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Modern Dogs of Great Britain.

CHAPTER I.

THE TERRIERS.

MANY of the varieties of the terrier we possess at the present time, and which as a group are doubtless the most popular of the canine race, are of quite modern origin, although no doubt there was a dog of similar appearance to the terrier coexistent with the original dog, whatever the latter may have been.

Our earliest writers on the subject have acknowledged the terrier, an animal so named because it was occasionally employed underground in the earth, to force the fox, badger, and otter from their lairs, and it has been said to have been used for the purpose of driving rabbits from their burrows, in the manner ferrets do at the present time. The bolting of rabbits is, no doubt, a fable, and, although we now have terriers more diminutive

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than any that were kept three or four centuries ago, they are not sufficiently small to do the work of a ferret or of a mongoose.

The original terrier was used as an assistant to hounds and to destroy the rats and weasels and foulmarts which infested the country, when it was less highly cultivated than is the case at present. One of the earliest representations of the terrier is given in Strutt's " Sports and Pastimes," an engraving from a fourteenth century MS., which represents a dog, assisted by three men with spades, engaged in unearthing a fox. The colour of the dog is not ascertainable, nor can I make sure that it has been underground, for the fox is only in part out of the hole, and the terrier is springing on to his prey from a little rising ground immediately behind. Possibly a second terrier is out of sight in the earth. Two of the hunters are in the act of digging, whilst the third is vigorously blowing a horn. It may be interesting to state that in the original engraving this terrier possesses a long, narrow head, not unlike that of the greyhound in shape, his tail is long and uncut, he is smooth-coated, and has erect ears. Blaine in his "Rural Sports" reproduces the picture, and, with a liberty that is quite inexcusable, converts the terrier into a wire-haired or long-coated one,

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