BREEDS 239 



or little ; they may weigh anything from ten to 

 forty pounds. Perhaps the lighter fox-terrier is 

 more in a boy's line, and in the last thirty years he 

 is become amazingly popular. There cannot be 

 the least possible objection to him in a house, for his 

 smooth coat carries little mud. Lighter of make 

 than his bull-brother, he is equally compact of 

 bone and muscle. But there should be nothing 

 coarse about his wiry figure, and the shapely head 

 and stern are significant. 1 don't know that he is 

 more curious than other terriers, but his light head 

 and his springy action seem the very incarnation of 

 inquisitiveness. He is always hunting the bottom 

 of the hedgerows, and as for vermin, from fox or 

 badger to weasel or water-rat, all are his natural 

 game. That, however, is the speciality of the terrier 

 race, and there is little to choose between them. 

 I have said so much of that, apropos to my own 

 Aberdeens, that there is little to be added. I have 

 a predilection for the Aberdeens, though they have 

 figured little at the shows, because I know their 

 worth, and they are exceedingly handsome. I was 

 looking at a couple last night — one snoring with 

 his chin in the fireplace ; the other, with cocked 

 ears, nodding over him, and waking up again — and 

 I wished I could have evoked the shade of Landseer 

 to paint them. I confess I have never cared much 

 for the Skye : long and low, and enveloped in a 

 woolly fleece, there is the air of sad endurance 

 in his shaggy face, which reminds one of the mists 



