The Smooth Sheep Dog 375 
not to deale with the bloudthirsty wolf, sythence there be none in England.” 
Here the author goes into an account of how wolves were killed off in the 
time of King Edgar, which is not material. “But to return to our shepherd 
dogge. This dogge either at the hearing of his masters voyce, or at the 
wagging and whisteling in his fist, or at his shrill and horse hissing bringeth 
the wandering weathers and straying sheepe, into the selfesame place where 
his masters will and wishe, is to have them, whereby the shepherd reapeth 
this benefite, namely, that with litle labour and no toyle or moving of his 
feete he may rule and guide his flocke, according to his own desire, either 
to have them go forward, or to stand still, or to drawe backward, or to 
turn this way, or to take that way. . . . Furthermore with this dogge 
doth the shepherd take sheep for the slaughter, and to be healed if they be 
sicke, no hurt or harme done in the world to the simple creatures.” It 
does not look as if we had learned much more of sheep tending and driving 
than was known in that bygone time, and probably long before that. 
Our knowledge of dogs in England prior to 1868 did not include 
smooth sheep dogs, except what might have been seen in the drovers’ 
dogs assgrtment, for no classes had at that time been provided at any 
shows. When we next had opportunity to learn something of them, that 
is from 1877 to 1880, we either must have failed to note the good ones or 
there were none to note at the shows we visited, for our impression of the 
smooth collie can be best illustrated by a remark made to Mr. Megson 
when we visited him at Sale in the winter of 1897. We had seen and admired 
Southport Perfection and Ormskirk Emerald, and were about returning to 
the Priory, when Mr. Megson said: “ Don’t you want to see the smooths ?” 
To which we answered that they always seemed a mongrelly dog to us. 
“Ah! then you have never seen a good one.” We at once said we wanted 
to see a good one, so a visit was paid to the smooth dogs’ kennels, where 
we opened our eyes when we saw the champion dog of his day. We cannot 
now recall his name, for Mr. Megson had more than one good smooth. 
Since then we have always had a decided liking for a good smooth, for 
while a bad one is anything but “fetching,” there is no getting away from 
a high-class smooth, for he is all quality when he is a good one. 
Unfortunately the smooth sheep dog has to run counter to the far 
more popular rough collie, and it takes a thorough dog man to appreciate 
a smooth, just as is the case with the smooth St. Bernard when compared 
with the rough. The result is that only a few of those who are staunch 
