Part 17

There may be dogs of the old type hidden away in Ireland, and if so they are much more worthy of attention than those which for so long have been bred for show points. The best Irish setters the author has seen for the last ten years are those of Mr. Cheetham. This gentleman kept them for grouse shooting in the Lews, and as his shooting was late in the year, when the heat had departed, they were admirably suited for the purpose.

The opinions given are of course based upon comparisons of the breed with the very best of other races of setters and pointers. There is one point, however, in which the Irish setters seem to be the inferiors of all others—namely, the large proportion of inferior animals bred, compared with the small number up to a fair English setter working standard. This remark has reference to the natural ability, and not at all to the difficulty of breaking the breed. The latter charge against them is true also, but only because their excitement is greater than their love of questing. Mostly they would rather chase a hare than point a bird. It has been said of them that they want breaking afresh every year, but that has not been the experience of the author, who has invariably found that a thoroughly broken dog is broken for life, of whatever breed it may happen to be.

Irish breaking, however, has not always been very thorough.

It has sometimes been said of the _old_ dogs of Ireland that they required half a day’s work before they were steady. In that case, they would require similar renewal of breaking every day, and the author has made the observation that such dogs are too wild all the morning and too tired all the afternoon to be a pleasure to shoot over.

But they are not all hard to break; some of those which are not too excitable are very collie-like in their intuition of your wishes and their anxiety to obey them.

It is noteworthy that the Irish have always held their field trials in the autumn.

An old writer says that the English claim theirs as the true English spaniel, whereas the Irish claim theirs to be the real true English spaniel. This is not very informative. The dogs alluded to were of course both setters, but of what colour we are not told in respect of the Irish dog.

The author shot over the celebrated field trial winner Plunket for several seasons and ran him at field trials, but after he had turned two years he was little use in the spring, whereas he won well in the autumn, when game was shot to his points. In this he was similar to a much better dog, his own son, already referred to. Plunket was a fast dog, and his boldness and beauty in going up to game was quite remarkable, as he would draw up to birds at racing speed, as if he meant catching them, but stopped suddenly and in time. Then, when they ran away from his point, the moment he was ordered to draw on he would again dash forward, and again locate his game with equally sudden points. But the majority of good English setters at that time could out-stay him, and particularly the Laverack setters Countess and Nellie, with which he often worked, could have killed him. Mr. O’Callaghan’s setters were rarely good enough to go to field trials, and although two of them won there, they were very lucky to do so. Perhaps these dogs deteriorated less than any other breed that were bred for show, or perhaps it would be safer to say they declined in work slower than others, but there is no doubt that they were on the down grade, not only in work but in true setter appearance. That they were as _pretty_ as any dogs could be at one time is freely admitted, but they had lost three-parts of the scope of Palmerston and Kate, and their character of work was spaniel-like rather than setter-like—in fact, just what their looks led one to expect they would prove to be.

Unfortunately, the author has never seen the Irish field trials: the reason is that the English pointers have usually proved better than the Irish setters, so that there seemed to be nothing novel to see by going. But it is very difficult to believe that the show Irish setters that usually represent the breed at English trials are the best workers of the race. The character of the breed when the author first saw it at work in the sixties was distinctly setter-like, and not spaniel-like.

There has been a great deal of controversy upon how the dark-red colour arose. Mr. John King, who knew more of Irish setters than any other man known to the author, affirmed that red-and-white was the original colour, and the general opinion was that those of the last-named markings were the most easy to break. All the most setter-like Irish that have come before the author have had more or less white upon them, and as colour certainly denotes blood or origin, and the manner of hunting of the whole-red dogs is spaniel-like, it does not seem to be unlikely that the springer spaniel, the colour of a blood bay horse without a white hair spoken of by a Suffolk parson in the middle of the eighteenth century, may have had a good deal to do with the origin of the red Irish setter. At any rate, no other setters or spaniels of the colour can be traced in the early history of what was then the English spaniel, or the setter.

The same writer says that the English spaniels (setters) were of two colours, “black-and-tan” and “red-and-white,” so that there is another possible origin of the whole-coloured red dogs. Black-and-tan setters often produced a red dog, but not the Irish dark rich red. This red puppy in the litter might have arisen from an Irish cross, but, on the other hand, it might have been a blend with the lemon-and-white coloured English setters, or the result of puppies following the markings of one ancestor and the colour of another. Those that the author bred from black-and-tan parents had no dark hairs to suggest their origin, but neither had they the rich chestnut of the Irish setter. The writer’s experience of breeding dogs inclines him to the belief that the spaniel-like tendency of the breed, now that it is selected for all-red colour, is proof not only of its spaniel but probably of a springer origin. Their excitement, their merry low-carried sterns, and their noses on the ground, speak like an open book to one who has bred and watched the breeding of all races of setters for forty years, and has assured himself that selection for colour is the automatic selection of character usually found with that colour.

The late Mr. Laverack was of opinion that crossing his black-and-whites with the lemon-and-whites of the same litter was in fact equivalent to cross breeding. However, he lived to introduce red dogs in his breed, so that the former kind of crossing does not do everything. There is no doubt that size and fertility suffer by this method, but however often the incestuous breeding is repeated such a thing as a blend of the two colours was almost unknown—that is to say, when a liver-and-white one did, very rarely, make its appearance, Mr. Laverack himself traced it to a former cross with the Edmund Castle breed of liver-and-white setters. There was always a difference other than colour between the lemon-and-white and the black-and-white brothers and sisters—a difference which suggested two distinct sources of origin of not at all related breeds. Consequently, if the red-and-white has not been entirely eliminated from the Irish setter, and if they sometimes do revert, the author would expect the reversions to be more setter-like and less spaniel-like than the present show Irish setters, and to be more like Dr. Stone’s Dash and the Kate and Palmerston already mentioned.

Since writing the above, the author remembers that on one occasion he bred from an Irish dog and a black-and-tan bitch, with the result that the puppies were liver-coloured. Yet when two black-and-tans were bred together thirty-five years ago, there were usually a couple of red puppies in the litter showing neither liver, black, or black tinge, or even dark-red colours. This does not support the theory of a black-and-tan origin of the whole colour.

The collie-like sense of the Irish setter has been referred to, and a case of the kind may be of interest. In 1873 the author was shooting along the shores of a loch in Inverness-shire, hunting a brace of setters, one of which was a red Irish puppy. A grouse was killed that fell out into the lake, there about a mile wide and several miles long. The dogs dropped to shot, and there lay while the party waited to make sure that the wind would not bring in the grouse, for we had no retriever or any setter that had ever retrieved. It became evident at the end of a few minutes that the grouse was slowly drifting away, and the order was given to continue the beat, leaving the bird to its fate. But the young red setter was no sooner on its legs than it darted straight to the lake, jumped in, swam to the grouse, brought it to land and there dropped it, shook itself, and started to hunt for more live birds.

That was the first and also the last bird it ever retrieved, although it was constantly encouraged to make further attempts. Of course this looks like reason, but that is questionable. At any rate, it was startlingly smart, and about as unexpected a canine performance as could be conceived.

Another of the breed was so smart in finding wounded game that he ended as a retriever in Yorkshire grouse driving, and was said to be better than several retrievers, although he never lifted a bird, but merely put a foot on the grouse and waited to be relieved, when he would go quickly and straight to the next wounded bird, and so on until all were found.

It is probable that even wild grouse do not often fly from a dog unless they associate him with the presence of man. When using a parti-coloured team of black-white-and-tan setters with some lemon-and-white dogs, the author has noticed that wild grouse soon got to expect the man when they saw the dogs, and he has found that by using a red dog then, the birds behave differently, probably mistaking the Irish setter for a Scotch fox. At any rate, when they ought to have been very wild according to locality and season, grouse have been noticed to treat a red dog with a certain amount of resentment and walk away from him, flicking their tails as they move, plainly expecting the rush, and unwilling to fly before it came. What they obviously did not expect was that there was a man with a gun.

THE BLACK-AND-TAN SETTER

A sporting parson of the middle of the eighteenth century tells us that the English setters were then of two colours, red-and-white and black-and-tan. Whether the author meant to say black-white-and-tan seems a little doubtful, but in any case there were black-white-and-tan setters long before this, as is evidenced in one of Dürer’s pictures, and this Flemish artist died in 1528. When this picture was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1891, it escaped the notice of the author in spite of several visits, but Mr. Rawdon Lee describes the dog illustrated as a black-white-and-tan setter, less spaniel-like and more on the leg than the modern show setter. Then, half a century later, our earliest writer on the dog mentions the setter, or index, as a distinct dog from the spaniel, and at the same time throws doubt upon the Spanish origin of the latter. It was in 1570 that Dr. Caius of Cambridge wrote upon the dog; unfortunately he appears to have known nothing except the duties of the setter, for he does not describe either its origin, its colour, or appearance.

It has been said that the Duke of Gordon got the black-and-tan colour by crossing with the collie, but the majority of the Gordon Castle dogs were black-white-and-tan, and some were red-and-white. That is to say, they may have been and probably were the colours that the eighteenth-century writer meant when he described those of the “English spaniel”—that is, the English setter.

About 1873 the author had a long talk with the late Lord Lovat and his keeper, Bruce, at the kennels above the famous Beauly pools, that the same good sportsman rendered for ever famous by his wonderful kills of salmon.

It was an article of faith at Beaufort, where the kennel book had been kept up since the end of the eighteenth century, that the old Duke’s Gordon setters and their own living setters were identical in blood and appearance. They were bred together, and after the Duke’s death this inter-breeding was kept up between Lord Lovat’s and the other kennels which had the blood. One of the principal of these was that of Lord Rosslyn, in Fifeshire. But for some time this latter exchange of blood had been dropped, because Lord Rosslyn’s dogs had been crossed with the bloodhound to get nose, or so Bruce told the author.

What it did get was colour—that is, a bright black-and-tan without white; whereas those dogs that were black-and-tan in the Lovat kennel had white feet and fronts, but a very large majority had body white as well. At that period those black-and-tan setters that went to the shows were of two distinct types: one lot were light-made, active dogs, and the other, including the descendants of Rev. T. Pearce’s Kent and those of Lord Rosslyn’s blood, were very heavy in formation. Kent either had no pedigree or a doubtful one, but was all the fashion, and whereas a first cross with him was of benefit, in-breeding on all sides to him has rendered the black-and-tans of to-day lumbering, and so constitutionally weak that the exhibitors have been unable to keep the breed going, although they have neglected to demand working ability in favour of the points they adore. In the sixties and early seventies the Rev. Mr. Hutchinson, of Malmesbury, wrote a good deal about the lighter strain of black-and-tan setters which he and the late Sir Fred Milbank had constantly used together in the Lews. The author tried these dogs, and although they were certainly built for racing, they unfortunately could not race. Their breeder believed nothing could live with them, but when they came to be measured with others (and that is the only way to be sure) they were not better in speed than the heavy Kent and Rosslyn dogs, and not a patch upon the best Irish setters, which, again, were inferior in speed and stamina to the best English dogs. In 1870 the author entered a lot of his own breeding at the National Field Trials. They were reported by Mr. J. H. Walsh, then Editor of the _Field_, to have done “faultless” work, but were slow by comparison with some of the other dogs, and although that gentleman did not think they were beaten, disappointment at losing did not disguise from their owner that they were out-classed. From that time to quite recently no pure bred black-and-tan setter has had much of a look in at field trials, until Mr. Isaac Sharp came out with Stylish Ranger. But between the exquisite breaking of Mr. Sharp and the good nose of his dog they managed to get in front of all they met, at a period when field trial dogs were at a rather low ebb, and when in the judges’ opinions breaking counted for more than work. If those opinions had obtained in 1870, the author might have won all before him with his black-and-tans, but in that case he would probably never have acquired the knowledge of the infinitely better.

This first field trial attempt was made with the heavy Kent and Lord Rosslyn sort. The author bred several litters from direct crosses of Lord Rosslyn’s best dogs. His second attempt to win field trials was made with the light-made sort of setter from the Lews; but results were always the same. Still, although those results were true, the black-and-tan breed are never seen to advantage in the low country or in the hot atmosphere of central England. They become twice the dogs late in the season and on the high grounds of Scotland, and their size and long legs are not a hindrance in deep old heather. Moreover, they almost break themselves, or used to, thirty-six years ago, and where hills have moderate angles and shooters interminable patience, they are comfortable dogs to shoot over. Like the Irish, they do not mind wet and cold, and many of them have good noses and carry high heads. But they were different in character from English and Irish dogs. Once, and only once, the author has seen a setter draw down to a brook at some scent, apparently from the other side, but instead of crossing to investigate, on this occasion the dog stood up on his hind legs to get a higher current of the tainted air, and then, having made sure in that way, crossed the brook and pointed on the rising ground beyond. This performance was accomplished by one of the light-made black-and-tans of the Lews blood before spoken of. What any other breed of setters would have done would have been to swim the brook and try the other side in the first instance, and this incident sufficiently explains the difference of temperaments of the black-and-tan setters from those of other races. In other words, the wisdom of the black-and-tans is partly born of weakness of the flesh, for although bigger dogs than most setters, they are not able to carry the extra weight.

In the first Bala field trials the Marquis of Huntly had a son of Kent which, according to the points awarded by the judges, came out first. But the judges did not follow their points, and gave the award elsewhere. The author did not see that trial, but it is noteworthy because it was the last time a black-and-tan of pure blood seemed to have a chance of victory over the best of the period until the time of Stylish Ranger. It is also noteworthy because the dogs beaten, on the ground of bad breaking, afterwards proved towers of strength at the stud, whereas the victors did not. The beaten included Mr. Tom Statter’s pointer Major and Mr. Armstrong’s English setter Duke. Probably these were the two most potent influences of setter and pointer breeding that ever lived.

One incident in the breeding of black-and-tan setters did very much to make them for a time the most popular breed. It was this. Much controversy having arisen as to the setter character of Kent, a great dog-show winner, his owner asked the Editor of the _Field_ to select a puppy and run it at the field trials. This was done, and the puppy came out well, and actually beat the celebrated Duke on one occasion. This was naturally accepted as proof of the pure breeding of Kent and the correctness of his type. What it probably ought to have proved was that Rex (the young dog) was better than others, because he followed in instinct the pure bred side of his parentage, and received vitality from a not very remote outside cross of blood. Four years later, Duke was sire, or grandsire, of the winners of first, second, third, and fourth, at the National Field Trials, and the black-and-tans had practically ceased competition at those events.

The author may say of black-and-tans, as he has of the red Irish setters, that he never saw a great dog of the breed, although he has seen many good ones. Probably the best that ever ran in public was Mr. Sharp’s Stylish Ranger, but he would not have beaten the 1870 brigade on anything but breaking, or rather handiness; for Mr. Sharp could put him anywhere by a wave of the finger. It is probable that there are better black-and-tan setters kept in Scotch kennels for work than those which go to dog shows, and since Ranger’s withdrawal and exportation they have ceased again to appear at field trials.

They have been too long bred without back ribs, with light loins, with clumsy shoulders and big heads, to induce the belief that by selection they can be improved. But they might be placed on a much superior level by means of a cross and selection afterwards. Mr. Sharp’s celebrity was bred by Mr. Chapman, who is, or was, a dog-show man. It is necessary to say this in order to be quite fair to dog shows; but any attempt to improve the breed by crossing would be most likely to succeed by a cross on a base of black-and-tan setter that had been kept for several generations for work only. The show points valued for this breed are really not setter points at all. In considering the possibility of improving, it is always necessary to know the history of a breed, and that of the black-and-tan is undoubtedly indicated above. There is evidence in Mr. Thomson Gray’s _Dogs of Scotland_, published in 1891, to show that the origin of the Gordon setters was as suggested above—that is to say, black-and-tan and lemon- or red-and-white, just what the old Suffolk sportsman said of English setters fifty years before he wrote in 1775. Mr. Gray says there were also black-white-and-tans and liver-and-white dogs.

But the “Gordon setter” never meant what those setters originated from, but, on the contrary, what they became under the last Duke of Gordon, and this we have ample evidence, from Beaufort Castle, from the Duke of Richmond and Gordon’s kennel, and from Lord Cawdor’s strain, to prove was black-white-and-tan, and that was also the colour of the dogs at the dispersal of the Duke of Gordon’s kennel in 1837. So that it is a mistake to call black-and-tan setters Gordons, for although the Duke’s celebrated strain was partly originated from dogs of that colour, so also were all other English setters. Gervaise Markham, in _Hunger’s Prevention; or the whole art of fowling by Land and Water_, in 1665, speaks of black-and-fallow dogs as the hardest to endure labour, so that there is no doubt about the existence of black-and-tan setters before the Duke of Gordon started to pay attention to setter breeding. There is also no doubt that the Duke’s dogs were bred and crossed in colours until they became black-white-and-tan. The author has shown how the black-and-tan colour was restored in the Gordon of the present time by the bloodhound cross, and it only remains to say that the reason the black-and-tan colour is now accepted as that of the Gordon came about from the early classification of the Birmingham Dog Show, where true Gordons were placed in the English setter classes, and all kinds of black-and-tans in the class for Gordons, although some at least, probably many, of that colour were not Gordons. That the bloodhound cross destroyed the merits of the various races of that colour may be gathered from two facts. One was that the first dog show was won by a black-and-tan, and the other that the first field trial was also won by a black-and-tan. No doubt both these dogs were descended on one side or other of their pedigree from the Duke of Gordon’s dogs, but it is doubtful whether they got their black-and-tan from that side. Their pedigrees can be looked up in the first volume of the Stud Book. But if they are read by the light of a pedigree of a dog that belonged to the author and was of much the same breeding, a pedigree which also occurs in that volume, it will be seen that they might be Gordons only so far as they inherited black-white-and-tan blood, and were of other breeds so far as they inherited black-and-tan blood. To make what is intended clear, the entry is quoted:—

“Bruce—Mr. G. Teasdale-Buckell’s, Wellesley Hall, Ashby-de-la-Zouch: breeder, owner, born 1869 (dead). Pedigree: By Lord Rosslyn’s Rokeby (No. 1622) out of Blaze, by Old Reuben out of Belle, by Kent (No. 1600) out of Duchess, by Nell out of Stella, by Lord Chesterfield’s Regent (purchased at the Duke of Gordon’s sale) out of a Marquis of Anglesea bitch: Regent, black-white-and-tan, was by Old Regent out of the Duke of Gordon’s Ellen.”