THE SETTER 
Owners of the black -and -tans, at that time the fashionable breed, 
did not care for these rivals and possible conquerors, and it became 
the fashion in and out of the Press to snub Laverack and his dogs. This 
tirade was headed by “ Idstone.” A champion for Mr Laverack, however, 
came forward in the person of Mr Llewellin, and directly challenged 
“ Idstone ” (the Rev. T. Pearce) to back his criticisms on the Laveracks and 
on Laverack by meeting him to run a match with a brace of his Gordons 
against a brace of Laveracks. “Idstone” was far too astute to accept 
the challenge, and if he had done so, his Gordons would have been second 
best in an endurance test against the little Laverack bitches Countess 
and Nellie. As Countess was, in her day, a bitch without a rival, a short 
notice of her from a disinterested source (Mr Walsh, of the “Field,” one 
of the Gordon men, and none too prejudiced in favour of the Laveracks) 
is interesting. It is as follows: “ Though small. Countess is possessed of 
extraordinary pace. Though on short legs, she is full of elegance, and 
her beautiful head and neck are absolutely perfect. With her high pace 
she combines great power of endurance, and her chief fault is that she 
can never be fully depended on, for when fresh enough to display her 
speed and style to the full, she will break away from her master and 
defy his whistle until she has taken her fling over a thousand acres or so.” 
In the Laveracks Mr Llewellin found beauty and refinement far beyond 
anything that had yet been seen; he found super -excellent scenting power, 
high carriage of head, and indomitable spirit and love of sport. Alas! 
there is nothing perfect in this world; a closer acquaintance revealed 
faults even in these paragons, and faults so serious that unless they could 
be in some way corrected or modified, this beautiful breed would have 
been, for practical purposes, useless. They were, as we have seen, fast, 
stylish, full of point and innate setter instinct, but their nervous system, 
affected by a long course of in -breeding, allowed their instinct to 
dominate their intelligence. They might do well one minute, and the next 
minute some excitement would throw' them off their balance. They never 
could be depended on. In other words, they had not brains enough to 
stand high training, either for field trials or private shooting. True, 
Mr Llewellin won some field trials in brilliant fashion with two pure 
Laverack bitches. Countess and Nellie, but the experience gained 
through the hard work necessary to bring those bitches up to the mark 
to win convinced him that what lay before him was to find something 
suitable to cross with the pure Laveracks to correct, if possible, their 
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