470 The Dog Book 



eyes on Mr. O. W. Donner's American bred Milton Droleen did we see any- 

 thing that in any way reminded us of the great Erin. We so told Mr. 

 Donner the first time we saw her on the occasion of our judging at Providence, 

 and when she was taken to England Mr. Krehl wrote of her as the "American 

 Erin." Droleen was a cropped bitch and showed the typical head of Erin 

 and the same outline of body, which is that shown in Spuds. We first saw 

 Erin when we ran down to Barrow from Manchester to meet "Billy" 

 Graham, who was going to stop there over Sunday on his way from Belfast 

 to the Palace Show. That was in 1879, ^^^ Erin beat all comers at that 

 show, and deservedly. As we propose quoting from an article on the early 

 Irish terriers written by Mr. J. J. Pirn, who had a far more thorough ac- 

 quaintance with her and all the early terriers than we had, as well as of 

 those shown after we left England in 1880, we will not go into particulars 

 regarding Erin. We do not dispute for a moment that Mr. Pirn, who knew 

 her so well, is correct in saying that she had a dark red coat, but if we had 

 been asked from recollection to give her colour we should have said red 

 wheaten. In the old days what we now call red wheaten was then called 

 red, and the wheaten was a much lighter shade. Others ran into a sort of 

 grey, resembling the colour of Mrs. Murray Bohlen's Pinscher dog. In 

 size they ran from Spuds and our Banshee down to terriers of the size of 

 Breda Tiny, the typical little terrier imported by Mr. Mitchell Harrison, and 

 from whom came Widow Bedott. 



At the head of the old breeders of Irish terriers, as well as exhibitors, 

 Mr. George Jamison of Belfast is entitled to the first rank, and he still has 

 some pretty good ones, though his fancy has turned to trumpeter pigeons, 

 as we found on visiting him a year ago. Mr. Jamison owned Sport, Spuds, 

 and a whole lot of good ones of the early days, and bred many good ones. 

 Still, there is no gainsaying that Mr. William Graham, the great "Billy" 

 known to all dog men interested in Irish terriers, and the original "Irish 

 Ambassador" — so styled from his constant visits to all the important shows 

 in England — ^was the man above all others who did most for the advance- 

 ment of the Irish terrier. In addition to dogs of his own he had charge of 

 Mr. J. R. N. Pim's dogs, and all the get of Erin we owe to Graham. After 

 them came his great record of the Bredas, culminating in Breda Mixer and 

 Breda Muddler. Graham liked the dog of medium size, but was shrewd 

 enough to show what would win, and when the judges began to display their 

 preference for the larger dogs and bitches he had that kind to put in front 



