The Terrier 407 



The first of our illustrations of early terriers is that of rabbit hunting 

 with ferrets and nets, the work of Francis Barlow, the dogs shown being 

 of the light greyhound type, and of small size. Barlow lived from 1630 to 

 1702, and we have not so far come across anything distinctly terrier in his 

 engravings. One of the Strada engravings, of which we gave an example 

 in the chapter on the pointer, is very similar to this one by Barlow, but the 

 dogs are even less like our terriers than these by Barlow, Strada making his 

 dogs fat and podgy as a usual thing. If we did find terriers in the Strada 

 collection or in the engravings by Galla or his family, that would upset 

 our theory that the terrier is entirely English in its development. On 

 this subject we received rather a shock when we came across two 

 paintings, said to be by Jan Melchoir Roos, whose name of course 

 suggested dogs of Continental origin. There was no question whatever 

 as to the dogs being terriers, and that they were painted by some one 

 who had a cleverness or ability to depict character. The dogs speak for 

 themselves, and we think all dog men will concede that the man who put 

 them on canvas knew a dog. The art side of the question is another thing, 

 but how many of the great artists could have thrown so much type and 

 character into such drawings. We found that the father of this Roos had 

 been in England after completing his studies in Amsterdam, and as the 

 initials were an R, preceded by what was probably meant for J, with a middle 

 letter which might be H or M or any one of several letters, it was not a thing 

 to pass without investigation, indifferent as the paintings were. 



We had in mind that Mr. J. A. Doyle, an eminent fox-terrier authority 

 had stated in the ** Book of the Dog" that there was great difficulty in getting 

 information from old paintings suitable for help in compiling a history of 

 the breed, but that he had found at Vienna a picture by a Dutch painter 

 named Hamilton in which there was a white wire-haired terrier, quite char- 

 acteristic of the modern show terrier, but with a pink nose. The dog had drop 

 ears and what looked like a hard wiry coat, and the shape of the head and its 

 expression together with the attitude and outline were thoroughly terrier- 

 like. Hamilton he said was a painter of the early part of the eighteenth 

 century. That was about the Roos period and called for investigation. 

 Hamilton we found was the son of a Scotchman who left his country toward 

 the close of the seventeenth century and settled in Brussels as a painter. 

 Two of his sons studied under him and both went to Vienna. There is 

 nothing in the record to show that either of the sons went to England, so 



