170 The Dog Book 



innate point, and rather deficient in nose, as they are to this day, and never 

 to be broken in the first season, and very often not till the third; but that 

 then, their temper taming down, and their sagacity improving by experience, 

 they often become most admirable dogs. Their constitutions were so 

 vigorous that they lived to a great age, and were serviceable even up to the 

 thirteenth or fourteenth years. None of the authorities which I have 

 consulted will admit of a pure descendant of the old race having a black 

 stain; they consider it as undeniable proof of a cross. 



"There were also two other well established breeds in Ireland — one 

 smaller and lighter in all ways than the red. These had better noses and 

 were more tractable, and it is supposed that it is from a cross with them 

 that the black and tan arises. I have seen some of these dogs myself; 

 they were good but not handsome animals. The last I saw was with Lord 

 Howth, and he was very fond of them. The other breed — the white and 

 red [This is different from the red and white and was a setter mainly white, 

 with red splashes. — Ed.] claims equal antiquity with the red, and many 

 consider them to have been as good as the red in all respects and superior 

 in point of nose. I have seen these dogs, magnificent in appearance and 

 excellent in the field, but have not met them lately, though no doubt they 

 are to be found. I know they were highly thought of eighty or ninety years 

 ago, because a certain General White — a grand uncle of mine, who died 

 about 1802, and was, perhaps, one of the first Englishmen who ever took a 

 moor in Scotland — used to bring his setters from Ireland, and I have heard 

 my father say that the General's favourite breed was the white and red; 

 in fact, I distinctly remember seeing some of the descendants. These dogs 

 were, and are still more or less curly." Here might be ground for 

 Stonehenge's claim of Irish in the Gordons if we could connect General 

 Whyte and the Duke of Gordon in any exchange, for a red and white 

 dog was included in the Castle sale of 1836. 



It will not be out of place here to recall the extract made from "Nim- 

 rod's" "Sporting," which was quoted in Part II, wherein he described 

 having seen the old Flintshire Squire netting partridges with a leash of red 

 and white setters. 



Also to point out, before leaving this discussion as to colour, that Mr. 

 Laverack drew particular attention to a blood red and white setter hav- 

 ing been shown him by the keeper at the La Touche kennels as the 

 best he had. Also that the grand-dam on the sire's side of Captain 



