THE ENGLISH SETTER 257 



old-fashioned sportsman, had a breed that he set great store by, 

 though the specimens thereof were the most uneven that one can 

 imagine in general form and also in working qualities. The writer 

 remembers seeing from one litter that this gentleman bred a tall, 

 long-headed, light, and airy brother, a beautiful goer and very good 

 in the field, and a thick, cobby, bull-headed sister, as heavy as a 

 cart-horse and practically useless. 



The sporting county of Salop possessed one of the best and 

 most famous old strains of Setter, that of the well-known baronet 

 Sir Vincent Corbet, the portraits of many of which still adorn the 

 walls of the hall at Acton Reynald. These dogs were lemon-and- 

 white ; and one of them, Slut, became by Sir F. Grahame's Duke 

 the dam of another Duke, far famed as the ancestor of the best 

 modem strains of Setter. This strain of Sir V. Corbet's seems 

 also to have been in the possession of a Shrewsbury tradesman 

 named Hall, and was crossed in later days with the Marquis of 

 Anglesea's breed the Beaudesert black-white-and-tan, as well as 

 with the Grahame as aforesaid. 



The Border counties of Cumberland and Westmorland and the 

 adjacent parts of Scotland boast themselves as having been the 

 home par excellence of the Setter. 



The Duke of Gordon's kennel, well known to fame, consisting 

 for the most part of the colour black-white-and-tan, was no doubt 

 the progenitor of a great part of the fashionable blood of both 

 ancient and modern days, and the Lords Lovat, Seafield, Cawdor, 

 and Southesk had notable strains. The Marquis of Breadalbane 

 also had a strain known locally as "blue marbles" and "red 

 marbles." No doubt all these breeds were at one .time kept very 

 jealously to themselves ; indeed, as late as 1872 Lord Lovat's was 

 preserved intact at all events, was supposed to be ; but a few years 

 later the specimens had become smaller in size and were evidently 

 deteriorating. 



Most probably these strains were sooner or later mixed together, 

 and many an offshoot must have come into the possession of local 

 sportsmen. There was one curious peculiarity observed in many 

 of these Scotch dogs under the ordinary coat there was an 

 underlay er of a sort of soft wool. This most probably originated 

 from their having been kept for generations in exposed kennels in 

 the cold north-country winters. 



When paying a visit in the sixties to the kennels of the Rev. 

 T. Pearce (" Idstone ") at Morden, in Dorset, the writer recollects 

 seeing there some very handsome Setters, black-white-and-tan, 

 orange-and-white, lemon-and-white ; these, it appears, Mr. Pearce 

 was accustomed to buy through agents from Scotland at the close of 

 the grouse season at very low prices, he would then put his "imprim- 

 atur" on them, and sell them again at high figures. These dogs 



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