The English Setter 127 



his purchase. We visited England in the early winter of 1884, and the only 

 show of importance we had an opportunity of seeing was that at Hull. 

 There we met our old friend Billy Graham, from Belfast, who, by the way, 

 took the special for best four of any breed with the best matched team of 

 Irish terriers we have ever seen benched by any person. Mr. Graham 

 told us he had an order for a brace of setters for Mr. Windholz and wanted 

 our opinion on a dog that was at the show. We had already had a casual 

 glance along the benches and had noted a very likely looking dog and, 

 remembering his whereabouts, we located the dog when Mr. Graham was 

 trying to do so. It was the dog we had noticed. He was in very poor 

 condition, thin as a rail and looking wretched. We took him down and in 

 reply to the question as to whether he could be got right, Mr. Graham said 

 he was positive he could, as he had seen him in good shape and his conditioiv 

 then was the result of sickness. "Then buy him if you are sure of that, for 

 if he can be got right he will beat any setter we have," was our advice. So 

 Graham bought the dog and later secured an excellent mate for him in 

 Princess Phoebus. Rockingham was one of those dogs fitly described by 

 one of the critics of that day who, when not exactly sure of his ground, summed 

 up a dog as having no glaring faults — slightly strong in head, but of good 

 type and excellent expression and needing a little more bend to the hocks 

 and a little less flatness of back. A few changes of that sort would have 

 been very great improvements in a dog that even without them was an 

 excellent type all over, and with his lovely coat was one that gave pleasure 

 to look at. He was a good dog to shoot over, and so were his get, Mr. 

 Windholz always taking a fall shooting trip to the South in those days. 



Unfortunately, neither this good dog nor his sire Belthus, then in this 

 country, were bred to to any extent, nor as men of intelligence in the breed 

 should have done. Breeders went after strange gods in those days with 

 results we shall soon have to touch upon. Mr. Windholz followed up these 

 importations with those of Count Howard, Cora of Wetherall, Countess Zoe 

 and Princess Beatrice, and could show a team the counterpart of which we 

 never saw until Mr. Vandergrift took up the breed a few years ago. The 

 rival to Mr. Windholz was the Blackstone Kennels of Pawtucket, and as 

 Foreman could not defeat Rockingham, Mr. Crawford decided to import 

 one that might do so. The result was the oncoming of Royal Albert, 

 who finally succeeded in winning from the older dog at New York in 1887. 

 The question was not by any means considered settled thereby, for the con- 



