The Terrier 411 



The facial look, the expression and the coat were those of Landseer's little 

 terrier in "Dignity and Impudence." 



Short-coated dogs must have been in the minority a hundred years 

 ago, or we would have more illustrations of them by the artists of that 

 period and later years, and it is not until 1825 tnat we begin to find repre- 

 sentations of the smooth dog to any appreciable extent. The Skye terrier 

 or rough-coated dog of the Highlands, quite a medium-coated dog compared 

 with what are now shown as Skyes, was probably the third best-known 

 terrier about London during 1855-60. Queen Victoria was known to have 

 some, and the loyal Londoners procured specimens in sufficient numbers 

 to have them very generally known. The bull terrier was the third of the 

 three terriers, the black-and-tan being the leader in popularity. It would 

 hardly do to elevate the Scotch terrier to the dignity of being a breed, for he 

 was merely a ratting dog, and mainly sandy in colour, while the only family 

 resemblance was a rough coat. The other three were distinct as breeds. 

 It would be going too far to say that there were no fox terriers in London 

 at that time, but they were not conspicuous as a breed, nor were the rough 

 black-and-tan terriers. Bedlingtons, Airedales, Scottish and Irish terriers 

 had not been heard of, and all that was known about Dandies was what 

 Sir Walter Scott had written. When we consider that the spaniels and 

 setters were all divided and well known by their breed names at that time, 

 the backward state of information regarding the terriers is remarkably 

 strange. 



The record will bear us out in what we have stated, as we shall now 

 prove. Youatt in 1845 mentions the bull terrier, and how little that had 

 progressed may be imagined when he merely says that: "A second cross 

 lessens the underhanging of the lower jaw, and a third entirely removes it." 

 Under the heading of "The Terrier" he describes what was undoubtedly 

 the fox terrier as we know it, presumably white in body colour, for he says: 

 "The ears of moderate size, half erect, and usually of a deep black colour, 

 with a yellow spot over the eyes. . . . The coat of the terrier may be 

 either smooth or rough. . . . The rough terrier possibly obtained his 

 shaggy coat from the cur, and the smooth terrier may derive his from 

 the hound." Under the title of "Scotch Terrier" he repeats the informa- 

 tion given by Brown as to the three varieties, and that is all he says. 



Stonehenge, in his 1867 edition of "Dogs of the British Islands," writes 

 a chapter on the fox terrier, another on Skyes and Dandies and a third on 



