THE RETRIEVERS. 



257 



conducted shows for keepers' dogs managed 

 by Mr. Millard. At the Gamekeepers' Show 

 held at Carlisle in 1907 visitors were par- 

 ticularly attracted by the high quality of the 

 exhibits in the Retriever classes, all owned 

 and most of them bred by keepers. 



As a show dog the flat-coated Retriever 

 has reached something very near to the 

 ideal standard of perfection which has 

 been consistently bred up to. Careful selec- 

 tion and systematic breeding, backed up by 

 en thusiasm, 

 have resulted in 

 the production 

 of a dog com- 

 bining useful 

 working quali- 

 ties with the 

 highest degree 

 of beauty. 



In the early 

 days of dog 

 shows the one 

 name most in- 

 timately asso- 

 ciated with the 

 Retriever was 

 that of Dr. Bond 

 Moore, whose 

 kennels were al- 

 most invariably 

 successful in 

 co mpetition. 

 Dr. Moore was 

 somewhat arbi- 

 trary as a judge 

 of the breed, 



and has been known to fault an otherwise 

 perfect dog because of the presence of a 

 few white hairs in its jet black coat ; but 

 it is interesting to note that in the litters 

 of his own breeding at Wolverhampton 

 there occasionally occurred puppies of a 

 pale golden, almost liver colour. His famous 

 Midnight, remarkable for the pure blackness 

 of her coat, more than once threw sandy- 

 coloured whelps to a black sire. This 

 occurs in many good strains. 



Contemporaneously with the success of 

 Dr. Moore's kennels in 1870 some admirably 

 typical Retrievers were shown by other 



breeders, notably Mr. Atkinson's Cato, Mr. 

 Shorthose's Rupert, Mr. Strawbridge's Rose, 

 Mr. Hazlehurst's Midnight, Mr. G. D. Gorse's 

 Wyndham^ Sailor, and Jet, Mr. R. J. Lloyd 

 Price's Moliere, and Mr. G. Manson's Morley. 

 Another very prominent admirer and breeder 

 was the late Mr. S. E. Shirley, the President 

 of the Kennel Club, who owned many 

 Retrievers superlative both as workers and 

 as show dogs, and who probably did more 

 for the breed than any other man of his 



Z&*i. 



MR. H. REGINALD COOKE'S CH. WIMPOLE PETER. 



FROM THE PAINTING BY MAUD EARL. 



generation. A sportsman in every sense, 

 Mr. Shirley trained his dogs for work with 

 extreme care, and only bred from those of 

 the highest character. If only for his im- 

 provements in this one breed, the shooting 

 world owes his memory undying gratitude. 

 Among the best Retrievers of his breeding 

 were Paris, Moonstone, Zelstone, Dusk, 

 Lady Evelyn, Trace, and Thorn. 



Mr. Shirley's work was carried on by Mr. 

 Harding Cox, who devoted much time and 

 energy to the production of good Retrievers, 

 many of which were of Mr. Shirley's strain. 

 Mr. Cox's dogs deservedly achieved con- 



33 



