PRESENTED BY
THE DOMESDAY BOOK OF DOGS
Shropshire Terrier.
Cheshire Terrier. Cheshire Bull Terrier.
 |
| Head study of possible Shropshire or Cheshire terrier. Henry Calvert. |
The Shropshire and Cheshire terrier was a variety of fox terrier that, according to S. W. Smith, who managed to study somewhere between fifty to 100 dogs, was unlike anything we might expect of a typical fox terrier having a shorter muzzle and rounder head. This appeared to show bulldog or bull terrier blood somewhere in their ancestry. All were dead game and perhaps because of this bulldog influence all undershot individuals were culled. This earth dog was slightly longer than it was tall with a weight of up to 16lb with the occasional individual weighing under 14lbs. Smith's description of Squire Domville Poole's dogs of Mayberry Hall, Shropshire is supplied by Lee, 1896. Smith goes on to say the majority of the terriers were smooth-coated light-coloured with no black at all in their pelage, and sported short, dense and hard coats, while a few of them had Belvoir tan patches on their rump, back and head. Red or plum-coloured noses cropped up in the smooths but the observer saw no sign of the trait in the wire-hairs.
"The wire-hairs were a little larger, as a rule, in size, with coats of a fair length, always of a strong pig's bristle, pin-wire kind of texture, while the colour of all I ever saw was alike or nearly so, being white with patches of a blackish blue grizzly mixture ..." supplied by Lee, 1896.
As far as can be ascertained all the main breeders of this bull terrier cum fox terrier appeared to hail from the neighbouring counties of Shropshire and Cheshire. Where it was locally common in the eighteenth century.
As Domville Poole died in 1794 the above description must have been written in the latter half of the 18th century and Smith points out that later on some black and black and tan colouring began to appear in the coats. The Squire had his portrait painted with his dogs but attempts to find this portrait have so far proved futile.
This breed is sometimes referred to as a bull terrier rather than as a fox terrier in historical literature and was used by Captain John Tucker Edwards to increase the biting power and courage of the emergent Sealyham breed (Edwards referred to the breed as the Cheshire terrier).
 |
| Henry Calvert's depiction of a possible Shropshire terrier with spaniel. 19th century. |
'Professor' W. S. Shedman toured the US with a small pack of performing dogs and Forest And Stream describes a Cheshire bull-terrier from the group thus: "was a most intelligent and clever animal, that looked like a cross between a black and tan and a bull terrier with something else." There is probably about a century between this description and the first description supplied by S.W. Smith and tends to underline his observation that some black colouring had crept into the breed. An account of the performance can be found here.
It's possible that the variety of earth dog known as the Wynnstay terrier was of this type as the description is very similar.
Breeder and Sportsman. June, 1893.
San Francisco.
Forest and Stream. June, 1893.
Open Court Publishing Co.
A history and description of the modern dogs of Great Britain and Ireland (the terriers).
Lee, Rawdon B. 1896. Cox, London.
A history and description, with reminiscences, of the fox terrier.
Lee. Rawdon B. 1902. Cox London.
Comments
Post a Comment