English History, Views and Standard 



CHAPTER 11 



After we trace back to a certain period, or, possibly, forty 

 years or so, the history of the Indian Runner in England be- 

 comes more and more hazy. English breeders say that the ear- 

 liest literature on the breed — or, at least, that which goes farthest 

 back, is a little treatise by John Donald, of County Cumberland, 

 where the breed was first known. In this book, Mr. Donald 

 states that the Indian Runners were brought to England by a sea 

 captain, about sixty years before his book was written. Certainly 

 anything brought to an insular country, before men flew as birds, 

 must have been brought by a sea-captain. H. DeCourcy, of Ire- 

 land, a writer whom we know quite well in America — thinks it is 

 now over twenty years since he first saw this (undated) book. 

 This would make it eighty years since the breed first made any 

 history in England that is now remembered — a period so remote 

 that none would now be alive who had personal knowledge of the 

 facts and of its introduction and earliest history. Mr. Donald still 

 breeds Runners, especially the new found "native" type. 



One of the EngHsh treatises, "The Indian Runner," was 

 writen by Jacob Thomlinson, who first knew this duck in County 

 Cumberland. He refers to Mr. Donald's (earlier) work, and al- 

 so to a brief treatise by Mr. Henry Digby, giving credit to these 

 men for all items not within his own, personal knowledge. The 

 illustrations in the Thomlinson pamphlet are from drawings by 

 Mr. J. W. Walton. "They give," says Mr. Thomlinson, "a clear 

 insight of what a true Runner should and should not be." 



This shows that Mr. Walton has long been a trusted author- 

 ity on Runners, having intimate personal knowledge, both of cor- 

 rect type and of history. 



12 



