30 



THE IRISH TERRIER. 



experience of this breed, and has always kept a few of the right old 

 working sort for sporting purposes ; and in County Wicklow, Mr. Merry 

 says it is well known that the pure breed of Irish terriers has been care- 

 fully kept distinct, and highly prized for more than a century. Mr. E. F. 

 Despard, whose name is well known in Irish terrier circles as a very suc- 

 ces-sful breeder and exhibitor, claims an acquaintance of over forty years 

 with the breed. 



" Mr. George Jameson, too, has known and kept them many years, 

 and up till a little while ago had won more prizes than all the rest of the 

 breeders put together. I mention these proofs of the age of the breed 

 to show those who have lately come to admire them that it is not a 

 made-up, composite or mushroom breed. . . ." 



From the same authority we quote : 



" Now, although they have always been Ireland's national terrier, 

 yet it must be admitted, and it is only too patent, that for many years 

 the breed had been much neglected, — allowed to ' grow wild,' in fact, 

 and left too much in the hands of one class. I cast no reflection on 

 ' the foinest pisintry in Europe ' when I say that, knowing nothing of 

 dog shows, they bred to no standard, and kept their dogs for work ; and 

 if they thought that a cross with neighbor Mickey's dog would improve 

 their own in that quality, they did not stop to inquire about pedigree. 

 In this manner the breed depreciated, and Scotch and other blood crept 

 in, to the injury of the pure breed; but, fortunately, when the tide in 

 their favor set in, the genuine breeder found plenty of pure, unadulterated 

 material to commence upon." 



Mr. R. G. Ridgway, of W'aterford, who was most promi- 

 nent in the drawing up of the standard of excellence and 

 code of points descriptive of the Irish terrier, claims for this 

 dog a long and pure descent. He says : 



"That the Irish terrier is and has been a pure breed of dogs 

 indigenous to Ireland, is a fact undoubted, and undisputed by the oldest 

 fanciers and breeders still living, who can well remember the dog fifty 



