CHAPTER XLVII 

 THE BRUSSELS GRIFFON 



AWAY back in the 'seventies numbers of miners in Yorkshire 

 and the Midlands are said to have possessed little wiry- 

 coated and wiry-dispositioned red dogs, which accompanied 

 their owners to work, being stowed away in pockets of over- 

 coats until the dinner hour, when they were brought out 

 to share their masters' meals, perchance chasing a casual 

 rat in between times. Old men of to-day who remember these 

 little " red tamers " tell us that they were the originals of the 

 present-day Brussels Griffons, and to the sporting propensities 

 of the aforesaid miners is attributed the gameness which is 

 such a characteristic of their latter-day representatives. 



No one who is well acquainted with the Brussels Griffon 

 would claim that the breed dates back, like the Greyhound, 

 to hoary antiquity, or, indeed, that it has any pretensions 

 to have " come over with the Conqueror." The dog is not 

 less worthy of admiration on that account. It is futile to 

 inquire too closely into his ancestry ; like Topsy, " he growed " 

 and we must love him for himself alone. 



Even in the last fifteen years we can trace a certain advance 

 in the evolution of the Brussels Griffon. When the breed 

 was first introduced under this name into this country, under- 

 jaw was accounted of little or no importance, whereas now a 

 prominent chin is rightly recognised as being one of the most 

 important physical characteristics of the race. Then, again, 

 quite a few years ago a Griffon with a red pin-wire coat 

 was rarely met with, but now this point has been generally 

 rectified, and every show specimen of any account whatever 

 possesses the much-desired covering. 



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