Eskdale Tzar. 169 



has been said to be, by some good judges, the best of all 

 the wire-haired fox terriers of any time, and indeed there 

 was little fault to find with her even if she were ig\b. 

 weight, which her traducers said was the case. Possibly 

 she could gallop faster than Briggs, for she was leggier 

 and not so deep in the chest, and her less gaudy mark- 

 ings lent to her a gamer and hardier appearance than 

 the " great assize trial " dog possessed. Miss Miggs 

 had a sister, too, called Mischief, an earlier litter, almost 

 as good as herself; and Mr. Carrick's Vora, with her 

 well-shaped head and perfection in character, must not 

 be forgotten. This was a bitch not quite so straight on 

 her fore legs as she might be, but one of the workmanlike 

 sort ; so was that charming little dog Mr. J. W. Corner's 

 Eskdale Tzar, a special favourite of mine, and, though not 

 more than i5lb. weight, he looked able to do anything that 

 could be required of him, and his beautifully dark eyes, 

 bright, determined look out, hard coat and equality of build 

 and form made him a difficult dog to beat anywhere. 



About this period I, from time to time, judged several 

 excellent classes of wire-haired terriers at Darlington and 

 other shows in the north, and was much struck with the 

 extraordinary character some of the, so-called, commoner 

 bred dogs possessed. They might be a little wide in front, 

 or wrong a little one way or another, still there w r as no 

 getting over the fact that they were terriers. Occasionally 

 it became somewhat difficult to award the prizes, for a wide 

 chest or one crooked leg, a sprung toe, lightish bone, 

 softish coat, biggish ears, might be possessed in turn by 

 some of the best animals. Character with me always had 

 its effect, and a dog that looks game and determined is 

 pretty well sure to be so. Master Johnson, of Croft, 



