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Dogs and All about Them
·
Robert Leighton
306
CHAPTER
XXXIX
THE
WEST
HIGHLAND
WHITE
TERRIER
Man,
being
a
hunting
animal,
kills
the
otter
for
his
skin,
and
the
badger
also;
the
fox
he
kills
because
the
animal
likes
lamb
and
game
to
eat.
Man,
being
unable
to
deal
in
the
course
of
a
morning
with
the
rocks
under
and
between
which
his
quarry
harbours,
makes
use
of
the
small
dog
which
will
go
underground,
to
which
the
French
name
terrier
has
been
attached.
Towards
the
end
of
the
reign
of
James
the
First
of
England
and
Sixth
of
Scotland,
we
find
him
writing
to
Edinburgh
to
have
half
a
dozen
"earth
dogges
or
terrieres"
sent
carefully
to
France
as
a
present,
and
he
directs
that
they
be
got
from
Argyll,
and
sent
over
in
two
or
more
ships
lest
they
should
get
harm
by
the
way.
That
was
roughly
three
hundred
years
ago,
and
the
King
most
probably
would
not
have
so
highly
valued
a
newly-invented
strain
as
he
evidently
did
value
the
"terrieres"
from
Argyll.
We
may
take
it
then
that
in
1600
the
Argyllshire
terriers
were
considered
to
be
the
best
in
Scotland,
and
likely
enough
too,
seeing
the
almost
boundless
opportunities
the
county
gives
for
the
work
of
the
"earth
dogges."
But
men
kept
their
dogs
in
the
evil
pre-show
days
for
work
and
not
for
points,
and
mighty
indifferent
were
they
whether
an
ear
cocked
up
or
lay
flat
to
the
cheek,
whether
the
tail
was
exactly
of
fancy
length,
or
how
high
to
a
hair's
breadth
it
stood.
These
things
are
sine
qua
non
on
the
modern
show
bench,
but
were
not
thought
of
in
the
cruel,
hard
fighting
days
of
old.
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