In mentioning the names of celebrated men and terriers of years gone by, reference must be made to a terrier shown some time ago, which was as good, taken all round, as any that have so far appeared.  This was Ch.  Quantock Nettle, afterwards purchased by a gentleman in Wales and renamed Lexden Nettle.  Of correct size, with marvellous character, an excellent jacket and very takingly marked with badger tan and black on a wonderful head and ears, this bitch swept the board, as they say, and unquestionably rightly so.

No article on the wire-hair Fox-terrier would be complete without mentioning the name of the late Mr. S. E. Shirley, President of the Kennel Club.  Mr. Shirley was a successful exhibitor in the early days of the variety, and while his terriers were a good-looking lot, though not up to the show form of to-day, they were invariably hard-bitten, game dogs, kept chiefly for work.

On the question of size nearly all the principal judges of the Fox-terrier are agreed.  Their maxim is “a good little one can always beat a good big one.”  The difficulty arises when the little ones are no good, and the big ones are excellent; it is a somewhat common occurrence, and to anyone who loves a truly formed dog, and who knows what a truly formed dog can do, it is an extremely difficult thing to put the little above the larger.  All big dogs with properly placed shoulders and sound formation are better terriers for work of any sort than dogs half their size, short on the leg, but bad in these points.  It is in reality impossible to make an inexorable rule about this question of size; each class must be judged on its own merits.

CHAPTER XXXIV

THE AIREDALE TERRIER

There is perhaps no breed of dog that in so short a time has been improved so much as the Airedale.  He is now a very beautiful animal, whereas but a few years back, although maybe there were a few fairly nice specimens, by far the greater number were certainly the reverse of this.

In place of the shaggy, soft-coated, ugly-coloured brute with large hound ears and big full eyes, we have now a very handsome creature, possessing all the points that go to make a really first-class terrier of taking colour, symmetrical build, full of character and “go,” amply justifying—­in looks, at any rate—­its existence as a terrier.

Whether it is common sense to call a dog weighing 40 lb. to 50 lb. a terrier is a question that one often hears discussed.  The fact remains the dog is a terrier—­a sort of glorified edition of what we understand by the word, it is true, but in points, looks, and character, a terrier nevertheless, and it is impossible otherwise to classify him.