The Fox Terrier. 1 15 



best terrier of the trio. Despoiler is, on the other 

 hand, a dog with an unduly long head, small, pig- 

 like eyes, and a bad expression by no means in the 

 first rank. There have in fact been few really 

 first class fox terriers produced during the past two 

 years or so, the Vicarys, from near Newton Abbot, 

 having with few exceptions produced the best. 

 Vesuvienne was the best of them for a long time, 

 and may be so yet, but she has been followed by 

 Vengo, Venio, Vice Regal (sold to Mr. S. J. 

 Stephens, of Acton, for ^470), Vicety, and others. 

 I should say that at the present time, as has been 

 the case for three years, this Devonshire kennel has 

 been by far the most successful in producing winners, 

 and they are of a stamp likely to be as useful at 

 work as on the bench, and I know the Vicarys do 

 not pamper their dogs in any way. 



However, it was Mr. J. H. Murchison, of London, 

 who gave the greatest impetus to the fox terrier as 

 a show dog, he commencing to keep a kennel on 

 a large scale about 1869. His dogs were kept at 

 Titchmarsh, Thrapston, Northamptonshire; they 

 were under the care of the late Mr. S. W. Smith, 

 who at one time had 200 fox terriers, including, of 

 course, puppies, in his kennels. For a long time 

 Mr. Murchison won almost all the leading prizes, 

 and whenever he saw or heard of a dog likely to 



I 2 



