so The Sporting Dog 



lins which will bear analysis. The usual test is 

 that of tracing back in all lines to Duke-Rhoebe 

 and Laverack. Under Mr. Buckell's estimate 

 this definition must shut out everything which 

 has Dash II blood; and a student of pedigree 

 knows that such an exclusion would ostracize a 

 large number of the most respected names in 

 Llewellin pedigrees. Others have attempted to 

 limit the straight-bred " Four Hundred " to pedi- 

 grees which go straight to Mr. Llewellin's own 

 kennel. That test would exclude Bolus's Belton 

 and other dogs of unquestioned breeding and 

 high quality. 



Efforts to construct a straight-bred Llewellin 

 family sometimes run into a manifest absurdity. 

 For example, Gleam, the progenitor of one of the 

 most useful Llewellin lines, was rejected by the 

 exclusionists because Llewellin's Sam did not 

 suit them in breeding, notwithstanding the obvi- 

 ous fact that Sam, a field trial winner, was an 

 English setter as well bred — almost identically 

 — as Dash II and, if Gleam is evidence, of quali- 

 ties more desirable than those of Dash. The 

 same exclusionists have now admitted Gleam as 

 straight-bred. They would as well go further 

 and drop the " pure " idea altogether, letting 

 Llewellin blood stand for what it is — an influ- 

 ential but not separate element in English setter 

 breeding. 



