146 The Fox Terrier. 



attention to fox terriers, but have picked up a hasty im- 

 pression of what the dogs of a particular epoch were from a 

 casual glance at the show benches. I have no hesitation in 

 saying that a good dog a quarter of a century ago would be, 

 if he could be brought to life, a good dog to-day, and vice 

 versa. Then we should have hailed with delight such 

 dogs as Venio, Dominie, or D'Orsay. To-day, Jock, Buffet, 

 Nimrod, Turk, or Rattler would, if they could reappear, hold 

 their own in any company. I will even go further. I am 

 certain that if Olive and that beautiful but rather forgotten 

 bitch, Pattern, could be put on one side of a ring with 

 Perseverance and Meifod Molly — I mention two terriers 

 which I judged not long ago, and which are still fresh in 

 my mind — on the other, and if one of those critics who 

 assert that we have made a new type were asked, without 

 previous knowledge, ' which are the old stamp and which 

 the new ? ' he would unhesitatingly take the two veterans 

 as specimens of modern deterioration. 



" I quite admit that one or two soft-hearted judges and 

 breeders have in my opinion been so carried away by a 

 craze for what is called liberty ('oh, Liberty ! what crimes 

 are committed in thy name ! ') and racing character, that 

 they have forgotten the importance of other points. I 

 might even go further and say, have taught themselves 

 to dislike substance, compactness, strength of back, and 

 shortness of coupling. But even this heresy is not new ; 

 the judges of whom I speak had their prototypes in the 

 days when some of us used to groan in spirit at the 

 victories of Tart, Ribble, and Saracen, and the defeats 

 of Gripper and Jester II. 



" At the same time, though, I deny that the standard of 

 perfection at which we are aiming has altered, I am 



