CHAPTER XXIV 



FOX TERRIERS, SMOOTH AND WIRE 



THE Fox Terrier shares with the Bulldog and Pome- 

 ranian the honour of being the most popular variety 

 of the day for exhibition purposes, and it is doubtful 

 if there is any other dog so generally kept in every 

 part of the country. Always ready for any sort of 

 work from ratting to going to earth after a fox or 

 badger, he is also an excellent house dog. It is 

 difficult to say when this dog was first produced as 

 a distinct type, but we know there have been small 

 Terriers for many centuries. Turbervile, referring 

 to the habits of badgers, says : " So much subtlety 

 have they that when they perceive the terriers begin- 

 ning to yearn them and to lie at them they will 

 stop the hole between the terriers and them, lest 

 the terriers should follow them any further, and then 

 if the terriers bay still, they will remove their baggage 

 with them and go into another chamber or angle 

 of their burrow." Beckford preferred a black or 

 white terrier for use with the hounds, remarking 

 " that some there were so like a fox that awkward 

 people frequently mistook one for the other." Mr. 

 Francis Redmond, one of our most respected and 

 successful breeders of Fox Terriers, has kindly fur- 



121 



