"Wardrobe" Accounts. 1$ 



The Earl of Monteith over 200 years since had an excel- 

 lent strain of terriers, good at vermin of all kinds, but 

 especially useful as fox killers. It has been said that 

 James I. possessed some of these little dogs. That this- 

 sometimes called " most unkingly of monarchs " kept 

 hounds is a matter of history, but whether he worked the 

 terriers to assist them we are not told. Long before- 

 James's time, as already alluded to, dogs had been found 

 useful in conjunction with nets for the purpose of catching 

 foxes, also to kill them as vermin, and possibly terriers 

 were first used as fox terriers under such circumstances. 

 The wardrobe accounts of Edward I. show the following 

 entries : " Anno 1299 and 1300. Paid to William de Fox- 

 hunte the King's huntsman of foxes in divers forests and 

 parks for his own wages, and the wages of his two boys 

 to take care of the dogs, £g 3s." " Paid to the same for 

 the keep of 12 dogs belonging to the King," &c. " Paid to 

 the same for the expense of a horse to carry the nets." 



However, perhaps more to the purpose than this extract,, 

 is the copy of an old engraving which lies before me at 

 the present time, entitled "James I., Hawking." Fawning 

 at the feet of the monarch are four dogs, evidently terriers, 

 though some persons might consider them beagles. They 

 are certainly terrier-shaped in heads and sterns, though 

 the dog most distinctly shown is hound marked, and 

 possesses larger ears than the others. One in the 

 corner, evidently almost or quite white, possesses what 

 at the present time would be called a " well-shaped, 

 terrier-like head," and, although one ear is carried rather 

 wide from the skull, the other drops nicely. From these 

 four dogs a clever man could even then have produced 

 a fair specimen of the modern fox terrier. Although so. 



