COLDSTREAM TO HAWICK. 173^ 



Nettle and Pepper, from Paul Scott, of Jedburgh, 

 were the first arrivals ; and Sir George Douglas's 

 keeper gave him Shamrock, who had recently devoted 

 himself to worrying collies. " Shammy" is of the 

 Birsieslees branch of the Dandie Dinmont family re- 

 ferred to by " Stonehenge on the Dog.'' He was 

 bred by Mr. James Scott, of Newstead, from Vixen 

 by brown Pepper, or Pepper or ''Tepper the Second." 

 In short, the Doctor believes in no other blood than 

 that which is derived from JamesDavidson, ofHindley 

 and almost primaeval Pepper and Mustard renown. 

 He had bought many things in Dandie shape 

 before he cast in his lot with this breed, but his 

 trials were too high for them. They vrere entered 

 with rats, and mounted the scale to cats, as age and 

 performance might warrant. Too many of the pup- 

 pies stopped there, or did not get any further than a 

 muzzled fox ; and then if age gave them solid con- 

 fidence, they took their B.A. degree with the 

 badger. This species of culture tends upwards to the 

 otter, in which Tom and Teddy (the sons of Sham- 

 rock and Nettle) have become quite Eegius Profes- 

 sors. Teddy gains in pluck what he loses in style. 

 He goes quietly up to the *' fish-slicer," and gets 

 almost bitten to death on the head without a mur- 

 mur, while he surely does the deed ; but Tom dashes 

 in with all the elan of a Zouave, and has it by the 

 neck before it can get home with its " clinches.'-* 

 " A retreat for purely strategic purposes" is a thing 

 they wot not of. 



