The "Dreaded" Rattler. 75> 



during the past three decades would be wearisome ; so 

 after a passing allusion to the dog who gained the name 

 of the "dreaded Rattler/' fresh ground must be broken. 

 Jack Terry, of Nottingham, was the first man to successfully 

 exhibit him, which he did under the Hon. T. W. Fitzwilliam 

 as judge at one of the early Manchester shows. He was 

 there purchased by Messrs. J. Douglas and S. Handley 

 for 50/., who re-sold him to Mr. Fletcher, of Stoneclough,. 

 for 100/. Then, in the care of the late Mr. George Helli- 

 well, of Sheffield, who was one of our popular judges, 

 Rattler entered upon a career of successful exhibition which 

 was nothing short of phenomenal. Born in 1871, and r 

 when little less than two years old, winning at the Free 

 Trade Hall, Manchester, in 1873, he continued, with 

 little to stop his progress, until 1879, then having won, 

 over 250 prizes. The value of these, with the stud fees 

 which no doubt so successful a dog would command,, 

 must have made Mr. Fletcher's spirited investment a 

 lucrative one. 



Rattler's blood I never cared about. The Stud Book gave 

 his breeder as Mr. Turner (this is not the late Mr. Luke 

 Turner, in his day so eminent an authority on fox terriers), 

 by Hulse's Fox out of Fan, by Underwood's Spot from 

 Cowlister's Dutch ; Fox by Trimmer II., by Old Trimmer. 

 That he got few notable puppies is not surprising, for, with 

 the exception of Spot, his progenitors were not likely to bring 

 good scions, the appearance of Trimmer II. in any pedigree 

 being quite sufficient to condemn it. Oh, what ears that 

 dog had ! big even during an era when such were rather 

 the rule than the exception. Rattler, in appearance just 

 an enlarged edition of Old Jock, was about 191b. weight, in 

 fair show condition ; or od all round, the more one looked 



