136 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



previously for the late .Duke of Westminster, and before that for 

 Lord Lichfield. His pointers, wherever he went, were of the liver- 

 and-white sort, and were practically of the same strains as those 

 mentioned in Drake's pedigree. Indeed, it is probable that 

 Brailsford and some other keepers did as much as the dogs' 

 owners to keep up this race of pointers, which is now stronger 

 in Salop than anywhere. William Brailsford, moreover, founded 

 the National Field Trials during the time he was managing 

 Lord Lichfield's kennel, in 1866 that is, one year after the 

 first start of field trials in Bedfordshire. 



To start breeding pointers of the right sort is as easy as to 

 continue breeding the wrong. There are dogs constantly going 

 to auction whose ancestors have won field trials for ten to 

 thirteen generations. This is a guarantee to a certain extent 

 that puppies will be worth something to shoot over. It is 

 a great assistance to the breeder, who, having the blood, can 

 confine his powers of selection to the choice for external form, 

 which is a great simplification. A pedigree as long as one's arm 

 is absolutely useless as a mere record of names, but with field 

 trial victors in every generation it is nearly all the help that a 

 breeder can desire. If to these were added good photographs 

 of each generation, it would make breeding almost a certainty. 



The records of bench show wins by no means take the 

 place of photographs, for the variation of victorious types is as 

 great as that of the selection of judges. This was always so, 

 but of late years dogs have been bred for show without regard 

 to their business in life; so that many exhibition pointers are 

 only nominally of that breed, and instead of shows assisting 

 pointer breeders they are so managed as to preclude competition 

 by field trial dogs. This might be altered by the adoption by 

 the Stud Book, or a new one, of the principles upon which the 

 Foxhound Stud Book is managed by the Masters of Fox- 

 hounds Association. That is, by only admitting hounds bred 

 from sire and dam entered in a recognised pack. The same 

 principle would be satisfactorily adopted if only dogs bred 

 from field trial winning parents, or winners themselves, were 

 admitted to the Stud Book, or to pointer classes at shows, when 



