the seat of the Edwardes family, near Haverfordwest, in
Pembrokeshire, where the strain has been carefully preserved for well
over a century. It is a long-bodied, short-legged terrier, with a
hard, wiry coat, frequently whole white, but also white with black
or brown markings or brown with black. They may be as heavy as 17
lb., but 12 lb. is the average weight. Some years ago the breed seemed
to be on the down grade, requiring fresh blood from a well-chosen
outcross. One hears very little concerning them nowadays, but it
is certain that when in their prime they possessed all the grit,
determination, and endurance that are looked for in a good working
terrier.
A wire-haired black and tan terrier was once common in Suffolk and
Norfolk, where it was much used for rabbiting, but it may now be
extinct, or, if not extinct, probably identified with the Welsh
Terrier, which it closely resembled in size and colouring. There was
also in Shropshire a well-known breed of wire-hair terriers, black
and tan, on very short legs, and weighing about 10 lb. or 12 lb.,
with long punishing heads and extraordinary working powers. So, too,
in Lancashire and Cheshire one used to meet with sandy-coloured
terriers of no very well authenticated strain, but closely resembling
the present breed of Irish Terrier; and Squire Thornton, at his place
near Pickering, in Yorkshire, had a breed of wire-hairs tan in colour
with a black stripe down the back. Then there is the Cowley strain,
kept by the Cowleys of Callipers, near King's Langley. These are white
wire-haired dogs marked like the Fox-terrier, and exceedingly game.
Possibly the Elterwater Terrier is no longer to be found, but some
few of them still existed a dozen years or so ago in the Lake
District, where they were used in conjunction with the West Cumberland
Otterhounds. They were not easily distinguishable from the
better-known Border Terriers of which there are still many strains,
ranging from Northumberland, where Mr. T. Robson, of Bellingham, has
kept them for many years, to Galloway and Ayrshire and the Lothians,
where their coats become longer and less crisp.
There are many more local varieties of the working terrier as, for
example, the Roseneath, which is often confused with the Poltalloch,
or White West Highlander, to whom it is possibly related. And the
Pittenweem, with which the Poltalloch Terriers are now being crossed;
while Mrs. Alastair Campbell, of Ardrishaig, has a pack of
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