320 



CHAPTER XXX. 



THE WHITE ENGLISH TERRIER. 



" From manv a day-dream has thy short quick bark 

 Recalled mv wandering soul. I have beguiled 

 Often the melancholy hours at school, 

 Soured by some little tyrant, it'ith the thought 

 Of distant home, and I remembered then 

 Thy faithful fondness : for not mean the joy, 

 Returning at the pleasant holidays, 

 I felt from thy dumb welcome." 



— SOUTHEY. 



r'pVHIS dog, one would think, ought, by 

 I the dignified title which he bears, to be 

 considered a representative national 

 terrier, forming a fourth in the distinctively 

 British quartette whose other members are 

 the Scottish, the Irish, and the Welsh 

 Terriers. Possibly in the early days when 

 Pearson and Roocroft bred him to perfection 

 it was hoped and intended that he should 

 become a breed typical of England. He is 

 still the only terrier who owns the national 

 name, but he has long ago yielded pride of 

 place to the Fo.x-terrier, and it is the case 

 that the best specimens of his race are bred 

 north of the border, while, instead of being 

 the most popular dog in the land, he is 

 actually one of the most neglected and the 

 most seldom seen. At the last Kennel Club 

 show (1906) there was not a single specimen 

 of the breed on view, nor was one to be 

 found at the more recent shows at Edinburgh, 

 Birmingham, Manchester, or Islington, nor 

 at the National Terrier Show at Westminster. 

 It is a pity that so smart and beautiful a 

 dog should be suffered to fall into such 

 absolute neglect. One wonders what the 

 reason of it can be. Possibly it is that the 

 belief still prevails that he is of delicate 

 constitution, and is not gifted with a great 

 amount of intelligence or sagacity ; more 

 probably the reason is to be sought in the 

 circumstance that there is now no club 

 sufficiently enterprising to devote itself 

 energetically to the welfare of the breed. 

 There is no doubt, however, that a more 



potent factor than any of these in hastening 

 the decline is to be found in the edict 

 against cropping. Neither the White Terrier 

 nor the Manchester Terrier has since been 

 anything like so popular as they both were 

 before April, 1898, when the Kennel Club 

 passed the law that dogs' ears must not 

 be cropped. 



Writers on canine history, and Mr. 

 Rawdon Lee among the number, tell us 

 that the English White Terrier is a com- 

 paratively new breed, and that there is no 

 evidence to show where he originally sprang 

 from, who produced him, or for what reason 

 he was introduced. His existence as a 

 distinct breed is dated back no longer than 

 forty years. This is about the accepted age 

 of most of our named English terriers. 

 Half a century ago, before the institution 

 of properly organised dog shows drew 

 particular attention to the differentiation 

 of breeds, the generic term " terrier " 

 without distinction was applied to all earth 

 dogs, and the consideration of colour and size 

 was the only common rule observed in 

 breeding. But it would not be difficult to 

 prove that a white terrier resembling the 

 one now under notice existed in England 

 as a separate variety many generations 

 anterior to the period usually assigned to 

 its recognition. 



In the National Portrait Gallery there is 

 a portrait of Mary of Modena, Queen 

 Consort of James II., painted in 1670 by 

 William Wissing, who has introduced at 



