"1800. " Tuggin, from A. Armstrong, reddish and wiry. Tarr, reddish and wiry-haired, a bitch. Pepper, shaggy and light, Mr. Brown, of Bonjedward. The race of Dandies are bred from the two last. "J. D."

Mr. James Scott, of Newstead, who contributed much useful information respecting the breed in the correspondence on the subject in the "Field" some years back, speaking from a personal knowledge of "Dandie Dinmont" and his dogs, says he had two varieties of terriers, one large and leggy, the other short on the fore leg and small, and that it was only the latter that Davidson would allow to be called Dandie Dinmonts, and it has been assumed that these smaller terriers were the produce of the two dogs, Pepper and Tarr, given to him by Dr. Brown, of Bonjedward. When Sir Walter Scott made Davidson's Pepper and Mustard terriers famous there was at once, we may fairly assume, a pretty general desire to possess the breed, and it is hardly likely the demand would or could be supplied from this single pair, and as Pepper and Tarr must have had relations more or less close in consanguinity, these would probably be used to swell the family circle of the Dandies, and in support of the supposition that we have living specimens directly descended from Pepper and Tarr without admixture of blood more or less foreign, even if we could be quite sure Dandie Dinmont himself stuck rigidly to the Pepper and Tarr blood (and after they became so public he would probably do his best to breed to one standard or type) I know of the existence of no proof that dogs distributed by him throughout the country were by their several owners bred to others of the same blood.

Is it not reasonable to suppose that the produce of a terrier bitch of another strain sent to a dog known to be from Hindlee would be called Dandie's or of Dandie Dinmont's strain, just as before the advent of dog shows and the care which has of late years been bestowed on pedigrees, a sportsman who had bred from a pointer dog of Earl Sefton's would describe the produce as of the Sefton strain?

I conceive much more has been done to secure to us the correct article to-day by those breeders who, some of them having personal knowledge of Davidson's own dogs, sticking as close as they could breed to the type, and selecting on occasion, even without a knowledge of its pedigree, a dog that bore the family character, than by others who lay too much stress on pedigrees which cannot be proved with any degree of certainty. Take, for instance, Shamrock, one of the subjects of our illustrations. His pedigree in the Kennel Club Stud Book gives his dam as Vic, bred by Mr. W. Johnstone, by a dog of good, blood belonging to an officer at the Purshill Barracks. Here we have in one of the best known and best dogs of the day a break in the pedigree before we go back two generations. No doubt Mr. Johnstone felt satisfied he was using a dog of good blood because he possessed the characteristics of a good Dandie, but there is no proof that he was of pure breed, and so we find breaks in the chain between every existing dog and those two given to Dandie Dinmont by Dr. Brown, of Bonjedward.

It would be needless to recapitulate the names of all of the earlier breeders who followed the originator of this strain. James Scott, of Newstead, Stoddart, of Selkirk, Douglass, of Cessford, Somner, of Kelso, with a number of others, were among the earlier breeders, and the Duke of Buccleuch has kept up the breed, but I do not know with what degree of purity. Nicol Milne, of Faldonside, has had the breed for about half a century, and for many years E. Bradshaw Smith, of Blackwood House, has owned a large and important kennel, but whether he had authenticated pedigrees with those dogs with which he commenced his kennel, I am unable to say, or even whether a careful register of the produce of the kennels has been kept, if so, it does not appear to be available for public use, or even to the Dandie Dinmont Club, of which Mr. Smith is vice-president, if I may judge from a duplicate of pedigree of my own dog, furnished me by Mr. W. Foster, who is compiling the Dandie Dinmont Terrier Stud Book, for, going back through Mr. Pool's Dirk to Mr. Smith's Pepper and Jennie II., there is not merely a hiatus, but a full stop.

Although Mr. Davidson fixed the character of these dogs for us, it has never been said of him that he created the breed, and how they were first produced must remain a matter of speculation; but that he is a manufactured article, and not a true terrier, I think there can be no doubt, and no theory I have heard broached seems to me to have so much evidence in favour of its correctness as that of "Stonehenge," given in his book "The Dog," published in 1859, namely, a cross with a low-legged Scotch terrier with the otter hound or rough harrier. The Dandie Dinmont muzzle is too massive and square for a terrier, and in that feature, and unmistakably in the size, shape, and set on of his ears and the carriage of his stern he shows the hound cross.

I will go further, and say - although I know I shall be considered a schismatic for venturing to express such a heterodox opinion - a judicious infusion of foreign blood would be a good thing for the breed, if of no other use than to check the tremendous mortality among puppies of which nearly all breeders complain, and for this purpose there is no dog so well suited in shape and style as the rough-coated La Vendee hound, a handsome specimen of which was shown a few years ago by Dr. Seton - he was long and low with immense bone, head, ears, eye, muzzle, stern, coat, and colour fairly corresponding to the Dandie, and as to disparity of size, that would be quickly set right by selection.

If we come to consider the points and qualities, physical and moral, of the Dandie breed generally, all are now pretty well agreed, although hair splitters still wrangle over a pound in weight, the exact texture of the coat, the colour of a claw, the evidence for or against purity, of a light spot on the palate or some such triviality. But the club formed some years ago for the special purpose of taking this breed under its fostering wing have, by deciding on a standard of excellence, from which there are few or no dissidents, except on minor and verbal matters, earned the thanks of all lovers of the breed, and whether so publicly stated or not, Dandies have been virtually judged by that standard at all late shows; and although this cannot - fortunately, I think - ensure identity of opinion, it does ensure general concurrence on essential points, and has told and will continue to tell on the improved general character of the classes of these dogs at our shows; and I think, when " Idstone" publishes another edition of his book, he will see the need for altering his opinion as therein expressed, that "the points of the Dandie are an open question, and I doubt if any 'authorities' can settle it." So much has the public discussion of the breed and the action of the club done that it has become an impossibility for two public judges at our largest shows to write, as Mr. Charles Collins and Mr. Matthias Smith did ten years ago, that " the Dandie Dinmonts north of the Tweed are long-backed to strange deformity, legs shorter than any other breed (not excepting the dachshund of Germany), faces as long as crocodiles and jaws as strong, small pig-like eyes, ears small and erect (one may fall over at the tip), coat not very long, but hard and erect as bristles from top to toe.