The Irish Terrier 471 



of them. To mark their appreciation of what the late Mr. Graham had 

 done for the breed the Irish Terrier Club members subscribed for a cup, 

 known as the Graham Challenge Cup, which is competed for by all comers 

 at certain prominent selected shows in Ireland and England, and is con- 

 sidered the blue ribbon trophy of the breed. Starting as he did with the 

 foundation stock, from which we have the present day terrier, Graham 

 had an undoubted advantage over the English breeders, who were without 

 intimate knowledge of the characteristics of some of the early and unshown 

 dogs which appear in old pedigrees, and we find in the pedigrees of his 

 latest and best dogs that he practically relied on dogs bred either by himself, 

 or whose parents were of his stock. 



Graham was not a stickler for pedigree, but stood for knowledge of 

 what the parents looked like and what their ancestors were. At times he 

 would breed from an inferior-looking dog, such as in the case of Benedict, 

 whose brother Bachelor was the crack dog. One of the valuable photo- 

 graphs we got from Mr. Jamison shows what Benedict looked like, and it 

 would take some persuasion for any person to breed to such a dog. The 

 story was that Graham visited the owner of the two brothers with the real 

 intention of buying Benedict, but only took him at a gift price when his 

 overtures for Bachelor were declined. We have been told by a close friend 

 that such is not the case, and that he only took Benedict because he could 

 not get the other and did not want to go home without doing business. 



Something that can easily be learned from these old illustrations is 

 the change of type. The old original standard was framed at the time the 

 breed was started as a show breed, and was drawn up by those who were 

 best qualified to know the correct type. These old dogs we illustrate were 

 considered typical specimens under that standard, but they in no way 

 resemble our winners of two years ago. Garryford and Gaily are good 

 instances of what the cropped Irish terriers looked like, but there is not one 

 o^ them that shows what has been called the "coffin" muzzle, which began 

 in the Meersbrook Bristles era in wire-haired fox terriers. Selection of this 

 style of foreface could to some extent affect the type, but we are convinced 

 that in many of the English-bred dogs, particularly those of Yorkshire 

 breeding, the Airedale has been introduced. How are we otherwise to 

 account for the heavy ears, placed Airedale style, and the gawky hind legs, 

 together with the tendency to overgrowth ? We have never found this in 

 the Irish strains, nor in the kennels of thoroughly reputable Yorkshire 



