The Pointer 295 
three times outside of an occasional reference to shooting over his own 
dogs. The list of dogs taken by him mentions only one pointer, Carlo, but 
the plural is used several times throughout the letters. At Rouen he 
“tried an English dog [pointer] belonging to one of the gentlemen, who 
seemed to esteem him very highly, as they all do everything English, but 
he was not half broke.” In a footnote referring to the remark about 
esteeming English things, it says: “‘ Indeed it is proverbial, ‘Anglo-mania.’” 
Elsewhere mention is made of a very poor pointer he had tried, and near 
Paris, when returning from one of his trips from that city, he makes this, 
for him, very full reference: “I was shown a breed of small pointers, the 
price being ten guineas each. I offered six guineas for a whelp of nine 
months, which was refused, but with the polite assurance that if I came 
near Bordeaux a dog should be sent to me.” The remark about Bordeaux 
suggests that the dogs belonged to M. Bergeir, a Bordeaux banker, whose 
Chateau De Lotville he had just mentioned as being seen in the distance. 
Whether these were of the size of the Lauderdale pointers, or merely small 
in comparison with the English idea of the proper size, is not determinable 
by the text, probably the latter, otherwise the description would likely 
have been more minute. At the same time we must not overlook that 
between the Edinburgh district and France there had been close 
communion for very many years. This is shown in the number of 
words of French origin in common use in Midlothian and Haddingtonshire 
Scotch. 
The ability to stand motionless on scenting game is not the exclusive 
privilege of any breed of dogs. The pointer, or pointing hound, by his 
many years of training through his ancestry, was the best adapted for the 
work required and was made use of, and it was not until the net was given 
up as a gentlemanly method of taking game that the setter became his 
rival with the gun. We read in old books of other dogs which also pointed 
and stood game. The adaptability of the collie as a dog to shoot over 
on the moors was recognised years ago, and it is beyond dispute that the 
Duke of Gordon did use such a cross on one occasion. Daniel tells us 
that “Lord Gwydir, whose manors are as well stocked with pheasants 
as most in the Kingdom, and astonishingly so if their short distance from 
the metropolis is considered, shoots pheasants always to a lurcher, who 
points them with singular correctness, and whose nose is so excellent as 
never to miss securing a wounded bird that runs into the thickest covert; 
