CHAPTER XVI. 



THE BLACK AND TAN (OR GORDON) 

 SETTER. 



THIS variety of the modern setter had its name 

 originally from the fact of being first introduced to 

 the public from Gordon Castle, Fochabers, Banff- 

 shire, the Highland seat of the Dukes of Richmond 

 and Gordon. For what length of time the lamily 

 possessed the strain no one appears to know, but 

 that it was not there in 1803, when Colonel Thorn- 

 ton visited the place, may be taken for granted, 

 as that gallant sportsman, in his " Northern Tour," 

 makes no allusion whatever to any such dogs. He 

 does, however, mention the Highland deerhound, 

 and gives an account of a somewhat dubious cross 

 the Duke had between a wolf and a Pomeranian 

 dog, which, on being slipped at a deer, tore its 

 throat out. Some early writers, however, have 

 called the black and tan setter the " Scotch setter," 

 and Mr. Thomson Gray, in his " Dogs of Scotland," 

 adopts a similar nomenclature. This is not likely to 



