CHAPTER LXIII 



The Yorkshire Terrier 



LD-TIME authorities who never seemed to understand that 

 any breed of dog could have any origin other than a cross 

 between two other breeds would be puzzled to say how the 

 Yorkshire terrier originated, if they now saw it for the 

 first time. No better argument can be advanced against 

 this crossing theory than this little dog. Sixty years are as far as we can go 

 back in Yorkshire pedigrees and we then come to Swift's Old Crab and 

 Kershaw's Old Kitty, the former of which was a long coated black and tan 

 terrier and the latter of drop-eared Skye type, blue in colour. She was 

 stolen from Manchester and at last got into the hands of J. Kershaw of Hali- 

 fax. Swift was also a Haligonian, but went to Manchester and when there 

 he got Crab. That is the only line we can trace which takes us back as far 

 as 1850, but as fifty out of the eighty " Broken-haired Scotch and Yorkshire 

 terriers," in the first stud book have no pedigree and only one, outside of 

 Huddersfield Ben and his descendants, traces to Old Crab and Old Kitty, 

 it is plainly evident that there were other factors at work in the formation 

 of this wonderful little dog. 



No petson knew more about the origin and growth of the Yorkshire 

 terrier than the late Mrs. M. A. Foster of Bradford and it was her Hudders- 

 field Ben that perfected the breed. Mrs. Foster replied to us in 1885 re- 

 garding the pedigree of the dog Bradford Hero, as follows: — "The pedi- 

 gree of Bradford Hero includes all the best dogs for thirty five years back, 

 and they were all originally bred from Scotch terriers, and shown as such 

 until a few years back. The name of Yorkshire terrier was given to them 

 on account of their being improved so much in Yorkshire." The terrier 

 Mrs. Foster meant when she used the word Scotch, was not our Scottish 

 terrier, but the old useful nondescript which was a demon for rats and other 

 vermin. Everything about twelve to twenty pounds that was rough in coat, 

 and moderately high on the leg was called Scotch, but generally they were 

 sandy. The pith of Mrs. Foster's statement is that they were merely the 



711 



