104 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



old black-white-and-tan kennel of the Duke of Gordon, 

 although the blood of the latter sort was widely spread as 

 crosses in other races of setters. This was obviously so in the 

 black-and-tan kennel of the late Lord Rosslyn (who introduced 

 bloodhound to get the colour), and in that of many English 

 setter kennels. They were known as English setters, and 

 shown as such, only because there was a mistaken idea that 

 Gordons were black-and-tan, without white. 



Stamina, then, must be improved if dogs are to be generally 

 popular where they can be used. But some few of the winning 

 field trial workers would look foolish after 30 minutes' 

 experience of a bed of strong heather. Shooters at Aldridge's 

 annual sale are frequently observed purchasing two or three 

 little highly broken weeds that could not possibly give 

 satisfaction. There is often a great deal of hustle, fuss, and 

 fictitious pace about the very little dogs that are now some- 

 times bred, but their bolt is soon shot, and they are a 

 hindrance to sport for the rest of the day. The old dogs 

 that were regarded as stayers did not look to be in such a 

 mighty hurry; they had a long easy stride, with no up and 

 down action (it is that which tires). As being much bigger, 

 they were probably much faster than the little hustler division 

 now so numerous, and some of them could keep up the pace 

 all day. Many could do a half-day's work, and some of those 

 that were not regarded as stayers were brilliantly fast and 

 slashingly bold for two hours in the morning and another two 

 in the afternoon. The author remembers one of the latter 

 that after winning the National Championship at the Shrewsbury 

 Meeting in the spring put out his shoulder. The mend was a 

 bad one, and although this accident destroyed the stamina it 

 did not interfere much with the pace of this extraordinary dog. 

 Afterwards, for some years, he could beat the best in a most 

 successful field trial kennel for 20 minutes, but then he was 

 done for. What has been said about the uselessness of non- 

 stayers may be emphasised by the experience of this dog, for, 

 although he was often taken out in the spring as a "trial 

 horse " for young ones, it was thought useless to put him into 



