THE OLD ENGLISH BOBT AILED SHEEPDOG 163 



The Old English Sheepdog, as he is seen with the shepherd 

 on the South Downs, on the Salisbury Plains, and on the Welsh, 

 Cumbrian, and Scotch hills and dales, is usually, but not invariably, 

 bobtailed either born so, or made so by docking. In vain have 

 we consulted past writers on dogs for any minute description of 

 this animal's size, build, general appearance, and, in show language, 

 his " points." His moral and intellectual qualities are described 

 with enthusiasm, and often in greatly exaggerated terms of praise, 

 but as to what he was like, we are, by most who have written 

 concerning him, left to guess. 



In the " Sportsman's Cabinet " there is a drawing by Reinagle, 

 and engraved by J. Scott, which the author of the work " A 

 Veteran Sportsman " declares to be " an admirable representation " 

 of the breed, " taken from the life." No written description applic- 

 able to the dog engraved appears in the text ; but we are told that 

 "the breed is propagated and preserved, with the greatest respect 

 to purity, in the Northern parts of the kingdom, as well as in the 

 Highlands of Scotland." From this it would appear that "A 

 Veteran Sportsman" did not write from personal knowledge, for 

 assuredly in the North the Collie type of Sheepdog was the prevailing 

 one ; and there are reasons numerous and ample for believing the 

 dog to be more a Southern than a Northern breed. 



Shepherds and farmers are not classes of men who rapidly change 

 their habits, opinions, or even fashions; and in a matter of such 

 practical importance to them as the sort of Sheepdog they shall 

 have to guide and guard their flocks, there would have to be 

 strong reasons for the admission and adoption of innovation. Now, 

 nothing is more certain than that in the South and South-western 

 parts of England, Sheepdogs of the type represented in Reinagle's 

 drawing are most plentiful ; and although the breed is not unknown 

 in the North, it is, and had been long before the last century began 

 at which date Reinagle painted and " A Veteran Sportsman " 

 wrote a very small fraction in the number of Sheepdogs, the large 

 majority having been, as they still are, of the Collie type. 



Reinagle's shepherd's dog appears to be a grey, with white 

 on upper neck and shoulder, white on ridge of muzzle, and with 

 a diminishing, white, uneven line up the forehead to centre of 

 skull ; measured as a living specimen would be with a rod from 

 point line of chest to the line of back of thigh, and with an upright 

 and crossbar at shoulder, his height and length are very nearly 

 equal ; he is not so deep in the chest as the Collie, and the skull 

 is rounder and the muzzle shorter and broader in fact, an obtuse 

 muzzle. There is far less difference in girth between chest and 

 loin than in the Collie ; the eyes, as in the Collie, are fairly close 

 together; the coat looks rough and harsh, free from curl, long all 

 over the body and on back of legs, but much shorter on hind legs 



