The Gordon Setter 197 



hour. It was quite customary in those days for gentlemen to engage in 

 sporting matches of various kinds for high wagers. The pedestrian Gale, 

 now in Cincinnati, we believe, quite eclipsed this feat about twenty years 

 ago by walking a quarter mile in each quarter hour, starting at the beginning 

 of each quarter, and keeping it up for a thousand hours. 



THE CASTLE GORDON SETTERS 



The late Mr. Dixon, who wrote under the pseudonym of "The Druid," 

 visited the Castle after the Duke died and corroborates Laverack as to 

 setters still being there, and that they were tricolours. "Now all the setters 

 in the Castle kennels are entirely black, white and tan, with a little tan on 

 the toes, muzzle, root of tail, and round the eyes. The late Duke liked it. 

 It was both gayer and not so difficult to back on the hillside as the dark 

 coloured. . . . The composite colour was produced by using black 

 and tan dogs on black and white bitches. . . . Lord Lovat's, and 

 Sir A. G. Gordon's dogs have been the only crosses used for some 

 time past at Gordon Castle. ... A dozen pups by a dog of Lord 

 Lovat's, also of the Gordon Castle breed, were out at quarters, drawing 

 nurture from terriers and collies." These extracts from what "The Druid" 

 wrote confirm what Mr. Laverack said as to breeding going on after the 

 death of the Duke, and the sale in 1836 was therefore not a complete dis- 

 persal of the kennels. 



A man who might have told for the benefit of posterity all about the 

 Gordon setters at the Castle in the closing years of the eighteenth century 

 was Colonel Thornton, the Yorkshire sportsman who played a prominent 

 part in the improvement of the fox-hound, pointer and fox-terrier, but his 

 books are absolutely worthless in connection with dogs. We read his 

 "Sporting Tour in England and Scotland" with every expectation of find- 

 ing a fund of valuable information from a man of his knowledge and ability 

 to note dogs and their characteristics. But not a single reference to setters 

 is made that we could find. His own pointers are mentioned only occa- 

 sionally, and when at Gordon Castle he tells of seeing a "Highland grey- 

 hound." He went to church with the Duchess, tells about the good singing, 

 the dress of-the men and the women, and gives all sorts of information about 

 every conceivable thing, but never a word about dogs. Yet he mentions 

 that the Duke, who was absent at his sporting seat, was a keen sportsman. 



