01ST JUDGING AT FIELD TEIALS. 63 



at Shrewsbury if they had come together. Passing from the pointers to the 

 setters, we find at Shrewsbury Brave Boy, to whom the third prize was allotted, 

 defeated by Nora (the winner) in the first round, which would have stopped 

 his career under the Kennel Club plan. On the other hand, in the 'Derby' 

 at Horseheath, according to the opinion of our reporter, the two best performers 

 came together in the first round, when Danger, who was ultimately placed fourth, 

 beat Norna (the winner at Shrewsbury), and the latter was consequently not 

 allowed another trial. These two -were first and second at Shrewsbury without 

 dispute, but in a reverse position to that at Horseheath ; and with Die behind 

 them both, she being beaten by Norna in the second round, and not tried a 

 third time. At Horseheath, Die, the winner of the first prize, behaved shame- 

 fully in her first two trials, and, if estimated on her average performance 

 throughout the Derby, would have come out badly ; but, happening to meet in 

 the first two rounds animals worse than herself, she luckily reached the third 

 round, when, being paired with Danger, who did not do so well as in her 

 previous trials, she just managed to score a win, though, according to our re- 

 porter, Danger, on the whole, showed herself to be evidently ' the better setter 

 of the two;' and this opinion, coming from a supporter of the 'heats' plan, 

 is not likely to be prejudiced in favour of Danger. 



"Now, if the object of these trials is to reward the owner of the best dog 

 in each stake with the first prize, we think the evidence afforded by the pro- 

 ceedings at these two meetings is strongly in favour of the system of judging 

 by points, without necessarily running in 'heats.' With the same time at their 

 disposal, worse ground, and, we will assume, equal knowledge of their task, the 

 Shrewsbury judges in two days settled the pretensions of eighty-five dogs, 

 against thirty-one at Horseheath; and in no instance was such an animal as 

 Norna put out without a second opportunity of showing his or her powers, 

 except in the single case of Rapid, which, as above shown, was clearly a mis- 

 take, caused by hurriedly coming to a decision without any necessity for it, and 

 therefore not in any way implicating the system adopted ; and, when it is con- 

 sidered that the numbers judged at Shrewsbury in two days were nearly three 

 times as great as those judged at Horseheath in the same time, the balance in 

 favour of the plan adopted at the former is at once apparent. 



"We are by no means pledging ourselves to the opinion that the scale of 

 points adopted at Shrewsbury is incapable of improvement, and we prefer that 

 used at Vaynol and Bala; but we contend that its principle is correct for the 

 following reasons : 



"1st. It is admitted that the great drawback to these trials is the want of 

 time to test the merits of the competing dogs fully and fairly. 2nd. The 

 Shrewsbury plan economises time by devoting as much as possible to the best 

 dogs in each stake, without wasting it on a second, third, or fourth trial of 

 inferior animals. 3rd. The Kennel Club method of heats often leads to the 

 entire defeat of one of the best dogs in a stake in the first or second round, by 

 meeting either the best or the second best in it, which contretemps does 'not 



