104 British Dogs. 



there is, in respect to the setter, a general agreement among writers and 

 breeders that our present dog is largely derived from the spaniel ; indeed, 

 the proofs of this are very conclusive the family likeness is in many 

 respects yet strongly preserved, and in some kennels, where they have 

 kept pretty much to their own blood, following different lines from our 

 show and field trial breeders, this is most markedly so. No more 

 pronounced instance of this has come under my notice for years than a 

 number of dogs, all of the same blood, shown by the Earl of Carlisle and 

 other gentlemen at the Border Counties Show at Carlisle in January, 1877. 

 These were mostly liver and white in colour, stood higher than the show- 

 bench spaniel, shorter and rounder in the head than the present day 

 setter, but strong useful looking dogs, showing a lot of spaniel character 

 in general formation, carriage of ears, and coat and feathering, the coat 

 having a strong tendency to curl, and some of them showing as distinct 

 a topknot as the Irish water spaniel, although not so large. The writer on 

 setters in the " Sportsman's Cabinet," 1802, tells us that in his day, in 

 the northern counties, the pointer was called the smooth spaniel, the 

 setter the rough spaniel ; and, although he speaks of this localism with 

 surprise as a misnomer, it was really the preservation of an old distinction, 

 the setters, or setting spaniels, being so named to divide them from their 

 congeners, used for different work, and named cockers and springers. 

 Our forefathers do not appear to have been so fastidious respecting the 

 appearance of their dogs as we are, but undoubtedly the spaniel was pre- 

 eminently their setting dog, both for use with the net and the gun. 



In a much older book than the " Sportsman's Cabinet," the " Gentle- 

 man's Recreation," the writer gives the following directions how to 

 select a setting dog : " The dog which you elect for setting must have a 

 perfect and good scent, and be naturally addicted to the hunting of 

 feathers, and this dog may be either land spaniel, water spaniel, or 

 mongrel of them both, either the shallow- flowed hound, tumbler, lurcher, 

 or small bastard mastiff. But there is none better than the land spaniel, 

 being of a good and nimble size, rather small than gross, and of a 

 courageous mettle, which, though you cannot discern being young, yet 

 you may very well know from a right breed which have been known to be 

 strong, lusty, and nimble rangers, of active feet, wanton tails, and busy 

 nostrils, whose tail was without weariness, their search without change- 

 ableness, and whom no delight did transport beyond fear and obedience. " 



