THE POINTER. 



235 



It is necessary to go a little further back 

 than Drake to get at the first super-excellence 

 of the English Pointer as found in the early 

 part of the last century, and to the honour 

 of Field Trials it must be mentioned that 

 all the Pointers of after-note in the field 

 strained from the dogs that ran in the 

 inaugural trials of all. This was at Southill 

 in 1865, when the Pointers were divided into 

 large and small sizes, the former including 

 Mr. W. R. Brockton's Bounce and Mr. 

 W. G. Newton's Ranger, and the latter Mr. 

 J. H. Whitehouse's Hamlet. In a maximum 

 of 40 for nose, Bounce and Hamlet were 

 accredited full marks, Bounce taking the 

 highest compliment too in pace and range, 

 and also for temperament. He was, there- 

 fore, estimated by the judges, the Rev. T. 

 Pearce and Mr. Walker, of Halifax, to have 

 been absolutely perfect. Hamlet was the 

 same, both taking 90 in a hundred, but 

 Ranger only got 30 for nose, and half marks 

 for pace. This tallied much with his 

 character at home, as although a good, 

 steady, workmanlike dog, he yet was never 

 quite brilliant, such as Bounce had the 

 credit of being, and the late Mr. Whitehouse, 

 a capital sportsman, would always contend 

 that he never shot over a better than 

 Hamlet. Bounce was by the Duke of 

 Newcastle's Bounce, out of Juno ; Hamlet by 

 Bird's Bob, out of Juno ; Bob by Battock's 

 Joker, out of the late Joseph Lang's (the 

 gunmaker of Cockspur Street) Fan, by 

 Lang's Frank, out of Taylor's Bell, by Lord 

 Ducie's Duncan, out of Sir Massey Stanley's 

 Bloom. 



It is notable that the pedigrees of the 

 crack Pointers, so far as they went, always 

 ended with the distinguished Foxhound 

 breeders, Lord Ducie being a Master of 

 Hounds for a good quarter of a century ; 

 and it was the opinion of Mr. Whitehouse 

 that the origin of the lemon and white 

 Pointers — such as Hamlet, who mostly got 

 his own colour in that hue — was the lemon 

 pied Foxhound. Mr. Whitehouse held strong 

 opinions on that point, and often declared 

 to the writer that if he had been twenty 

 years old instead of fifty, he should have 

 tried the cross again, to maintain constitution, 



stamina, and bone ; but according to his 

 calculations it would take thirty years to 

 get at the results aimed at, and so it was 

 only practicable as an experiment for a 

 young life. However, the mid-century 

 owners and breeders had probably all the 

 advantages of what a past generation had 

 done, as there were certainly many wonderful 

 Pointers in the 'fifties, 'sixties, and 'seventies, 

 as old men living to-day will freely allow. 

 They were produced very regularly, too, 

 in a marvellous type of perfection. Drake 

 had Newton's Ranger blood in him, as 

 his dam Doll was by Ranger, and the latter 

 was by Sir Thomas Whichcote's Ranger. 



Another great performer in the early 

 'seventies was the late Mr. Sam Price's Bang, 

 got by Coham's Bang, son of Hamlet, out 

 of Vesta by Brockton's Bounce. Here is an 

 exact pedigree from the first field trial 

 performers at Southill, and there was no 

 Pointer more celebrated both on the bench 

 and in the field than Price's Ch. Bang as 

 he was called. He won at the Crystal 

 Palace more than once, and gained his 

 championship there. He was first also at 

 Plymouth, Exeter, and numerous other 

 shows, and in field trials he won at the 

 Devon and Cornwall ; and in the same 

 season at Shrewsbury was second in the 

 All-Aged Stake to Mr. Beckett's Rector, 

 and the next day won the Braces with his 

 son Mike, then a puppy, beating thirteen 

 other braces of about the best Setters and 

 Pointers in the kingdom, such as Viscount 

 Downe's Mark and Drake II., Mr. Purcell 

 Llewellin's Leda and Laura, the Duke of 

 Westminster's Noble and Ruth, and Mr. 

 Barclay Field's Bruce and Rose. This 

 performance was repeated the next year 

 over even a better lot, as the great Drake 

 was in it ; but as his companion was only a 

 young puppy it was hardly a fair display of 

 the powers of the old dog, who was then 

 eight years of age. At any rate, Bang 

 and Mike would have been accepted as 

 the best brace of Pointers in the world 

 at that time. Wonderful, too, they won 

 the same stake for the third year in succes- 

 sion. My own remarks on their third 

 victory were : " Bang and Mike have now 



