The Smooth Sheep Dog 375 



not to deale with the bloudthirsty wolf, sythence there be none in England." 

 Here the author goes into an account of how wolves were killed off in the 

 time of King Edgar, which is not material. "But to return to our shepherd 

 dogge. This dogge either at the hearing of his masters voyce, or at the 

 wagging and whisteling in his fist, or at his shrill and horse hissing bringeth 

 the wandering weathers and straying sheepe, into the selfesame place where 

 his masters will and wishe, is to have them, whereby the shepherd reapeth 

 this benefite, namely, that with litle labour and no toyle or moving of his 

 feete he may rule and guide his flocke, according to his own desire, either 

 to have them go forward, or to stand still, or to drawe backward, or to 

 turn this way, or to take that way. . . . Furthermore with this dogge 

 doth the shepherd take sheep for the slaughter, and to be healed if they be 

 sicke, no hurt or harme done in the world to the simple creatures." It 

 does not look as if we had learned much more of sheep tending and driving 

 than was known in that bygone time, and probably long before that. 



Our knowledge of dogs in England prior to 1868 did not include 

 smooth sheep dogs, except what might have been seen in the drovers' 

 dogs assortment, for no classes had at that time been provided at any 

 shows. When we next had opportunity to learn something of them, that 

 is from 1877 to 1880, we either must have failed to note the good ones or 

 there were none to note at the shows we visited, for our impression of the 

 smooth collie can be best illustrated by a remark made to Mr. Megson 

 when we visited him at Sale in the winter of 1897. We had seen and admired 

 Southport Perfection and Ormskirk Emerald, and were about returning to 

 the Priory, when Mr. Megson said : " Don't you want to see the smooths ? " 

 To which we answered that they always seemed a mongrelly dog to us. 

 "Ah! then you have never seen a good one." We at once said we wanted 

 to see a good one, so a visit was paid to the smooth dogs' kennels, where 

 we opened our eyes when we saw the champion dog of his day. We cannot 

 now recall his name, for Mr. Megson had more than one good smooth. 

 Since then we have always had a decided liking for a good smooth, for 

 while a bad one is anything but "fetching," there is no getting away from 

 a high-class smooth, for he is all quality when he is a good one. 



Unfortunately the smooth sheep dog has to run counter to the far 

 more popular rough collie, and it takes a thorough dog man to appreciate 

 a smooth, just as is the case with the smooth St. Bernard when compared 

 with the rough. The result is that only a few of those who are staunch 



