CHAPTER XXVIII 

 THE OLD WORKING TERRIER 



THERE can hardly have been a time since the period of the 

 Norman Conquest when the small earth dogs which we now 

 call terriers were not known in these islands and used by 

 sporting men as assistants in the chase, and by husbandmen 

 for the killing of obnoxious vermin. The two little dogs shown 

 in the Bayeux tapestry running with the hounds in advance 

 of King Harold's hawking party were probably meant for 

 terriers. Dame Juliana Berners in the fifteenth century did 

 not neglect to include the " Teroures " in her catalogue of 

 sporting dogs, and a hundred years later Dr. Caius gave 

 pointed recognition to their value in unearthing the fox and 

 drawing the badger. 



" Another sorte, there is," wrote the doctor's translator in 

 1576, " which hunteth the Fox and the Badger or Greye onely, 

 whom we call Terrars, because they (after the manner and 

 custome of ferrets in searching for Connyes) creep into the 

 grounde, and by that meanes make afrayde, nyppe and bite 

 the Foxe and the Badger in such sorte that eyther they teare 

 them in pieces with theyr teeth, beying in the bosome of the 

 earth, or else hayle and pull them perforce out of theyr lurking 

 angles, darke dongeons, and close caues ; or at the least through 

 cocened feare drive them out of theire hollow harbours, in so 

 much that they are compelled to prepare speedie flyte, and, 

 being desirous of the next (albeit not the safest) refuge, are 

 otherwise taken and intrapped with snayres and nettes layde 

 over holes to the same purpose. But these be the least in that 

 kynde called Sagax." 



