142 The Dog Book 



dogs were not then popular (1878), excepting among a few who owned 

 them, consequently there were not those who, although they ridiculed the 

 idea, yet took sufficient interest in the matter to oppose it quickly. The 

 title therefor came into use, and we used it and admitted it into our 

 columns the same as we did and do many other vulgarisms, as for in- 

 stance the term prairie chicken for pinnated grouse." — American Field, 

 April 26, 1884. 



In the article last quoted from, Doctor Rowe said that Messrs. Buckell 

 and Llewellyn were speculative breeders, by which he meant that they had 

 no staple method, but brought in various outside blood. A correspondent 

 replied to this and said that when he visited Mr. Llewellyn's kennels, in 

 1875, the dogs were a mixed lot. To his eyes, there were too many extremes 

 m size and quality to show what was being bred for. In 1882 he again visited 

 the kennels and found that there was a vast improvement. The dogs were 

 larger and more of one definite type. Doctor Rowe twisted his correspond- 

 ent's statements to suit what he had previously written and finishes his 

 editorial foot-note to the letter with this sentence: "We know Mr. Llewellyn 

 wrote Mr. A. H. Moore that he sent only his culls to America; that doubtless 

 accounts for the evenness of the dogs described and the unevenness of those 

 we have seen." 



These were the pertinent and never answered statements of the editor 

 of the most aggressive kennel journal in the country at that time, and they 

 were penned when all the facts regarding the introduction and pedigrees as 

 well as the giving the name were thoroughly well known to readers of kennel 

 and sportsmen's papers. Now, at this late date, when so many of the actors 

 in the events of that period are no more, and others are on the non-combatant 

 list, searchers after truth are misled on every hand and seemingly have no 

 option but to believe what was twenty years pilloried as erroneous and 

 without foundation in fact. Even the American Field itself, regardless 

 of the dictum of its old editor, has switched as the following from its issue 

 of January 7, 1905, clearly shows: "It will be remembered that a protest 

 was made against awarding the special prize of twenty-five dollars, offered 

 by Mr. J. A. Graham for the best straightbred [this is incorrect, there was 

 nothing as to straightbred in the conditions announced regarding the 

 special, simply best Llewellyn setter dog] at the World's Fair to Bracken 

 O'Leck. The matter was referred to the American Field, and it decided 

 that Bracken O'Leck is not a Llewellyn setter, for the very reason that he 



