Tyrant's Sons. 47 



the bull terrier in appearance than he, and, carrying his 

 eight years well, he proved good enough to win the 

 champion prize at Nottingham in 1873, beating Tyke, 

 Trimmer, Trumps, Jock II., and six other less notable 

 opponents. Moreover, Tyrant was sire of many leading 

 terriers which in their turn have added to the excellences 

 of those in the present generation. Venture was a son of 

 his, so were Mr. Whitton's Badger (a rare old sort) and 

 Mr. Sydenham Dixon's Sam, almost as perfect as his sire 

 in appearance, but a broken leg badly set kept him from 

 the show bench. Of Badger, Mr. Wootton writes: " I bought 

 him from Mr. Whitton, wine merchant, Lincoln, for £12, a 

 very game one, a wonder at rats. He won several prizes, 

 yet he was a bigger dog than I liked. I recollect lending 

 Badger to a trapper and rat catcher of my acquaintance, 

 one Scroggins, better known as " Old Bob," a one-eyed 

 man. One day I had notice of a dog ratting in a farmer's 

 barn and premises, and was asked by " Bob " to come inside 

 his cottage. Everything was neat enough, though he said, 

 with grim politeness, he could not ask me upstairs as he 

 had lent his ladder, and when you get there you must go on 

 " all fours," or your legs will break the flooring. " Which 

 is best," he says, with rare simplicity, " to sleep upstairs 

 and tumble through, or to sleep down here, and for them 

 to fall atop of you ? " We got to the barn and had a rare 

 turn up, killing 108 rats. "Bob collected his ferrets, 

 counted and cut off the rats' tails, and whistled his dogs 

 away, and said, as he touched his hat and pocketed the 

 half-crown I gave him, " Barn rats ain't poisonous, like 

 them town ones, if they bite you ; but I keeps them from 

 doing it, 'cause I don't like to gratify em." 



Mr. Gamon's famous Chance and his favourite Risk were 



