"Having thus reached a stage when it may be laid down as decided that the judges of our shows are to be guided by a written code of laws, it may reasonably be deduced that they shall carry out this code in a practical manner. To show the fallacy of depending on a code theoretically, we may instance the judging of Mr. Bassett at the recent show of fox terriers at Lillie Bridge - under the club specially formed to supervise that fashionable breed of dogs.

Prior to the show the club had drawn up and published a code of points describing each minutely, and allotting to them the following numerical value: -

Points Of The Fox Terrier

Grand Total 100.

"Now, by almost general consent, the above-named gentlemen is admitted to have an excellent knowledge of the fox terrier, and, on the whole, his decisions were accepted; but the curious feature attending them is that, with a class of dogs so near together as to take him almost two hours to select the prize winner, no attempt was made to reduce the theory of points into practice with the aid of pencil and paper. At the end of an hour and twenty minutes Mr. Bassett had drawn six from the sixty-seven dogs of which the class was composed, five of them being compact and strong-bodied animals, with slight variations in other points, but all very near together, while the sixth is a dog with a beautiful head, but possessing a body of almost greyhound-like proportion. Now, surely with such opposite types, and with a code of points at his disposal, drawn up by a club who had appointed him, any reasonable man would aid his memory by jotting down in pencil the numerical value of the points in each of the competitors according to the above code. Of what use is such a code, if not thus applied? we ask of all men possessed of common sense.

How otherwise can the beautiful head of the winner (Brockenhurst Joe), coupled with his light body, be compared with the inferior head, but wonderfully good body and legs, of the second dog (Moslem) ? That it was a near thing between them, as admitted by all, only makes this numerical comparison the more needful; and, though we do not by any means impugn the decision, we think it highly probable that if Mr. Bassett had taken out his pencil he would have come to a different conclusion: at all events, he would have given his estimate of the points exhibited by the six dogs formerly selected by him, which would have been of great interest to breeders of the fox terrier, in which every point in detail is now weighed and considered with great care by thousands of both sexes throughout the land. But, much as we think the paper and pencil were wanted in this class, they were still more needed by him in his judging of the rough bitch class. In this small lot of six, Bramble, bred by Mr. Wootton, exhibited as beautiful a head as that of Brockenhurst Joe, coupled with a light body, but not nearly so light as that of Mr. Gibson's dog - though looking more so than usual from the effects of a recent sea voyage - and in addition very good legs and feet.

Minx, who was placed first by Mr. Bassett, was also bred by Mr. Wootton, but was by no means equal to Moslem in body; and between her and Bramble, if judged numerically according to the above standard, the decision would, as we think, have been deservedly in favour of the latter, who only took the third prize. In any case, however, these decisions are not consistent, and indicate that even an acknowledged good judge should assist his memory with paper and pencil; and at the same time add to the knowledge of his supporters by giving them the benefit of his opinions, not only as to the prize winners as a whole, but of their respective points when dissected and analysed by him. In practice it has been sometimes found that this use of the pencil has led to a great expenditure of time, and at the show of bulldogs held under the auspices of the club devoted to that breed, the judge retired for some hours, in order to cast up his accounts. Such a proceeding, however, is wholly unnecessary, unless the judge is unable to do a sum of simple addition; for surely it is easier to estimate the proportionate value of any individual head or back, as compared with fifteen or ten, in the dog's presence than in his absence; and, if so, what is the use of retiring? We contend, from practical experience, that, in judging five or six selected dogs near together in merit, it is the simplest and quickest plan to judge numerically by points, and we have not the slightest doubt that before long no other will be used.

"Lastly, we have to consider the best method of election, the choice lying between that by the votes of the subscribers, that by the committee of management made at the last moment, and that by the committee announced at the time of publishing the programme. All these plans have been tried, and experience has shown that there are drawbacks to each, to which it is very difficult to assign an exact value. For this reason, we shall not therefore venture to give a decided opinion on the present occasion".