The Pointer. 237 



heavens. Surely, then, there are grounds for the 

 truth of the north country expression, " Shutters is 

 leears," although this may be qualified by the usual 

 addendum " but fishers, by gum ! " 



The jovial colonel is said to have had an Eclipse 

 of pointers in his dog called Dash, which was the 

 produce of a foxhound and a Spanish pointer. 

 Dash could beat all other dogs, he never omitted to 

 find birds in front of him, and his extraordinary 

 intuition enabled him to do this without quartering 

 his ground as other dogs did. Moreover, Dash was 

 as steady and staunch behind in backing other dogs 

 as needs be. We are not told how so extraordinary 

 an animal could so far be outstripped by some sorry 

 quarterer of his ground as to be in so backward 

 a position as to have to back. The fact of the 

 matter is, that these extraordinarily fast dogs are 

 never good backers because they have not the 

 opportunity of being made so ; and they can 

 scarcely be perfection as such naturally and with- 

 out some training. Dash sustained his reputation 

 to the end, for he was sold by his breeder to Sir 

 Richard Symons for champagne and burgundy to 

 the value of 160, a hogshead of claret, " an elegant 

 gun," and another dog. There was a proviso that 

 should accident befal this canine wonder he must be 

 returned to his former owner for fifty guineas. This 



