THE SETTER 
were dogs rather on the large side, and inclined to be heavy, with good, 
square, sensible heads, and coats of ample quality, the colour, lemon and 
white ticked. 
The fault of most old breeds was that their necks were inclined to be 
short, but in other respects they were of good form, and all that per- 
tains to utility in running gear was present in them. There were in the 
fifties and sixties of the last century liver and white coloured dogs of a 
breed common in Cumberland, and the rest of the Border counties, 
strongly built and heavily feathered; and specimens of these were to 
be seen in the hands of the well-known Edward Armstrong, who hailed 
from the Border, and right up to the time of his death he was in 
possession of them. Whether any of these exist now is more than 
doubtful. Then there were at Taymouth the Marquess of Breadalbane’s 
“red marbles,” or “mottles,” and “blue marbles,” and the black 
and white setters of Balloch. Shropshire possessed a breed of setters, 
among which was a lemon and white breed belonging to the late Sir 
Vincent Corbet, whose well-known bitch. Slut, was one of the pillars of 
the modern field trial line of setters. What has happened to this is what 
has happened to all of the old breeds, with very few exceptions, and while 
Sir Vincent kept and bred and shot over setters his estate is now “ driven ” 
and the Corbet setter is a thing of the past. The Revolution, for it is no less, 
that has overtaken shooting, is in many ways very unfortunate to the 
interests of the setter. Formerly no sportsman thought of going shooting 
without his pointer or setter, and so these dogs were prized, and no estab- 
lishment of any pretensions was without its kennel of pointers or setters. 
At the present day not one shooting in a hundred has either pointer or setter. 
Thus “ driving ” once begun has taken root and yearly increases. Another 
breed peculiar to a locality is, or was, the small Mid -Wales breed called 
the Llanidloes setter. These dogs were not much to look at, being very 
little larger than spaniels, but compact and well formed, of a milk-white 
colour, or, as it used to be called, “ chalk white,” a thick coat with more 
or less curl. The head was inclined to be snipey in the nose, and ears 
were set high. These were active little dogs, and well suited to the deep 
dingles and steep hillsides of their native Montgomeryshire. The late Mr 
W. Lort, a well-known shooting man, and born judge of every kind of 
animal, had a great opinion of their suitability for their work, and used 
to say, “'You may beat us with your dogs on the fiats and the tops, but 
we will beat you in the dingles and on the bottoms,” referring to his 
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