PRESENTED BY
THE DOMESDAY BOOK OF DOGS
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| Old time whippet race. Mason 1915. |
Unfortunately, those of the lower classes who might have indulged in poaching forays, rabbit coursing or terrier racing were not the same people who authored dog books or dictionaries. Many works are linked to this article but the inferences may, or may not, be accurate. For the bulk of the nineteenth century 'snap dog' was a term used for a greyhound cross (Murray, 1919), synonymous with lurcher, or a small lurcher at least. By the end of that century it had come to mean specifically 'whippet'.
The reverend Hinchcliffe, 1856, recounts meeting a poacher and describes his dogs thus: "one, a well bred spaniel; the other, what he called 'a snap dog', a diminutive but well formed greyhound, with part of its tail taken off, in order to avoid the greyhound tax." During their conversation the poacher admitted at times using the snap dog to drive deer into his nets. Other references attest to the dogs being used to drive game and also describe them as being half bred greyhounds (Evans, 1881; Deadfall, 1868; Gardeners' Chronicle, 1844; Peacock, 1889). Sometimes they were simply referred to as a 'snap' because they were "excellent at snapping, or jumping on a hare", Pegge, 1896 (n.b. Pegge's Derbycisms were collected in the eighteenth century). Snap dogs were possibly small lurchers, given that the name was eventually applied to whippets, and there’s not much more to be gleaned from the information available. It's entirely possible that snap dogs were used as an outcross to speed up strains of terrier for the working class sports of rabbit coursing and terrier racing. If this were the case then the main beneficiaries of the snap dog blood could have been the Manchester terrier and the English white terrier. Probably not the Bedlington terrier as that breeds roached back and tucked up loins are definitely a twentieth century phenomenon.
The dog tax mentioned in the previous paragraph as ‘the greyhound tax’ was introduced in 1796 and remained in force until 1882 (Murden 2019). Five shillings per annum “for each greyhound, pointer, setting dog, spaniel, lurcher or terrier” was levied against the owner. As working dogs, with cropped tails, were exempt there were always the unscrupulous who were prepared to mutilate their dogs at a time when agricultural wages were usually between nine shillings and twelve shillings a week (M. Lyle). A running dog uses its tail rather like a rudder so a stunted tail might well impede its working ability during daylight hours. For chasing game into nets under cover of darkness, however, the lack of a full length tail probably wouldn’t matter so much.
By 1862 snap dogs were being mentioned as a separate type to lurchers. A comment in Hansard under the Game Amendment Bill (Bill No. 123) says “a good ground to suspect that any lurchers, snap dogs, springing dogs, nets, or engines are in possession of any person not legally authorized,” (sic).
There was, once, a rough or wire-haired variety of whippet (Hubbard, 1948; Hotspur, 1908; Cormany, 2011), so the snap dog may conceivably have been either rough-haired or smooth-haired. Whereas pot-filling lurchers might usually be pastoral breeds x greyhound hybrids it's possible that snap dogs were terrier x greyhound hybrids (Shaw, 1881). At the turn of the twentieth century ‘Sleeper’, 1906, and ‘The kennel’, 1899, use the term snap dog synonymously with whippet. They differ, however, in the way they believe the dogs were produced. ‘The Kennel’ claims the best snap dogs/whippets could be got by crossing greyhounds with Italian greyhounds; but ‘Sleeper’ refutes this suggestion and says the best dogs were crosses between greyhounds and Manchester terriers and possibly with a further back cross to greyhound. If Sleeper is correct or even largely correct in his claim then it is likely that the Manchester terrier was not a by-product of whippet production but rather an integral part of the whippet’s ancestry. Both ‘The Kennel’ and ‘Sleeper’ are discussing dog breeding in Australia; given the distance between the two seats of production it’s perhaps remarkable that the Australian whippet didn’t develop along at least slightly different lines to that of the English variety.
Rabbit coursing, with all its atrocities, was finally banned by the Protection of Animals Act (1911) Amendment Act 1921, whilst whippet racing became exceedingly popular and helped put paid to the abominably cruel practice. Forget about hare coursing, which is not everyone’s cup of tea but at least affords the hares eighty yards law and, often, the chance of escape; rabbit coursing was a particularly grisly ‘sport’ where previously netted rabbits were tipped out of a bag or cage in front of a pair of dogs, normally terriers or their crosses. This was usually done in a yard or other area from which the rabbits had no escape. If there was a slight chance of escape then, just in case, there would be a greyhound on hand to intercept the rabbit, and to finish the job. If a pair of dogs were rookies then the rabbit may have a leg deliberately broken to make it an easier catch. Sadly, on release in unfamiliar surroundings most rabbits either dashed around in a confused manner or simply squatted down and awaited their fate as dispensed by the dogs.
Why 'snap dog'? As we’ve seen, adeptness at snapping up game is one plausible reason; small lurchers are more dextrous when it comes to turning during the chase. Another possible reason may be that 'snap' or snapping' are colloquialisms for food in many Midland and Northern parts of Britain. So it could be that a snap dog meant a food provider.
Where does the name whippet come from? That’s another name about which we can’t be sure. It could come from wappet, which was any small yappy dog used as a watchdog during the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. There were only two criteria for wappets: they had to be small enough to hide under furniture and they also had to be noisy. There is one other name in the Anglosphere, the whiffet, which was a term used for any small yappy dog in North America: "I was much annoyed, however, by the little whiffet dogs that run out upon passengers from every hovel, barking till they are out of sight" (Sansom, 1817). The term whiffet appears to have been used as a term of derision rather like 'cur' in the US and Canada. There are many examples of the term whiffet from the nineteenth century and the Litchfield Enquirer, 1833, describes a whiffet befriending a caged lion in Northern Liberties (now part of Philadelphia). The problem with the wappet and the whiffet is that, although they’ve both been described as ‘vermin killers’, should you find yourself on someone else's land taking illicit game the last thing you want with you is a noisy dog: poachers expect their dogs to hunt mute. Perhaps, improbably, the name was an amalgam of wappet and whiffet. If we allow our imagination to run away with us a bit, the whippet could be an Anglo-Australian dog with an Anglo-American name. But, and it's a big but, Shirley, 1640 used the term as an insult thus "... I shall swing you with a horse-rod, you whippet" and Tilford, 1666 said "but infinitely more than if a man for feare of the biting of a whippet or the stinging of a bee." In either of these two examples one could easily substitute cur. Littleton, 1684; Altieri, 1750 and Baretti, 1771 all use the term whippet synonymous with ‘cur’ and the latter even says in his definition of Botolo: “a cur, a whippet, a mongrel dog.” By mongrel could Barretti have meant crossbreed?
There's a thought. As the term/insult 'whippet' dates from at least the seventeenth century perhaps it was the original name that was corrupted into 'wappet' in the UK and 'whiffet' in North America. It's just a shame that the whippet as a breed can't be traced back to the 17th century.
References.
Loves Crueltie: a tragedy ... James Shirley, 1640. Tho. Cotes for Andrew Cooke.
Exposition and Practical Observations ... Rev. Thomas Tilford, 1666.
LatinDictionary, Vocabulary and Grammar. Adam Littleton 1684 (def. of Catulus).
Dizionario Italiano ed Inglese.
Altieri, Palermo (ed), 1750. p81.
A Dictionary of
the English and Italian Languages … Baretti, 1771 (def. of BO’TOLO)
Sketches of lower Canada etc. Joseph Sansom. Printed for Kirk and Mercein. 1817
Litchfield Enquirer. January 10th, 1833
Gardeners'
chronicle and agricultural gazette, Mar. 30, 1844.
Barthomley inletters ... Rev. E.
Hinchcliffe. Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans.
1856.
Hansard’s parliamentary
debates. Column 1206. June 30th, 1862.
The experiences of a game
preserver. Deadfall. 1868. Cox, London.
Leicestershire words, phrases and
proverbs. Evans, 1881.
The illustrated book of the
dog. 1881. Vero Shaw. Cassell, Petter, Galpin & co.
Wapentakes of Manley etc.
Peacock. P501. English dialect society, Trubner & Co., 1889.
Two collections of
Derbycisms. 1896. Rev. Dr. Samuel Pegge. Oxford university press.
The Kennel, Chronicle (Adelaide)
Sat. 14th Oct. 1899.
Sleeper. Kalgoorlie Miner (WA)
Friday 13th July. 1906.
Hotspur. Leader (Melbourne)
Sat. 19th Dec. 1908.
Dogs of all nations. 1915. W. E. Mason. Panama Pacific.
A new English dictionary on historical… Sir James Murray et al.Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1919. P305
Dogs in Britain. MacMillan
& Co. C. L. B. Hubbard. 1948.
Sporting Air Rifle. The Lurcher. D.Brian Plummer. December, 1984.
Rough-haired whippet. 2011. Christine Cormany. Wordpress.
Taxing of dogs in the 18th century. Sarah
Murden 2019
Regional agricultural wage
variations in early nineteenth-century England. Margaret Lyle.
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