STAUNCHNESS OF POINTERS. 397 



" Many merry jokes have been passed in our hearing, by sportsmen, on the above account, 

 with the view of promoting the cause of ridicule, comparing it with another still more 

 marvellous and well known, given on the authority of a grave and most respectable member 

 of the priesthood. For our parts we really believe both the possibility and probability of 

 the staunchness of Pluto and Juno as just related ; and although Gilpin cannot be referred 

 to, as having quitted we hope for a better this painting and plastering world, there are yet 

 survivors to whose authority an appeal may be made. It remains to back the above story 

 with the well-known one (but the repetition on this occasion will be pardoned) of the Rev. 

 Theophilus Verity. On a certain Christmas Day this gentleman was riding his nag from 

 his parish church, which was at considerable distance from his dwelling-house, and his way 

 lay over the most private spot of a secluded and neglected heath. In the deepest recess 

 of this wild he espied a Pointer by himself, standing at a covey of birds. He looked, 

 admired, pondered on the wonderful and inscrutable instinct of the brute creation, blessed 

 himself, and passed on. The cares and studies necessarily attendant upon his calling, 

 however, soon expelled every vestige of this occurrence from his mind, until he was 

 awakened to fresh admiration and benediction by a renewed and stupendous view of the 

 same objects. Exactly on the above day twelve months, passing the same way, his second 

 astonishment was far greater than the first ; for he saw, upon the self-same spot, the dog 

 pointing at the birds in precisely the same attitude he had left both parties twelve months 

 before ; with this difference, however, that they were then living and breathing, one party 

 treacherously circumventing, the other apprehending ; whereas now they were in a state of 

 skeleton, fit for a lecture in anatomy, and doubtless, as the reverend gentleman supposes, 

 the partridges were held to their destiny by the well-proved and well-known power of 

 fascination emitted from the eyes of the dog. Now, we particularly request that no light- 

 minded person will attempt to make a joke of this, well convinced, as every rational man 

 ought to be, that there are wonders of which, never having had the experience, he can have 

 no adequate conception." 



This extract is also valuable as corroborative testimony that the introduction of the 

 Foxhound cross was first due to the enterprise and judgment of Colonel Thornton ; as lovers 

 of the modern Pointer will no doubt be glad to know to whom they are indebted for the 

 improvement in their favourite breed, their later exertions having unquestionably been rendered 

 more easy by the good he originally wrought upon this variety of dog. But, looking back to 

 the year 1811 that is, eleven years after the publication of the account of the Pointer by 

 Sydenham Edwards in " Cynographia Britannica," we find the following description of the 

 Pointer given in the " Shooter's Guide," by B. Thomas, or rather, to give the author's correct 

 name, by Thomas B. Johnson. 



t 

 " The Pointer generally to be recommended is of the middle size, well made, active, light 



and strong. It will easily be perceived that a dog of this description will bear a vast deal 

 of hunting ; whereas a small one, however good he may be, is by no means calculated for a 

 piece of strong turnips or potatoes, strong and stiff stubbles, or mountains where the heath is 

 strong and long. On the contrary, it is generally supposed that a large dog is much sooner 

 tired by his own weight than one of the middle size, consequently the latter are in general 

 to be preferred, and indeed I would by all means recommend them. But, at the same time, 



