462 BRITISH DOGS 



Ballymena and County Wicklow may almost claim to be the birth- 

 place of the breed. Most of the best specimens hail from Ballymena 

 and the neighbourhood, where Mr. Thomas Erwin, of Irish Setter 

 fame, boasts an extensive experience of this breed, and has always 

 kept a few of the right old working sort for sporting purposes ; and 

 in County Wicklow, Mr. Merry says, it is well known that the 

 pure breed of Irish Terriers has been carefully kept distinct and 

 highly prized for more than a century. Mr. E. F. Despard, whose 

 name is well known in Irish Terrier circles as a very successful 

 breeder and exhibitor, claims an acquaintance of over forty years 

 with the breed. Mr. George Jamison, too, has known and kept 

 them many years, and up till a little while ago had won more 

 prizes than all the rest of the breeders put together. These proofs 

 of the age of the breed are mentioned to show those who have 

 lately come to admire them that it is not a made-up, composite, 

 or mushroom breed. They are part of Ireland's national economy, 

 and are worthily embodied in the sportsman's toast : ' Irish women, 

 Irish horses, and Irish dogs' (which means, Irish Terriers, Irish 

 Setters, and Irish Spaniels). 



One's first acquaintance with the Irish Terrier is apt to be 

 disappointing (except to a really doggy terrier man). It may be 

 because there is no meretricious flash about them; but there is 

 that about them which you learn to like ; they grow upon you. 

 They supply the want so often expressed for a smart-looking dog 

 with something in him. There is that about their rough-and-ready 

 appearance that can only be described as genuine Terrier (or 

 more emphatically Tarrier) character. They are facile princeps 

 the sportsman's Terrier, and having never yet been made Fashion's 

 darlings, they retain in all its purity their instinctive love of hard 

 work. Their characters do not suit them for ladies' pets, but 

 render them the best dogs out for the man that loves his gun and 

 quiet sport." 



At a later date Mr. Hugh Dalziel, writing of the breed, dis- 

 credits its existence something over thirty years ago, and referring 

 to Mr. Ridgway's letter anent the age and purity of the breed 

 at a very remote date, says : " 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 Collies by Mr. Ridgway's example, and with as 

 much logical and historical support. 



Mr. Dalziel further adds that it is not usual to speak of a 

 date only a score or so of years back as "antiquity," but that is 

 really the date when the origin of the Irish Terrier is lost and 



