All Fine and Dandie

‘It is common knowledge that, if Sir Walter Scott had not published Guy Mannering in 1815, the history of the development of the wise, wily and workmanlike terriers from north of the Border might have been quite different,’ wrote S. M. Lampson in Country Life in February 1964.

In that article, aptly titled ‘Terrier Made Famous by a Novel’, Lampson reflected on Scott’s vivid portrayal of the breed’s training — a passage many breed lovers know by heart:

‘I had them a’ regularly entered, first wi’ rottens — then wi’ stots or weasels — then wi’ the tods and brocks — and now they fear naething that ever cam wi’ a hairy skin on ’t.’

The breed owes its name to Roxburghshire farmer James Davidson’s terriers, Pepper and Mustard, which caught the author’s eye. In Guy Manne

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