42 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
THE LATEST 
AND SMARTEST DOG OF FASHION 
Is the Self-Assured and 
WILLIAMS HAYNES 
An Indubitable Thorough - 
Courtesy of Mrs. Byron Rogers 
He is built close to the ground, with great 
strength of hone and muscle 
A STRANGE dog, an odd 
looking dog, rather sug¬ 
gestive of a wire-haired fox ter¬ 
rier, sawed off and hammered 
down, yet with a distinct type 
that is all his own, has been about 
lately. Very likely you have 
seen him and have been puzzled 
to place him among your dog 
acquaintances. He is certainly 
not a fox terrier. Llis quiet as¬ 
surance and air of independence 
are quite different from the 
alert cock-sureness of that saucy 
little rascal. However, even if 
you first saw him trotting down 
a back alley—which would be just the last 
place you would be apt to meet him—you 
could never mistake him for “just dog." 
He is indubitably a thoroughbred. Though 
you might not know that he was a scion 
of the honorable family of Sealyham, you 
would be very sure that he was a young 
dog of parts and fine breeding. If you 
meet such a dog, mark him well. He is 
a Sealyham terrier, the very latest and 
the smartest dog of fashionable popularity. 
To know the real Sealyham. however, it 
is very necessary to know something of his 
worthy and romantic history, for, as a good 
friend of his who knew him in his ancestral 
home before he was a popular dog, once 
said, “His points are not exactly show 
points; it is rather in his pluck and his 
romantic background that attraction lies." 
The Conditions Which Developed Him 
The rugged mountain fastnesses of 
Wales are safe homes for foxes and bad¬ 
gers, and their impetuous trout streams, up 
which each spring the salmon swim to 
spawn, are marked with otter dens. Con¬ 
ditions very like those in the Highlands 
that called the stocky, short-haired, super¬ 
latively plucky Scottish terrier into exist¬ 
ence, made the Sealyham from Pembroke¬ 
shire a dog of similar traits. 
There is but little certainty about the 
Sealyham's origin. We know that he is 
the embodiment of the ideals of a Welsh 
gentleman, but we know little or nothing 
of the materials that 
he employed in creat¬ 
ing this ideal terrier. 
The dog is indeed the 
Sealyham terrier, of 
the strain bred on the 
Sealyham estate, the 
terrier of the home 
on the Sealy River, 
for this is what his 
name signifies, and 
his friends are glad 
that such a gay little 
sporting terrier 
should be so closely 
identified with a 
family that has for 
centuries b orne so 
prominent a part in 
the annals of his na¬ 
t i v e country. The 
m e n of Sealyham, 
soldiers most of them 
and good sportsmen 
all. are descended 
from Howell Oda, 
King a n d Lawgiver 
of Wales, 900 A. D. 
One of the ancestors 
of the creator of the 
Sealyham won the soubriquet of “Old Bat- 
terjaw" for a terrible face wound he re¬ 
ceived in the Peninsular Campaign, and it 
is a family tradition that part of the Sealy¬ 
ham land was lost in a lawsuit because 
the estate map was so defaced by the holes 
made in it bv the owner’s fishing hooks that 
it was thrown out as legal evidence. 
It was about seventy-five years ago that 
the late Captain John Edwardes of Sealy¬ 
ham began breeding his special strain of 
terriers. The captain was very keen for 
badger digging and had found from griev¬ 
ous experience that the average run of 
small dogs sent to earth with Brock did not 
fulfil their obligations. Captain 
Edwardes’ father and his grand¬ 
father before him had main¬ 
tained packs of fox and otter 
hounds, and there had always 
been the usual collection of ter¬ 
riers in the Sealyham kennels. 
They did not, however, come up 
to the captain’s ideal. 
Undoubtedly the home strain 
was the foundation upon which 
he built, and the vein of Celtic 
romanticism and fine sentiment 
in the Welsh friends of the new 
breed has tempted them to say 
that the present day Sealyham 
terrier is the direct descendant of the 
stocky, big-jawed, little earth dogs that first 
came to Wales with the Norman and Flem¬ 
ish invaders. While there is little doubt 
that Captain Edwardes selected the gamest 
and handiest terriers of his family kennels, 
there is no evidence to show what kind of 
dogs these were, and it is known positively 
that he resorted freely to outside crosses. 
The Sealyham is so good a dog and his au¬ 
thentic history is so romantic as not to need 
any embellishments, at all events. 
His Original Purpose 
One can be quite confident, however, that 
the creator of the Sealyham breed employed 
the Dandie Dinmont in the experiments. 
The bull terrier, also we are sure, was 
used. The old Welsh cur-dog (a short 
and crooked-legged dog very popular a 
century ago as a cattle driver) and the old 
English working terrier (the same which 
helped make the Airedale and is probably 
represented to-day by the Welsh terrier) 
are also suggested as probable ancestors of 
the Sealyham as we know him. 
Being a practical sportsman, Captain 
Edwardes knew very well that while a dog 
(Continued on page 58) 
Courtesy of Mrs. Byron Rogers 
In the old days the test of a pup's courage 
teas a mink in an old teapot. These mod¬ 
ern youngsters are on the job, too 
Photo by Levick 
The Sealyham's time-tried courage and hardihood commend 
him to the lover of real dogs. He doesn't look for trouble 
except with “varmints,” and he is an ideal companion 
Independent Sealyham, 
the New Sporting Terrier 
Distinction and Character 
