A Silly Season. 131 



merits and appearance, of the fox terrier now as compared 

 with what he was on his first introduction to popularity. 

 No doubt he has changed in a degree ; he is as a rule a less 

 " rounded" and less sturdy dog now than he was then. 

 Many good modern specimens are more or less inclined 

 to be flat-sided, high on the legs, and stiff and " stilty," 

 and I fancy breeders are losing that smart, dark, almond- 

 shaped eye which gives such character and expression to a 

 terrier. I detest a big, full, goggle eye in any terrier, 

 excepting, maybe, in a Dandie Dinmont, and in our modern 

 fox terrier I should like to see a little more of that fiery 

 and smart appearance which went so far in the sixties 

 towards making him what he is now in the nineties. Again, 

 I believe that breeders have taken up such a line that to 

 keep their dogs down in weight they must be produced 

 unnaturally narrow in front, with flat ribs, else, unless two 

 or three pounds less in weight than is usual, they would not 

 be able to go to ground, where a sturdy, thick-set little dog 

 of i61b. weight could do so with ease. 



That there are more good fox terriers now than then 

 goes without saying, but, taking the number w r hich are bred 

 to-day into consideration, the percentage of actually tip-top 

 animals is not so large as it should be ; but I thoroughly 

 agree with what Mr. Doyle writes further on, and especially 

 am I at one with him about what at the time of correcting this 

 is the " topic of conversation in fox terrier circles," the size 

 of fox terriers. This cry of size seems to me to be some- 

 thing like the appearance of the sea serpent in the " silly, 

 or slack season." Both crop up annually, and have done 

 so for a longer period than one cares to recall. Why, many 

 years ago, the cry as to the growing bigness of fox terriers 

 was so rife that in 1877 the Birmingham executive arranged 



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