76 Forty Years Beagling 



about show points, you can follow your own bent. 

 Show points, it must be admitted, are not every- 

 thing. For example, one man may live in a rough 

 bit of country, way up in Yorks, or in the wilds of 

 Scotland, and have a strain of Workman Terriers, 

 not one of which would even be commended in the 

 show ring, or receive a word of praise from a re- 

 porter. Yet these dogs may suit him to the ground 

 or in under the ground, and he might laugh at you 

 if you offered him a prize winner, beautiful to look 

 at, but only a kind of carpet knight, who would 

 clap his tail between his legs if he saw either brock 

 [badger] or otter. 



"Another may possess a strain of good High- 

 land workaday Collies, which he would not ex- 

 change for the best benchers ever shown, or a strain 

 of old English Bobtails, that on the road or moor 

 nothing could beat. Well, we have to confess there 

 is a deal in strain, and it isn't always the bonniest 

 hen lays the largest egg, 



"I must suppose now that the amateur is pos- 

 sessed of a good bitch — for example's sake, we'll 

 say a St. Bernard. She is of the best pedigi^ee. 

 She is young, say two years of age, tall, with plenty 

 of bone and muscle, and coat, good straight legs, 

 good feet, not spread out like a frog's, good loins 

 and hips, and broad chest, and a tail which is car- 



