the genuine Skye or the Paisley toy, and one of 

 the old soft and longish coated black and tan English terriers, at one 

 time common enough, and probably one with a dash of Maltese blood 

 in it. 



However first obtained, we have at least got them now, and most 

 owners are satisfied if they can claim a strain of the blood of the 

 famous Huddersfield Ben, who combined in himself the blood of three 



