68 The Fox Terrier. 



with the stud fees which no doubt so successful a dog 

 would command, must have made Mr. Fletcher's spirited 

 investment a lucrative one. 



Rattler's blood I never cared about. The Stud Book 

 gives his breeder as Mr. Turner (this is not Mr. Luke 

 Turner, so eminent an authority on fox terriers), by Hulse's 

 Fox out of Fan, by Underwood's Spot from Cowlister's 

 Dutch; Fox by Trimmer II., by Old Trimmer. That he 

 got few notable puppies is not surprising, for, with the 

 exception of Spot, his progenitors were not likely to bring 

 good scions, the appearance of Trimmer II. in any pedigree 

 being quite sufficient to condemn it. Oh, what ears that 

 dog had ! big even during an era when such were rather 

 the rule than the exception. Rattler, in appearance just 

 an enlarged edition of Old Jock, was about iglb. weight, in 

 fair show condition ; good all round, the more one looked 

 at him the better he suited, his greatest fault being one 

 common to all much-shown dogs a general listlessness in 

 the ring. When " rats " were astir Rattler was all over 

 the place, and, although he had many detractors for the 

 most part defeated opponents the name of the " dreaded " 

 will for long remain one of the foremost in the annals of 

 fox terrier history. Had Rattler been shown and knocked 

 about as a puppy, would he have worn so well and looked 

 so fresh as he did when last on the bench ? is a question I 

 would put to those who, nowadays, so persistently advocate 

 puppy classes. 



For years the name of the Rev. T. W. de Castro has 

 been familiar to all who are likely to wade through these 

 pages ever since he owned Buffer. Here we had the 

 exact antipodes to Rattler ; the one could not win on the 

 bench, yet could produce excellent stock, the other could 



