Notable Names. 165 



and the late Mr. Donald Graham, who up to the time of 

 his death, which occurred in 1891, was one of our oldest 

 supporters and best judges of the variety, told me it was 

 directly descended from Tip. The latter, a peculiarly 

 heavily muscled dog, would weigh, I fancy, hard on to 

 2olb., he had such a strong back and powerful bone. 

 His head was a little too short, and his coat, though hard, 

 was scarcely profuse enough. His small ears and de- 

 termined dare-devil look out of his little dark eyes, gave 

 an amount of character that is sadly deficient in the terrier 

 of to-day, who possesses an advantage only on the score of 

 neatness. After changing hands two or three times, Tip, 

 who had been born in 1872, went into Mr. S. E. Shirley's 

 kennels, from whence he visited the shows and did a great 

 deal of winning, but he was always to Venture in the wire 

 hairs what Tartar had been to Old Jock in the smooth 

 variety — the bull terrier of the party. 



From the strains of these two dogs have sprung most 

 of the modern wire-haired terriers, but, unfortunately, 

 so many crosses have been made with their smooth 

 cousins, that there is little chance of to-day rinding the 

 old blood pure and uncontaminated. 



It is said that Mr. Maxwell's Jester and Mr. Ward's 

 Pickering Nailer were, about the time they flourished, 

 the only wire-haired terriers of note which could be said 

 to be of really pure blood. Since then I am sadly afraid 

 this old and good strain has become so co-mingled with 

 other families as to be entirely lost. 



There appears a semblance of strangeness that the wire- 

 haired terriers from Devonshire have not been more used 

 for show bench purposes, and by all accounts some of 

 them were as good in looks as they had on many occasions 



