60 The Fox Terrier. 



providing novice and other divisions, in addition to the 

 usual open and champion (or challenge) ones, the Birming- 

 ham management again made a change, the result of which 

 is seen at the present day. Possibly what I have written 

 here will remove the false impression which appears to 

 prevail to the effect that the classes of fox terriers are 

 larger now than at any previous period of our history. I 

 fancy that some modern judge at one of our big shows 

 would look puzzled were he set down in a ring with 

 fifty-eight fox terrier dogs in the open class, and only two 

 fewer in the bitches, as was the case at Birmingham in 

 1875. And at that show all sorts and sizes won prizes, the 

 winning dog being Mr. Bassett's Varmint, one of the heavy 

 weights, and a coarse customer too ; whilst for second came 

 Snap (Mr. J. R. Whittle's), one of the writer's strain, a very 

 neat and all round an excellent little dog certainly less than 

 I5lb. in weight. Mr. Russell Earp's Vine, who took pre- 

 cedence in bitches, was likewise of the smaller or more 

 toyish stamp; and, on the contrary, Mr. G. H. Warren's 

 Vic, second prize, was a much bigger and far stronger 

 bitch. With such decisions as these, no person was 

 surprised to find, as already stated, the change in the 

 arrangements of classification which came the following 

 year. 



Twenty-five years ago the value of pedigrees in fox 

 terriers became so apparent, that they were often manu- 

 factured, and the honour of winning a prize being now at its 

 highest, sharp practices to gain that distinction came 

 into vogue. Some exhibitors, not content with merely 

 docking the tails of their dogs, were clever enough to 

 reduce the size of the ears by paring them down with 

 either knife or scissors. I remember being shown the 



