Part 24

The writer would therefore divide pointers in his own mind into three great modern families, each of which has both the Spanish and French pointer as a base. These branches are:—

1. Those that have setter indications, including the majority of lemon-and-white ones, and those of the “ticked” varieties.

2. Those which resemble the greyhound in formation and in fineness of stern, and have a tendency to have feet like the greyhound. They are often whole-coloured like it too.

3. Those which seem to trace to the foxhound, by reason of their “cat” feet, thick coats, and coarse sterns.

Whether the origins suggested are correct or not, there is a very great difference between breeds at present, and some internal qualities seem to be most often found with certain colours and formations. For instance, the “dish-face” characteristic of the setter is most often found in the lemon-and-white pointer. The “Roman” profile characteristic of the hound is most often found in the liver-and-white sort, and the very fine stern and hare feet, the stern often with a tendency to curl up, is found most often in the whole-coloured pointers.

THE SPANISH POINTER

FROM A PAINTING BY G. STUBBS ]

JUNO, A FAWN-COLOURED POINTER BRED BY KING GEORGE IV. IT IS SUGGESTIVE OF THE GREYHOUND LIKE MANY MODERN WHOLE-COLOURED POINTERS ]

Again, a tucked-up, racing appearance is generally seen in old pictures and present-day dogs associated with the whole or self-coloured pointers; a high or foxhound carriage of stern occurs with the liver-and-white; and long backs are most often seen in lemon-and-white specimens. The long backs have been partly bred out of the setter, but he formerly shared them with his collateral relation the spaniel, and even now he is a longer dog than the pointer.

Of all these races the greyhound type is the most perfectly formed in body. The dish-faced lemon-and-white kind appear to be the most affectionate (spaniel-like); and the hardest workers, with the hardest constitutions, the author believes to be the liver-and-white sort. The principal colours of the original French and Spanish pointers were probably black-and-white and liver-and-white, some of them having very little white, so that it is not suggested that the supposed crossing was alone responsible for the colour.

The first time a tendency to “grey” was noticed by the author was in the “ticked” pointer Romp, run at a field trial about 1870 in Devonshire by Mr. Brackenbury. The pedigree of this bitch was, to say the least, defective, and the “belton” markings, as also the whole conformation of the animal, was suggestive of the setter. Romp’s Baby, a descendant of the above Romp and similar in markings, was also setter-like in build, in feet, and in work. The aforesaid Romp laid the foundation for the best race of pointers in America, but unfortunately most of the blood has been lost to this country. The profuse ticked markings are rarely seen, but when they do appear it is easy to trace the character of the Romp family.

Amongst all the pointers and setters the writer has seen he would be puzzled to name the best, but he can say without the smallest hesitation that Romp’s Baby was by far the best small one.

Sir Richard Garth’s Drake was the best pointer that ever contested a field trial, in the author’s judgment. He was a large dog of the liver-and-white variety described above, but with a little of the body formation of the whole-coloured variety, and a good deal of the dish-face of the lemon-and-white ones. The author remembers this dog’s maternal grandsire, Newton’s Ranger, a very big animal of great refinement, and with wonderful length of head and neck. There is no doubt Drake got his quality from here, and for the rest he was descended from the kennels of Lords Sefton, Lichfield, Derby, Mr. Cornwall Leigh, and Mr. Edge, and the Stud Book gives him a Spanish pointer in tail-male. He was a revolution and a revelation in field work, proving for the first time that the utmost care was to be had with racing speed and with the greatest boldness. Perhaps it is wrong to say “was to be had,” for all these qualities in a pointer have never quite been collected in one individual since. Only one son of Drake that the writer saw had any pretence to his sire’s speed, and that one appeared to have no nose whatever; whereas Drake was as phenomenal for nose as for care, speed, and boldness. If there was any foxhound in this fine liver-and-white dog, it must have been very cleverly bred out. On the other hand, his small counterpart Romp, of the blue mottled colour with tan on her legs, might have suggested hound, but not foxhound, as much as setter, by her colour.

On the evidence, the author is inclined to suggest that these two wonderful animals owe their vigour and unique qualities to a not very remote cross of blood. We have it that Drake’s paternal grandsire was a Spanish pointer, and we have Romp’s appearance and colour to declare her no pure bred pointer.

The next best performers of the period, but with a great gap between, were Mr. Lloyd Price’s Belle, bred by Lord Henry Bentinck, but without pedigree given, and Mr. Sam Price’s Bang. The author is not certain whether the general opinion is that Mr. Sam Price went to the foxhound, and that Bang owed his substance and character to the cross, but he was certainly different in type from those other Devonshire pointers, Sancho and Chang, that won on the show bench about the same period, and were entirely pointer-like.

Without in any way insisting upon the origins of the different types and colours above described, there is no doubt that some difference of ancestry at a remote or recent period has been responsible for the characteristics. Consequently, for practical purposes and for breeding, the specimens most marked with the characteristics peculiar to each kind may be treated as distinct strains of blood, although it may not be known what that blood is. To make the author’s position more clear, he would say that if a lemon-and-white and a whole-black pointer came in the same litter they would probably be related in blood, as they certainly would be on paper; but the blood relationship might be very slight indeed, for one would be, as it is now expressed, a “brother” of some remote black ancestor, and the other a “brother” of some remote lemon-and-white ancestor. But this is not wholly true; because in breeding together brothers and sisters both of one colour, other colours will very occasionally come in the offspring. The influence of sire and dam is shown to be much less than was previously thought possible, but it is not shown to be absent, in spite of the cell and germ theory.

It is obvious that, in starting to keep pointers, a prospective breeder must settle on one or other of the three existing types, and it is necessary for such a beginner to know that he may cross them one with the other with great constitutional advantage, without much fear of blending type or blood, provided he selects for type and character by means of colour. For instance, he may cross a black pointer with a lemon-and-white or liver-and-white, and repeat this in every generation, and yet the puppies that come black will be of one type, and those that come lemon-and-white will be of the other. The cases of blending will be very rare indeed, and can easily be discarded.

The late Joseph Lang, the gun-maker, had a breed of lemon-and-white pointers, from which those of the late Mr. Whitehouse were descended, and that gentleman’s Priam and Mr. W. Arkwright’s Shamrock, with a space of thirty-five years between them, might have been litter brothers for appearance and work. The latter is the best lemon-and-white pointer seen out in quite recent years, and the former was probably the best of his period. Sir Watkin Williams Wynn has a strain of lemon-and-white pointers in which black-and-white and liver-and-white often come, and in this kennel there is a nearer approach to a blend of type in the three colours than has been remarked by the author elsewhere.

Mr. A. E. Butter, of Faskally, had a very fine kennel of liver-and-white pointers, mostly derived from a strain kept up in Shropshire and the neighbourhood. These dogs had all the best strains of liver-and-white blood in their pedigrees, and they were as successful at field trials as, and much resembled, Mr. Sam Price’s Bang and Mike. Faskally Bragg and Syke of Bromfield were most striking workers, entirely of the liver-and-white type; but good as they were in the field, it was difficult to see how Bragg became a show Champion, with a very heavy shoulder, great throat like a hound, and the same suggestion behind. But he became a capital stud dog, and in Melksham Bragg probably became the sire of his own superior in work as well as in appearance. But a better than either was Syke of Bromfield. The best of this type is now in the kennel of Colonel C. J. Cotes of Pitchford, whose Pitchford Ranger and Pitchford Duke are in every way admirable specimens of this type of pointer. The latter’s dam, Pitchford Druce, approaches the dish-faced, fine-sterned type, and very few better have won at field trials in recent years. Colonel Cotes tells the author that this bitch traces back to his father’s old breed, kept for a century at Woodcote, where there were constant interchanges of blood with Sir Thomas Boughey’s sort, only recently dispersed. Mr. Elias Bishop has been very successful with his family of pointers called the Pedros, and these again are of the liver-and-white type, but with a tendency to the dish-faces of the lemon-and-white dogs, and not as coarse in the sterns as some of the more pronounced liver-and-white type.

AN EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY PICTURE OF THE WOODCOTE POINTERS, THE PROPERTY OF COL. C. J. COTES. HIS FIELD TRIAL WINNERS PITCHFORD DRUCE AND PITCHFORD DUKE ARE DESCENDED FROM HIS FATHER’S WOODCOTE POINTERS ]

COL. C. J. COTE’S CHAMPION FIELD TRIAL PITCHFORD RANGER ON LORD HOME’S LANARK MOORS ]

COL. C. J. COTE’S CHAMPION FIELD TRIAL PITCHFORD RANGER ON THE RUABON HILLS ]

Mr. Arkwright has the best black pointers the author has seen. Their bodies are distinctly greyhoundy in form, but not their heads. The last-mentioned fact does not preclude the possibility of a remote cross of greyhound, as colour is a truer indication of blood, although not of paper pedigree, than is head formation. By “paper pedigree” no suggestion of false testimony is intended, but reference is made to the recently ascertained facts that two of a litter may be widely different in root origin. Some of the self-coloured pointers of Mr. Arkwright’s kennel have been fawn colour, a well-known greyhound shade. It may be that these are throwbacks to the greyhound blood. But that would not be the author’s explanation. As observed above, a blend of colour very seldom comes by crossing one colour with another, when both are pure bred and neither have the blend of colour in their ancestry. But a little more often than a blend of colour comes a heritage of the colour of one parent and the markings of the other. So that when Mr. Arkwright has crossed a lemon-and-white with a black, there would be nothing wonderful for an occasional puppy to come with the markings of the black parent, but of the colour of lemon, in this case called fawn, which is the same colour. On the other hand, a blend of colour and markings would require the offspring to be whole-coloured and liver-coloured. That liver colour is occasionally obtained from blending the red or sandy with the black, the author has proved beyond question in his own experience where neither parent inherited the colour, but it seems to require a violent out-cross to give rise to it, for black-and-white and lemon-and-white dogs of the same family may sometimes be bred together for many generations without giving rise to this blend of colour.

Mr. Pilkington at one time had as good liver-and-white pointers as anyone who was then running dogs in public. His Garnet was very much of a pointer; and Nicholson, who engineered him to victory, has continued to win at field trials with some of the breed; and another Salopian keeper who has been a most successful breeder is Mawson, who bred Faskally Bragg and Syke of Bromfield.

As the sire of Mr. A. T. Williams’ Rose of Gerwn, the stud dog Lurgan Loyalty cannot be passed over. Rose was full of vitality and pointer instinct, but far from handsome, and very small. Lurgan himself was a small dog and very well made, but he had rather a terrier-like head. His daughter, Coronation, although long held to be the best pointer on the show bench, was obviously too shelly for hard work, and can only be mentioned here to show that exhibition points need have no relationship to the essentials for a working dog.

In these days of wild grouse and partridges, all the fine qualities and beauties of a pointer are absolutely useless unless the individual is endowed with the very best of olfactory powers.

The length of a pointer’s “nose” is determined by the day; but the author is inclined to believe that the relative distances at which any two dogs can find game always bear the same proportions to each other. One on a fair scenting day may find game at 100 yards and another at 10 yards; another day, or in other circumstances, the same two noses will be effective at 50 yards and 5 yards respectively. Even this great difference does not convey all there is between the best and the worst. Such differences have been observed even at field trials, where each sportsman only enters his very best. But behind those is the rest of the kennel, and every breeder of dogs must occasionally breed the very bad indeed. The author has, at any rate, sometimes seen a dog with a total inability to find game although both its parents had exceptional olfactory powers. What the explanation may be cannot be suggested, but there may be a kinship between the organs of sight, hearing, and smell, and as there are some colours and sounds the human eye and ear cannot detect, and some scents that the human nose cannot recognise and the dog’s nose can, it seems possible that even a dog’s nose may occasionally be found either below or above the range of sensitiveness usual in the canine. But “nose” is the only quality in the dog that does not seem to be within the control of the skilled breeder, who may expect success within limits from proper selections of parental form, pace, stamina, and heart, but in inheritance of olfactory powers must expect the unexpected occasionally, but not often.

FIELD TRIAL WINNER PITCHFORD BEAUTY ON THE RUABON HILLS ]