The first Welsh Club Stud Book was compiled in June, 1903 by Major P. F. Brine and recorded the pedigrees of Welsh Terriers from 1854. Herbert Compton noted in The Twentieth Century Dog that such pedigrees dating back to such a year “invests the breed with a dignity of antiquity that few others can aspire to.”
Further, he wrote, “It is pleasing to note that Major Brine set himself this admirable task out of sheer admiration for a Welsh terrier [sic] called Brilliant, the best little dog he ever had. Like the dog, the idea was brilliant. Si monumentum requiris, what can you desire better than this? Therein breathes the true dog-lover’s spirit. A few fanciers with similar sympathies might dower our various breeds of dogs with similar valuable mementoes of their interest in the breed, and lay up a stock of priceless information for future generations, which may not be otherwise obtainable by the ages that are to come.”*
*Herbert Compton, The Twentieth Century Dog, Compiled From The Contributions Of Over Five Hundred Experts (London: Grant Richards, 1904), 420-421.