CHAPTER XVIII 



The Pointer 



HE more we have read on the subject of early dogs in 

 England, and have thought over and studied the question 

 of the introduction of the pointer, the more convinced 

 are v^e that the pointer was simply evolved from a dog 

 in use in England for somewhat similar work, just as 

 the setter was developed from the setting spaniel. We are inclined to 

 the opinion that outside of hounds for the chase, dogs for field sports at 

 or about 1650 were divided up in this manner. A dog was used to find 

 deer and animals, for the chase and coursing, and this was a dog of the 

 hound variety; another was the spaniel, used to spring feathered game for 

 the hawk; another was the setting spaniel for the net; and then came the 

 water spaniel for wild-fowl shooting. At this stage we must once more 

 consider the development of the gun, as we did in connection with the 

 beginning of the setter in a previous chapter. We now refer the reader 

 to the illustration of wild-duck shooting, in which it will be well to note the 

 smooth dog as well as the spaniel. The weapon in use is the matchlock. 

 It will be observed that the gun is used with a rest to steady the aim during 

 the slow process of firing the gun. In another of the same series of prints, 

 that of fox hunting in an enclosure of nets, one of the sportsmen is firing 

 his matchlock held against a tree, and has knocked over a running fox, 

 showing that the process of shooting was developing. And on another of 

 these prints there are men using crossbows, the missile weapons referred 

 to by Luther when he wrote of having gone on some sporting expedition. 

 Our collection of these quaint prints consists of those showing the chase or 

 capture of the wolf, boar, deer, hare, rabbit, badger, porcupine, and duck 

 shooting and hawking. It being evident that they were part of a series of 

 sporting representations, we persevered in a search for more and had the 

 good fortune, when looking for another book in the Lenox Library, to come 

 across the complete set of these reproductions of paintings by Joannes 

 Strada or Stradano (Jan van der Straet), which were engraved by Philip 



