198 The Dog Book 
Later on he tells of sending back one of his pointers which he had promised 
as a present. It does not seem possible that he never saw any setters at 
Gordon Castle or at any of the other noblemen’s or landed proprietors’ 
establishments he visited, but he is mute as to dogs, except for the most 
casual remark here and there. 
Stonehenge seemed to be of the opinion that the ancestors of the 
Gordon strain came from Ireland, but there was no need to introduce the 
reds to get the tan, for black and tan is one of the old setting spaniel colours. 
Caius before 1576 wrote regarding spaniels that “Othersome of them be 
reddishe and blackishe, but of that sort there be very few.’ Markham 
in the early part of the seventeenth century said that “the black and fallow 
are esteemed the hardest to endure.” The Rev. Mr. Simons in 1776 wrote 
as follows: ‘Whatever mixtures may have been since made, there were, 
fifty years ago, two distinct tribes—the black-tanned and the orange or 
lemon and white.” 
These extracts from early writers dispose of any idea that this com- 
bination of colour originated at Gordon Castle, besides which, from a 
number of letters which appeared in the Field about forty years ago, it is 
very certain that, as we have already suggested, the Duke of Gordon had 
no specific colour rule to breed to. We give a few extracts from letters 
which appeared in that London newspaper. 
A Mr. Bastin had asked for information as to the name of the dog from 
which the black and tan Gordons had descended, stating that he meant a 
black, white and tan dog. This opened the gates for a flood of information. 
Francis Brailsford, a family name well known to this day among field 
trials men, said that the dogs of the late Duke were invariably black, white 
and tan. “J.C.S.” said the same, and that he had had one of the breed 
years ago. “D.” told the story of how the Marquis of Huntly, as the 
Duke then was, got a black and tan collie bitch from a shepherd who lived 
on the Findhorn and bred her to one of his best dogs, and that some of the 
litter were black and tan. The name of this collie was Maddy, and she 
was known to be remarkably clever in finding grouse. She did not point 
them but “watched them.” 
ENncLisH Owners oF Biack AND TANS AND TRICOLORS 
Mr. Samuel Brown, of Melton Mowbray, a gentleman who is referred 
to repeatedly by the best known writers on the breed, confirmed the state- 
