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modern manufacture. Daniel in his "Rural Sports" (1802) certainly describes a terrier of that colour common in his time, but this was a more stoutly built dog, made on the lines of a modern fox terrier and used for a similar purpose and as a gamekeeper's assistant. Indeed, the common terrier of a hundred years ago was for the most part black and tan in colour, with white on his chest and on his feet.

The late Rev. T. Pearce ("Idstone") tells us of the black and tan terrier which his family had owned nearly a century ago, and other writers follow in the same vein. These were bred for work and work only; the modern production is a purely fancy animal, whose "markings" are of more value than gameness, and his elegance of shape more than stoutness of constitution. Dog shows first brought him into prominence as a "fashionable beauty," and at our earliest exhibitions he was extremely well represented. Still, he was not then so uniform in quality and markings as he came to be later on, and every class contained some dog or other that was badly marked, and by no means of the type that was then coming into vogue. There is no doubt that between 1850 and 1860 the old-fashioned dog was crossed with some other variety of a lighter build, and this may have been a small dark-coloured

whippet. Anyhow, the "long lean heads" more often than not showed some such cross, however remote it might be, and the black and tan terrier was and is more tucked up in loins and not so level in the back as most other varieties of the terrier ought to be. Then his feet are not so round and cat-like, a longish foot, though it might be thick enough, being preferred, as then the " 'pencilling" on the feet-black marks on the tan groundcan be better defined when the toes are rather long.

There is no doubt that when dog shows were first instituted the black and tan terrier was a much commoner animal than he is now; at any rate, the classes for him were much better filled then than is the case at the present time. For instance, at the Holborn Show in 1862 there were forty-two of the variety benched, divided equally in two classes, one for animals over 5lb. in weight, the other for dogs and bitches under 5lb. At Leeds in the same year the classes were even better filled, the latter having thirty-six entries, the former twenty-seven entries; and at one of the London shows in 1863, that at Ashburnham Hall, there was an actual entry of ninety-five black and tan terriers, divided into three classes-for dogs and bitches over 7lb., for the same between 7lb. and 5lb. weight, and for

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others under 5lb. One is apt to wonder what a show committee would think were such an entry to be obtained to-day, and certainly as matters are at present, with but six competitors in three classes, as was the case at Curzon Hall in 1902, the black and tan terrier has sadly degenerated since dog shows have become popular; and it must not be forgotten that at one time Birmingham and district was the home of the black and tan terrier.

The most successful dog at the earliest shows was Mr. G. Fitter's (Birmingham) Dandy, a goodlooking, terrier-like dog, illustrated in "Dogs of the British Isles," but he had much more tan about him than would be deemed a recommendation today, nor were his "thumb marks"-a black splash on the tan ground of the foot about the size of the end of the thumb-and "pencillings pencillings" sufficiently distinct, still he was a nice terrier. Then, as now, the "black and tan" was mostly to be found in the Metropolis and in the large centres of the Midlands and Lancashire. Mr. J. Wade, of Clerkenwell, about the sixties had a lot of smart terriers, so had Mr. Fred White, of Clapham, and Mr. W. Macdonald, who at the same time had more than a passing fancy for Maltese terriers and Italian greyhounds, and liked a "trotting horse" too. In Birmingham, Mr. James Hinks had them; Mr. Littler

kept some good ones, and so did Mr. Jackson, at Wednesbury.

About this period there were two or three keen admirers of "fancy dogs" in Manchester and the neighbourhood, who devoted much time and trouble to perfect the black and tan terrier, and, however good were the specimens produced by the south country fancier, the northern ones were better. Indeed, this terrier became so connected with Manchester, as to come to bear its name, and the Kennel Club acknowledged it as the "Manchester as well as by its own name of the black and tan terrier. The reason for such a fresh nomenclature was by no means obvious, but it remains to this day, and will possibly linger on until the variety of terrier is supplanted by perhaps a more useful but certainly not by a handsomer dog.

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Great names in connection with "the black and tan were those of Mr. Samuel Handley, of Pendleton, near Manchester; of Mr. James Barrow, near Manchester; of Mr. W. Justice, Manchester; and of Mr. R. Ribchester, Ardwick, the latter's Colonel being about the best stud dog of his day. The pedigrees were very lax at these times before the Stud Book was published, and even for long afterwards. Pretty nearly all the sporting publicans and many of the working men of Cottonopolis and

its neighbourhood kept and bred these terriers, and from them the best specimens were purchased by Mr. Handley and by others, who in turn resold them to the leading exhibitors.

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To exhibit a black and tan terrier to perfection was one of the "arts of dog showing. The ears were to be carefully attended to, i.e., any loose or unsightly hairs had to be shaved off, the whiskers were cut, and then there came the general "faking faking" or trimming, which, if found out, would certainly have led to the disqualification of the dog and its owner. Without going so far as to say that no black and tan terrier was ever exhibited successfully when in its natural condition, I certainly do not exaggerate when I say such was seldom the case; but the "art and mysteries of faking" are not followed to the same extent now, although this sort of thing is still carried on and even allowed by the Kennel Club. There might be white hairs to pluck out or darken, on the chest or elsewhere; the stern was to be trimmed; the hind quarters, which were often far too brown, had either to be plucked or again darkened; the tan if rather pale cloudy," could be brightened up to any extent by dyeing or staining, and the "pencilling" and "thumb marks," without which no dog was supposed to have much chance of winning, could,

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