A-Z Challenge 2014 - 'W'

W - West Highland Terrier, Wheaten Terrier, Whippet,
       Welsh Terrier

There used to be stories about an English man, an Irish man, a Scots man and a Welsh man.The same principal applies to this post about dogs, but in a different sequence.

Poppy, a West Highland Terrier, featured in my series about North Yorkshire Village dogs.

Poppy - West Highland Terrier

You may read about her here.

"Westies" originated from Scotland and have a distinctive white coat. They were bred to hunt small rodents at places such as farms. However the Westie I met at Whitby in North Yorkshire had a carriage of its own.

Fast asleep - it had had a busy day

I always like meeting Archie, he's the most laid back dog I know.

Archie - Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier

The Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier originated in Ireland and is possibly one of the oldest Irish dog breeds. They were once known as the 'poor man's dog,' working on farms as herders and hunters of vermin and small game.

When I first Archie he had a patch of ginger hair. He had rolled on a dead hedgehog and had to have some hair cut off before the vet could remove all the spines. For a while, as his hair grew back, you could not miss that ginger patch.

When I was boy towards the end on WWII my father bought a whippet from Monmouthshire (South Wales). I used to take her out for walks. I wrote a (long) story about one such walk called 'The Chase.' It began - 

"The whippet sat bolt upright on the grass, shivering with anticipation of being allowed to run. When the command came, ‘Away Flick, away,’ she was gone. She cleared the dry stone wall by the roadside at such a speed that from afar she appeared to be just a flash of brown against the grey dry stones and against the green field where she landed – or did she? She seemed to be flying - close to the ground like a different-coloured swallow on the wing in a desperate hunt for flies." 

Phoebe - a brindle/white Whippet

Whippets are sight hounds, popular as racing dogs. They can reach speeds of 35 mph (56 km/hr). The English Whippet or Snap Dog was even known as the 'poor man's racehorse.'

When I first met my Welsh dog I thought she was an Airedale puppy; I was wrong.

Tilly - Welsh Terrier

She is owned by the same couple that used to own Joe, the Airedale Terrier, I included in the Challenge under 'A.

The Welsh Terrier is claimed to be the oldest dog breed in the UK. Bred originally to hunt rodents and badgers they are now largely a show dog.

Famous owners of Welsh Terriers have included President J F Kennedy and the UK Prime Minister Clement Attlee.

I hope you have the time to watch the video with which I end the post. It's quite delightful.

Building Bridges - Sepia Saturday

Back in 1955 I went to St Andrews University to start my studies there. My first trip, by train, took me over one of Britain's iconic bridges.

East Coast Express crossing the Forth Bridge (1928)

Alan's prompt this week is of a flimsier bridge.

Rough Wooden Bridge Over River, Group With Dog on the Shore

[The image  comes from the Phillips Glass Plate Negative Collection, at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia. The Museum provides no further information the location of the bridge but the brilliance of on-line communities is  such that information is soon forthcoming : the footbridge was in Mosman Bay on the north shore of Sydney Harbour. The location of the photograph is not the only question posed by the title - it takes a sharp eye to spot the reported dog.]

The route to St Andrews takes the train over the River Tay. At that stage in my journey I knew nothing about an ill-fated journey on 28 December 1879.

Original Tay Bridge - seen from the north

William McGonagall, claimed by some to have been the worst poet in history, began his 1880 poem, "The Tay Bridge Disaster" with the words:

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,

Which will be remember’d for a very long time.

The whole poem and some notes about the disaster may be read  here  - 75 people lost their lives when the bridge collapsed and took their train with it.

River Tay Bridge, middle section collapse, - 1880

Aged 18, I knew nothing about this but I did wonder what it was I could see in the water.

Tay Bridge (1981)

If you look closely you will see, to the right of the bridge, the plinths on which the original bridge stood.

During my time at St Andrews I studied geology as a subsidiary subject. This involved a number of field trips. During Easter 1957 we visited the island of Raasay off the West Coast of Scotland.

The Isle of Skye (viewed from Raasay 1957)

We travelled to Raasay by boat but never got to Skye. These days,of course, there is no need for a boat to reach Skye.

The Skye Road Bridge

 I'm sure you all will have heard of the Scottish folk song recalling the escape of Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) from Uist to Skye after his defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. The song tells how Charles escaped in a small boat with the aid of Flora MacDonald, disguised as a serving maid.

I hope you will like this version:

While I was at St Andrews there was a debate in the Students' Union about the need (in those days) for a Forth Road Bridge. The English undergraduate who demanded to to know what had happened to the first three was howled down!

I've driven over the bridge that was built later and also over the suspension bridges over the River Humber and the River Severn. Not wanting to leave without a reference to dogs, this pair used to swim in the River Severn alongside their home.

Milly and Cara (Irish Water Spaniels)

But as this post has mainly been about Scotland perhaps this is more appropriate.

Poppy (West Highland Terrier)

I thought about ending with the theme from the Bridge over the River Kwai but settled for this instead.

Now it's up to you to march off to see who's on parade at sepia-saturday-154

Attributions:

• LNER East Coast Express Photo by  L&NE Ry; scanned from Alan, Cecil J (1928) The Steel Highway; scanned by Andy Dingley
• Original Tay Bridge before its collapse, seen from the north (between 1878-1879); scanned by Peterrhyslewis 2007.
• River Tay Bridge, middle section collapsed, photographed by Valentines in 1880; scanned by Peterrhyslewis 2007.
• Tay Bridge (1981) The bridge that replaced the ill-fated original; Anne Burgess for geograph.org.uk - CC BY-SA 2.0
• The Skye Road Bridge connecting the Isle of Skye to mainland Scotland - 10 June 2005 - by Jörn Albring.
•  Youtube - Paul Robeson - Skye Boat Song, Uploaded by Alberto Truffi on 11 Mar 2010
  From the compilation An Evening with Paul Robeson a famous Scottish folk song performed by the great singer and actor. Taken from an Emitape mono 3 3/4 ips of the early sixties.
• Youtube - Music Video for The Movie The Devil's Brigade -  uploaded by Johnnyquest