84 The Dog Book 



Still another authority upon the widespread use of the net for part- 

 ridges is no less than Martin Luther. This eminent reformer was in 1521 

 kept, for his own safety, a prisoner by the Elector of Saxony at Wartburg, 

 and although we have not succeeded in getting chapter and page for the 

 following quotation, it is from a thoroughly reliable source, for all other 

 quotations we have been in a position to verify have been absolutely ac- 

 curate. *'I was," wrote Luther, "lately two days sporting in the country; 

 we killed a brace of hares and took some partridges, a very pretty employ- 

 ment for an idle man! However, I could not help theologizing amidst dogs, 

 missile weapons and nets; for I thought to myself, do not we, in hunting 

 innocent animals to death, very much resemble the devil who by crafty 

 wiles, and the instrument of wicked priests, is seeking continually whom 

 he may devour ?" 



The Setting Spaniel 



The second English book on sports of the chase is the " Book of St. 

 Albans," as it is called, attributed to Dame Juliana Bernes. "Spanyells" 

 are mentioned, but with no description, and we can pass to the first real dog 

 book in the language. Yet it was originally written in Latin, having been 

 prepared by Dr. John Kays (Johannes Caius), the founder of Caius College, 

 Cambridge, for the use of the naturalist, Conrad Gesner, who had asked 

 him for information about "such dogges as were ingendred within the bor- 

 ders of England." Dr. Kays, or Caius, as he is generally called, published 

 this Latin book about 1570, and after his death it was translated into English 

 by his friend and admirer, Abraham Fleming, and published in 1576. 

 Fleming assures his readers in a laudatory preface that Dr. Caius spared no 

 pains to procure all possible information and then to reduce his facts to 

 the smallest proportion. The second part of his "discourse" is devoted 

 to dogs used in fowling — by which was meant the taking of all manner of 

 birds — and these dogs he divides into two kinds, those used on land and 

 those that found game on the water. To the dog used with the net he 

 gives the specific name of Setter; those used in hawking, he says, are called 

 dogs for the falcon, pheasant or partridge, but that the common sort of peo- 

 ple call them all spaniels. The third division of this section is devoted to 

 the water spaniel or finder. The entire section is not so long that it cannot 

 be given in full and permit readers to judge for themselves of the dogs men- 



