PllSTOKY OF THE SETTER. 355 



is, however, a perfectly palpable tendency to crouch still observable in many of the best and 

 highest bred Setters of the present day, which is unquestionably accounted for by the former 

 habits of the breed, and the uses to which it was put. 



From the following remarks of Mr. Taplin it will be seen that in the early years of this 

 century the Setter was credited (as he is by many in the present day) with being naturally of 

 a timid and nervous temperament, for he writes : 



" It has already been observed that the Setter is in possession of a constitutional timidity 

 which induces him to dread the severity of correction-, and, of course, to avoid the means of 

 disgrace; fraught with this irritability their treatment in the field becomes matter of judicious 

 discrimination. Dogs of this description, perpetually alive to the fear of giving offence and 

 incurring bodily punishment, lay claim to every little tender attention as well at home as in 

 the field. Warm, hasty, impetuous sportsmen contribute not unfrequently to their own 

 mortification and disappointment, for many dogs of this disposition corrected in passion or 

 beat with severity are so completely overwhelmed with distress or humiliated with fear that 

 they almost insensibly sink at the feet, and can be prevailed on to hunt no more, or, what is 

 sometimes the case, slink away home without the least chance whatever of being again induced 

 to render further assistance in the sport of the day." 



It is an undoubted fact that in the present day many Setters that would otherwise have 

 been invaluable in the field are ruined in their breaking and subsequent education by the 

 severe treatment they receive at the hands of those in whose power they are placed. We are 

 decidedly of the opinion that were less stringent punishment inflicted for trifling offences upon 

 the members of more than one well-known kennel, an even increased reputation would quickly 

 be added to that which it already possesses. 



Three years later than. the date in which the "Sportsman's Cabinet" was published viz., 

 in 1806 there was a sale of Setters, the record of which has been handed down to the 

 present day. The prices realised were for the period decidedly good, and as the kennel was 

 the property of a rather famous individual in his way Daniel Lambert, the historical fat 

 man, who shortly before his death scaled fifty-two stone eleven pounds and the list, more- 

 over, is valuable as an index to the prices of sporting dogs seventy years ago, we reproduce it 

 at length : 



Peg, a black Setter Bitch ... ... ... ... ... 41 guineas 



Punch, a Setter Dog ... ... ... ... ... 26 



Brush ... ... ... ... ... 17 



Bob ... ... ... ... ... 20 



Bell 32 



Bounce ... ... ... ... ... 22 



Sam ... ... ... ... ... 26 



Charlotte, a Pointer Bitch ... ... ... ... ... 22 



Lucy 12 



Total ... .,. ... ... 218 



This gives an average which would make dog-breeding a successful commercial enterprise 

 even in the present day ; but it is a noticeable fact that the Setters fetched better prices than 

 the Pointers, which must be taken as a proof that the breed was coming up into a higher 



