HISTORY OF THE SETTER. 353 



refers to a class of dog whose duties in the field appear to have little altered during the 

 progress of time. There- still seems to have been a considerable looseness in the classification 

 of this breed of dog, and the barrier between the Setter and the Spaniel appears to have been 

 unremoved at a much later time, and the name Setter only applied to dogs broken to set 

 game, and not to those distinguishable by any structural difference in shape or build. In 

 1697 Nicholas Cox writes of the Setter in "The Gentleman's Recreation" in the following 

 words : 



" The dog which you elect for setting must have a perfect and good scent, and be 

 naturally addicted to the hunting of feathers ; and this dog may be either land spaniel, water 

 spaniel, or mungrel of them both ; either the shallow-flewed hound, tumbler, lurcher, or small 

 bastard mastiff. But there is none better than the land spaniel, being of a good and nimble 

 size, rather small than gross, and of a courageous metal ; which tho' you cannot discern, being 

 young yet, you may may very well know from a right breed, which have been known to be 

 strong, lusty and nimble rangers, of active feet, wanton tails, and busie nostrils, whose tail 

 was without weariness, their search without changeablenesse, and whom no delight did transport 

 beyond fear or obedience." 



With reference to the behaviour of this dog in the field, Nicholas Cox remarks as follows 

 in his notes on training the setting dog : 



" You must teach him to come creeping to you with his belly and head close upon the 



ground, as far or as little away as you think fit And this observe in his creeping 



to you, if he offer to raise his body or head you must not only thrust the rising part down, 

 but threaten him with your angry voice, which if he seem to slight, then add a sharp jerk or 



two with a whipcord lash If you walk abroad with him, and he take a fancy to 



range, even when he is most busie speak to him, and in the height of his pastime make him 

 fall upon his belly and lie close, and after that make him come creeping to you." 



Thus Nicholas Cox succeeds in clearly proving that late in the seventeenth century the 

 Spaniel, or even a mongrel partaking of any breed, was used as a setting dog by British 

 sportsmen. Things do not appear to have undergone any great alteration in the beginning of 

 the next century, for in 1718 one Giles Jacobs produced a book called the " Compleat Sportsman" 

 in which a good deal is said about the setting dog, and sporting in general. The " Compleat 

 Sportsman," which was published in the Savoy, London, was dedicated to Sir Charles Keymis, 

 of Keven-Mabley in the County of Glamorgan, Bart, and may be taken as having been a 

 valuable handbook relating to the laws on sport and dogs at the time when it was written. 

 Mr. Giles Jacobs, however, copies unblushingly from Nicholas Cox, without giving the latter 

 any credit for what he has taken from his works, and the result is that the description of 

 the setting dog which we have quoted above is reproduced in the " Compleat Sportsman." It is, 

 therefore, only reasonable to infer that no change, or, at all events, any material change, had 

 come over the dog during the interval which had expired since Nicholas Cox wrote, or it 

 would have probably been alluded to by Giles Jacobs in his work. 



It may here be mentioned in justice to the individual to whom the credit is due, that 

 Robert Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, is supposed to have been the first person to train 

 setting dogs in the manner which has since his time been universally adopted by his 

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