345 



CHAPTER XLIIT. 



BREAKING SPORTING DOGS. 



FROM almost time immemorial dogs have been the chosen companions of mankind in their 

 pursuit of game. Under any circumstances it was necessary to educate the dogs in the duties 

 they were required to fulfil, and it is with this subject that we have now to deal. It is of course 

 impossible to conjecture how the capacity of each breed for working game came to be displayed 

 in the first instance, but the fact remains that from very early times indeed many breeds had 

 each their respective duties in the field, as they have in the present day. 



One of the earliest evidences of the fact that the art of training dogs is by no means 

 a modern one will be found in the following curious agreement : 



" Ribbesford, Oct. -Jtk, 1685. 



" I, John Harris, of Willdon, in the Parish of Hastlebury, in the County of Worcester, 

 yeoman, for and in consideration of ten shillings of lawful English money this day received 

 of Henry Herbert of Ribbesford, in the said county, esquire, and of thirty shillings more of 

 like money by him promised to be hereafter pay'd me, doe hereby covenant and promise to and 

 with the said Henry Herbert, his executors and administrators, that I will from the day of 

 the date hereoff, untill the first day of March next, well and sufficiently mayntayne and 

 keepe a Spanill bitch named Quaud, this day delivered into my custody by the said Henry 

 Herbert, and will before the said first day of March next fully and effectually traine up and 

 teach the said bitch to sitt partridges, pheasants, and other game, as well and exactly as the 

 best sitting dogges usually sett the same. And the said bitch, so trayned and taught, shall 

 and will delivere to the said Henry Herbert, or whom he shall appoint to receive her, att his 

 house in Ribbesford aforesaid, on the first day of March next. And if at any time after 

 the said bitch shall for want of use or practise, or otherwise, forgett to sett game as aforesaid, 

 I will at my costes and charges mayntayne her for a month or longer, as often as need shall 

 require, to trayne up and teach her to sett game as aforesaid, and shall and will fully and effectually 

 teach her to sett game as well and exactly as it is above mentyon'd. 



"Witnesse my hand and scale the day and year first above written, 



"JOHN HARRIS, his X mark. 



" Sealed and delivered in presence of, 



" H. PAYNE, his X mark." 



Gervase Markham, however, previously to this, had alluded in his work, " Hunger's Pre- 

 vention, or the Art of Fowling," to the taking of partridges with the setting dog, in the 

 following words : 



" The fourth and last way for the taking of partridges (and which indeed excelleth all the 

 other for the excellency of the sport and the rarenesse of the art which is contained therein) 

 44 



