228 BRITISH DOGS 



German towns ; but those are often of an inferior sort, or half-breds, 

 the genuine blue blood being almost entirely in the hands of the 

 nobles. Familiar to us in the north were those of the late King 

 of Hanover; those of Baron Nathasius and Baron Von Cram 

 in the south. The Grand Duke of Baden's kennel, at Eberstein 

 Schloss, is unrivalled. Prince Couza, Baroness Ingelheim, and 

 Baron Haber also possessed some of the best and purest strains. 



In England Her Majesty the Queen and H.S.H. Prince 

 Edward of Saxe-Weimar for many years possessed the choicest 

 specimens of the best strains in Germany ; and we have been 

 favoured with stud dogs and brood from some of the above-named 

 kennels, which required something more than gold to possess 

 them. A habit has sprung up of late and a very bad one it is 

 of entering rough-coated little dogs as Dachshunds at some of 

 our best shows, and some of them have received honours which 

 they are in no way entitled to. This is misleading, as they are 

 not Dachshunds, but 'Bassets' very nice little fellows, but with 

 no more right to be exhibited as Dachshunds than a Setter or a 

 Spaniel would have in a Pointer class. They may be half-breds 

 as Dachshund-Basset or Dachshund-Spaniel. We have also met 

 with others, hound-marked and smooth-coated, which looked like 

 Dachshund-Beagles ; these are all Bassets, a term applied by the 

 French to all low, short-legged dogs. The best we have met with 

 were a leash owned by a French marquis ; these had grand heads 

 of the Otter-hound type, with rough coats, very long bodies, and 

 short, crooked legs, and were called 'Rostaing Bassets/ and were 

 excellent workers in thick coverts ; but they rarely possess either 

 the courage or the scenting powers of the Dachshund." 



Having quoted the opinions of a well-known authority in the 

 early show days of the variety, we 'now give the opinions of a 

 present-day enthusiast in the breed, Mr. Harry Jones, and one 

 whose opinions, alike as breeder, exhibitor, and judge, are entitled 

 to respect : 



" I do not propose in any way to deal with the ancient history of 

 the Dachshund, but simply to write about Dachshunds as we have 

 known them in England since they have been exhibited at our dog 

 shows. Strange as it may appear, a separate class for this breed 

 was given at the Crystal Palace Show in 1873, five years before the 

 earliest record of a separate class being given for Dachshunds at a 

 dog show in their native country viz. at Berlin in 1878 (see 

 Vol. I. of the ' Teckel-Stammbuch,' published by the 'Teckel- 

 Klub' in 1891). 



During the seventies the numbers of Dachshunds seen at our 

 best shows rapidly increased, and Mr. W. Schuller, of Poland Street, 



