164 The Dog Book 



The one I saw at Cockermouth Castle I consider, without any exception, 

 to have been the most magnificent specimen of an Irish setter I ever saw. 

 The General informed me that when he commanded the troops in Ireland 

 he saw and shot over the best specimens of this breed and stated some were 

 excellent, others worthless. The dog alluded to, he told me, was made a 

 present to him by an Irish nobleman, whose name I have forgotten. This 

 dog was very long in head, particularly low, very oblique in shoulders, 

 wheeled or roach backed, very deep and broad in the chest, remarkably 

 wide behind the shoulders, and very short in the back and legs, more so 

 than any Irish setter I ever saw. He had an immense profusion of coat, 

 with a tinge of black on the tips of his ears. 



"I should have bred from this dog but for the following reasons, and I 

 think I was right: no one was ever able to break him, and his stock were 

 frequently black. Rowland Hunt's dog also got black puppies occasionally, 

 evidently denoting that there must have been a black strain in the breed. 



"Captain Cooper's Stella, a sister to his Ranger, who obtained the 

 first prize at Birmingham and Dublin, also occasionally throws black 

 puppies. Notwithstanding this strain of black in the breed, the best and 

 most perfectly formed Irish setters I have ever seen had this stain or tint 

 of black, which I should never object to, although I am well aware many of 

 the most eminent Irish breeders state that they ought to be without any 

 tint of black whatever in their coats. 



"As far as I have seen and been informed, for general goodness and 

 working properties, those possessing this tint of black have been quite as 

 good, if not better, than those without it. 



"Mr. Shorthose's Irish setter Ben, blood red with a tinge of black, 

 who has obtained upwards of forty prizes at exhibitions, gets a proportion, 

 of black puppies. 



"My firm belief is that no Irish setter exists without throwing back 

 occasionally to black. I can understand breeders preferring the blood 

 red, without this tinge of black, and retaining the blood red in preference, 

 but my idea is that those having a tinge of black are the better dogs, although 

 the colour may be objected to. 



"There is another colour of Irish setters, blood red and white, quite 

 as pure, indeed some people maintain of greater antiquity and purity of 

 blood than the blood red. Both the blood red and the blood red and white 

 will throw each colour, evidently denoting they are of the same strain. 



