230 " MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



a sight of him would interest my host, as it certainly did. 

 We dined cheerily and well, and continued sitting in the 

 coffee-room to about 11.30 P.M., when there came in Cyril 

 Flower and another man, with a common beast of a bull- 

 terrier weighing about 25 lb., and not worth 305. Almost 

 in a moment the two dogs started fighting, and those 

 present saving myself were delighted by such a novelty 

 in such a place. Their enthusiasm was so great that I 

 was obliged to sit and suffer, or labour under the imputa- 

 tion that I doubted the gameness of my dog. I was 

 certainly on " a good hiding to nothing " as the saying 

 is and the big brute was, so far, too heavy. He got a hold 

 of my dog somewhere near one of his eyes and held on as 

 if he would never let go, but Jester II. was the more active, 

 and very hard-bitten too. 



Fortunately the big dog was fat, and as mine was in 

 show condition, they had fought themselves to an absolute 

 standstill in fifteen minutes, and a bowl of water being 

 brought, they both lapped out of it and settled down like 

 gentlemen with mutual appreciation. 



I got my dog away home as soon as I could, and found 

 him badly cut about the head. I fomented him as best 

 I could, and he slept peacefully on my bed, but next 

 morning he had a head like a football. 



Nevertheless, I had, of course, to take him back to the 

 show, and did so. The result was strangely amusing, 

 for as I stood by and heard the comments of the public 

 on the first-prize winner I felt that the fight had not 

 been fought in vain. 



The common remark of the average critic was : " Dear 

 me ! and that is the winning dog ! How much the type 

 has changed ! " Such comments were really precious 

 to me, who knew so truly how the "type" had been 

 changed in this instance. 



Poor Jester II. ! he was a wonder indeed, as fox- 

 terriers go, and I have not seen a single modern one with 

 a coat like his. John Doyle wrote to offer me 60 for 

 him the following year, and I might have accepted it, 



