THE BLACK- AND-TAN SETTER 171 



legs to get a higher current of the tainted air, and then, having 

 made sure in that way, crossed the brook and pointed on the 

 rising ground beyond. This performance was accomplished by 

 one of the light-made black-and-tans of the Lews blood before 

 spoken of. What any other breed of setters would have done 

 would have been to swim the brook and try the other side in the 

 first instance, and this incident sufficiently explains the differ- 

 ence of temperaments of the black-and-tan setters from those 

 of other races. In other words, the wisdom of the black-and- 

 tans is partly born of weakness of the flesh, for although bigger 

 dogs than most setters, they are not able to carry the extra 

 weight. 



In the first Bala field trials the Marquis of Huntly had a 

 son of Kent which, according to the points awarded by the 

 judges, came out first. But the judges did not follow their 

 points, and gave the award elsewhere. The author did not see 

 that trial, but it is noteworthy because it was the last time a 

 black-and-tan of pure blood seemed to have a chance of victory 

 over the best of the period until the time of Stylish Ranger. It 

 is also noteworthy because the dogs beaten, on the ground of 

 bad breaking, afterwards proved towers of strength at the stud, 

 whereas the victors did not. The beaten included Mr. Tom 

 Statter's pointer Major and Mr. Armstrong's English setter 

 Duke. Probably these were the two most potent influences of 

 setter and pointer breeding that ever lived. 



One incident in the breeding of black-and-tan setters did 

 very much to make them for a time the most popular breed. 

 It was this. Much controversy having arisen as to the setter 

 character of Kent, a great dog-show winner, his owner asked 

 the Editor of the Field to select a puppy and run it at the field 

 trials. This was done, and the puppy came out well, and 

 actually beat the celebrated Duke on one occasion. This was 

 naturally accepted as proof of the pure breeding of Kent and 

 the correctness of his type. What it probably ought to have 

 proved was that Rex (the young dog) was better than others, 

 because he followed in instinct the pure bred side of his 

 parentage, and received vitality from a not very remote outside 



