CROSSING ANECDOTE. 125 



preference of the Setter is decisive, for although he is said to require much water, 

 and to be unable to endure heat and thirst like the Pointer ; the former, from his 

 constitutional activity, and the hardness of his feet, is superior in a long- day, over 

 a rough and uneven surface. From accident, or from that never-failing desire of 

 shining- by the intermixture of breeds, with little consideration of the end, Pointers 

 have been crossed with Setters, and Setters with Pointers, but we have not observed 

 the beneficial result. On the score of utility, the Setter can derive no improve- 

 ment from such a cross ; and granting, which however is not proved, that the 

 Pointer gain something in regard of usefulness, such advantage will be countervailed 

 by an abatement of size, figure, and stateliness, on which account only, perhaps, 

 he superseded the Setter in the affections of the Sportsman. .Many instances have 

 been related of the unwearied activity and stoutness of the Setter, whilst following 

 his master travelling on horseback : this dog will hunt all the fields adjoining- the 

 road, during the journey, whilst a Pointer, in the same circumstances, will gene- 

 rally stick close and unconcernedly at the horse's heels. The late well-known 

 Mr. Elwes affirmed that one of his famous breed of Setters, in following him to 

 Town, hunted all the road side fields during a journey of sixty miles. Another 

 anecdote of a rum complexion is detailed of a Setter bitch, called Dido, the pro- 

 perty of the late Dr. Hugh Smith, of London, who was much attached to the Sports 

 of the Field. Dido, it seems, following the Doctor into the Country, happened to 

 meet with a little ugly Cur dog, in a Village upon the road, fell in love w r ith him, 

 and that which was far more surprising, never afterwards forgot it. The Doctor, 

 indignant at the advances of such a plebean cur, to his high-born bitch, instantly 

 drew a pistol and shot the offender dead. The whole of the bitch's love affair, as 

 how she retained to her dying day, an inviolable attachment to her first murdered 

 lover, and however subsequently matched, she resolutely and spitefully determined 

 never to produce any but cur whelps, is circumstantially related by our writers ; to 

 whose minds, fully engrossed by the lovely part of the subject, it seems never to 

 have occurred that, Smith in shooting the dog of another person, and by that 

 person, perhaps, equally valued, as his own bitch by him, had committed a gross 

 and unpardonable act of despotism. 



We have observed that a Setter was originally a Spaniel taught to set, or couch, 

 on scent of game ; but although the land Spaniel was always preferred for the 

 purpose, yet in former days, any dogs that would hunt, being " strong and nimble 

 rangers, with wanton tails, and busy nostrils," were taught to sit among these 

 were mongrels between land and water Spaniels, shallow flewed hounds, tumblers, 

 lurchers, and small bastard mastiffs. The training these dogs commenced at six, 

 and even as early as four months old, which chiefly consisted in teaching the dog to 

 lead in a line and collar, following close at the breaker's heels, and to couch, or lie 

 down close to the ground, his distinguishing attitude. 



Among the extraordinary peculiarities observed in dog-s, is one repeatedly wit- 



