THE BEDLINGTON TERRIER 493 



with them, having, probably, fighting purposes in view. But it 

 does not matter how this clever and undoubtedly useful race has 

 been produced ; it is sufficient to know that we have it, and that 

 it is as permanent and breeds as truly as any other cross we know 

 of. At the same time, if the Staffordshire nailmakers made the 

 cross with the intention of breeding a fighting animal, they failed, 

 so far as raising an antagonist to the Bull-terrier is concerned. 

 The Bedlington is as tenacious, as resolute, and as indifferent to 

 rough usage as the professional gladiator he was pitted against ; but 

 he lacks the formidable jaw and the immense power of the Bull- 

 terrier, and the combat is emphatically no part of his business. 



The first show of Bedlingtons I can call to mind was got up 

 by Henry Wardle, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a good judge, and an 

 ardent admirer of the canine species. That show took place on 

 April 1 2th, 1870, and the first prize was won by Thomas John 

 Pickett, with Tip, a thorough game one, but I thought he had a 

 dash of Bull in him. I would like to do justice to the ability and 

 care displayed in those earlier show days of the Bedlington by 

 Thomas Thompson, of Wideopen, and Joseph Ainsley, of Bedling- 

 ton, who stood foremost as reliable judges of the strain, and as 

 acknowledged depositories of almost all that was known concerning 

 it, but I have not space at command to enter into the intricacies 

 of pedigrees, and I must hasten on to mention two or three of the 

 most famous prize-takers of the race. Mr. Pickett, who has bred 

 Bedlingtons since 1844, na d three champions, often since referred 

 to by breeders, namely, Tear ; Em, Tyne, and Tyneside, all 

 descended from Thomas Thompson's strain, and inheriting pedigrees 

 of portentous length. Tyne was first shown at the Crystal Palace 

 show in 1870, and went thence to Birmingham, where she was 

 again not noticed ; she was then sent to Manchester, but, from some 

 mistake of the railway servants, was never taken out of her hamper. 

 At Liverpool, to which show she was sent on, a similar mistake 

 occurred ; but the committee of the show, becoming aware of the 

 fact, sent Mr. Pickett a special prize. Despite this series of rebuffs, 

 Mr. Pickett forwarded Tyne to the Glasgow show, when the judges 

 pronounced her not to be a Bedlington at all. The Scotsman of 

 March 2nd, 1872, however, in its notice of the show, remarked that 

 she was by a very long way the best in the class in which she was 

 exhibited. This was a case of doctors differing with a vengeance ; 

 and Tyne managed to stultify the Glasgow decision by making a 

 round of brilliant victories at York, Kendal, Bedlington, Blaydon, 

 Seaton Burn, and other district shows, and won twice at Durham 

 viz. in 1870 and 1871 finally visiting the great Crystal Palace 

 exhibition of 1872, and taking first prize in her class, which the 

 Times of June 2nd, 1872, described as the best collection of 

 Bedlingtons ever exhibited at any show. Tear 'Em was the hero 



