78 GAMEKEEPERS AND GILLIES 



Gordons have been even less successful than the Irish in retain- 

 ing the affections of the multitude of shooting men. The reason 

 usually given by sportsmen who have tried and discarded them, 

 is that they are self-willed and hard to handle, without having 

 class, which would be a compensation for extra trouble in 

 education.' 



The more 's the pity, for nobler and more docile animals 

 I have never seen than Pace's Gordons. He used to work 

 three brace of them simultaneously, as easily as a single 

 dog ; but there is no doubt that they took a lot of train- 

 ing, and John's discipline was rhadamanthine. Hares 

 abounded in the country in those days ; to break young 

 dogs from fur he resorted to the severe automatic punish- 

 ment of the puzzle-peg. This was a stout piece of ash, 

 shaped at one end to fit under the dog's lower jaw, to 

 which it was attached by a loop of cord passing under the 

 tongue. The other end was narrowed to a stout, cylindri- 

 cal peg, projecting five or six inches beyond the dog's 

 muzzle. Having fitted a brace of young setters with this 

 equipment, John would loose them off on a stretch of 

 heather, where a hare was certain to be started before 

 long. Away went the young ones in hot pursuit; no 

 check nor warning occurred so long as they ran, heads 

 up, sterns down, in view; but once let them put their 

 noses down to run by scent the peg stuck into the 

 ground, the dog received a violent wrench of the lower 

 jaw, and was thrown head over heels. It required but 

 three or four repetitions of this experience to cure the 

 highest-couraged Gordon of the faintest inclination to 

 look at hares again. 



As for setting game, the Gordons did that naturally. 

 They were encouraged to range wide, and took such 



