208 THE DOGS OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 



exactly resembles one belonging to a friend of mine, brought by him about forty-five 

 years ago from the Teviot district at considerable trouble and expense, the breed 

 being then in high repute owing to the notice of it in " Guy Mannering " by the 

 "Wizard of the North." With this dog I was very familiar in my ratting and 

 rabbiting days, and consequently the impression made by him is, as it were, photo- 

 graphed in my mind's eye. Now this dog, like that in Landseer's picture, had a 

 body considerably shorter than that of the typical Dandie of the present day, and 

 ears little longer than those of a fox terrier. The only high-bred dog with such ears 

 which I have seen of late years was given me as a puppy by Mr. Murchison about 

 five years ago, being by Mr. Bradshaw Smith's celebrated Dirk Hatteraick ; but, 

 though possessed of every other essential point in perfection, it would have been 

 useless to show him against Melrose or the Doctor on account of his ears, and 

 I gave him away to a gentleman, who has him now in India, where he is highly 

 prized. My impression is very strong that the modern Dandie is the result of a 

 cross with the dachshund, by which the ears and body have been lengthened, and 

 the tendency to crooked legs and wide chest also introduced. Mr. Murchison's 

 Rhoderick Dhu when he belonged to me also exhibited a mental peculiarity of the 

 dachshund, quite foreign to any breed of English terrier, in that he was incapable 

 of being broken to leave a rabbit or fox trail at command. No punishment, however 

 severe, could get him off it at such a time, and after breaking away into a fox 

 covert, and killing a whole litter of cubs, I was obliged to get rid of him : and 

 some years afterwards, in other hands, he repeated this offence, and was finally 

 lost on a rabbit scent, which he would not leave. Nevertheless, he was at other 

 times possessed of an excellent temper ; but once put his blood up, either by the 

 scent of ground game or a fight with one of his own species, and he was as completely 

 beyond control as an- excited bulldog. How or when the cross was introduced 

 I am at a loss to say, but that it is there I am strongly of opinion. All the 

 most celebrated breeders strongly maintain that they have kept to the lineal 

 descendants of the original "Pepper" and "Mustard" immortalised by Scott; 

 but I confess I have no great faith in such statements, knowing how completely 

 every master is in the hands of his servants. This is the most probable explanation 

 I can offer of the cross ; but in any case I cannot believe that any terrier could be 

 produced with points so unlike those of our indigenous breeds without the aid 

 of foreign blood; and when I find all those points combined in the dachshund, 

 the probabilities in favour of that dog being used are so great as to amount almost 

 to a demonstration. In summing up these arguments, I may state in short 

 that (1) I remember a terrier, forty-five years ago, reputed to be a pure Dandie, 

 with comparatively short ears and body, narrow chest, and under good com- 

 mand. (2) Such a dog is represented by Landseer in his portrait of Sir Walter 

 Scott. (3) No Scottish terrier has either long ears, or a broad chest combined 

 with crooked legs, and an ungovernable thirst for scent. Yet the Dandie is asserted 

 to be originally bred by Davidson of pure Scotch blood. (4) Such a combination 

 is found in the dachshund. Now, taking all these facts into consideration, I 

 think I am justified in coming to the conclusion which I have arrived at, not 



