272 Dog Shows and Doggy People 



had to tell of his many experiences in the course of his travels 

 to and from the numerous shows where he attended as one of 

 the judges ! 



I do not desire to " draw the long bow," and it is some years now 

 since I had the pleasure of a talk with the Rev. G. F. Hodson, but 

 I think it was when we came down from Sheffield (which most 

 of my readers will know is a town of considerable importance in 

 Yorkshire, associated always in my mind with the " Brooks " of 

 Sheffield so often mentioned in Dickens's " David Copperfield "), 

 where we had both been judging, and travelled as far as Bristol 

 together, he told me that for some years he had travelled in his 

 judging capacity about ten thousand miles per annum ! 



I thought then, and think still, that it was a large average for any 

 non-professional judge to make in any branch of the Fancy, and do 

 not know of its being exceeded by any one at the present day 

 certainly not by any of those who confine their operations to the 

 United Kingdom. Perhaps some of those, like Mr. George Raper, 

 who think nothing of "running over to New York" to judge at a 

 show there, returning to take a few British shows, and then "running 

 back " to fulfil more American or Colonial engagements in other 

 countries, would make up a considerable " mileage " in the course 

 of twelve months; but in the "days" when the reverend gentleman 

 referred to was mostly " to the fore," such things were not in vogue. 



