CHAPTER XXIX 

 The Airedale Terrier 



r WILL probably be amusing to the Airedale fancy, here as 

 well as in England, to learn that our opinion is that the 

 Airedale and the Yorkshire terriers are from the same 

 parent stock, and that was a medium-sized grizzle-and-tan 

 terrier common in Yorkshire within the memory of "the 

 oldest inhabitant," and perhaps of some considerably younger. It does 

 seem a ridiculous statement to make when we look at the dogs known by 

 those names at the present time, but look at the picture of Bounce in the 

 Stonehenge illustration, given in the introductory chapter to terriers. This 

 appeared in the first edition of "Dogs of the British Islands" in illustration 

 of dogs "not being Skyes, Dandies, fox or toys." It also appeared as the 

 frontispiece in the second edition of 1872. Bounce was the Halifax terrier, 

 the blue-tan terrier that the late Peter Eden of Manchester also had at 

 that time, and within less than ten years we had from this strain dogs with 

 perfect blue-tan coats nearly to the ground — much better in colour as a 

 rule than those we see now when colour is sacrificed for length. 



If Bounce was an improved terrier from the common run, what could 

 his progenitors have been like, say in 1840 ? Does it seem such "absurd non- 

 sense" now as when the above statement was first read ? Here we have 

 Bounce — a dog as large as the white terrier, which became the wire-haired 

 terrier and then the wire-haired fox terrier, and as large as the Manchester 

 black-and-tan ; in fact rather larger than either, if anything, and a dog of 

 fifteen pounds at least. Now take the Airedale. To-day he is a dog run- 

 ning up to nearly sixty pounds, as seen in some recent winners. In 1880 

 the standard was published describing the breed, and it provided for dogs 

 of forty to fifty-five pounds and for bitches from thirty-five to fifty pounds. 

 It was got up by Mr. Reginald Knight, who was booming the breed and had 

 dogs which ran over the generally accepted size. Mr. C. H. Mason was at 

 that time the most prominent Yorkshire man in the show world, and he 

 declined to sign Mr. Knight's description because in his opinion no Airedale 



441 



