The Wire-haired Fox Terrier. 143 



dogs, sandwiched between the Pomeranians and 

 Bedlingtons, and so he continued till 1875, whilst a 

 little earlier the same reference volume mixes the 

 wire-haired fox terriers with the Irish terriers. Here 

 is reason for a delay in popularisation, which 

 undoubtedly arose from the incompetence of some 

 of the judges who were asked to give their opinions 

 of the breed, and whose knowledge thereof was quite 

 on a par with what it might be with regard to white 

 elephants and crocodiles. My nerves never received 

 so severe a shock at any show as they did at Curzon 

 Hall in 1872, when the first prize for wire-haired 

 terriers was withheld through " want of merit," 

 though in the class was that reliable and undoubted 

 specimen Venture, then shown by Mr. Gordon 

 Sanderson, of Cottingham, near Hull. Mr. J. Nisbet, 

 a reputed judge of Dandie Dinmonts, gave this 

 foolish decision, which, however, did not lower the 

 dog one iota in the eyes of those who knew his 

 excellence ; and Mr. W. Carrick, of Carlisle, subse- 

 quently became his owner, and made him useful in 

 the foundation of a kennel of terriers which for 

 excellence has not yet been surpassed. 



This Venture was as good a terrier of his variety 

 as I ever saw, without the slightest particle of 

 bulldog appearance, built on proper lines, with a 

 coat above the average in hardness and denseness, 



