Dogs and All about Them

CHAPTER XXXII THE SMOOTH FOX-TERRIER To attempt to set forth the origin of the Fox-terrier as we know him to-day would be of no interest to the general reader, and would entail the task of tracing back the several heterogeneous sources from which he sprang. It is a matter of very little moment whether he owes his origin to the white English Terrier or to the Bull-terrier crossed with the Black and Tan, or whether he has a mixture of Beagle blood in his composition, so it will suffice to take him as he emerged from the chaos of mongreldom about the middle of the last century, rescued in the first instance by the desire of huntsmen or masters of well-known packs to produce a terrier somewhat in keeping with their hounds; and, in the second place, to the advent of dog shows. Prior to that time any dog capable, from his size, conformation, and pluck, of going to ground and bolting his fox was a Fox-terrier, were he rough or smooth, black, brown, or white. The starting-point of the modern Fox-terrier dates from about the 'sixties, and no pedigrees before that are worth considering.