HUMOURS OF THE SHOW-RINGS 313 



servedly respected and esteemed by the whole kennel 

 world, one amongst sporting, the other among non- 

 sporting classes, but as I hope and believe they are both 

 still living I will not mention their names, although I 

 have told the tale to one of them to his intense amuse- 

 ment and delight). But afterwards, I began to fear 

 they would, from not being sure what manner of ani- 

 mal I had in tow, pass me over, or worse still, give some 

 inferior notice to my dog, who was a noted champion, 

 and about the best specimen of the breed at that time. 

 After a while they came back to me and made a more 

 detailed examination of my dog, asked me his number, 

 and awarded him First Prize and Special, to my great 

 relief, as I had been thinking what a fool I had been to 

 enter a " Champion," to have such a chance of a 

 " knock-back " at a county show ! 



Sometime after that, I was taking a short exhibiting 

 tour, with a team of my dogs, following three or four 

 shows, held close together, and not more than one or 

 two days each in duration. Amongst others I had an 

 excellent Dandie Bitch with me, who had never been 

 " out of the money," and was in excellent form at the 

 time. I showed her at one place (Reading, I fancy,) 

 and took first under the Rev. W. I. Mellor. The next 

 show was, I think, Swindon; there I met almost the 

 same lot of Dandies, this time under the late Mr. W. 

 Lort, who, after he had looked through the class, came 

 up to me and said, " I am sorry to say, Mr. Lane, I can- 

 not give you more than ' Very Highly Commended/ 

 for your Bitch." I replied, " In that case, sir, I shall be 

 greatly obliged by your passing her over altogether ; she 



