58o The Dog Book 



of events they have nothing to do with St. Bernard history as pertaining 

 to later dogs. 



The Rev. J. C. Macdona was the great English exploiter of the breed, 

 and it was his importations and his breeding that brought the St. Bernard 

 prominently before the British public at the dog-shows. Mr. Macdona 

 was an adept at keeping in the lime-light and was a very conspicuous 

 figure at leading dog-shows from 1865 until 1880, when he had no dog of any 

 prominence except Bayard, whose head, with that of the collie Eclipse, have 

 for years been the commonest of all dog pictures. In giving the pedigrees 

 of many of his dogs they lost nothing in the telling and whenever there was 

 a chance there was an insertion, "descended from the celebrated Barry at 

 the Hospice," or "bred by the Monks of St. Bernard." Others followed 

 this style, and a Mr. Stone stated, in the case of his Barry, that "his 

 pedigree not now on record traced back to the celebrated Barry in the 

 Museum at Berne." 



As soon as the dog was thus brought before the British public he became 

 popular, as was only natural with a good-looking dog surrounded by a halo 

 of romance for deeds of heroism. Mr. Murchison, who had a large, mixed 

 kennel of dogs, bought several of the best that were being exhibited; Mr. 

 Fred. Gresham, still prominent in connection with English shows, took up 

 the breed and was soon recognised as the real authority and soundest breeder 

 in the fancy. He was soon followed by the late Sydney Smith of Leeds, 

 who took up dogs on account of his poor health; and to distinguish him 

 from other show goers of the same name he was called " Barry " Smith 

 because of his earliest notable dog bearing that name. Thousands of dol- 

 lars eventually passed from American purchasers to the bank-account of 

 Sydney Smith. 



A great many of these early importations were short-pedigreed dogs, a 

 conspicuous example being that wonderful brood bitch, Gresham's Abbess, 

 a smooth-coated one. Others were most certainly registered with wrong 

 pedigrees; but be that as it may, it has little to do with the giant of a later 

 day, except that from these importations the indomitable Englishman built 

 up, generation by generation, the grandest member of the dog family. 

 Breeding away from the requirements of the Hospice, the fanciers of Eng- 

 land went in for size, colour and the more pleasing long-coated variety, and 

 made the breed what we know it to be in America. We have had importa- 

 tions direct from Switzerland, quite a number of them, and mainly smooth; 



