The Irish Setter 161 



popular in Ireland than pointers, but quotes no description of colour or 

 appearance. Here, however, is proof of the existence of the "blood red 

 setter" in the Emerald Isle at that period. Colonel J. P. Hamilton pub- 

 lished in 1860 his "Reminiscences of an Old Sportsman," and in it we 

 find that he was for two years Inspecting Field Officer of Yeomanry in the 

 South of Ireland, and "in 1805" had some excellent woodcock shooting 

 in the County of Carlow. That sets us right as to the date. Then in a 

 chapter on spaniels and setters we find this statement: "In Ireland the 

 setter is called the English spaniel, having been originally brought from 

 England. I had one of these dogs, which I purchased at Waterford, it was 

 a blood red setter and certainly was beautiful in appearance . . . but 

 I shall hereafter mention his extraordinary instinct in finding his way over 

 the Welsh mountains back to Milford Haven, where I landed." Without 

 this last, seemingly irrelevant statement, we should have had no positive 

 evidence that the purchase was made in 1805. The promised anecdote is 

 given in a chapter on "The Instinct of Dogs," and begins as follows: 

 " Many years ago, when on the staff in Ireland I purchased at Waterford 

 a very handsome blood-red setter. In a few days I embarked in the 

 packet which sailed from Waterford to Milford Haven with my dog." Here 

 we have the connecting link as to 1805 being the date. The story is, that 

 the dog was taken inside of a coach for a distance of fifteen miles over 

 a rough mountainous country, and that, making his escape from the house 

 to which he had been taken, he found his way back on the same night to 

 the wharf at Milford Haven. That is to us an immaterial point. What 

 is worthy of notice is that the dogs in question were acknowledged as of 

 English origin by the common name of English spaniels, and that the 

 blood red colour must have been not uncommon, for it is merely specified 

 that this particular setter was "one of them" the ordinary English spaniel, 

 as they were called. 



Corroborative evidence as to the name of English spaniel for the setter 

 in Ireland and also as to colour is to be found in a foot note in Daniel's 

 "Rural Sports" (London, 1807). The note is as follows: " Mr. Thornhill 

 describes the Irish setter, termed English spaniels, as bringing very high 

 prices when of peculiar breeds. The colours of these choice sorts are 

 deep chestnut and white, or all red, with the nose and roof of the mouth 

 black. He mentions a gentleman in the North of Ireland who once gave 

 to his tenant for a dog and bitch of this kind the renewal of a lease of a 



