THE AXGLER AND H TXTSMAX 131 



but as being dogs without voices, so they must hunt close 

 and mute. And when they come upon the haunt of that 

 they hunt, they shall sodainely stop and fall down upon 

 their bellies, and so leisurely creep by degrees to the game 

 till they come within two or three yards thereof, or so neare 

 that they can not press nearer without danger of retriev- 

 ing. Then shall your Setter stick, and by no persuasion go 

 further till yourself come in and use your pleasure. Now 

 the dogs which are to be made for this pleasure should be 

 the most principall, best, and lustiest Spannyel you can get, 

 both of good scent and good courage, yet young, and as lit- 

 tle as may be made acquainteed with much hunting." 



There is no doubt that the Setter is a Spaniel, brought 

 by a variety of crosses (or rather, let us say, of careful selec- 

 tions) to the size and form in which we now find him. He 

 is the most national of all our shooting dogs, and certainly 

 has existed for four centuries. His form probably has im- 

 proved. 



Stonehenge, in another part of his works, says that 

 ' 1 About the year 1555, a duke of Northumberland trained 

 one (he was writing on the Sussex Spaniel) Ho set birds 

 for the net;' and soon afterward the Setter was produced, 

 either by selection or by crossing the Talbot Hound and 

 Spaniel.'" 



Another noted writer of his day was Laverack, who, 

 writing on "The. Setter," states: 



"I am of the opinion that all Setters have more or less 

 originally sprung from our various strains of Spaniels, and 

 I believe most breeders of any note agree that the Setter is 

 nothing more than a setting Spaniel. How the Setter at- 

 tained his sufficiency of point is difficult to account For, 

 and ! leave that question to wiser heads than mine to deter- 

 mine. The Setter is said and acknowledged, by authorities 

 of long standing, to be of greater antiquity than the Point- 

 er. If this is true, and I believe it is, the Setter can not at 

 first have been crossed witii the Pointer to 

 what he is.' 



