60 SHOOTING SETTERS. 



in it, observing that such dogs as would not feed well 

 were never taken out the following day. ' A stitch in 

 time saves nine,' is a good wholesome maxim. 



" I now proceed to speak of the setter. The Irish 

 setters are very beautiful both in and out of the field ; 

 but so hot-headed, that, unless always at work, and 

 kept under very strict discipline, they constantly spoil 

 sport for the first hour, frequently the best in the 

 whole day. I have shot to many, and found them all 

 pretty much alike. I had one, the history of whose 

 bad and good qualities would fill half a dozen pages. 

 As long as I kept him to regular hard work, a better 

 never entered a field : I refused forty guineas for 

 him, and shot him a month afterwards for his bad 

 deeds. I bred from him, out of an English setter 

 bitch, and some of the produce turned out very good ; 

 one of them I shot to myself for eight seasons ; my 

 reasons for parting with him I will presently explain. 

 Unless to throw more dash into my kennel, I should 

 never be tempted again to become master of an Irish 

 setter. Frequently, partridges are driven into gorse 

 or low cover, in the middle of the day, which few 

 pointers will face. I know it is not the fashion to 

 shoot to dogs in cover; but most true sportsmen 

 prefer shooting five brace of pheasants to setters or 

 mute spaniels, to fifty brace to beaters. In the latter 

 case you stand sometimes an hour together without 

 getting a shot ; and then they rise a dozen at a time, 

 like barn-door fowls, and as many are killed in a few 

 hours as would serve for weeks of fair shooting. 



