322 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
improved form, for much above a hundred years. He was 
known originally as the Spanish Pointer, and was probably first 
reared in that country, to which his peculiar capacity for endu¬ 
ring heat and the want of water singularly adapts him. 
It appears probable that he is an improved or altered form 
of the Foxhound, bred and trained to stand instead of chasing 
his game, and to repress his cry; and it is generally supposed 
that this was effected and his present type obtained by crossing 
the Foxhound with the Spaniel. I cannot say that I believe 
this to be the case, as I cannot see by what analogy the crossing 
a feather-sterned dog, such as the Hound, with one entirely rough 
and silky-haired, like the Spaniel, should result in the produc¬ 
tion of a race, the characteristic of which is the closest and most 
satin-like of coats, and the whip-like tail of a rat. I am inclined 
myself to believe that the original stock is from the Foxhound, 
and smooth-haired Danish or Pomeranian dog, crossed perhaps 
again with Spaniel, but so slightly as to show few of its charac¬ 
teristic points. The Pointer being, as I have said, originally a 
cross-bred dog, sportsmen continued to mix his blood occasi¬ 
onally to obtain different qualities, to a late period, and even now 
Foxhound blood is occasionally added, in order to give dash 
and courage. I should not be surprised to find that a cross of 
the Bull-dog had been introduced, as it was advantageously 
into the Greyhound by Lord Orford, though I have found no 
mention of the fact—but the type of the animal is now firmly 
established, and the finest breed reproduces itself in its finest 
strain, if purely bred. 
The cross breeding, which I have named, has never been 
allowed with regard to the Setter, however, except by some 
ignorant or prejudiced keeper, or some person desirous of pre¬ 
serving, by this unnatural union, some qualities of a favorite 
individual of either strain. In any well-kept kennels a chance 
litter from a Setter bitch by a Pointer dog, or vice versa , would 
undoubtedly be condemned to the horse-pond, and with Irish 
sportsmen, who are very choice of their Setters, a cross eve* 
with the English Setter would be regarded as a blemish. 
