No name is better known or more highly respected by dog owners than that of the late Mr. J. A. Doyle, as a writer, breeder, judge, or exhibitor of Fox-terriers.  Whilst breeding largely from his own stock, he was ever on the look-out for a likely outcross.  He laid great store on terrier character, and was a stickler for good coats; a point much neglected in the present-day dog.

Amongst the smaller kennels is that of Mr. Reeks, now mostly identified with Oxonian and that dog’s produce, but he will always be remembered as the breeder of that beautiful terrier, Avon Minstrel.  Mr. Arnold Gillett has had a good share of fortune’s favours, as the Ridgewood dogs testify; whilst the Messrs. Powell, Castle, Glynn, Dale, and Crosthwaite have all written their names on the pages of Fox-terrier history.  Ladies have ever been supporters of the breed, and no one more prominently so than Mrs. Bennett Edwards, who through Duke of Doncaster, a son of Durham, has founded a kennel which at times is almost invincible, and which still shelters such grand terriers as Doncaster, Dominie, Dodger, Dauphine, and many others well known to fame.  Mrs. J. H. Brown, too, as the owner of Captain Double, a terrier which has won, and deservedly, more prizes than any Fox-terrier now or in the past, must not be omitted.

Whether the present Fox-terrier is as good, both on the score of utility and appearance, as his predecessors is a question which has many times been asked, and as many times decided in the negative as well as in the affirmative.  It would be idle to pretend that a great many of the dogs now seen on the show bench are fitted to do the work Nature intended them for, as irrespective of their make and shape they are so oversized as to preclude the possibility of going to ground in any average sized earth.

This question of size is one that must sooner or later be tackled in some practical way by the Fox-terrier Club, unless we are to see a race of giants in the next few generations.  Their own standard gives 20 lb.—­a very liberal maximum; but there are dogs several pounds heavier constantly winning prizes at shows, and consequently being bred from, with the result which we see.  There are many little dogs, and good ones, to be seen, but as long as the judges favour the big ones these hold no chance, and as it is far easier to produce a good big one than a good little one, breeders are encouraged to use sires who would not be looked at if a hard-and-fast line were drawn over which no dogs should win a prize.  There are hundreds of Fox-terriers about quite as capable of doing their work as their ancestors ever were, and there is hardly a large kennel which has not from time to time furnished our leading packs with one or more dogs, and with gratifying results.  It is, therefore, a great pity that our leading exhibitors should often be the greatest delinquents in showing dogs which they know in their hearts should be kept at home or drafted altogether, and it is deplorable that some of our oldest judges should by their awards encourage them.