CONJECTURES OR REVERIES OF THE AUTHOR, 115 



THE SPANISH POINTER. 



THE SPANISH POINTER, or as he might, with much propriety, be styled, point* 

 ing Hound, seems to have been the origin of our English breed of Pointers, but 

 in the usual obscurity of our sporting histories, no traces remain of the date of such 

 importation from Spain, or of how long pointing- dogs, as distinguished from Setters, 

 have been used by English Gunners. Two centuries have been nominated as this 

 period, the accuracy of which we much doubt, having been informed or having 

 read somewhere, that, the Pointer cannot be traced in England, beyond the Revo- 

 lution in 1688. There may be much more of fancy than of fact, in what we are 

 about to advance, but we have often meditated on the probability that, our sporting 

 forefathers instead of being primarily supplied with Pointers from Spain, in reality 

 manufactured them at home, out of the Southern Hound, as they had previously 

 worked Setters out of Spaniels. As the Setter was originally a pure Spaniel 

 Variety, the Pointer stands in precisely the same degree of affinity to the Hound. 

 In fact, the one was originally a Spaniel, the other a Hound, but have subsequently 

 undergone a variety of crossings and intercrossings. The objection of natural point- 

 ing may be urged, in opposition to our hypothesis, or whim, or hoax, or whatever 

 designation it may merit ; but all are not, perhaps very few are, endowed with that 

 high qualification, any otherwise than in that slight and obscure degree, in which 

 they share with the liound. Any Sportsman so inclined, may train a young Fox 

 Hound, or other Hound, to Pointing, with at least equal facility as a Pig, one of 

 which last sporting breed, was known many years since, in Hampshire, to be highly 

 accomplished in that line. We know many Fox Hounds which might have been 

 made, had any such necessity existed, high ranging and excellent Pointers; many 

 Hounds also which having- excellent scenting powers, might have proved rare 

 plodding and never failing auxiliaries to the Gun. AVe conceive, the idea of train- 

 ing the Hound to point, full as likely to originate in England as in Spain ; perhaps 

 it might occur in both Countries ; and perhaps Spanish Pointers may have for- 

 merly been imported into this country, although no man, nor any book, canfurhish 

 us with the how, the when, or the where. 



The qualifications of the Spanish Pointer, are in strict analogy with those of the 

 Southern Hound. The tenclerest >nose and most exquisite scenting, joined with 

 true game and steadiness in pursuit, and proportionate Avant of speed. Like the 

 stout Race Horse, these animals are somewhat too slow for profit, with the advan- 

 tage, granting it one, that they can go scarcely fast enough to tire themselves. 

 They have yet been represented, but we know not on what authority, as apt to 



