The Pointer 295 



three times outside of an occasional reference to shooting over his own 

 dogs. The list of dogs taken by him mentions only one pointer, Carlo, but 

 the plural is used several times throughout the letters. At Rouen he 

 "tried an English dog [pointer] belonging to one of the gentlemen, who 

 seemed to esteem him very highly, as they all do everything English, but 

 he was not half broke." In a footnote referring to the remark about 

 esteeming English things, it says : " Indeed it is proverbial, 'Anglo-mania.' " 

 Elsewhere mention is made of a very poor pointer he had tried, and near 

 Paris, when returning from one of his trips from that city, he makes this, 

 for him, very full reference : " I was shown a breed of small pointers, the 

 price being ten guineas each. I offered six guineas for a whelp of nine 

 months, which was refused, but with the polite assurance that if I came 

 near Bordeaux a dog should be sent to me." The remark about Bordeaux 

 suggests that the dogs belonged to M. Bergeir, a Bordeaux banker, whose 

 Chateau De Lotville he had just mentioned as being seen in the distance. 

 Whether these were of the size of the Lauderdale pointers, or merely small 

 in comparison with the English idea of the proper size, is not determinable 

 by the text, probably the latter, otherwise the description would likely 

 have been more minute. At the same time we must not overlook that 

 between the Edinburgh district and France there had been close 

 communion for very many years. This is shown in the number of 

 words of French origin in common use in Midlothian and Haddingtonshire 

 Scotch. 



The ability to stand motionless on scenting game is not the exclusive 

 privilege of any breed of dogs. The pointer, or pointing hound, by his 

 many years of training through his ancestry, was the best adapted for the 

 work required and was made use of, and it was not until the net was given 

 up as a gentlemanly method of taking game that the setter became his 

 rival with the gun. We read in old books of other dogs which also pointed 

 and stood game. The adaptability of the collie as a dog to shoot over 

 on the moors was recognised years ago, and it is beyond dispute that the 

 Duke of Gordon did use such a cross on one occasion. Daniel tells us 

 that "Lord Gwydir, whose manors are as well stocked with pheasants 

 as most in the Kingdom, and astonishingly so if their short distance from 

 the metropolis is considered, shoots pheasants always to a lurcher, who 

 points them with singular correctness, and whose nose is so excellent as 

 never to miss securing a wounded bird that runs into the thickest covert,- 



