276 THE BOOK OF THE DOG. 



Terriers were bred with some care. In a memoir of the well-known Yorkshire squire, Colonel 

 Thornton, who flourished in the latter half of the century, and whose taster, embraced every 

 department of sport, we read of a Terrier belonging to him called Pitch, " from whom are 

 descended most of the white Terriers in this kingdom." It is furthermore recorded that the 

 Colonel paid special attention to his breed of Terriers. In the sporting works of the early 

 part of the century we begin to find more definite and detailed accounts of the Terrier. The 

 author of "The Sportsman's Cabinet" gives a minute account of the peculiarities and working 

 capacities of the Terrier. There were, he tells us, two breeds ; the one wire-haired, larger, 

 more powerful, and harder bitten ; the other smooth-haired and smaller, with more style. 

 The former, he tells us, were white, with spots, the latter black-and-tan ; the latter colour 

 apparently predominating. An accompanying print represents two Terriers at work, one light 

 coloured, the other dark, both prick-eared. The same writer tells us that it was customary 

 to take out two Terriers with a pack of hounds, a larger and a smaller one the latter as an 

 ultimate resort, if the earth were too narrow to admit the bigger dog. That even at this time 

 Terriers were bred with some care and that certain strains were highly valued, is shown by 

 the recorded fact that a litter of seven pups was sold for twenty-one guineas a good price 

 even in these days and that a full-grown dog on one occasion fetched twenty guineas. The 

 real truth I imagine to be, that there was no one definite and well-established type of Terrier 

 throughout the kingdom, but that here and there some squire or huntsman, who chanced to 

 be an enthusiast on the point, cherished a particular strain, and to a certain extent developed 

 a type for himself. Many a manor-house and farmstead in Devonshire and Yorkshire we may 

 be sure had its three brace of Terriers, as well deserving of immortality as the heroes of 

 Charlieshope, though not as fortunate in their historian. Pictures, unhappily, do not throw 

 much light on the matter. In old engravings we sometimes meet with a pair of rough-looking 

 mongrels as the companions of a huntsman or earth-stopper, but, unhappily, excepting the one 

 to which I referred above, none give a sufficiently detailed idea to be of any value for the 

 history of the breed. One exception indeed there is, and that a somewhat curious one : a 

 picture at Vienna by Hamilton, a Dutch painter who lived early in the last century, contains 

 a composition of fruit and flowers, with a white wire-haired Terrier in the foreground. The 

 dog has all the characteristics of the modern show Terrier, with the one exception of a pink 

 nose. He has apparently a good hard coat, and perfect drop ears. The shape of his head, 

 the expression of his face, and his whole attitude and outline, are thoroughly characteristic and 

 Terrier-like. The similarity is the more remarkable since there is, as we shall see, pretty good 

 evidence that the modern wire-haired Terrier is the result of a distinct and well-ascertained 

 cross in recent times. Hamilton ranks among Dutch painters ; his name, however, suggests 

 an English connection, and I certainly have never met with a Terrier, either in the paintings 

 of Snyders or any of his countrymen. 



As to the modern Fox-terrier, his history has been very clearly set forth in two articles 

 published some while ago in the late Country newspaper, by a well-known writer, under the 

 sobriquet of " Peeping Tom." He tells us, on the authority of Mr. Gibson, one of the best- 

 known breeders of Terriers, that nearly forty years ago there were dogs in the Midlands 

 possessing all the characteristics of the modern show Terrier. I may add that I have myself 

 heard Mr. Gibson make the same statement. I may further illustrate this by mentioning that 

 two old hunting men made, quite independently, the same criticism on a well-known modern 

 show Terrier i.e., that she was exactly the same stamp as they remembered in their boyhood. 

 The bitch in question was Vexcr, by Venture, out of Fussy, all names well known in show 



