62 The Fox Terrier. 



others indifferent which did, for the judging was sadly in 

 and out. Amongst the indifferent specimens might be 

 classed Vandal, whose pedigree in the " Kennel Club Stud 

 Book " is, I was told at the time of the publication, all 

 wrong (although the owner is free from blame in the 

 matter), Turco, and Renard, all shown by Mr. Murchison, 

 who then had a kennel of terriers which has not since been 

 surpassed. It included no end of celebrities, and for three 

 years or more his representatives quite swept the decks. 

 At Titchmarsh, near Thrapston, where the kennels were 

 located, Mr. Murchison was fortunate in securing the 

 services of S. W. Smith as kennel-manager, and for years 

 the word of the latter was law as to what a fox terrier 

 should be. Old Trap, Bellona, Trimmer, Old Jock, Grove 

 Nettle, Pincers, Trinket, Vanity, Olive, were one time or 

 another all under Smith's charge, as were hosts of minor 

 lights, the names of which do not at present occur to me. 

 When Mr. Murchison's kennels were strongest (about 

 1869-74) they contained at the least 200 smooth-coated fox 

 terriers, including puppies, and perhaps the best of all the 

 lot was his well-known bitch, Olive, which had been bred 

 by Mr. Luke Turner, and was contemporary with Mr. 

 Henry Gibson's Dorcas mentioned further on. Olive was 

 by Belgrave Joe Tricksey, by Chance, an i81b. bitch, with 

 a black and tan head, and all round one of the best fox 

 terriers ever produced, and "Stonehenge" had her illustrated 

 for his " Dogs of the British Isles." Olive died in the 

 autumn of 1889, at the advanced age of fifteen years. 



Another equally powerful kennel about the same time 

 was that formed by Mr. Henry Gibson, at Brockenhurst, 

 on the borders of the New Forest, and whose name has 

 already appeared in these pages. From school-boy days 



