324 MR. L G'S LETTER. 



Sir Harry Goodrich, and many and many another hundred head 

 of game should I have killed, and in much greater comfort and 

 temper should I have shot, had I possessed so perfect a breed twenty 

 years ago. 



" As a proof of what can be done with dogs, I will mention that 

 I broke in a spaniel to hunt (with my setters) in the open as well as 

 in cover, and made him ' point,' ' back, 5 and ' drop to charge,' as per- 

 fectly as any dog you ever saw ; and he would, when ordered, retrieve 

 his game ; the setter, meanwhile, never moving until desired. I shot 

 over them for two years. They were a very killing pair, but had not 

 a sporting look. In September, '38, I took them with me to that 

 excellent sportsman, Sir Richard Sutton. The old Squire Osbaldiston, 

 was there. They were both much pleased with the dogs. By letting 

 my poor pet ' Dash ' run about, he was bitten by a mad dog in the 

 neighbourhood. Of course I lost him. 



" Speaking of spaniels, I must say I think that there is no kind of 

 dog that retrieves birds so well in thick turnips, where so much dead 

 ana wounded game is frequently left unbagged. With 'Dash' 1 

 seldom lost a feather in the strongest turnips in the course of a whole 

 day ; but I now rarely go out with sportsmen but that I see two or 

 three birds lost, sometimes more, from what are said to be the 

 best breed of retrievers in the country. The constant loss of wounded 

 birds is one of the drawbacks to the Norfolk shooting, where, without 

 doubt, the finest shooting in England is to be obtained. Gentlemen 

 there go out, some four, five, or six in a line, with only one or two 

 retrievers, and a man to each to pick up the killed game. The sports- 

 men never stop to load, for each has generally a man by his side with 

 a spare gun ready charged. If a bird is winged, or a hare wounded, 

 the dogs go in at once to fetch it. Were the sportsmen to divide into 

 distinct parties, each party taking one or two steady, close-ranging 

 dogs, what much more true sport and pleasure they would have ! 

 and kill, too, quite as much game. 



" You ask me wherein I differ from you in what you have written ? 

 Certainly in very little, and I have sent several gentlemen to 

 Murray's for copies of your book ; but in page 3, you say that ' dog- 

 breaking does not require much experience.' There I cannot agree 

 with you, for how is it that there are so few who understand it ? 

 Not one keeper or gentleman in a thousand, in my opinion. The 

 reason is that they have not sufficient practice and experience.* 



" In another point I differ with you. I have seen some of the best 

 rangers I ever shot over made by being allowed to follow their mother 

 in the field, or some very old dog,f what some people would term a 

 worn-out potterer. But I think it a yet better plan to attach a lay 

 cord of about forty yards in length to the collar of the young dog, 

 and let a man or' boy hold the other end. You will give a slight 



* The reason in my opinion + An expeditious method, as is 

 is, that they have not been pro- admitted in 191, but there, I 

 taught how to teach. think, all praise ceases. W. N..H- 



perly ta 



