We do know that the premier Dachshund of the present day has drawn a wild fox from his fastness, and finished him, unaided, in about four minutes; but an unsnubbed, fully matured badger of five or six summers is an awkward customer, and with him the result might have been quite different.

What are called Dachshunds may be picked up in most German towns; but those are often of an inferior sort, or half-breds, the genuine blue blood being almost entirely in the hands of the nobles. Familiar to us in the north were those of the late King of Hanover; those of Baron Nathasius and Baron Von Cram in the south. The Grand Duke of Baden's kennel, at Ebcrstein Schloss, is unrivalled. Prince Couza, Baroness Ingelheim, and Baron Haber also possessed some of the best and purest strains.

In England Her Majesty the Queen and H.S.H. Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar for many years possessed the choicest specimens of the best strains in Germany; and we have been favoured with stud dogs and brood from some of the above-named kennels, which required something more than gold to possess them. A habit has sprung up of late - and a very bad one it is - of entering rough-coated little dogs as Dachshunds at some of our best shows, and some of them have received honours which they are in no way entitled to. This is misleading, as they are not Dachshunds, but 'Bassets' - very nice little fellows, but with no more right to be exhibited as Dachshunds than a Setter or a Spaniel would have in a Pointer class. They may be half-breds - as Dachshund-Basset or Dachshund-Spaniel. We have also met with others, hound-marked and smooth-coated, which looked like Dachshund-Beagles; these are all Bassets, a term applied by the French to all low, short-legged dogs. The best we have met with were a leash owned by a French marquis; these had grand heads of the Otter-hound type, with rough coats, very long bodies, and short, crooked legs, and were called 'Rostaing Bassets,' and were excellent workers in thick coverts ; but they rarely possess either the courage or the scenting powers of the Dachshund."

Having quoted the opinions of a well-known authority in the early show days of the variety, we now give the opinions of a present-day enthusiast in the breed, Mr. Harry Jones, and one whose opinions, alike as breeder, exhibitor, and judge, are entitled to respect: -

"I do not propose in any way to deal with the ancient history of the Dachshund, but simply to write about Dachshunds as we have known them in England since they have been exhibited at our dog shows. Strange as it may appear, a separate class for this breed was given at the Crystal Palace Show in 1873, five years before the earliest record of a separate class being given for Dachshunds at a dog show in their native country - viz. at Berlin in 1878 (see Vol. I. of the ' Teckel-Stammbuch,' published by the 'Teckel-Klub' in 1891).

During the seventies the numbers of Dachshunds seen at our best shows rapidly increased, and Mr. W. Schuller, of Poland Street, imported a considerable number of the winners of the day; but the two Dachshunds, imported about this time, to whom most of the modern Dachshunds can be traced back were Waldine (6,355) and Xaverl (6,337), the former being the dam of Chenda (6,339), Hans (8,380), Zanah (8,404), etc., and the latter the sire of Hans (8,380), Zigzag (8,393), etc. etc. The latter's son Ozone (10,502) sired the two brothers Maximus (12,767) and Superbus (12,776), probably the most successful show and stud dogs of the breed in this country, but they owed a great deal of their success to their dam Thusnelda (10,528), imported by Mr. W. Schuller. She was first exhibited by Mr. Mudie at the Kennel Club Show of 1880. She was smaller than most of the Dachshunds then being shown, and was stated to have won several first prizes at Continental shows. She proved to be the most valuable importation of all the Dachshunds that passed through the hands of Mr. Schuller. Although she left no progeny . in Mr. Mudie's kennel, she bred most successfully to both Ozone and Wag when in Mr. Arkwright's kennel.

There is no doubt that nearly all our Dachshunds that were too large and houndy in type obtained this from the strain of Waldine (6,355), but this strain when crossed with Thusnelda soon produced the right size and the type required.

In January, 1881, the Dachshund Club was formed, and before the end of the year a description of the Dachshund with a scale of points was published. It has often been stated that the Dachshund Club when it published the description of the variety did so in direct opposition to the acknowledged German type; but the writers who make these statements surely overlook the fact that this standard was compiled in England and published ten years before any standard or scale of points were published by any acknowledged German authority - viz. the Teckel-Klub in 1891.

The standard described the Dachshund as he was then known in this country by the imported dogs that were being exhibited, and that were stated to have won prizes before being imported, and to have been bred in the very best German kennels ; but there is no doubt whatever that these imported dogs were more houndy in type than the Dachshund described in the scale of points published by the Teckel-Klub ten years later.

Although the points of the breed as published by the two clubs had important differences, there was not so much difference in the type of the dogs themselves.

In 1882 Dachshunds that were prize winners at our shows, and bred from the most successful winners of the day, competed successfully at Hanover under a German judge.

In 1885 and 1886 I exhibited Wagtail (16,633) - a daughter of Thusnelda, and the dam of Jackdaw (20,689), the most successful English-bred Dachshund ever exhibited - at the shows of the St. Hubert Society, under a German judge, and each year she not only won the first prize in her class, but was awarded the prix d'honneur for the best Dachshund of all classes. She was a small-sized black-and-tan.