The English Setter 107 



engravings from paintings of setters by different artists. The one by 

 Reinagle shows a beautiful dog, much handsomer and of a great deal 

 more quality than the same artist's setter in the "Sportman's Reposi- 

 tory," of twenty-five years later. The very extraordinary setter ac- 

 companying the game-keeper is a painting by G. Stubbs, a very famous 

 animal artist. 



We now take up the actual history of the making of the English setter, 

 and we are not only indebted for all pertinent information on the subject to 

 the late Edward Laverack, but above that we are most unquestionably in- 

 debted to him for placing the setter in its proper position as a field dog and 

 for the development of the type which was not only the standard of excel- 

 lence in his day, but that upon which we have built the present-day setter. 

 For some peculiar reason it has been the custom of a certain class of writers 

 to belittle Mr. Laverack and what he accomplished, alleging that the incon- 

 sistencies in his statements regarding the pedigrees of his dogs and some 

 such small matters condemned the whole business. If Mr. Laverack had 

 never given a single pedigree with any of his dogs, and had never told any 

 person how they were bred, they would have been just as good workers, 

 just as good looking and in every way as useful in building up the breed. 

 As a strain they were unequalled in their day, and but for them Americans 

 would have had poor material in the way of importations with which to 

 improve the natives of inter-variety breeding. Strangest of all, most of those 

 who attacked Mr. Laverack and his dogs were thick-and-thin supporters 

 of what has been named the "Llewellyn" setter, a strain made up from 

 dogs bought, not bred, by Mr. Purcell Llewellyn, one-half of the desired 

 pedigree being Laverack blood. On this subject we will have more to say 

 later. 



But for Mr. Laverack we should know nothing of the various strains 

 kept by sporting gentlemen of prominence throughout England and Scot- 

 land, and in his book, "The Setter," is to be found all that later writers 

 knew about the various strains and which they made use of without com- 

 punction as original. Mr. Laverack's book is now exceedingly scarce, 

 almost, if not quite, as hard to secure as the first edition of " Stonehenge," 

 which many have thought did not exist. As Mr. Laverack's text is con- 

 densed it may be copied in full, so far as reference is made to the leading 

 varieties of the English setter from the time his knowledge of them began, 

 which we may set down as 1815-20. 



