Early Spaniels and Setters 103 
coated dogs close together, two setting and one pointing at a covey of 
partridges. This the editor took to indicate that the pointer had been used 
to cross with the spaniel, and when he comes to the pointer he takes Des- 
portes’s picture of two pointers to demonstrate that the pointer and fox- 
hound had then been crossed. The Desportes painting we have seen shows 
a well-built dog, all white except lemon ears. The dog is caught just as he 
has dropped hot on the scent of a pheasant, but with head up. This, Mr. 
Cunningham assured us, is a picture of the dog Blonde, one of a favourite 
brace belonging to Louis XIV., the other being named Brunette. Blonde 
is in many ways so dissimilar to the dogs shown with partridges that there 
is no doubt it is a likeness. The nose tapers most decidedly to a point, 
without any depth of flew, and the eyes are a gorgeous yellow, but beyond 
these points there is not much to find fault with. Legs show plenty of bone 
and the body is well filled out and well coated, with plenty of feathering on 
the tail. These paintings prove nothing beyond what we already know, 
namely, that spaniels of the seventeenth century were well diversified as to 
size, but were not setters as we know them to-day—z. e. they were not the 
distinct breed they now are, but merely a variety of the spaniel. 
It has been a very difficult matter to determine at what point to break 
off in this general introduction to the members of the spaniel family. Per- 
haps, in the estimation of some readers, we might have left some of the later 
points to be developed in the articles on the several breeds, but it seemed to 
us that we must trace clearly the development from the earliest history 
of the dog that came from Spain to be used in hawking and questing game, 
until it was so split up as to leave no doubt as to what it is and what it came 
from. This we think we have conclusively done, and will now proceed to a 
consideration of the several members of this family. 
THE ENGLISH SETTER 
From an old print 
