128 DOGS AND ALL ABOUT THEM 



altogether changed by the year 1800, but it is possible that 

 the breed then had been continued by selection rather than 

 by crossing for a couple of decades, as it is quite certain that 

 by 1815 sportsmen were still dissatisfied with the want of pace 

 in the Pointer, and many sportsmen are known to have 

 crossed their Pointers with Foxhounds at about that time. 

 By 1835 the old Spanish Pointer had been left behind, and the 

 English dog was a perfect model for pace, stamina, resolution, 

 and nerve. The breed was exactly adapted to the require- 

 ments of that day, which was not quite as fast as the present. 

 Men shot with good Joe Mantons, did their own loading, and 

 walked to their dogs, working them right and left by hand 

 and whistle. The dogs beat their ground methodically, their 

 heads at the right level for body scent, and when they came 

 on game, down they were ; the dog that had got it pointing, 

 and the other barking or awaiting developments. There was 

 nothing more beautiful than the work of a well-bred and well- 

 broken brace of Pointers, or more perfect than the way a 

 man got his shots from them. There was nothing slow about 

 them, but on the contrary they went a great pace, seemed to 

 shoot into the very currents of air for scent, and yet there was 

 no impatience about them such as might have been expected 

 from the Foxhound cross. The truth of it was that the 

 capacity to concentrate the whole attention on the object 

 found was so intense as to have lessened every other propensity. 

 The rush of the Foxhound had been absorbed by the additional 

 force of the Pointer character. There has been nothing at all 

 like it in canine culture, and it came out so wonderfully after 

 men had been shooting in the above manner for about forty 

 years. 



It was nearing the end of this period that field trials began 

 to occupy the attention of breeders and sportsmen, and 

 although Setters had been getting into equal repute for the 

 beauty of their work, there was something more brilliant about 

 the Pointers at first. Brockton's Bounce was a magnificent 

 dog, a winner on the show bench, and of the first Field Trial 



