234 



THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 



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 



SIR RICHARD GARTH'S DRAKE. 



THE FIRST POINTER CHAMPION AT FIELD TRIALS. 



FROM A PAINTING BY GEORGE EARL. 



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 in England. He strained 

 from the Edge of Strelly's sort, and Lord 

 Henry Bentinck's, and was probably just 

 seven-eighths Pointer to one of Foxhound, 

 within a period of forty-five years. That was 

 the opinion of the late Mr. Sam Price, and 

 of Mr. Brockton, who is alive now. Newton's 

 Ranger was another of the early performers, 

 and he was very staunch and brilliant, but 

 it was in the next five years that the most 

 extraordinary Pointer merit was seen, as 

 quite incomparable was Sir Richard Garth's 

 Drake, who was just five generations from 



the Spanish Pointer, his line reading as a 

 son of Don, son of Rap, son of Mars, son 

 of Pallas Spanish Pointer. In the female 

 branches, though, in Don, Rap, and Mars, 

 there was an inbred preponderance of Lord 

 Sefton's sorts, and they were thought to 

 have had a somewhat longer probation from 

 the Foxhound cross than others. The 

 Seftons were exceedingly inbred to their 

 own kennel lines. Drake was rather a tall, 

 gaunt dog, but with immense 

 depth of girth, long shoulders, 

 long haunches, and a benevo- 

 lent, quiet countenance. There 

 was nothing very attractive 

 about him when walking about 

 at Stafford prior to his trial, 

 but the moment he was down 

 he seemed to paralyse his op- 

 ponent, as he went half as 

 fast again. It was calculated 

 that he went fifty miles an 

 hour, and at this tremendous 

 pace he would stop as if pe- 

 trified, and the momentum 

 would cover him with earth 

 and dust. Quite a sight it 

 was to watch him on point. 

 It was perhaps more of a drop 

 than a point. He could not 

 transfix himself at the pace he 

 went, but he was wonderfully 

 staunch and true. He did not 

 seem capable of making a mistake, and his 

 birds were always at about the same distance 

 from him, to show thereby his extraordinary 

 nose and confidence. Nothing in his day 

 could beat him in a field. He got some 

 good stock, but they were not generally 

 show form, the bitches by him being mostly 

 light and small, and his sons a bit high on 

 the leg. None of them had his pace, but 

 some were capital performers, such as Sir 

 Thomas Lennard's Mallard, Mr. George 

 Pilkington's Tory, Mr. Lloyd Price's Luck 

 of Edenhall, winner of the Field Trial Derby, 

 1878 ; Lord Downe's Mars and Bounce, and 

 Mr. Barclay Field's Riot. When Sir Richard 

 Garth went to India and sold his kennel 

 of Pointers at Tattersall's, Mr. Lloyd Price 

 gave 150 guineas for Drake. 



