Hi, can I comment these old British Dog books are very hard to comprehend by some, because of the way they were written obviously. And believe me I have very many.
The Scotch Terrier was a breed upon itself. The term "Scotch terriers" were refered to dogs from those counties persae (Scotland has Aberdeenshire,Paisley, Isle of Skye etc). These types of dogs from these differing areas all showed under the same catagories until specific more relevant show catagories were added at Shows.
Scotland is the home of many short-legged and rough-coated breeds of Terriers,(alot of them are white) which closely linked one to another. Which of these types is the original is hard to state with accuracy, but it has been stated that the Cairn Terrier represents the type from which the West Highland White, Scottish,Skye and Clydesdale Terriers have sprung. The Cairn itself was once called by many many early breeders the short-haired Skye Terrier. The Skye is at least 300 years old, of purely Scottish origin, Queen Victoria having owned several, one of those were indeed presented to her by Mr Pratt. The Skye of today is of course vastly different appearance from the early type. You can read into a book what you wish to see, in an endeavour to trace a white dog. The colours of the Skye are Blue-Grey, Fawn or Cream, often with Black or dark points on the ears and head.
What is very important here is where ever there is a breed standard, set in type and colour, that is the breed standard and no amount of bulling will change a Tan dog with a Blue saddle (Pure bred Yorkie) into a White dog with a Black saddle, an all white dog, a brown dog etc etc into a recognised Pure bred British Yorkie.(should we also suggest that a nice little West Highland White is in the gene pool of our beloved Yorkie, and that is the reason why the parti dog appeared in America) We do not have these colours in our UKKC registry, our clubs do not recognise them, clubs that have looked over this breed for hundreds of years.
