HEAD AND EARS—The Skull should be flat and moderately narrow, and gradually decreasing in width to the eyes. Not much "stop" should be apparent, but there should be more dip in the profile between the forehead and top jaw than is seen in the case of a Greyhound. The Cheeks must not be full. The Ears should be V-shaped and small, of moderate thickness, and dropping forward close to the cheek, not hanging by the side of the head like a Foxhound's. The Jaw, upper and under, should be strong and muscular; should be of fair punishing strength, but not so in any way to resemble the Greyhound or modern English Terrier. There should not be much falling away below the eyes. This part of the head, should, however, be moderately chiselled out, so as not to go down in a straight line like a wedge. The Nose, towards which the muzzle must gradually taper, should be black. The Eyes should be dark in colour, small, and rather deep set, full of fire, life, and intelligence; as nearly as possible circular in shape. The Teeth should be as nearly as possible level, i.e., the upper teeth on the outside of the lower teeth. NECK—Should be clean and muscular, without throatiness, of fair length, and gradually widening to the shoulders. SHOULDERS AND CHEST—The Shoulders should be long and sloping, well laid back, fine at the points, and clearly cut at the withers. The Chest deep and not broad. BACK AND LOIN—The Back should be short, straight, and strong, with no appearance of slackness. The Loin should be powerful and very slightly arched. The fore ribs should be moderately arched, the back ribs deep; and the dog should be well ribbed up. HIND-QUARTERS—Should be strong and muscular, quite free from droop or crouch; the thighs long and powerful; hocks near the ground, the dog standing well up on them like a Foxhound, and not straight in the stifle. STERN—Should be set on rather high, and carried gaily, but not over the back or curled. It should be of good strength, anything approaching a "pipe-stopper" tail being especially objectionable. LEGS AND FEET—The Legs viewed in any direction must be straight, showing little or no appearance of an ankle in front. They should be strong in bone throughout, short and straight to pastern. Both fore and hind legs should be carried straight forward in travelling, the 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.
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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 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 P1,800; Hunton Tartar fetched P135, Justice P84, Bliss P70, and Scramble P65.
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 Fox-terrier 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 her want of what is called terrier character, and others would have liked her a shade smaller; but we have still to see the Fox-terrier, taken all round, that could beat her.
As an outcross Mr. Redmond purchased Dreadnought, one of the highest class dogs seen for many years, but had very bad luck with him, an accident preventing him from being shown and subsequently causing his early death. We must not forget Duchess of Durham or Dukedom; but to enumerate all Mr. Redmond's winners it would be necessary to take the catalogues of all the important shows held for the past thirty years. To no one do we owe so much; no one has made such a study of the breed, reducing it almost to a science, with the result that even outside his kennels no dog has any chance of permanently holding his own unless he has an ample supply of the blood.
The great opponent of the Totteridge Kennel up to some few years ago was unquestionably Mr. Vicary, of Newton Abbot, who laid the foundation of his kennel with Vesuvian, who was by Splinter, out of Kohinor, and from whom came the long line of winners, Venio-Vesuvienne, Vice-Regal, Valuator, Visto, and Veracity. Fierce war raged round these kennels, each having its admiring and devoted adherents, until one side would not look at anything but a Redmond Terrier to the exclusion of the Vicary type. The Newton Abbot strain was remarkable for beautiful heads and great quality, but was faulty in feet and not absolute as to fronts, each of which properties was a sine qua non amongst the Totteridge dogs. Latter-day breeders have recognised that in the crossing of the two perfection lies, and Mr. Redmond himself has not hesitated to go some way on the same road.
[Illustration: FOX TERRIERS 1. Mrs. J. H. Brown's Ch. Captain Double 2. Mr. J. C. Tinne's Ch. The Sylph 3. Mr. T. J. Stephen's Wire-Hair Ch. Sylvan Result Photograph by Revely]