288 THE BOOK OF THE Doc. 



work with the idea that they had only to breed from this universal conqueror to get good 

 Terriers, and the failure which almost invariably ensued was set down as illustrative of the 

 so-called " lottery of breeding." 



I do not pretend in these remarks to have gone exhaustively through the whole range of 

 show winners. I have, doubtless, omitted some good dogs within the families which I have 

 mentioned, and some few, such as Lancer, lie outside of them. What I have sought to do 

 is to show the lines on which Fox-tenier breeding has hitherto gone, and especially to give 

 young breeders some definite idea of the materials with which they are working, and of the 

 results which they may expect. To a beginner the pedigrees of his dogs are too often but 

 an unmeaning list of names. I have endeavoured to clothe the dry bones of the Kennel 

 Club Stud-book with a certain amount of life and individuality. 



I now pass on to what is sometimes regarded and unhappily treated as a distinct breed, 

 though it should really be looked on as a sub-division of Fox-terriers the wire-haired Terrier. 

 I have already mentioned the grounds I have for thinking that the wire-haired Terrier 

 was known in the last century. I may add that I have reason to think that there was, 

 till lately, a definite breed of white rough-haired Terriers, not unlike the Dandie or Bed- 

 lington in build and character, but rather harder in coat. It is easy to sec that such a 

 breed might, by crossing, or even by accidental variation, produce Terriers closely resembling 

 the regular wire-haired breed. There was also in Shropshire a well-known breed of wire- 

 haired Terriers, black-and-tan, on very short legs, weighing about ten or twelve pounds, with 

 long punishing heads and extraordinary working powers. So too, one used to meet with 

 sandy-coloured Terriers of no very well-authenticated strain, but closely resembling the 

 present breed of Irish Terrier. It is clear that, from either of these varieties crossed with 

 the smooth Fox-terrier, a wire-haired strain might be easily developed. As a matter of fact, 

 I believe that the present race of show wire-haired Terriers do, to a great extent, owe 

 their origin to a well-recorded cross of the kind. On this point I shall avail myself of 

 some notes kindly communicated to me by the gentleman to whom I have before referred 

 as writing under the signature of " Peeping Tom." He tells me that a certain Mr. Thornton, a 

 Yorkshire squire living near Pickering, had a breed of wire-haired Terriers, tan in colour, with 

 a black stripe down the back. He describes them as about 16 Ibs. weight, with grand 

 Terrier heads and drop-ears, in fact, in every respect, except colour, the model of the 'show 

 wire-haired Terrier. One of these dogs, crossed with a smooth-haired Fox-terrier, produced 

 a strain of white wire-haired Terriers. Of these the most famous was Kendal's Old Tip, 

 a kennel terrier belonging to the Grimington hounds. He was a white dog with one 

 marked ear, 16 Ibs. weight, and is still known as an extraordinary workman. From him 

 came one of the very best wire-haired Terriers ever seen, Carrick's Venture, and there has 

 been scarcely a prize-winner since that has not inherited a strain of his blood. Another noted 

 Yorkshire strain of wire-haired Terriers, so my informant tells me, belonged to the Cleveland 

 hounds, and as he does not say that they were produced by a similar process of crossing, 

 it is not unlikely that they may have been an old-established breed, though perhaps originally 

 the result of a cross. Among the wire-haired Terriers of the present day, two stand out 

 conspicuous, Thorn and Gorse. The former was bred from parents of unknown pedigree, 

 but of Terrier-like appearance and remarkable working powers. Corse's ancestry I have 

 been unable to trace with any clearness. The besetting fault of modern wire-haired Terriers 

 undoubtedly lies in their coat. The coat should be short, hard, and dense, and feeling, as the 

 name implies, like a wire brush. Instead of that, it is too often long, soft, and open. Such a 



