THE OLD WORKING TERRIER. 



319 



which it closely resembled in size and 

 colouring. There was also in Shropshire 

 a well-known breed of wire-hair terriers, 

 black and tan, on very short legs, and 

 weighing about 10 lb. or 12 lb., with long 

 punishing heads and extraordinary working 

 powers. So, too, in Lancashire and Cheshire 

 one used to meet with sandy-coloured 

 terriers of no very well authenticated strain, 

 but closely resembling the present breed of 

 Irish Terrier ; and Squire Thornton, at 

 his place near Pickering, in Yorkshire, had 

 a breed of wire-hairs tan in colour with a 

 black stripe down the back. Then there is 

 the Cowley strain, kept by the Cowleys of 

 Callipers, near King's Langley. These are 

 white wire-haired dogs marked like the 

 Fox-terrier, and exceedingly game. Pos- 

 sibly the Elter^vater Terrier, admired of Mr. 

 Rawdon Lee, is no longer to be found, but 

 some few of them still existed a dozen years 

 ago in the Lake District, where they were 

 used in conjunction with the West Cumber- 

 land Otterhounds. They were not easily 

 distinguishable from the better-known Border 

 Terriers of which there are still many strains, 

 ranging from Northumberland, where Mr. 

 T. Robson, of Bellingham, has kept them 

 for many years, to Galloway and Ayrshire 

 and the Lothians, where their coats become 

 longer and less crisp. 



There are many more local varieties of 

 the working terrier, as, for example, the 

 Rosen eath, which is often confused with 

 the Poltalloch, or WTiite West Highlander, 

 to whom it is possibly related. And the 

 Pittenweem, with which the Poltalloch 

 terriers are now b^ing crossed. And con- 



sidering the great number of strains that 

 have been preserved by sporting families 

 and maintained in more or less purity to 

 type, it is easy to miderstand how a " new " 

 breed may become fashionable, and still 

 claim the honour of long descent. They may 

 not in all cases have the beauty of shape 

 which is desired on the show bench ; but 

 it is well to remember that while our show 

 terriers have been bred to the highest per- 

 fection we still possess in Great Britain a 

 separate order of " earth dogs " that for 

 pluckily following the fox and the badger 

 into their lairs or bolting an otter from his 

 holt cannot be excelled all the world over. 



The terriers may be differentiated into 

 three groups — smooth-coated, broken-haired, 

 and long-haired, and this grouping is adopted 

 in the sequence of the following chapters thus: 



1. Smooth-co.\ted Terriers — 



The ^^■hite English. 

 Black and tan. 

 Bull Terrier. 

 Boston Terrier. 

 Smooth Fox-terrier. 



2. Brokex-h.\ired Terriers :- 



Wire-haired Fox-terrier. 



Airedale. 



Bedlington. 



Irish. 



\^•elsh. 



Scottish. 



West Highland \Miite. 



Dandie Dinmont. 



3. Loxg-h.-^ired Terriers : — 



Skye. 



Clydesdale. 



Yorkshire. 



MR. G S. LOWES BOXER (1872). 



