The dog was well known in Scotland, too, under the title of the Bearded Collie, for there is little doubt that this last is merely a variant of the breed.  He differs, in point of fact, chiefly by reason of possessing a tail, the amputation of which is a recognised custom in England.

With regard to this custom, it is said that the drovers originated it.  Their dogs, kept for working purposes, were immune from taxation, and they adopted this method of distinguishing the animals thus exempted.  It has been argued, by disciples of the Darwinian theory of inherited effects from continued mutilations, that a long process of breeding from tailless animals has resulted in producing puppies naturally bob-tailed, and it is difficult, on any other hypothesis, to account for the fact that many puppies are so born.  It is certainly a fact that one or two natural bob-tails are frequently found in a litter of which the remainder are duly furnished with well-developed tails.

From careful consideration of the weight of evidence, it seems unlikely that the breed was originally a tailless one, but the modern custom undoubtedly accentuates its picturesqueness by bringing into special prominence the rounded shaggy quarters and the characteristic bear-like gait which distinguish the Old English Sheepdog.

Somewhere about the ’sixties there would appear to have been a revival of interest in the bob-tail’s welfare, and attempts were made to bring him into prominence.  In 1873 his admirers succeeded in obtaining for him a separate classification at a recognised show, and at the Curzon Hall, at Birmingham, in that year three temerarious competitors appeared to undergo the ordeal of expert judgment.  It was an unpromising beginning, for Mr. M. B. Wynn, who officiated found their quality so inferior that he contented himself with awarding a second prize.

But from this small beginning important results were to spring, and the Old English Sheepdog has made great strides in popularity since then.  At Clerkenwell, in 1905, the entries in his classes reached a total of over one hundred, and there was no gainsaying the quality.

This satisfactory result is due in no small measure to the initiative of the Old English Sheepdog Club, a society founded in 1888, with the avowed intention of promoting the breeding of the old-fashioned English Sheepdog, and of giving prizes at various shows held under Kennel Club Rules.

The pioneers of this movement, so far as history records their names, were Dr. Edwardes-Ker, an enthusiast both in theory and in practice, from whose caustic pen dissentients were wont to suffer periodical castigation; Mr. W. G. Weager, who has held office in the club for some twenty years; Mrs. Mayhew, who capably held her own amongst her fellow-members of the sterner sex; Mr. Freeman Lloyd, who wrote an interesting pamphlet on the breed in 1889; and Messrs. J. Thomas and Parry Thomas.

Theirs can have been no easy task at the outset, for it devolved upon them to lay down, in a succinct and practical form, leading principles for the guidance of future enthusiasts.  It runs thus:—­