4 THE OLD ENGLISH SHEEP DOG 



an impression of great muscular power and activity. He 

 appears to be light in colour, with a coat which suggests 

 harshness of texture, and he has a fascinating wear-and- 

 tear appearance. But he is not nearly so compact and 

 well-proportioned as the dog in the Gainsborough picture, 

 and suggests rather the stealthy feline grace of a wild 

 animal than the friendly domesticity of the Duke of 

 Buccleuch's favourite. 



In 1835 Sidney Cooper painted a picture of a bob-tail 

 which it was my good fortune to secure at the dispersal 

 of the veteran artist's works. It is signed, dated, and 

 simply inscribed, "From Nature." Painted in his prime, 

 it is a virile example of Cooper at his best. 



A sturdy blue and white customer is his recumbent 

 model, big of bone and skull and body, but wonderfully 

 w r ell-proportioned throughout, with an air of alert sagacity 

 which makes its mute appeal against the modern curse 

 of consanguinity. 



In 1845 Youatt accompanies his description of the 

 drover's dog with an illustration of a long-legged, long- 

 bodied animal, light in bone and pointed in face, with 

 semi-erect ears, which looks more like a coarse type of 

 bob-tailed collie than an Old English Sheep Dog. He 

 writes : " In other countries, where the flock is exposed to 

 the attacks of the wolf, the sheep dog is larger than the 

 British drover's dog, not far inferior in size to a mastiff." 



Richardson, in 1847, comes nearer to the modern ideal 

 when he remarks : " The shepherd's dog of England is 



