THE SETTER 
W E must decline to back the false points of those writers 
who penetrate the fogs of antiquity in a vain endeavour to 
discover the origin of the setter. Let it suffice for the 
purpose of this article to state that its origin, like that of 
the illustrious “ Jeames,” is “ wropt in mystery.” There 
is sufficient evidence that the setter preceded the pointer 
in these islands as a British sporting dog, and that its parent stock was 
shared by the spaniel. In many old works on dogs and shooting, we find 
a dog, which is plainly a setter, called a “ spaniel.” To take one or two 
instances only. In a book by William Dobson, of Eden Hall, Cumberland, 
entitled ‘‘ A Practical Essay on Breaking or Training the English Spaniel,” 
is described what we should call a very high-class setter, even of the 
modern type. In support of this, one sentence will be enough where the 
author warns ; 
” Do not you by the paltry consideration of a few brace of birds 
more during his first season begin by degrading your pupil into a 
low and despicable bog trotter; and so cut off all the promising 
blossoms of high range for ever.” 
Although this book was published in 1817, yet the sketch thus drawn 
would fit any of our best setters, and still the author terms this dashing, 
high ranging brilliant dog, a “ spaniel.” One more example. A work pub- 
lished in 1824, on shooting and shooting dogs, by an anonymous writer, 
follows very much on the same lines. When discoursing on the choice of 
dogs for the gun the writer says : 
” There are now various kinds of dogs called setters, from their 
being appropriated in that service. None can have any just claim, 
however, to that appellation, but what is emphatically called by any 
of eminence the English spaniel. The Irish insist theirs is the true 
English spaniel; the Welsh contend theirs are the aborigines. Be that 
as it may, whatever mixtures may have been since made, there were, 
fifty years ago (1774), two distinct tribes — the black tanned, and the 
orange or lemon and white. In each class I have seen the short, close 
coat, and the loose, soft massed one; with an equality of goodness under 
each description and complexion. These kinds (especially the orange 
and white) are fond, docile and spirited. Were I ever to break another 
dog to the net, I should prefer the highest hunter of that sort, to the 
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