364 ALL ABOUT DOGS 



To illustrate the occasional trials of exhibitors, 

 I recollect starting off early with a team of dogs 

 for one of the first general shows held at Ox- 

 ford, I think all my dogs were in boxes or bas- 

 kets but one, a tricolour Collie, whose name I forget, 

 and he was on the chain, and put by the railway people 

 into one of those vile receptacles they call dog boxes, 

 narrow, dark, low and often dirty. On arrival at Did- 

 cot (which I had before connected in my mind with 

 Banbury cakes, and was quite surprised to find a 

 " one-eyed " sort of straggling village of contempti- 

 ble size,) a porter opened one end of the dog den and 

 called the Collie, he, however, showed no intention of 

 responding to the call, and retreated to the other end 

 of the den and growled at the porter, and one of the 

 other porters went around to the further side of the 

 coach and opened the other door of the den, and the 

 dog, taking advantage of this chance of freedom, 

 bolted out, crossed the line, went through a hedge and 

 found himself at once in the open country. I had taken 

 no part in the affair, and declined all responsibility, but 

 told the officials I should sue the company for the value 

 of the dog, lost through their carelessness. They 

 begged me to accompany some of their men in search 

 of the dog, as he might be easier caught if he saw 

 someone he knew amongst those after him. 



Soon after it began to rain, and from soon after 

 eleven a. m. till after six p. m. we tramped the country 

 in search of the wandering dog, whom we afterwards 

 saw in the distance, but in that district the fields are 

 very large, and often as we laboriously got into a field 



