THE ENGLISH SETTER 261 



Setter indeed, we may safely call it the only English Setter now 

 existing that deserves the name of a distinct strain. This was 

 originally evolved, and has been continued up to the present time, 

 by the judgment and devotion of its founder, Mr. Richard Purcell 

 Llewellin. Mr. Llewellin, the descendant of a noted old Welsh 

 sportsman of that name, commenced Setter breeding very soon 

 after the first inauguration of field trials, nearly forty years ago. 

 He began with black-and-tans and with some of the old-fashioned 

 English Setters. He entered these at trials and was badly beaten. 

 He then purchased some of the finest and best Irish Setters that 

 could be procured, and with them and their progeny he won ex- 

 tensively at dog shows and sometimes at trials. Not yet satisfied, 

 he tried crossing the Irish with the Laverack, and obtained thereby 

 some exceedingly handsome specimens, which at shows were well- 

 nigh invincible. Among these he bred a bitch called Flame, a 

 perfectly formed red-and-white of wonderful quality. This bitch, 

 it is worthy of note, after being sold by him, became the ancestress 

 of the fashionable show winners of past and present days, and 

 perhaps there are very few of these winners now which do not 

 contain some of her blood. 



His experience of the English and Irish cross was that although, 

 as stated, the progeny was invariably most handsome, yet it did 

 not possess the sporting instincts and capacities of either parent. 

 Mr. Llewellin, therefore, made further search for his ideal, and 

 at last found it. 



In 1871 he purchased, at a very high figure, the brace winners 

 at the Shrewsbury Trials, Dick and Dan. This splendid brace 

 of dogs was the property of Mr. Statter, Lord Derby's agent, and 

 had been bred by him by Armstrong's Duke, of Sir V. Corbet's 

 strain noted above, out of Rhaebe, who was nearly pure Gordon (by- 

 Gordon I do not mean black-and-tan). Mr. Llewellin discarded 

 Dick as vastly inferior to his brother Dan, and then crossed Dan 

 with the best pure Laverack bitches; and thus originated this 

 celebrated breed, individuals of which speedily eclipsed, both at 

 shows and trials, every other strain, and which still remains in its 

 owner's hands, pure, unstained, and as good and handsome as 

 ever. 



Mr. Llewellin's strain embraces and includes all the celebrated 

 blood of the old kennels that we have noted above, and it has 

 only been by the most careful and scientific selection, which, of 

 course, called for a judgment of which few men are possessed, 

 that he has so notably succeeded. The more perfectly shaped 

 animals were selected, and this with the greatest rigour, while all 

 that was at all faulty was discarded. The character also and the 

 innate proclivities of each individual were most carefully studied, 

 and the minor faults and infirmities in one individual were corrected 



