208 The Dog Book 



Dandy was one of the best setters of his day as to coat and colour. His 

 son Fleming's Dandy, out of Lord Loughborough's Ruin, was a most excel- 

 lent field dog, scoring high at the first field trials in England. Brown's 

 Robin I. was also a very clever field dog, and "Idstone" tells how on one 

 occasion when his retriever was at fault on a running bird, Robin, who had 

 been watching from "down-charge" got up, caught the running bird, 

 took it to the retriever and dropped it, then returning to his down-charge. 



In English field trials Gordon setters have been anything but promi- 

 nent, and the same can be said of them in this country. From 1879 to 1891 

 Major Taylor had record of but ten dogs he could class as "Gordons and 

 Black and Tans," and of these the earliest two were not pure Gordons. 

 These were Ned and Glen, owned by Dr. Aten of Brooklyn, and runners 

 at the Eastern Field Trials of 1879 and 1880. Four more of the ten ran in 

 one stake confined to Gordons, leaving four placed Gordons in the entire 

 number of public stakes for a period of thirteen years. The Gordon Setter 

 Club, which might have done something toward gaining some popularity 

 for the breed as field dogs, seems to have died of inertia since Mr. Blossom 

 ceased to take the active part he did in forcing dog shows to give good classi- 

 fications for the breed. We cannot therefore expatiate on qualities which 

 have not been publicly demonstrated. 



As a dog-show breed the Gordons have had a most erratic career, now 

 popular and in a year or two quite neglected, only to spurt once more 

 under the impetus of some new fancier who in a year or two tired and 

 dropped out to leave the breed in the doldrums. 



Our first recollection of the late Dr. Rowe was in connection with a 

 Gordon setter he had lost when at St. Louis. He had called upon Mr. 

 Foster, editor of the newly started New York Sportsman, to ask him to 

 notice his loss, in the hope of recovering the dog. He never got the stray 

 back, however. At that time Dr. Rowe was contributing to the billiard 

 columns of Turf, Field and Farm. Mr. Tileston was one of the early 

 supporters of Gordons, Tileston's Loo being a prominent winner in 1876 

 and 1877, Marble's Grouse being also a winner in the dog classes. The 

 first dog of real merit was Taylor's Turk, which we remember seeing win 

 the champion prize at New York in 1880, and he continued to win until 

 1885, when he took three firsts, all however under the same judge. The 

 same owner also at that time had a good bitch named Gem, which was never 

 beaten after we gave her a first at Danbury in 1884. 



