82 The Collie or Sheep Dog. 



useful as a drover's dog therefore, as such he is oftimes 

 found, and I have seen a greater number of these rough 

 " bob-tails " following the cattle men through the streets of 

 London than in any other locality. An extra good speci- 

 men may, under such circumstances, be at times met with 

 and picked up from these men for a " crown and a pot of 

 four half." " Idstone," alluding to the fact that on the 

 Wiltshire downs these dogs were, when he wrote about 

 twenty years ago, repeatedly bought and sold for a few 

 shillings, and at the large fairs it was the usual thing for 

 these dogs to change hands ; the new owner having the 

 dog handed over to him, with "a collar twisted out of a 

 green hazel and a few feet of old cord." Bewick's " bob- 

 tailed" collie is smooth-coated, of any of the prevailing 

 colours ; but, like all engravings of this master of his craft, 

 his " cur-dog" is a most characteristic example of what the 

 animal was at that day. 



Few of the old writers refer to the breed. In the 

 " Sportsman's Cabinet " (1803-4), an excellent illustration 

 is given by Reinagle, the dog being just such a one as 

 would be met with at the present day, were he favoured by a 

 pleasanter and less villainous expression, which is given 

 him, perhaps unintentionally, by his two peculiarly yellow 

 coloured eyes. It is still held that the eyes should 

 be light in colour, not yellow, but of a pale blue 

 approaching white, " wall " or " china " eyes indeed, 

 which I have heard named "pearl." Unfortunately, the 

 literary description in the " Cabinet" does not in any 

 way apply to the illustration, and so one has to turn 

 elsewhere in search of special information on the subject: 

 Nor does there appear to be anything more interesting to be 

 gleaned from contemporary writers, who appear to have 



