THE POINTER. 



233 



but probably by 1750, when hunting had than their Pointers. The old Spanish Pointer 



had been left behind, and the English dog 

 of the middle of the last century was a 

 perfect model for pace, stamina, resolution, 

 and nerve, if one may call it so. The breed 

 was exactly adapted to the requirements 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 



progressed a good deal, and pace was 

 increased in all pastimes, the old-fashioned 

 Pointer was voted a nuisance through his 

 extreme caution and tortoise-like move- 

 ments. 



That excitable sportsman, Colonel Thorn- 

 ton, had evidently become so impressed, 

 as in early life he had crossed the Spanish 

 Pointer with Foxhounds, and he had bred 

 up to a tolerably ad- 

 vanced breed for many 

 years before his estab- 

 lishment at Thornville 

 Royal was broken up. 



There is evidence, 

 through portraits, that 

 Pointers had been alto- 

 gether changed by the 

 year 1800, but it is 

 possible that the breed 

 then had been con- 

 tinued by selection 

 rather than by crossing 

 for a couple of decades, 

 perhaps, as it is quite 

 certain that by 1815 

 sportsmen were still 

 dissatisfied with the 

 want of pace in the 

 Pointer, and Mr. Edge 

 of Strelly, the Rev. 

 Mr. Houlden, a well- 

 known follower of the Quorn and Atherstone, 

 Mr. Moore of Appleby, in the Atherstone 

 country, Sir Tatton Sykes, in his Yorkshire 

 country, the Earls of Derby and Sefton, 

 and Sir Richard Sutton were known to have 

 crossed their Pointers with Foxhounds at 

 about that time. 



It must be remembered that all the above 

 were staunch Foxhound men, and believed 

 in little else for stamina, dash, and hunting 

 aptitude. By 1835 the breeds of all these 

 noblemen and gentlemen were firmly estab- 

 lished, and they bred from each other's 

 kennels. The Strelly, the Appleby, the 

 Knowsley (Lord Derby's), Lord Sefton's and 

 Lord Lichfield's were the sources for blood 

 all through the 'forties and 'fifties, and 

 nothing could have been more celebrated 



3 



THE SPANISH POINTER. 



From " The Sportsman's Cabinet" (1803). By P. Reinagle, R.A. 



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 backing 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 in the 

 least 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 atten- 

 tion on the object found was so intense as to 



