54 THE BOOK OF THE DOG. 



for benighted travellers are as well authenticated as they are widely known, and would simply 

 become irksome by repetition, and we therefore forbear from inflicting them upon our 

 readers. 



In more than one leading book on the dog, the Rev. J. C. Macdona of Cheadle is credited 

 if not directly, at least by inference with the honour of having first introduced the St. Bernard 

 dog into this country some twelve or fifteen years ago. As far as our memory carries us, how- 

 ever, the popular lecturer, the late Mr. Albert Smith, had some considerable time previous to 

 that date done much to familiarise his friends and audiences with this noble breed. In making 

 this statement, we do not wish it to be for one moment understood that we are desirous of 

 depriving Mr. Macdona of the well-deserved glory due to him for his successful visits to the 

 Hospice of St. Bernard, nor are we at all certain even that the dogs brought to this country 

 by Mr. Smith were actually the first that ever reached our shores. Owing to the misfortune 

 that befel the monks by the loss of their original strain to which attention will be drawn 

 hereafter it is quite possible that dogs as purely bred as those now in the Hospice, and 

 displaying all the St. Bernard characteristics, can be found in the neighbouring valleys close 

 at hand. In support of this theory we may mention the name, presently quoted, of M. H. 

 Schumacher, of Berne, Switzerland, from whose kennels were obtained those two grand specimens 

 Thor and Miss Hales' Jura, and also the smooth-coated Monarque, who was, whilst in the 

 flesh, the king of his class, winning at all the important shows throughout the country. 

 At the international dog show in Paris, 1878, we had the pleasure of seeing from M. 

 Schumacher's kennels one of the finest specimens of the smooth-coated variety ever exhibited. 

 Although the gentleman named is the best known in England of any foreign breeder, there 

 are many others of less fame, and by more than one noble family the breed has been 

 kept up from which the Hospice itself has at times recouped the losses attendant on the 

 charitable but most dangerous work in which these dogs are used. We are uncertain whether 

 Mr. Albert Smith obtained his dogs from the Hospice, or from one of the outside sources to 

 which we have referred. Little indeed in the way of particulars have we been able to 

 glean of his dogs, for it must not be lost sight of that in Mr. Albert Smith's day dog 

 shows were quite in their infancy, and many good specimens of every breed were destined 

 never to emerge from the semi-obscurily of a purely local reputation. The precise date of the 

 importation of this highly-popular variety of dog is, however, a matter of secondary importance, 

 for their firm establishment in this country is now an indisputable fact, as their presence in 

 large numbers at our leading shows proves. The Rev. J. Gumming Macdona's Tell the first he 

 ever exhibited created such a furore amongst the visitors to the exhibition where he appeared, 

 that other gentlemen were not slow in following his owner's example. Amongst these was Mr. 

 J. H. Murchison, whose name appears most strangely to have been entirely overlooked by 

 writers on the breed, but who deserves lasting credit in connection with these dogs, if 

 only for the benefit he conferred upon them by the importation of Thor and Jura into this 

 country. The result of an alliance between these was Mr. Armitage's grand dog Oscar ; and 

 Thor has further distinguished himself by begetting the champions Hector, Shah, and Dagmar, 

 from Mr. Gresham's Abbess, as well as Simplon and many other most excellent specimens of 

 the breed from various other females. As in the case with Sheep-dogs, both rough and smooth 

 specimens frequently appear in the same litter ; and we cannot help noticing as one of the most 

 remarkable instances of good fortune or good judgment in breeding, the three dogs just referred 

 to of Mr. F. Gresham. Abbess, smooth-coated, threw him in one litter by Thor, rough-coated, or 

 the smooth-coated champion Shah, the rough-coated champion Hector, and one of the best 



