220 THE DOGS OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 



entered the ranks of the Irish terriers' admirers, I believe there were not more 

 than two English exhibitors besides ourselves. The many ridiculous awards of 

 inexperienced judges exasperated the exhibitors, and at my suggestion the Irish 

 Terrier Club was started. It is impossible to deny the influence exerted by the 

 foundation of the club upon the improvement of the breed. In Ireland it 

 awakened the interest that lay dormant ; in England it served to reveal to 

 fanciers the existence of a game and little known terrier. It is now one of the 

 most powerful subsidiary clubs. An Irish nobleman, Viscount Castlerosse, is its 

 president, there are Irish and English vice-presidents, two hon. sees., a treasurer, 

 and a mixed committee of ten, and about eighty members. It has issued a code 

 of points and a list of gentlemen qualified to act as judges. 



The rise of the breed is most marked by the fact that in the days referred 

 to one class was barely filled at the Kennel Club shows. At the last Alexandra 

 Palace Show I had five classes to judge, with an entry of thirty-three. Besides 

 the London shows, it was only in Ireland that classes were given for Irish terriers ; 

 now no show, English or Scotch, of any consequence issues a schedule without 

 one or two for this breed. The appearance of Mr. Eidgway's paper in " Dogs of 

 the British Islands " also gave a considerable fillip to the breed ; and even now 

 there is little to add to the information therein contained. Mr. Eidgway, in favour 

 of the purity of the breed, tells us with authority that they are indigenous to 

 their native country, and mentions that fanciers can remember them fifty and sixty 

 years ago. He also bears testimony to their being " particularly hardy, and able 

 to bear any amount of wet, cold, and hardship without showing the slightest 

 symptoms of fatigue. Their coat also being a hard and wiry one, they can hunt 

 the thickest gorse or furze covert without the slightest inconvenience." Modern 

 fanciers are able to indorse the correctness of every word in this description of their 

 working qualities, and his further evidence of their "usefulness, intelligence, and 

 gameness." Mr. Eidgway also writes : " As to their capability for taking the 

 water, and hunting in it, as well as on land, I may mention as one instance that 

 a gentleman in the adjoining county of Tipperary has kept a pack of these 

 terriers for years, with which he will hunt an otter as well as any pack of pure 

 otterhounds can." 



Mr. Eidgway's perfect knowledge of the breed is shown in his code of points. 

 All the discussions in the newspapers that I have taken part in have been, not 

 for the airing of any particular crotchets of my own, but for the maintenance and 

 upholding in their integrity to the letter of the Eidgway points, as against the 

 endeavours of others to convince the public that the Irish terrier is a red fox 

 terrier. The Irish Terrier Club's points are Mr. Eidgway's elaborated and 

 explained. Importance is placed on the shape and general appearance of the dog, 

 which should be easy and graceful ; the lines of the body should be speedy, without 

 signs of heaviness or anything approaching the cobby and cloddy. Mr. T. Erwin 

 truly said of them that, though game as fighting cocks, they should look more 

 like running than fighting. A sufficient amount of substance is quite compatible 

 with this structure. There is an extensive medium between the "bone" of the 



