THE SETTER 
purpose their crouching habit renders them preferable to the pointer. 
For a great number of years past the setter has been used with the gun» 
which circumstance has, in the process of time, somewhat modified the 
crouching attitude to which he was trained in the days of the net, being 
discouraged, as being inconvenient to the shooter, who would be apt to 
lose sight of the dog in rough cover, so that at the present day there 
is no practical difference between the attitude of a setter or a pointer 
when on point; the setter standing up as boldly and “stylishly” as 
the pointer. This applies, however, more to the English setter, for 
the Irish breed still are greatly given to drop, or crouch, when on 
game. At the present day, and for several years previously, the setter 
family has been ranged into three distinct groups, i.e. English, Gordon 
(or black and tan), and Irish, while, of course, there are some lesser 
sub-divisions and crosses between them yet, broadly, the above are the 
three main divisions. 
Of the three classes named, the one distinguished as the English setter 
enjoys the widest limits, for any setter not an Irish or a Gordon, can 
claim the title of English, even though its ancestry may be founded on 
crosses from all three. While this is so, and that any cross-bred setter 
falls under the common name of English, there are certain strains which 
stand out as pure bred. The colours of the English setter are as varied as 
their lines of blood. They may be red and white, black and white, liver and 
white, black, white and tan, grey (called Belton grey) and pure white. 
Some years ago there were many such, which were valued and carefully 
kept up in the families of the country gentry and nobility. Not a few of 
these were wholly unknown to the general public. The writer was 
acquainted, many years ago, with a number of setters in the south and 
west of England. These bore a strong family likeness. They were mostly 
fine, big, upstanding dogs, with splendid shoulders, any amount of bone, 
and profusely feathered, had good heads, and square muzzles. These were 
almost invariably lemon and white, with dark eyes. Their fault generally 
was that their necks were inclined to be short. The late Mr Geo. Gibbs, 
of Bristol, the noted rifie shot, gunmaker and sportsman, had several, 
and among the Cornish shooting men excellent specimens might be found. 
A good one could occasionally be picked from the men who used to act as 
guides to shooters on the Bodmin moors, wild rushy bogs dangerous to 
strangers to the ground, and abounding in those days with snipe, which 
these dogs were trained to find. There was also another sort, seen more 
225 
GG 
