296 Modern Dogs. 



reality, had his first setter from Mr. Laverack 

 himself. 



It appears that some forty years or more ago, 

 the author of " The Setter" was in the habit of 

 going into the neighbourhood of Mr. Cockerton's 

 residence to shoot during September, and he left 

 behind him, with the uncle of the latter, one or two 

 setters, from which the present breed has, with 

 the aid of slight infusions of other strains, been con- 

 tinued with extraordinary success. Thus they are 

 more or less inter-bred, and resist very much the 

 introduction of new blood. This, Mr. Cockerton has 

 repeatedly found to be the case, he having on several 

 occasions introduced a new strain by the purchase 

 of a stud dog. In no instance has the progeny 

 answered expectations. They were destroyed, and 

 their sire came to a similar end. Latterly he has 

 tried a well-known field trial winner, Dr. Wood's 

 Fred, of great excellence in the field, and by no 

 means indifferent in appearance. How the result 

 has turned out it is yet too early to tell. 



However, to the origin of the " Laveracks." We 

 are told that Mr. Laverack first obtained his strain 

 from the Rev. A. Harrison, who resided near Carlisle, 

 and he informs us in his book, published in 1872 

 when he was seventy-three years of age, that he had 

 been breeding setters for fifty years. His first fancy 



