346 



THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 



a short time he becomes the more popular 

 dog of the two. 



The inherent merit possessed b}- the wire- 

 hair has gradually but surely brought him 

 forward until he is now a very serious ri\'al 

 to the smooth. A suggestion that such a 

 thing were possible, some few years back, 

 would have been laughed to scorn, but as 

 testimony to it one cannot do better than 



MR WALTER & oL.Nrjs CH. LAST O' REMUS 



BY ROYSTON REMUS BRYNHIR BLOSSOM. 



read the words used by a well-known 

 judge of both varieties, in a report of his 

 published in The Kennel dazcttc. of 

 February, 1907, in which he makes some 

 pertinent remarks on this subject, and 

 prognosticates that from what he has 

 recently seen when judging at different 

 shows, it is not at all improbable that very 

 shortly the wire-hair will altogether eclipse 

 in point of merit and numbers his smooth 

 relative. \\'hen one considers that these 

 remarks emanate from one of the very 

 oldest and most successful breeders of the 

 smooth in existence, and that he (Mr. 

 Robert Vicary) never, as far as the writer's 

 memory serves him, owned a wire-hair in 

 his life, the value of such testimony must 

 readily be admitted. 



The career of the wire-hair has up to the 

 last few years been a \'ery hard one, the 

 obstacles in his way have been stupendous. 



One such has already been dealt with — 

 the fact that his smooth brother has been 

 much more popularly owned. Others may 

 be described as : — 



2. Injudicious breeding operations. 



3. Scant courtesy received at the hands 

 of many of the owTiers of the smooth variety 

 and others. 



4. Incompetency of gentlemen appointed 

 to officiate as judges of the variety at several 

 of the shows. 



5. Unenviable notoriety attained through 

 his being most unfairly made the scapegoat 

 of " faking." 



This list, although probably not com- 

 prehensive, is a formidable one, and makes 

 one wonder how it is that the subject of all 

 this attention, or non-attention, has survived 

 ;it all. The natural train of thought is that 

 his having done so, and having approached 

 the state of perfection in which he un- 

 doubtedly exists at the present day, shows 

 that there must be something in him after 

 all, and that he ought to be admired more 

 than he is, and his existence more than 

 tolerated. 



Dealing shorth' with these headings it 

 will easily be understood that, o\vned only 

 in a small way by people not over blessed 

 with this world's goods, the breeding of 

 the wire-hair was not looked upon as of 

 much importance. The old Jock of each 

 village would iuvariablv be used irrespective 

 of whether or not he was a likely sire ; his 

 services could, however, be obtained for 

 nothing or next to it, and there was no 

 money ready for the stud fee of a fashionable 

 dog. 



The North of England and South Wales 

 (to a lesser extent) have ever been the home 

 of the wire-hair, and nearly all the best 

 specimens have come originally from one or 

 the other of those districts. There is no 

 doubt that there was excellent stock in 

 both places, and there is also no doubt that 

 though at times this was used to the best 

 advantage, there was a good deal of careless- 

 ness in mating, and a certain amount in 

 recording the parentage of some of the 

 terriers. With regard to this latter point 

 it is said that one gentleman who had quiti' 

 a large kennel and several stud dogs, but 

 who kept no books, used never to bother 

 about remembering which particular dog 

 he had put to a certain bitch, but generally 



