is the sheep-dog crossed with the terrier. He has long and somewhat
deservedly obtained a very bad name, as a bully and a coward; and
certainly his habit of barking at everything that passes, and flying at
the heels of the horse, renders him often a very dangerous nuisance: he
is, however, in a manner necessary to the cottager; he is a faithful
defender of his humble dwelling; no bribe can seduce him from his duty;
and he is likewise a useful and an effectual guard over the clothes and
scanty provisions of the labourer, who may be working in some distant
part of the field. All day long he will lie upon his master's clothes
seemingly asleep, but giving immediate warning of the approach of a
supposed marauder. He has a propensity, when at home, to fly at every
horse and every strange dog; and of young game of every kind there is
not a more ruthless destroyer than the village cur.
Mr. Hogg draws the following curious parallel between the sheep-dog and
the cur:
"An exceedingly good sheep-dog attends to nothing but the particular
branch of business to which he is bred. His whole capacity is exerted
and exhausted in it; and he is of little avail in miscellaneous
matters; whereas a very indifferent cur bred about the house, and
accustomed to assist in everything will often put the more noble breed
to disgrace in these little services. If some one calls out that the
cows are in the corn or the hens in the garden, the house colley needs
no other hint, but runs and turns them out. The shepherd's dog knows
not what is astir, and, if he is called out in a hurry for such work,
all that he will do is to run to the hill, or rear himself on his
haunches to see that no sheep are running away. A well-bred sheep-dog,
if coming hungry from the hills, and getting into a milk-house, would
likely think of nothing else than filling his belly with the cream.
Not so his initiated brother: he is bred at home to far higher
principles of honour. I have known such lie night and day among from
ten to twenty pails full of milk, and never once break the cream of
one of them with the tip of his tongue, nor would he suffer cat, rat,
or any other creature to touch it. While, therefore, the cur is a
nuisance, he is very useful in his way, and we would further plead for
him, that he possesses a great deal of the sagacity and all the
fidelity of the choicest breed of dogs."
The dog who, according to the well-known and authentic story, watched
the remains of his master for two years in the churchyard of St.
Olave's, in Southwark, was a cur.
The following story is strictly authentic:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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