492 BRITISH DOGS 



who says : * The Bedlington is a light-made, wiry dog, with a 

 bright, alert bearing, and whose cut and demeanour are indicative 

 of fire and resolution. The head should be high and rather narrow, 

 and when looked at from behind should be almost wedge-shaped ; 

 it should be surmounted with a fine silky tuft, usually nearly white 

 in colour, and the ears and tail should, in the blue sort, be of a 

 much darker shade of colour than the body. The eyes should be 

 small and a little sunken, dark in colour in the blue variety, but 

 lighter in the liver-coloured specimens, and the jaw long, quickly 

 tapering, and muscular. The ears should be long, should hang 

 close to the cheek, and should be slightly feathered at the tip, whilst 

 the neck should be long and muscular, and should rise well away 

 from widely set shoulder blades. The legs should be rather high, 

 and should be straight, hard, and sinewy. The body should be 

 compact and well formed. The tail should be small, from Sin. 

 to i2in. long, and slightly feathered. The coat should be rather 

 wiry, and the colour blue-black, sandy, or liver. The dark blue dogs 

 should have black noses ; the liver or sandy are most approved 

 of with flesh or cherry-coloured noses, but I would not object to a 

 sandy dog with a black nose if from the blue strain.' 



Although the Bedlington Terrier is only a new-comer, I think 

 he has a great future before him with regard to popularity and 

 esteem. The breed can well afford to depend upon its merits to 

 push its way to the front, and the more well-bred specimens get 

 spread about, in the greater demand will the dog most assuredly be. 

 The Bedlington I look upon as a farmer's friend and country 

 gentleman's companion. No breed of Terrier can compare with 

 him for stamina, fire, courage, and resolution. He will knock about 

 all day with his master, busy as a bee at foxes, rabbits, or otters ; 

 and at night, when any other sort of dog would be stiff, sore, and 

 utterly jaded, he will turn up bright as a new shilling, and ready 

 for any game going. He takes to the water readily, has a capital 

 nose, is most intelligent and lively, and, as I have said, as a 

 rough and ready friend about the fields and woods he has no equal. 



Despite the vast body of evidence adduced to clear up the 

 question of the origin of this cross, I hold that the matter may yet 

 be regarded as by no means satisfactorily determined. I have seen 

 pedigrees of crack dogs of the breed extending over a period of 

 one hundred years, but then one has no means of knowing what 

 the dog was like whose name we see figuring as having lived in the 

 last century. No doubt some famous dogs of the breed of old 

 Northumberland Terriers were long ago located about Thropton, 

 Rothbury, Felton, and Alnwick, and it is not at all unlikely that 

 the Staffordshire nailmakers, who some eighty or ninety years ago 

 were brought from the South and employed at Bedlington, crossed 

 the pure-bred native Terrier with some of the stock they brought 



