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however, to encourage faking of all sorts, and leave it to the private enterprise of some one to exhibit an unfaked dog, and then make wholesale objections to dogs prepared for show in the way that has been customary for twenty years.

MR. WILLIAM MORRIS.-The Bedlington dog is an altered animal from what it was when I knew it first in the days of my youth, when they were never faked, trimmed, or plucked; this has quite changed their appearance. When I see some of the modern dogs I feel they would have little chance with a badger. Many of them now are terribly roach-backed.

The recommendations of the breed are as numerous as in the more popular ones. Thus: "Too much cannot be said in their favour as a sporting dog; they will do as much and a great deal more than any other terriers." -"The best dog 'pal'; game, extraordinarily intelligent; able to go all day long and come home merry as a cricket; well able to look after themselves in a scrape, but, in my experience, not quarrelsome."—" The best companion of any breed of terriers; dead game, and good hunters on land or water."-" There is a charm about the breed that is not found in any other; you can make him a house - dog, a gun-dog, a rat-dog, a badger-dog, or, if needed, he will bolt a fox for you. He will learn to do anything that a dog of his size can do. A most useful terrier for using with otterhounds or foxhounds."

Apart from the ideal show specimen (writes Mr. Harold Warnes), the Bedlington's claims as a social companion cannot be too prominently advocated. After all it is not so much a dog's appearance that attracts one as his "winning ways." I had an old favourite, with a long shaggy coat, and not a single show point, who was my constant companion for ten years. When I was in the house he always ascertained which room I was in (not being allowed indoors himself), and would sit outside the window so long as I was there, and if I went to another part of the house seemed to anticipate to what part I was bound, and on entering another room I would find him planted, in advance, outside its window. If I went out by the back-door, he was there to receive

me, and the same when I went out by the front. How he found out or guessed correctly what my movements would be I could never divine. Whenever I went by train he would accompany me to the station, in my absence meet every train that arrived, and when I returned there he was on the platform; he found out the arrivals of the trains by watching the porter of a hotel who went to meet each. My own shadow was not more faithful to me than that dog. A bitch I now have, Ch. Miss Oliver, is equally faithful, and has filled my poor old dog's place for the last five years. She is great pals with the house cat (although death on any other) and they go mole-hunting together. In fact, they seem to make appointments with one another, and nothing will convince me they have not got some means of communicating their thoughts and intentions. When the cat kittens the bitch watches her kittens whilst the mother is away; and when the bitch has puppies the cat is allowed into her kennel. I don't want a more loving creature or a better pal than a Bedlington terrier.

I take the following Standard of Points from the publication of The Bedlington Terrier Club, an institution of which Mr. T. H. Ainslie is the Honorary Secretary. It consists of about seventy members, and the entrance fee and annual subscription are 5s. each. As I have mentioned, it is mainly supported by fanciers in the north of England, and particularly residents round and about Newcastle, there being barely a dozen living in the south of England.

STANDARD OF POINTS OF THE BEDLINGTON TERRIER SKULL. Narrow, but deep and rounded; high at occiput, and covered with a nice silky tuft or top-knot.

JAW.—Long, tapering, sharp, and muscular; as little stop as possible between the eyes, so as to form nearly a line from the nose-end along the jaw front of the skull to the occiput; the lips close-fitting, and no flew.

EYES. Should be small, and well sunk in the head; the blues should have a dark eye; the blue and tan, ditto, with amber shades; livers, sandies, etc., a light-brown eye.

NOSE.-Large, and well-angled. Blues and blue and tans should have black noses; livers and sandies, flesh-coloured noses.

TEETH.-Level or pincer-jawed.

EARS.-Moderately large, well formed, flat to the cheek, thinly covered and tipped with fine, silky hair; they should be filbert-shaped.

LEGS. Of moderate length, not wide apart, straight, and square set, and with good feet, which are rather long.

TAIL. Thick at root, tapering to point; slightly feathered on lower side, 9 to 11 inches long, and scimitar-shaped.

NECK AND SHOULDERS.-Neck should be long, deep at base, rising well from the shoulders, which should be flat.

BODY.-Long and well-proportioned, flat-ribbed and deep, not wide in the chest, slightly arched back, well ribbed up, with light quarters. COAT.-Hard, with close bottom, and not lying flat to the sides. COLOUR.-Dark-blue, blue and tan, liver, liver and tan, sandy, sandy

and tan.

HEIGHT.-About 15 or 16 inches.

WEIGHT.-Dogs, about 24 lbs. ; bitches, about 22 lbs.

GENERAL APPEARANCE.-A light made-up lathy dog, but not shelly. POINT VALUES

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Mr. Rawdon Lee gives another scale, viz.-Head, skull, jaws, and ears, 20; eyes and nose, 10; legs and feet, 15; neck and shoulders, 5; body, loin, and stern, 15; coat, 15; colour, 10; general appearance, 10total, 100.

Ch. Breakwater Girl has easily secured the majority of votes from my contributors designating the most typical specimen in the breed, and I have selected her for illustration. She was bred, and is owned by, Mrs. P. R. Smith, was born in October 1896, and is by Beaconsfield Triumph ex Breakwater Nell. She stands 14 inches at shoulder, scales 22 lbs, and is a "blue" in colour. Her owner describes her as a dark-blue Bedlington, with dark eyes; strong, punishing jaw; long, lean head; silver top-knot; low-set ears, nicely fringed; good roach back; flat sides; straight front and legs, and cat thighs; tail set on low, well-carried, and 9 inches in length. Breakwater Girl has won twelve championships and over 120 first prizes; she has never been bred from.

THE DANDIE DINMONT TERRIER

ALTHOUGH the name by which the Dandie Dinmont terrier is known only dates back to 1814, the breed itself is of considerably older origin, and shares its ancestry with the Bedlington terrier. About no breed of dogs is there more conflicting opinion as to genesis than about this. The disputative and contentious ink that has been spilled over its history, could it be collected in one cauldron, would appal. Controversy and theoretical speculation have fought duels without number over its past, and human gore has been shed in heated argument, supervening on irritated excitement. Something of the bitter insularity that hedges the British bulldog - fancier appears to attach to the Dandie Dinmont devotee, as of the priest of a shrine who guards an idol too holy for criticism. The ground is ticklish to tread on, and those who "hae their doots' had better not give voice to them.

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But these dangers must not be allowed to deter the conscientious compiler from ventilating the facts or myths he has collected, and so I will apply myself to the task. At the beginning of the eighteenth century there was a breed of rough-haired terriers in existence in the Border country between England and Scotland that was very much appreciated by the small farmers, working folk, gipsies, and generality of the district.

They were game little devils, death on vermin, and particularly useful in destroying foxes and other carnivora which preyed on lambs and poultry, yet were, by reason of the ruggedness of the land, difficult to come at and kill with hounds hunting in packs. And the people of those parts being right good sportsmen, these sterling little terriers appealed to them, and built up for themselves a local reputation.

In my previous article on the Bedlington terrier, I quoted an ancestry connecting it with certain terriers. owned by "Piper Allan," an itinerant gipsy musician who made his livelihood by displaying his skill with. the bagpipes in his wanderings through the Border countries. My authority was an article on Bedlingtons written by Mr. W. Alcock, a former Honorary Secretary of the Bedlington Terrier Club. To this same "Piper Allan" source is traced the ancestry of the Dandie Dinmont; and Mr. Charles Cook, the author of a very careful monograph on the breed, published in 1885, supplies some circumstantial details which tally with. Mr. Alcock's, and yet show the usual proportion of divergence which every student in the minor by-ways of social and local history is too accustomed to be confronted with in his researches to entertain any surprise at.

It would appear from Mr. Cook's monograph that the Allans of Holystone were a well-known family, one of whose forbears was William Allan, born in 1704, and a noted Nimrod of such small game as otters and foxes. To him, of a gipsy wife, were born six children, whereof James, afterwards known as the Piper, was the youngest, and made his appearance in 1734. To Piper Allan descended the kennel of rough-haired terriers whose skill in the chase had made his father famous in his way, and prospering in James's hands they came to

VOL. II

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