Wardrobe " Accounts. 13 



The Earl of Monteith over 200 years ago had an excel- 

 lent 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 " 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 

 them as vermin, and possibly terriers were first used as 

 fox terriers under such circumstances. The wardrobe 

 accounts of Edward I. show the following entries : " Anno 

 1299 and 1300. Paid to William de Foxhunte the King's 

 huntsman of foxes in divers forests and parks for his own 

 wages, and the wages of his two boys to take care of the 

 dogs, g 33." " Paid to the same for the keep of 12 dogs 

 belonging to the King," &c. " Paid to the same for the 

 expense of a horse to carry the nets." 



However, perhaps more to the purpose than this extract, 

 is the copy of an old engraving which lies before me at the 

 present time, entitled "James L, Hawking." A better title 

 would perhaps have been " James L, a swell or masher of 

 the period," for his royal highness is sadly overdressed. 

 Fawning at the feet of the monarch are four dogs, evi- 

 dently terriers, though some persons might consider them 

 beagles. They are certainly terrier-shaped in heads and 

 sterns, though the dog most distinctly shown is hound 

 marked, and possesses larger ears than the others. One 

 in the corner, evidently almost or quite white, possesses 

 what at the present time would be called a " well-shaped, 

 terrier-like head," and, although one ear is carried rather 

 wide from the skull, the other drops nicely. From these 



