Bench Shows and Field Trials iss 



ing before the days of public competition, but it 

 was irregular and not severely tested. There 

 may have been a few superlative specimens. 

 Even so much, however, I would accept with 

 doubt. 



In the case of greyhounds the record of prog- 

 ress is plain enough since the establishment of 

 the institutional public event, the Waterloo Cup, 

 three-quarters of a century ago. At that, there 

 are plenty of ignorant people who think that 

 there never has been a second Master McGrath 

 or Coomassie, though, by what I should regard 

 as a safe gauge, it may be assumed that neither 

 of those animals would last through the second 

 round of a modern Waterloo running. 



In foxhounds, also, a sufificiently progressive 

 standard may have been fixed by the constant 

 competition of hounds in the great semi-public 

 packs of the English hunting counties. In 

 America the foxhound has been largely devel- 

 oped by a survival of the fittest in private con- 

 tests. That, to again insist, does not produce a 

 great deal of confidence in the neighborhood 

 reputation of certain hounds. A record of supe- 

 riority is not standard until it becomes public. 



The student of sporting dogs will hear a great 

 deal of discontent with bench shows and field trials, 

 but, v/hatever the drawbacks may be, he will con- 

 tinue his studies in their records. 



