348 The Dog Book 



by farmers in the Border counties, followed the development of railroad 

 traffic; and, as much of the northern trade made Birmingham a centre for 

 sale purposes, it early became the best-known district for dogs from the 

 north country as far as the Highlands. London was a market for sheep 

 for slaughter, Birmingham more of a farmers' market, and dogs brought 

 down by the shepherds found a sale among the shepherds and farmers of 

 the midland counties. We can say that the collie was practically unknown 

 in London as late as i860. The sheep dogs seen there were mostly the 

 tucked-up-loin smooths with no tails, as shown by Bewick, with an 

 occasional wretched, mud-and-rain-soaked, bob-tailed sheep dog, and still 

 more infrequently a rough collie, usually undersized and a sorry looking 

 object. These all went under the name of drover's dogs, being used for 

 either sheep or cattle. 



The first volume of the English stud book fully bears out our own 

 early knowledge of the conditions prevailing up to 1868. In this book 

 there are seventy-eight "sheep dogs and Scotch collies" registered up to 

 1874, and but two of these were owned as far south as London. The 

 majority were the property of owners living in Lancashire, Warwickshire, 

 Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. Fifteen of them had pedigrees, only three 

 extending beyond sire and dam. Mr. H. Lacy, one of the best known and 

 most respected of the past generation of Manchester dog fanciers, and 

 father of the equally well-known and respected Mr. H. W. Lacy, of Boston, 

 was then the leading exhibitor of collies, and his Champion Mec was one 

 of the most typical collies of his time. He was a black and tan, as were 

 most of the dogs of that day. One of his rivals was the dog Cockie, a red- 

 coated one; and Mr. Charles H. Wheeler, the "father of the Birmingham 

 fancy," is our authority for saying that Cockie was the dog from which we 

 got the sable in the show dogs. 



Mr. Wheeler most kindly consented, when asked a year ago to con- 

 tribute from his store of knowledge of the old-time dogs, and on being 

 reminded more recently of his promise, replied that he was writing exactly 

 what we had asked for the Illustrated Kennel News, and the one contribution 

 should do for both. To Mr. Wheeler we are also indebted for most of the 

 photographs of olden-time collies, including that remarkable one of Cocksie, 

 another dog from Cockie, which in the printed description of dog and 

 owner is specifically stated to be a photograph of the dog himself. It has 

 never been hitherto published, neither has that of Nesta, which we owned. 



