THE YORKSHIRE TERRIER'S HERITAGE by Janet E. Bennett
(A version of this article originally appeared in the YTCA Heritage, 1970 through 1983, which was published and copyrighted by the YTCA in 1985.)
N o breed of purebred dog is better or stronger than its heritage. The Yorkshire Terrier’s heritage originated in Great Britain. Most chronicles of the breed’s history ex- plain that the Yorkshire Terrier was bred down in size. Both are facts that recorded history annihilates. The Yorkshire Terrier derives from the small working Terriers of the Eng- lish and Scotch working people. The Waterside Terrier of Great Britain of the l4th century was a small dog, weighing 6 to 8 pounds, blue and tan in color with a silky coat, 6 to 7 inches long. He was an excellent ratter and was useful on the waterways, the transportation avenue of the times. This breed was crossed with the old
extremities slightly lighter than on the body color. Any approach to light straw color was not desirable, with weight not over 16 pounds. Along with these came their counter- parts, the Clydesdale Terriers from the Glasgow region on the river Clyde, de- scribed in the last quarter of the 1800s as desired to be “a bright steel blue extending from the back of the head to the root of tail and on no account intermingled with any fawn, light or dark hairs. The head, legs and feet should be a clear, bright, golden tan free from grey, sooty or dark hairs. The tail should be very dark blue or black. Coat as long and straight as possible, free from all traces of curl or waviness, very glossy, and silky in texture.”
English, or Manchester, silky-coated black and tan or blue and tan Ter- rier, which weighed around 5 pounds and was an exceptional ratter around the homestead. Ratting contests were a pastime often held by the lo- cal innkeepers, bringing patronage to their pubs. Minimal weight and a ratting ability were the most sought after points. The Industrial Revolution, in the later years of the l700s, added a new source for these desired points. The displaced crofters from Scotland mi- grated to the mills in Yorkshire, bring- ing with them their dale of Clyde, a small, silky-coated dog of various shades of blue (dark blue for perfec- tion) with hair on the head and lower
54 • T op N otch T oys , J une 2022
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