92 The Dog Book 



retriever, and one that will fetch and carry, and that by any means will not 

 break nor bruise either flesh or feather, but having found its prey will 

 forthwith bring it unto you, and lay it by your feet. This dogge as soon as 

 you shall finde that any pheasants are escaped, you shall thruste into the 

 thickets and make him hunt and bring forth all such pheasants as shall lie 

 hidden, till by the true number of your lime bushes you find there is no more 

 in that place." 



This ordinary spaniel Markham did not consider it worth while giving 

 an illustration of, but thanks to a little known but excellent draughtsman 

 and engraver named Francis Barlow we have drawings of the spaniel used 

 in hawking. Markham died in 1637 and Barlow was born in 1630 and, 

 although we cannot tell the date of his set of prints illustrative of hunting, 

 hawking and fishing, yet there can be no great lapse of time between the 

 dates of the later editions of the book (1655) and the illustration we now 

 give. (Facing page 87.) 



The Individual Fields of the Setter and the Pointer 



In tracing the transitions of the dog which became the setter of to-day 

 it is impossible to overlook the potent influence which the development 

 of the ancient fowling-piece into the flint-lock shotgun exercised, and 

 the present seems to be the appropriate point to set that forth, as our next 

 step will be the final one of difi^erentiating the family into the subdivisions 

 which prevail to this day, and they will then be taken up in detail as breeds. 



We have just been quoting Markham as to the setting dog used solely 

 with the net. The gun was also in use at that period, but only for water- 

 fowl, and that when they were not captured by netting, for the "engine'* 

 then in use was a most unhandy weapon. "Of the fowling piece you shall 

 understand that to be the best which is of the longest barrell, as five foot 

 and a half, or six foot, and the bore indifferent [tolerably large, we would say] 

 under Harquebus. As for the shape and manner of it tis better it be a fire 

 lock or snaphaunce than a cocke and tricker, for it is safer and better for 

 carriage, readier for use and keeps the powder dryer in all weather, whereas 

 the blowing of a coal is many times the loss of the thing aimed at.** 



The "cocke and tricker" gun was the old fire-lock operated as follows: 

 A priming-pan was attached to the barrel in a manner similar to the powder- 

 pan which all of us must have seen in the old flint-locks. The priming was 



