i68 The Dog Book 



Lord Forbes's but once, and that was in the kennel. Mr. Wynne's I shot over 

 several times they were tremendous goers, but unsteady and headstrong." 



Colonel Whyte expressed his preference for a light built, muscular 

 dog "lighter in the ribs than most people would approve of, but great loins 

 and the hind legs of a hare. A longer, lighter, but a more lengthy and 

 supple animal than prize awarders approve of, but one that has the prime 

 qualification of going as lightly over the heather as a cat, and winding 

 through the tussocks as quietly as a weasel." 



Mr. Walker responded with some information received from Captain 

 Willis, who had procured from an Irish officer named McClintock a setter 

 with black-tipped ears presented to McClintock by the late Marquis of 

 Waterford. 



At this stage of the discussion a very well known personage who used 

 the pseudonym of "Sixty-one" threw a bombshell into the camp by declaring 

 that, having known Irish setters for fifty years, he was in a position to state 

 that both blood red and blood red and white were correct; that black lines 

 or tips were stories for the marines; that Irish setters were worthless, 

 except a black and white breed of Captain Butler's and a black and white, 

 with a little tan, owned by the Marquis of Ormonde; that he had found Irish 

 setters had neither pace, nose, courage nor endurance, and for that reason 

 had given them up. 



This onslaught evoked an excellent letter from Mr. Harry Blake 

 Knox, who stated that he had known and bred Irish red setters for many 

 years. He seems to have been the first to give this name of Irish red setters 

 to the breed, a name still in use in Ireland and England. He very sensibly 

 said that every mongrel setter was known as an Irish setter and that the 

 addition of "red" was necessary to specify this particular variety, which 

 he then described at length, being particular to decry black in every way, 

 whether in the coat or on the nose, admitting white only in the centre of 

 the forehead or centre of breast. In particular reply to the charge of in- 

 capacity made by "Sixty-one," he asked, "Why on earth do we keep red dogs 

 if they are worthless?" and claimed that for the arduous work connected 

 with shooting in Ireland this breed was "the only dog for Ireland." 



THE LA TOUCHE SETTERS 



Captain Hutchinson followed with a letter giving the following extract 

 from a communication from a member of the La Touche family: "I have 



