CHAPTER IL 



The Modern Terrier and His Recent Development to the 

 Present Standard. 



We quote from Mr. Lee's book : 



'•The Irish Terrier Club was estabhshed in 1879, and, proving 

 unusually liberal in supporting certain shows, has no doubt done much 

 to popularize the variety over which it looks. . . . The popularity of the 

 Irish terrier has only come about during the past fifteen years or so. 

 Dog shows have been his fortune, and the Club has no doubt assisted 

 him to his high position. ... A good one will bring a hundred pounds 

 any time you want to sell it. A first-class Irish terrier is worth about 

 as much as a fox terrier, and, as a so-called marketable commodity, 

 ranks only after the latter, the collie, and the St. Bernard in value. He 

 is a favorite dog, hence his worth. ... It was as far back as about 1882 

 that I was judging dogs at Belfast, and was then very much struck with 

 the extraordinary character possessed by sundry Irish terriers which were 

 brought into the ring. They included Mr. J. N. R. Pim's ' Erin,' perhaps 

 the best all-round specimen of her race that ever lived, — - her progeny, 

 ' Poppy' and ' Playboy,' — and there were several other typical terriers, 

 whose names do not occur to me. I became enamored of the variety, 

 and then prognosticated a popular future for them should they only 

 breed fairly true to character and type, and be produced with ears that 

 did not recjuire cutting. That I was not far wrong is plainly in evidence, 

 as the Irish terrier must certainly be placed as the second terrier in pop- 

 ularity at the time I write. 



"The early volumes of the 'Kennel Club .Stud Book' did not 

 contain special classes for Irish terriers, they being grouped with the 

 wire-haired fox-terriers. However, in 1S76 they had a division for them- 

 selves, in which there were nineteen entries, five of which were owned 

 by Mr. G. Jameson, of Newtownards. To prove how the variety has 

 increased since then, attention need only be called to the two hundred 



