UPLAND SHOOTING. 
321 
I quote the above as I have said, merely to caution the 
sportsman against giving the least heed to any such stuff, and 
to warn him to avoid any crossing or intermixture of breeds as 
he would the plague. If he prefer the Pointer, let him stick 
to Pointer, but let it be a Pointer pure. If Setter, let him do 
the same. Any mixture, even of those two kindred bloods is 
in nine cases out of ten, disadvantageous, and instead of com¬ 
bining the peculiar excellencies, the produce is very apt to 
unite the worst qualities of the several strains, superadded to a 
sullenness and badness of temper, which is in some sort, the 
characteristic of all mules. 
Mr. Lewis is under the impression, as I gather from his 
comments on Youatt, that it is the fashion in England, to 
intermix Setter and Pointer blood, by way of improving the 
former, and that the majority of English Setters has been so 
intermingled intentionally, with the idea that the qualities of 
the animal are improved thereby. 
This idea is utterly erroneous; for, although doubtless much 
Setter blood has been thus vitiated, no persons priding them¬ 
selves on their kennels, or fanciful, not to say scientific, about 
their breeds of dogs, would admit one of these mongrels into 
their establishment, much less breed from him. Such an inter¬ 
mixture i3 regarded as decidedly a taint, as a strain of cock-tail 
blood in the pedigree of a thorough-bred horse. And very 
many noblemen and gentlemen pay as much attention to their 
breeding kennels, and their peculiar and private strains of 
Pointers and Setters, as others do to the breeding and rearing 
of the race horse. 
The Pointer is a made dog, that is to say, he is not of an 
original or pure breed, traceable to any one variety, nor has he 
been known to the sporting world for any considerable length 
of tim8. The Spaniel is first mentioned, and that in his 
improved form as a Setter , i. e. taught to couch, in a MS. work 
written by the grand huntsman to Edward the Second, so long 
ago as A. D. 1307, whereas the Pointer was not known in the 
sixteenth century, and probably has not existed in his present 
