CHAPTER XLVII 

 THE BLACK-AND-TAN TERRIER 



AMONG the numerous varieties of Terriers now recognised and classi- 

 fied, the Black-and-tan is one of many altogether unfitted for the 

 work which gave the generic name to the whole family ; for after the 

 refining processes to which this variety has been subjected by 

 breeders for exhibition, it would make but a poor figure at under- 

 ground work. The legs and feet are too slender and elegant for 

 digging, and the thin, satin-like coat is not the sort of covering in 

 which to face wet grass and dank underwoods. 



While speaking of the coats of Terriers, a rather curious suppo- 

 sition of Youatt's should be noticed. He says : " The Rough Terrier 

 possibly obtained his shaggy coat from the Cur, and the Smooth 

 Terrier may derive his from the Hound. 1 ' The Cur he elsewhere 

 describes as a cross between the Sheepdog and the Terrier. But 

 there are rough-coated as well as smooth-coated Hounds, and the 

 Terrier was placed by Caius among the Hounds between the 

 Harrier and the Bloodhound, in fact and he states him to be the 

 "smallest of the kind called Sagax." Now, if there always have 

 been Hounds both smooth and rough, it is surely quite as likely 

 that there have always been Smooth and Rough Terriers ; and 

 reasons have been given for considering that Youatt's description 

 and his opinion of the origin of Curs are erroneous. 



Caius says nothing about the length of coat or the colour of 

 Terriers. Daniels, in his " Rural Sports," makes special mention of 

 the elegant and sprightly Smooth-coated Terrier, black in body, and 

 tanned on the legs ; and in Foxhound kennels of the early part of 

 the last century Terriers of all colours were kept red ones, brindled, 

 brown pied, white pied, pure white, and black with tanned faces, 

 flank, feet, and legs, and all of these were kept for work, not for show 

 work requiring the strength, fortitude, ardour, and indomitable 

 pluck of a genuine Terrier, for a working Terrier worthy of the name 

 should be as hard as nails, active as a cat, and lively as a cricket. 



The old style of Black-and-tan Terrier was stronger than, but 

 not so elegantly built as, his modern representative, and the stouter- 

 limbed, broader-chested, thicker-headed, and coarser-coated dog 



