THE SETTER 
experienced trainer, who had sole charge of one of those large Irish setter 
kennels, what was his opinion of their temper; he replied, “You must 
be careful with them, because, although they like to have their own way, 
you must avoid harshness, or it cows them, and you can do nothing with 
them. Taken the right way, with judgment and patience, they are first rate 
— a sharp word will go as far into them as a whip would with the old 
sort.’’ This the writer has put down to the increased value set on the 
dogs owing to shows and trials, and the resulting care taken of them. 
The families are more carefully and jealously kept than they once were, 
and much more in-bred; and, in his opinion, here is to be found the cause 
of the revolution in the Irish temper. The old-fashioned notion of the 
Irishman, therefore, is now out of date. In nose, docility, and temper 
they now differ but little from English setters. Where they differ is, as 
was said before, in their instinct of caution, combined with pace, a valuable 
quality, and, in most individuals, it is joined to endurance, which they 
learn on their rugged mountains. That bitch owned by the writer, above 
alluded to, has been hunted from dawn to dusk, in rough winter 
weather, on steep rocky ground, for woodcock, on four successive days— 
a sufficient test of stamina. 
The Irish setter’s colour is peculiar, and there is no other animal that 
has quite the same. It must not be supposed that no Irish setter can be 
of another colour, though the majority are of that red hue. The writer 
was acquainted with the late Colonel Whyte, of Newtown Manor, Sligo, 
who, more than most Irish sportsmen, was a close student of the history 
of the native setters, and was an admitted authority. He told the writer 
that there was a breed of red and white setters, chiefly in the north of 
Ireland, and that his grandfather had no others. These were big upstand- 
ing dogs, and were inclined to be curly in coat. He said his grandfather 
was one of the first to take moors in Scotland, and that he used to take 
these red and white setters over there. The late John King, also, told the 
writer that there used to be a breed of black setters in Ireland, similar to 
the reds. One which he gave to the writer was smaller than the average 
red dog, but very well made, and as active as a cat. It was a deep 
glossy black, and well feathered. By the foregoing it would seem that 
the all -red Irish dog was the product of selection, by a process of 
weeding out the red and white ones in the litters, and retaining the 
solid red ones. Mr Macdona showed three or four at one of the large shows 
that were red and white. These were rather weedy specimens, and looked 
245 
