86 The Sporting Dog 



two standpoints : first, their bearing as a factor in 

 the LlevvelHn blood ; second, their record on the 

 show benches. The first need not be mentioned 

 here, since it is part of the Llewellin history. 



On the bench the Laveracks have had in this 

 country, as in England, the favor of all the judges 

 who are sticklers for " fancy." Mr. John David- 

 son, one of the most popular of American bench- 

 show judges, said to me once that it is impossible 

 to judge a setter without considering primarily 

 head, coat, and stern. Those, he said, were the 

 points which made a setter different from other 

 dogs. " Any mongrel," he continued, " can have 

 good chest, shoulders, feet, and legs, but if a dog 

 has not a setter coat, he is not a setter." Mr. 

 Davidson probably expressed the general thought 

 which has governed the long line of judges in 

 both countries who have maintained the suprem- 

 acy of the Laverack type on the benches. It w^as 

 difficult for a judge of the old days to set aside a 

 dog like Thunder in favor of a setter of inferior 

 quality; as in our time few of them can ignore 

 Mallwyd Sirdar. 



Since there is no dispute about the Laverack 

 type and very little about its breeding, the story 

 in America is soon told, though it has an interest 

 in many directions. In the field the Laveracks 

 have been more used and more useful than the 

 public records would indicate. Especially in 



