CURLY-COATED AND OTHER RETRIEVERS 
Mrs Charlesworth was plucky to run him at one of the biggest meetings 
of the year, and the breed certainly got a very fine advertisement; for 
those of the same colour which I had seen run in Scotland and Yorkshire 
did not convince me that the yellow or golden -coloured retriever was 
any better, or even so good, a gundog as the Labrador or the handsome 
flat-coat. 
No notice of retrievers would be complete without mention of the 
Marjoribanks and Ilchester trackers, brought to public notice by Colonel 
the Hon. W. le Poer Trench, of St Huberts, Gerrards Cross, and I 
shall not readily forget the sight of a team which I saw at work during 
the early part of the autumn of 1912. A man not interested in shooting 
would have passed the field in which they were working to the directions 
of their breakers without noticing that what, at the distance, looked like 
Irish setters were being sent for game. Being of an inquiring mind I 
stopped and heard a great deal which was of interest concerning the 
St Huberts ’s retrievers. This variety was introduced into England shortly 
after the Crimean War by the Hon. Dudley Marjoribanks (afterwards 
Lord Tweedmouth). He saw them at a circus at Brighton in 1858, 
where they were being shown by their Russian owner. They were so 
handsome that Mr Marjoribanks determined to acquire them, and he 
bought the lot, transferring them to his deer forest in Inverness-shire. 
There they were found to possess the qualifications of tracking and 
retrieving. They were so much valued that the family kept the breed 
apart, the only kennels breeding them being those of Lord Tweed- 
mouth, and of his nephew the late Lord Ilchester. Bitches were never 
given away, and the favoured few on whom the dogs were bestowed 
treasured them. The result of this system of in-breeding was that, about 
1880, the variety was found to have deteriorated and to have become soft. 
Lord Tweedmouth, therefore, sent to Russia, hoping to get new blood, 
but his agent was unsuccessful. The locality he visited could not produce 
a single specimen, but it was found that dogs of a similar character were 
known in a wild and unfrequented part of Asiatic Russia. As there appeared 
to be no chance of getting any specimens of the original strain, a blood- 
hound cross was tried, but, as could only be expected, that resulted in 
the character of the breed being practically destroyed. A dog bred by 
Lord Ilchester, however, passed into the hands of Colonel le Poer Trench, 
and after years of experimenting and cross-breeding between the Ilchester 
and Tweedmouth dogs, fixity of type was secured, and at St Huberts 
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