CHAPTER XXXIX 

 THE WEST HIGHLAND WHITE TERRIER 



MAN, being a hunting animal, kills the otter for his skin, and 

 the badger also ; the fox he kills because the animal likes 

 lamb and game to eat. Man, being unable to deal in the course 

 of a morning with the rocks under and between which his 

 quarry harbours, makes use of the small dog which will go 

 underground, to which the French name terrier has been 

 attached. 



Towards the end of the reign of James the First of England 

 and Sixth of Scotland, we find him writing to Edinburgh to 

 have half a dozen " earth dogges or terrieres " sent care- 

 fully to France as a present, and he directs that they be got 

 from Argyll, and sent over in two or more ships lest they 

 should get harm by the way. That was roughly three hundred 

 years ago, and the King most probably would not have so 

 highly valued a newly-invented strain as he evidently did 

 value the " terrieres " from Argyll. We may take it then 

 that in 1600 the Argyllshire terriers were considered to be the 

 best in Scotland, and likely enough too, seeing the almost 

 boundless opportunities the county gives for the work of the 

 " earth dogges." 



But men kept their dogs in the evil pre-show days for work 

 and not for points, and mighty indifferent were they whether 

 an ear cocked up or lay flat to the cheek, whether the tail was 

 exactly of fancy length, or how high to a hair's breadth it 

 stood. These things are sine qua non on the modern show 

 bench, but were not thought of in the cruel, hard fighting days 

 of old. 



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