358 Modern Dogs. 



white, or lemon coloured, or white patched with deep 

 chesnut ; and it was necessary for them to have a 

 black nose and a black roof to their mouth." The 

 same writer tells us that an Irish setter will obtain a 

 higher price than an English or Scotch one, u fifty 

 guineas being no unusual sum for a brace, and even 

 two hundred guineas have been given." It is just as 

 well to make these quotations here, as they will 

 remind a modern and a future generation that the 

 Irish setter had a reputation of its own before it 

 came to be repopularised by working at Field Trials, 

 and its appearance in the show ring. 



How the variety has been re-popularised during 

 the past few years, may be judged from the fact that 

 at the first Birmingham show, held in 1860, there 

 were but four entries in the bitch class, and these 

 so little deserving that no prize was awarded. At 

 the same exhibition, in 1891, there were something 

 like eighteen red setter bitches in competition, and, 

 of course, the classes for them are much better 

 filled at the exhibitions held in Dublin, Cork, Bel- 

 fast, and other large towns in their native country. 

 When the Kennel Club Stud Book was published, 

 in 1874, the Irish were the only variety of setter 

 grouped dogs and bitches together. Matters have 

 changed since that time, and the red dogs now get 

 their due. 



