CHAPTER XXXIII 



The Irish Terrier 



T IS little use trying to grope back for any history of the 

 Irish terrier. In 1879, when the breed was being taken 

 hold of and pushed to the front, Mr. Ridgway wrote that 

 there were references to it in old Irish manuscripts, 

 but the only way to make that evidence tell is to produce 

 or quote from these alleged old manuscripts, and that has never been done. 

 Billy Graham's quizzical explanation of why this most ancient of dogs 

 was not mentioned in the manifest of Noah's ark was that there was no need 

 for him to have inside accommodations, owing to the ease with which he 

 could swim alongside. Another piece of excellent evidence for those who 

 believe in jumping at every straw is the red dog with green head in an 

 Egyptian funeral cortege, painted sundry thousands of years ago. 



Dismissing untenable conjecture, we find that from the time the terrier 

 of the North of Ireland became in any way known, he was a dog which, 

 from his being the rangiest of the terrier family of that time and the general 

 resemblance in outline of the best specimens to a rough, coarse greyhound, 

 indicated his descent from the hound dog of Ireland, the Irish wolfhound, 

 brother-in-blood to. the Scotch deerhound. The wolfhound, whether short 

 or rough coated, for they seem to have been of both varieties, was red or 

 fawn in colour, and the terrier ran to that colour also, though of course as 

 he was of mongrel breeding there were variations of colour. At the early 

 Irish exhibition of terriers they were, to quote the words of Dr. Carey, the 

 Irish Terrier Club secretary, "of all sorts, sizes and colours." The first 

 really good one was Spuds, shown in 1876. The illustration in Dalziel's 

 book is a good one, and shows what was considered in those days to be the 

 correct form of this terrier. She was cropped, as were most of the Irish 

 terriers of her time, though Mr. Jamison's Sport was not, nor was Mr. 

 Graham's Sporter, afterward Mr. George Krehl's. These terriers were 

 soon followed by Erin, the best terrier of the early days, and while there 

 m a have been a better one since, we can only say that never until we set 



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