The Terriers. 1 1 



the present day. Possibly any little dog that 

 " Caius, the profound clerk and ravenous devourer 

 of learning," had running at his heels was black 

 or brown coloured, long-bodied, on short legs, the 

 latter may be more or less crooked ; and, if he were 

 produced by a cross between " the mongrel mastiff 

 and the beagle," his weight might be nearer 4olb. 

 than i5lb., the latter no doubt the most useful 

 size for underground purposes. 



Some old pictures of terriers dating back 300 

 years illustrate cross-bred looking creatures, some of 

 them bearing more or less the distinctive charac- 

 teristic of the turnspit. Others show a consider- 

 able trace of hound blood, but not one, so far as 

 the writer has come across, is hound marked, or 

 bears any more white than is usually found on the 

 chest or feet of any dog. 



The Earl of Monteith over 200 years ago had 

 an excellent strain of terriers, good at vermin of all 

 kinds, but especially useful as fox killers. It has 

 been said that James I. possessed some of these 

 little dogs. That this sometimes called (c most 

 unkingly of monarchs " kept hounds is a matter of 

 history, but whether he worked the terriers to assist 

 them we are not told. Long before James's time, 

 dogs had been found useful in conjunction with 

 nets for the purpose of catching foxes, also to kill 



