CHAPTER XXX 

 THE BLACK AND TAN TERRIER 



THE Black and Tan, or Manchester, Terrier as we know him 

 to-day is a comparatively new variety, and he is not to be 

 confounded with the original terrier with tan and black 

 colouring which was referred to by Dr. Caius in the sixteenth 

 century, and which was at that time used for going to ground 

 and driving out badgers and foxes. 



Formerly there was but little regard paid to colour and 

 markings, and there was a considerably greater proportion of 

 tan in the coat than there is at the present day, while the fancy 

 markings, such as pencilled toes, thumb marks, and kissing 

 spots were not cultivated. The general outline of the dog, 

 too, was less graceful and altogether coarser. 



During the first half of the nineteenth century the chief 

 accomplishment of this terrier was rat-killing. There are some 

 extraordinary accounts of his adroitness, as well as courage, 

 in destroying these vermin. The feats of a dog called Billy 

 are recorded. He was matched to destroy one hundred large 

 rats in eight minutes and a half. The rats were brought into 

 the ring in bags, and as soon as the number was complete 

 Billy was put over the railing into their midst. In six 

 minutes and thirty-five seconds they were all destroyed. In 

 another match he killed the same number in six minutes 

 and thirteen seconds. 



It was a popular terrier in Lancashire, and it was in this 

 county that the refining process in his shape and colouring 

 was practised, and where he came by the name of the 

 Manchester Terrier. 



