206 DOGS AND ALL ABOUT THEM

stifles not turned outwards. The elbows should hang perpendicular to the body, working free of the side. The Feet should be round, compact, and not large. The soles hard and tough. The toes moderately arched, and turned neither in nor out. Coat-Should be straight, flat, smooth, hard, dense, and abundant. The belly and under side of the thighs should not be bare. As regards colour, white should predominate ; brindle, red, or liver markings are objectionable. Otherwise this point is of little or no importance. Symmetry, Size, and Character-The dog must present a general gay, lively, and active appearance ; bone and strength in a small compass are essentials ; but this must not be taken to mean that a Fox-terrier should be cloggy, or in any way coarse-speed and endurance must be looked to as well as power, and the symmetry of the Foxhound taken as a model. The terrier, like the hound, must on no account be leggy, nor must he be too short in the leg. He should stand like a cleverly-made hunter, covering a lot of ground, yet with a short back, as before stated. He will then attain the highest degree of propelling power, together with the greatest length of stride that is compatible with the length of his body. Weight is not a certain criterion of a terrier's fitness for his work-general shape, size and contour are the main points ; and if a dog can gallop and stay, and follow his fox up a drain, it matters little what his weight is to a pound or so, though, roughly speaking, it may be said he should not scale over twenty pounds in show condition.

DISQUALIFYING POINTS : Nose-White, cherry, or spotted to a considerable extent with either of these colours. Ears-prick, tulip, or rose. Mouth-much overshot or much undershot.

In order to give some idea of the extraordinary way in which the Fox-terrier took the public taste, it will be necessary to hark back and give a resume of the principal kennels and exhibitors to whom this was due. In the year in which the Fox-terrier Club was formed, Mr. Fred Burbidge, at one time captain of the Surrey Eleven, had the principal kennels. He was the pluckiest buyer of his day, and once he fancied a dog nothing stopped him till it was in his kennels. He bought Nimrod, Dorcas, Tweezers, and Nettle, and with them and other discriminating purchases he was very hard to beat on the show-bench. Strange to say, at this time he seemed unable to breed a good dog, and determined to have a clear out and start afresh. A few brood bitches only were retained, and the kennels moved from Champion Hill to Hunton Bridge, in Hertfordshire. From thence in a few years came Bloom, Blossom, Tweezers II., Hunton Baron, Hunton Bridegroom, and a host of others, which spread the fame of the great

THE SMOOTH FOX-TERRIER   207

Hunton strain. When the kennel was dispersed at Mr. Burbidge's untimely death in 1892, the dogs, 130 lots in all, were sold by auction and realised Lr,8oo ; Hunton Tartar fetched £135, justice X84, Bliss ~7o, and Scramble X65.

Messrs. A. H. and C. Clarke were at this time quietly founding a kennel, which perhaps has left its mark more indelibly on the breed than any before or since. Brockenhurst Rally was a most fortunate purchase from his breeder, Mr. Herbert Peel, and was by Brockenhurst Joe from a Bitters bitch, as from this dog came Roysterer and Ruler, their dam being Jess, an old Turk bitch ; and from Rollick by Buff was bred Ruse and Ransome. Roysterer was the sire of Result, by many considered the best Fox-terrier dog of all time ; and Result's own daughter Rachel was certainly the best bitch of her day. All these terriers had intense quality and style, due for the most part to inbreeding. Very little new blood was introduced, with an inevitable result ; and by degrees the kennel died out.

No history of the Fox-terrier could be complete without mention of Mr. Francis Redmond and his kennel, going back, as it does, to the Murchison and Luke Turner period, and being still to-day the most prominent one in existence. We can date his earlier efforts from his purchase of Deacon Nettle, the dam of Deacon Ruby ; Dusty was the dam of Ch. Diamond Dust ; Dickon he had from Luke Turner, and in this dog we have one of the foundation-stones of the Foxterrier stud-book, as he was the sire of Splinter, who in his turn was the sire of Vesuvian.

Mr. Redmond's next great winners were D'Orsay and Dominie, two sterling good terriers, the former of which was the sire of Dame D'Orsay, who, bred to Despoiler, produced Dame Fortune, the mother of Donna Fortuna, whose other parent was Dominie. Donna Fortuna, considered universally the best specimen of a Fox-terrier ever produced, had from the first a brilliant career, for though fearlessly shown on all occasions she never knew defeat. Some took exception to