The breed’s mainly white coat meant the hounds would not confuse the Terrier with the fox during a hunt and kill it by mistake.
He was said to be so particular in his pursuit that he bred only those that were entirely white or had colour confined to the head and a small patch at the root of the tail. Legend has it that he acquired his first terrier ‘Trump’ around 1816 from a milkman, wanting to breed very specific characteristics. With a love of hunting typical of any 19th-century Englishman, Parson John Russell developed the Jack Russell Terrier (his namesake) almost 150 years ago to aid his fox hunts.
