CHAPTER XXVI 



THE BLACK-AND-TAN (OR GORDON) 

 SETTER 



WHETHER the dog under consideration should be called the Black- 

 and-tan or the . Gordon Setter is a subject open to controversy ; 

 but of one thing there is no doubt, as the authentic records of 

 breeders prove, that many of the best modern Black-and-tan Setters 

 have a large commixture of that Gordon Castle blood which became 

 in the early part of last century so famous as to stamp the varietal 

 name of Gordon Setters on its possessors. 



Whether the original colour was black-and-tan or black, white, and 

 tan, is doubtful, and the question has been debated at great length 

 in the Field and other periodicals, and it would be futile and quite 

 impossible in such a brief monograph of this breed to reopen the 

 question. Suffice it that the balance of opinion seems to favour the 

 statement that the black, white, and tan was more greatly in evidence 

 at this early date when the general body of sportsmen began to take 

 more practical interest and greater care in the breeding of those 

 animals which ministered to their sport. 



Every practical breeder is well aware that, given a parti-coloured 

 race to begin with, it is easy by elimination to produce what he 

 wishes, not in colour only but also in structural change. Fashion 

 has its cycles in dogs as in everything else, and in those early 

 days, as it is now, it was not a difficult matter for one strong breeder 

 to produce his own ideal, and by perseverance to induce many 

 followers and believers. In this way one can explain how our 

 numerous varieties of dogs have originated, and in our exhibitions 

 of dogs at the present day we have examples of the original 

 breed diverging in type and outward appearance to such an extent 

 that none but an expert could possibly associate these various 

 varieties with a common ancestor, and that of a comparatively 

 recent date. 



Admitting that the Black-and-tan Setter had a common 

 ancestor with the English and Irish Setters, most probably from 

 a setting Spaniel, as our earliest authorities seem unanimously 

 to assert (Daniel, in his " Rural Sports " quotes from a document 



