CHAPTER XLIII 

 THE SKYE TERRIER 



DISCUSSIONS concerning Skye Terriers have been numerous in the 

 past, the most notable being that of twenty years ago, which dragged 

 its slow length through the columns of the Country for many 

 months, and was repeated ad nauseam in several other journals. 

 In the first Edition of this work were given the views of the 

 contending parties at considerable length. It is unnecessary to do 

 so now, for the description as originally drawn up by the Skye 

 Terrier Club is acknowledged by the Fancy generally. 



The dog Gareloch, that was put forth to represent the Roseneath 

 type, was not so long in proportion to height as the prick-eared 

 Monarch, which was chosen to represent the generally accepted 

 type. Gareloch was also, apparently, much shorter in coat. These, 

 and softness in the texture of coat, were the main points that the 

 advocates of the Roseneath strain contended the Monarch type 

 were wrong in. These gentlemen asserted that the dogs that won 

 at English shows were in length of body out of just proportion to 

 height ; that the coat was of a " soft, silky, and also a Berlin-wool 

 texture," and that it was in length from Sin. to i2in. Such statements 

 were inaccurate. Eventually the advocates of the Roseneath type 

 of dog drew up a description (and it duly received a number of 

 signatures), as a kind of protest against the description furnished 

 by the Skye Terrier Club. When, however, the two came to be 

 seriously compared there was little that was not common to both. 



There are some fanciers who hold that the Skye Terrier is a 

 comparatively modern production, and that the Scottish Terrier is 

 the oldest of Scotland's Terriers ; while there are others who assert 

 that the long-haired dog suggested by Caius in his "English 

 Dogges," is a Skye Terrier, although it was described by that 

 author as an Iseland Dog. Mr. Hugh Dalziel was of opinion that 

 there have been kept, parallel with each other, two strains of these 

 Terriers one of the Otter type (a Scottish Terrier pure and simple, 

 if we judge it by the modern acceptation), bred for work only, and 

 the other more for its beauty and as a house-dog. There is 



