THE SETTER. 179 



There is as much difference in dogs' faces as there is 

 in that of men ; and I should as much expect to find the 

 qualities of a Walter Scott, a Napoleon, or a Washington, 

 in a being with the face of Hogarth's bad- apprentice or 

 of a Jew prize fighter, as I should think to find a dog, 

 with a cross, spiteful expression, a curt nose, thick jaws, 

 and a narrow brow with a deep cleft between the eyes, a 

 first-rate animal for intellect, memory and affection. 



For the rest, a pendulous jowl and hanging lip are a 

 defect in a setter, as they are the reverse in a pointer. 

 Medium-sized dogs are the best, both for endurance of 

 work and for convenience of transportation ; besides which, 

 I consider great size and heavy bone, especially if coupled 

 with harsh coat, a symptom of coarse blood. 



A setter should be high and thin in the withers, snaky 

 in the neck, roomy in the chest, long in the arms and 

 quarters, short in the lower legs, round and cat-like in the 

 feet, well fringed or feathered on belly and legs, and well 

 furnished with pad and toe-tufts. The bone of his tail 

 should be slender ; however well, and it cannot be too well, 

 feathered ; his coat cannot be too soft and silky, nor can 

 he, in all respects, be too beautiful. 



His beauty is a sign of the purity of his race ; and in 

 some sort which I fear is rarely or never the case with 

 us men an indication of superior intellectual qualifica- 

 tions ; but then it must be remembered that, although 

 every dog is, at one period of his existence, a puppy, one 

 never has heard of a canine fop, or, except in the old 

 fable, of one who used a looking-glass. 



The points of the Irish setter are a more bony, angular 



