CHAPTER VII. 

 THE AIREDALE TERRIER. 



HERE we have the largest variety of the terrier 

 admirers of the dog have yet produced, and big 

 though he may be, our best specimens are now 

 thoroughly terrier-like in type, and perfectly free 

 from any of the hound-like appearance which at one 

 time appeared to prevail. How he was originally 

 produced there is, as usual, no record to tell, but that 

 he is a comparatively modern institution is an 

 undoubted fact. 



For forty or fifty years, perhaps more, the big 

 terriers of this kind were found in some parts of 

 Yorkshire, commonest in the valley of the Aire, and 

 round about Bradford. Some of the gamekeepers 

 had them, the sporting innkeepers kept two or three, 

 and generally they were favourite dogs in the locality. 

 They were strong and useful, good at vermin in 

 the water, fond of hunting, and were by no means 

 quarrelsome even amongst themselves. I fancy 

 that at one time or another they had been produced 



