I think I heard this gentleman say that he considered, "on an average, he judged dogs, somewhere or other, about four days a week throughout the year." The man who can beat that must have a good record!

I have done in my time as much judging as many of the nonprofessionals, and I am passionately fond of dogs; but I think if I was officiating as judge more than two hundred times in the year, I should begin to tire of them.

Mr. Astley was originally a chemist, but for the last thirty years has devoted himself to doggy affairs. He has represented, at one time or another, the Field, Stock-keeper, and Fancier's Gazette, and is now on the staff of the Illustrated Kennel News. He has often judged at Continental, and three times at American, dog shows. Besides exhibiting Fox-terriers, Scottish Terriers, Rough Collies, and Schipperkes, he has kept Pile Game Bantams, Gold-pencilled Hamburghs, and other varieties, and in pigeons, Show and Flying Homers and Silver Dragons, and won many prizes with them all.

When I first knew Mr. Astley he was an exhibitor of Fox-terriers, and only gave some of his leisure to dogs and doggy literature; but for many years past - though he is one of those men who have altered very little in the last twenty years - he has nearly, or quite, given up showing, being on the staff of some well-known papers, and has done an immense amount of judging.

He is not long in making up his mind about a dog, and can probably dispose of a fairly large class as quickly as any one I know, and that he does not make many mistakes is proved by his decisions not being disputed Mr. Astley gets over a lot of ground and through a lot of work, and neither seem to trouble him very much, and the respectable entries he gets at the numerous shows where he acts as the "all-round judge" show he enjoys the confidence of large numbers of Doggy People.

It is not only in dogs Mr. Astley is interested, as he has been a successful breeder and exhibitor of poultry and cats, and has sometimes acted as a judge of the latter.

I am pleased to be able to give my readers a good portrait of this well-known judge, which will be recognised by many with whom his face is so familiar, as he must have troops of acquaintances and friends in the ranks of Doggy People.

MR. L. P. C. ASTLEY.

From photo by C. Wrigley, Mossley.