4O2 THE BOOK OF THE DOG. 



the belief that formerly this dog's services were pretty largely resorted to by Pointer 

 breeders of position and eminence. 



There can be no sort of doubt, however, that it was the Foxhound to which the credit 

 lay in improving the Spanish Pointer ; and Colonel Thornton is entitled to every honour 

 at the hands of modern breeders for what he did for their favourite dog at the close of 

 last century. From the illustration which accompanies this article and which is copied from 

 an oil painting by the eminent French painter Desportes, already referred to in the chapter 

 on Setters a very good impression of what the early cross resembled can be gathered 

 though the apparent lightness of bone, we must confess, surprises us. The Spanish Pointer 

 was, we know, a heavy-boned, cumbersome dog, and the bone of a Foxhound has always 

 been proverbial. It is therefore only reasonable to assume either that the light, fast Fox- 

 hound which was selected for the cross was, in reality, a very light-boned dog indeed, or 

 that, at all events, the progenitors of the dogs depicted in this illustration answer to that 

 description. But be this as it may, a very great disparity of weight exists amongst modern 

 Pointers of the present day, many specimens exceeding seventy pounds in weight, and others 

 not drawing the scale at anything near fifty pounds. Whether or no this is to be in any 

 way accounted for by the heavier hound having been primarily introduced in some instances, 

 and the lighter in others, we cannot say, this being purely a matter of conjecture for which 

 no reliable data can be given ; still, as so great a variety in sizes exists now-a-days, it is 

 more than probable that the same differences in type appeared immediately after the Fox- 

 hound cross was tried, and that our illustration only represents the results arising from one 

 of them. 



Mr. William Lort has sent us the following notes on the breed from his point of view, 

 and it may be remarked as a curious incident in connection with what his opinion* on the 

 subject are, that according to him the best strains of modern Pointers originated, like the 

 Setters, in the North of England, or, at all events, came south from that part of the country. 

 Mr. Lort, too, repeats the assertion that he made in the Setter article, in his comparison 

 of the respective merits of Pointer and Setter ; and on such a subject his opinion, from the 

 position he occupies as a judge and breeder of both breeds, must be taken as ranking second 

 to none. 



"How often are we asked which we prefer, the Pointer or the Setter. Although a great 

 authority says, ' at present the Pointer is regarded as a grouse dog,' we are in- 

 clined to credit the Setter with qualities which give him a prior claim to the Pointer for 

 this sport. Rough, broken ground and stumpy heather try the feet and the courage of the 

 Pointer, and the drizzle with which a deal of the Scotch grouse shooting is favoured tells 

 sorely against the thin-coated Pointer, who, after a good soaking before luncheon, and an 

 1 our's shiver during lunch, is not unlikely to show a disinclination to gallop after lunch. 

 The Pointer undoubtedly chills and stiffens sooner than the Setter. Then, on the other 

 hand, the Setter shows exhaustion from heat and lack of water to an extent unknown in 

 the Pointer. 



"The Pointer has always had a slight pull over the Setter inasmuch as he is more 

 easily broken, and when broken he is less likely to revert to an untutored state. In pace 

 and nose there is very little to choose between well-bred specimens of either breed. 

 The Pointer's work is in stubbles, grass, and roots, and he looks more at home there than 

 in the wind-swept, mist-bathed hills, or the trying, treacherous peat-bogs of the lower moors. 



