Part 25

FIELD TRIAL WINNER PITCHFORD BANG ]

CAPTAIN STIRLING’S BRAG OF KEIR (FIELD TRIAL WINNER) ]

COL. C. J. COTES’ FIELD WINNER PITCHFORD DUKE ON THE RUABON HILLS ]

COL. C. J. COTES’ FIELD WINNER PITCHFORD DUKE ON LORD HOME’S MOORS IN LANARK ]

Having obtained pure bred pointers, it is well to remember that nose is even more important than enormous speed. A dog travelling 50 while another went 100 yards would be a crawler; but, as has been said above, nose differs by much more. When, therefore, we consider the comparative merits of two dogs, we should not regard space in lineal measure but in square measure. Thus, if we take the slow speed at 50 yards and the long nose at 100 yards and multiply them together, we get 5000 square yards as the capacity of the slow dog for hunting ground, while that of the fast dog may be 100 yards of speed multiplied by 10 yards of nose, or only 1000 square yards of covering capacity as against 5000 of the slow dog.

This is not intended to be an excuse for slow dogs, for it usually happens that the very fast ones are also the best for nose; but it is meant to imply that a dog should not be exerting his whole energy in galloping, because if he is he will not be thinking about game-finding, and will not find. A pointer must do the thing easily, and go well within his powers. He must not couple and uncouple like a greyhound. He must not gallop like a little race-horse, although he may, if he can, gallop like one of those smashers that are said to “win in a canter,” which means that they are not exerting themselves. Pointers with lively stern action may be taken always to be hunting well within their powers. Some of those that have no stern action would have it if they were not over-exerting themselves in galloping, but this is not invariable; and some of the fastest and best pointers have not had stern action. For instance, Drake had not.

About 1872, Mr. Thomas Statter, of Stand Hall, near Manchester, had as good pointers as anyone and the best setters. His pointers were of Lord Derby’s liver-and-white strain, and Major, Manton, Rex, and Viscount were some of his best. Major appears at no time to have been under much control, but he was a dog of great natural capacity, and his blood told in future canine generations, whereas that of his better trained victors died out. The late Mr. A. P. Heywood Lonsdale had a fine strain of this kind of pointer blood, and at the moment of writing one of the best, if not the actual best pointer in America is descended from dogs exported direct from the Ightfield kennel, which is now particularly strong in setters, but has not many pointers. For the late Mr. Lonsdale, and afterwards for his son, Captain H. Heywood Lonsdale, the late W. Brailsford managed a fine kennel of dogs, as he had previously for the late Duke of Westminster, and before that for Lord Lichfield. His pointers, wherever he went, were of the liver-and-white sort, and were practically of the same strains as those mentioned in Drake’s pedigree. Indeed, it is probable that Brailsford and some other keepers did as much as the dogs’ owners to keep up this race of pointers, which is now stronger in Salop than anywhere. William Brailsford, moreover, founded the National Field Trials during the time he was managing Lord Lichfield’s kennel, in 1866—that is, one year after the first start of field trials in Bedfordshire.

To start breeding pointers of the right sort is as easy as to continue breeding the wrong. There are dogs constantly going to auction whose ancestors have won field trials for ten to thirteen generations. This is a guarantee to a certain extent that puppies will be worth something to shoot over. It is a great assistance to the breeder, who, having the blood, can confine his powers of selection to the choice for external form, which is a great simplification. A pedigree as long as one’s arm is absolutely useless as a mere record of names, but with field trial victors in every generation it is nearly all the help that a breeder can desire. If to these were added good photographs of each generation, it would make breeding almost a certainty.

The records of bench show wins by no means take the place of photographs, for the variation of victorious types is as great as that of the selection of judges. This was always so, but of late years dogs have been bred for show without regard to their business in life; so that many exhibition pointers are only nominally of that breed, and instead of shows assisting pointer breeders they are so managed as to preclude competition by field trial dogs. This might be altered by the adoption by the Stud Book, or a new one, of the principles upon which the Foxhound Stud Book is managed by the Masters of Foxhounds Association. That is, by only admitting hounds bred from sire and dam entered in a recognised pack. The same principle would be satisfactorily adopted if only dogs bred from field trial winning parents, or winners themselves, were admitted to the Stud Book, or to pointer classes at shows, when both the book and the exhibition would become of real use. A similar principle is involved at the King’s Premium Show of thorough-bred horses, where the performances on the Turf of the competitors are placed before the judges; and in 1906 the latter have recommended that they should be allowed to consider pedigrees also in making their awards.

Formation, which indicates power to work, is of as much importance in a well-bred dog as pedigree, which should indicate will to work. But in a badly bred dog formation is of no importance, but, by the Kennel Club management of dog shows and Stud Book, formation is treated as of the first importance, and true working blood as of no importance whatever. The author ventures to predict an alteration, or, failing that, a time when all the owners of sporting dogs of all kinds will ignore the Kennel Club as completely as the Masters of Hounds Association and the Governing Body of Coursing always have.

Mr. B. J. Warwick, who has Compton Pride, a liver-and-white pointer with the distinction of winning the Champion Field Trial Stake at Shrewsbury twice, is a member of the Kennel Club, and Mr. Sidney Turner, its Chairman, has proposed at meeting only to give championship Kennel Club certificates to field trial winners; but the sporting influence is weak in the Club, and nothing has come of the Chairman’s proposition, which by itself would not go half far enough to redeem the sporting character of the Kennel Club, or to put under ground all show dogs that are nominally sporting but cannot work. Nothing less drastic will be of the smallest use in improving the shows for the true working breeds. The author is speaking only of pointers and setters here, of which breeds large numbers could qualify. The same treatment for spaniels and retrievers would naturally be deferred until field trials for those breeds had produced more winners and more dogs bred from winners in the field.

The following contrast will assist in showing the care necessary in the choice of blood; for no breed differs more between its individuals than the pointers.

About 1865 the writer had a small black-and-white dog of the race, which was nearly the first dog he broke. But he was almost ashamed to say that he did break it; for, with the exception of holding up a hand occasionally, there was nothing to be done, and yet this dog had all the desire to quest for game that could be wished. It taught itself to point, to range, to back, and almost to drop to wing, and never desired to chase a hare. Shortly before this, being then very young, the author became impressed with the necessity of possessing more pointers, and by means of advertisement procured a bitch to breed from. She had a pedigree of enormous proportions and pretence, but a list of names has no meaning unless attached to those names are records of the performances of the animals that once possessed them. However, not everybody was aware of that at a period, unlike the present, when a pointer generally meant a dog kept to shoot over, and the purchase looked like a pointer—at any rate, it was liver-and-white. She bred four puppies, which were very foolishly exhibited at the Birmingham Show. More foolish still it was to give them a run behind a horse. They looked like following, and if they would not, the author believed he could follow them. They soon put him to the test, for they went straight away in a pack after nothing whatever, until they came to a field in which sheep were penned on turnips. Then they all together went for the sheep, and for the first time divided. It is all very well to be huntsman, but difficult to double the parts and be whipper-in as well, especially when the pack divides. Besides, one hunting thong does not go far in tying up four dogs to hurdles; more especially when they bite the thong in two while another is being ridden down. There was much cry and not a little wool; but although they went for the throats, they were attacking Lincoln or Leicester sheep, and the long wool helped to save some of the mutton. These dogs had no natural quest, although they were wild for a race and for blood. Had they had collars on when they went for the sheep, each could have been rendered harmless upon being caught by having one fore foot slipped through the collar, but the author did not learn the trick until many years later.

ENGLISH SETTERS

For reasons that it is difficult to fully explain, English setters have been subjected to more fluctuations in merit than any other breed. The last decadence undoubtedly set in when the show and field trial sorts first became distinct breeds. The show dogs lost the assurance of constitution which work in the field guarantees, and the field trial dogs lost the breeder’s care for external form, which as show dogs their ancestors had received. Moreover, they had no equivalent in England in the form of stamina tests at field trials, and the principal breeders have so many dogs that stamina is of little importance in practice to them, however necessary it is to the maintenance of the vitality of a race of thoroughbreds.

There is evidence of black-white-and-tan setters in a Flemish picture of A. Dürer, but in England the earliest clear evidence makes the English setter of 1726, or thereabouts, either red-and-white or black-and-tan. From the breeding together of these two colours may now be produced whole-coloured red and whole-coloured black, black-and-white, and black-white-and-tan dogs, and possibly also their various mixtures, such as “ticked” dogs of either colour, but this is doubtful. There have been several strains of liver-and-white setters, quite pure bred as far as anyone knew, but bearing traces of water spaniel character, so that it is probable they were originated by this cross at some remote period. Probably it is possible to originate liver-and-white by crossing black-and-white on lemon-and-white; but if that is so, this is an original mixture of colouring that is exceedingly unusual, provided there is no reversion to a liver-and-white ancestor. It is unusual for this blend to occur, because a race of setters has been bred for many years in which more than 99 per cent. of the offspring came one of three colours—namely, black-and-white ticked, lemon-and-white ticked, and black-white-and-tan with very few ticks and large patches of colour. The other two colours that have shown themselves, each less than 1 per cent., have been red and white in large patches—a combination of the markings of one, and the colour of another, ancestral race—and liver-and-white. But it is possible that these two rare kinds are not blends at all, but only reversions to ancestors more than thirty-five years and ten or twelve generations back. Paper pedigrees can trace the colours and the absence of red markings back much farther than this, but the author is only now discussing what he personally remembers. Probably these are not reversions at all, but merely blends of colour and markings. It would possibly be more nearly correct to say that the liver-and-white appears in the race referred to no more often than once in a thousand puppies. If it is a reversion, it shows how very nearly a cross may be bred out; and if it is a blend, it proves that whatever generation of these black-and-white and lemon-and-white setters are crossed together the offspring continues to come of the three original strains of blood, with little mixture, and very seldom a thorough mixture.

All the best English setters in the world are descended from Mr. Hackett’s Rake, a descendant of Mr. Burdett’s black-and-tan Brougham. Rake begat Mr. Staffer’s Rhœbe, and also Judy, the dam of the Champion Field Trial dog Ranger. These two, Rhœbe and Ranger, founded two distinct families, which for a very long time were not mixed, and in America are still separate, and the former remains uncrossed with American blood. The Ranger blood was principally kept up by Mr. James Bishop of Wellington, Salop, and by Mr. Elias Bishop also.

The Rhœbe blood came into note when this celebrated brood bitch was crossed with Duke, a dog bred from a Netherby dog, and a Staffordshire bred bitch, belonging to the late Sir Vincent Corbet. Amongst many good offspring, Rhœbe had one peculiar dog called Dan. He stood over 27 inches at the shoulder, and had more bone than any foxhound. This setter won the Champion Stake at the National Field Trials in 1871. His chief merits were that he was very fast without distressing himself, and his tremendous strength and stride enabled him to go round fast small ones without appearing to be trying, and meantime to flick his stern as only those going within their powers can. Setter breeding was revolutionised when this dog was bred to the best bitches of Mr. Laverack’s sort.

Mr. Laverack’s dogs in the sixties were known mostly upon the show bench; but what was then less well recognised was that no dogs had done harder work upon the moors for many canine generations. They were said to be in-bred to only two animals on all sides of this pedigree, and to go back seventy years without any cross whatever. It is probable that Mr. Laverack had forgotten what crosses he did make; but in any case he crossed with the black-white-and-tan Gordons of Lord Lovat’s kennel, and whether he kept the offspring or not, there was generally a trace of tan about the cheeks of his black-and-white ticked dogs. In any case, his dogs were very much in-bred, until some of them suddenly came liver-and-white in one litter, and red, and black, whole-coloured in another. None of the latter were allowed to mix with the Rhœbe and Duke strain of setters, and indeed these were only crossed with the blood named above, and with that of John Armstrong’s Dash II., a son of a Laverack setter dog, and descended from a bitch said to be a sister of that Duke mentioned above. From this limited material in point of numbers, but of three distinct strains of blood, the finest setters of modern times were produced, including many that won principal honours of the show and also of the field trials. In England they took most of the field trials for setters for some years, and in America they took all stakes that were open to both pointers and setters for even longer. To apportion the merit amongst the original three strains would be difficult, but as the setter breeding of the future depends on a proper understanding of that of the past, some few remarks may be of use. First, it has to be admitted that the Rhœbe blood was as successful when crossed with the Laverack race as when braced up by the cross with Duke. Also that Duke’s descendants from other crosses than that of Rhœbe were better than any others, except her own so crossed descendants. Duke and the Laveracks never were directly crossed together, and there is nothing to be had from the pedigree of Kate, the grand-dam of Armstrong’s Dash II., because it has been variously given at different times. On the book, then, the merit was due to Rhœbe and Duke in equal proportions, but the book is wrong. The reason for this being said is that the brothers and sisters of Dan, by Duke from Rhœbe, were a poor lot. They were great big 26 inch dogs and 24 inch bitches, and one of them, namely Dick, in appearance with Dan made the most remarkable brace that ever won the stake at the National Trials, and apparently there was not a pin to choose between them, except that Dan was the faster. They hunted out what is now the Waterworks field at Acton Reynold in a style of ranging, pointing, and backing that could not be improved on even in imagination, and the way they had of going down on their elbows, and standing up behind, with their great flags on a line with their backs, and consequently pointing upwards at an angle of 45 degrees, was a revelation in style, just as the pace was, for it was so easily done that they had lots of time to flick their sterns as they went. When they were taken up without a mistake, no others, even without a mistake too, could have been in the running. But Dick was a flat-catcher, wanting in stamina, courage, and in nose, for he was a bad false pointer. Dan was the only one of the litter, as far as they were known to the author, that was a perfectly honest dog, and exhibited no more at a field trial than in private. It is therefore not possible to discredit the Laverack bitches that, when crossed with Dan, again and again produced litters in which there was scarcely any difference between the best and the worst, and in which, when the best died, the worst were good enough to find themselves running against Ranger for the National Championship. But this is not all the evidence in favour of the Laveracks, for, when heavy dogs of that strain were crossed with the very moderate sisters of Dan, the produce was far better than either the sires or dams. It was only when the three sorts were blended that anything like uniformity, or a distinct breed, appeared, and the offspring were far more true to type, and merit in work, when the tail-male line was to Duke and the tail-female a Laverack, than when the order was reversed. The Stud Book shows the field trial winnings of the sort, and it will always be remembered that once, when the Field Trial Derby was a very big stake, four setter puppies of this breed, belonging to Mr. Llewellin, took the four first places in it that could fall to setters. In other words, they put out all the other setters and then defeated the best pointer. At other times they won the brace stake one day, and one of the brace the single stake the next. Then Count Wind’em and Novel on one occasion took the two championships at Birmingham Show for good looks, and beat the best pointers and setters at the National Trials as well. Count Wind’em was about 25 inches at the shoulder, long and low, and neither hot “muggy” weather in August, nor hillsides of the steepest on which grouse lie, could tire him. One field trial judge of the day who saw the way he did the heather against such dogs as Dash II., and other winners of the time, compared the sight to that of a great racing cutter sailing round a 20–rater. It was all done without an effort, and therein lay the conserved energy that kept on as long as any man could follow.

In America this breed was first called the “Field Trial breed,” then “Llewellin setters,” and also “The straight-bred sort,” by which it is generally known in conversation. At the time of writing (June 1906) the last pure bred one of the race that has run at an English field trial was Mr. Llewellin’s Dan Wind’em, bred in the last century. But in America nothing has ever been able to suppress the pure bred ones at the field trials there. When they have not won, their 90 per cent. of pure blood descendants have done so. In 1904 the author was on a visit to America, and, having been requested to help judge their Champion Stake, did so, with the result that one of these pure breds defeated all comers. This dog was called “Mohawk,” and in the same kennel was another setter named “Tony Man.” The latter had a slight trace of outside blood, but the two were almost identical to look at. Tony Man had just previously beaten Mohawk, and won the stake of the United States Field Trial Club in first-rate style. But the trace of outside blood was so very much regarded by the American sportsmen that the author heard Tony Man offered for sale at £200, whereas he was assured on independent evidence again and again that Mohawk could easily earn £500 a year at the stud. This great difference is caused not at all by any great difference in the prospective merits of the descendants of the two dogs, but merely by the fact that those of one can be registered as “straight-bred,” and those of the other cannot. The book of reference is The American Field’s Stud Book, where those with any cross whatever are registered as English setters, and the others as “Llewellin setters.” These straight-bred ones trace on all sides to seven dogs bred in the sixties of last century—namely, Mr. Laverack’s Dash II., his Fred, and his Moll III., Mr. Blinkhorn’s Lill I., Mr. Thomas Statter’s Rhœbe, Sir F. Graham’s Duke, and Sir Vincent Corbet’s Slut.

THE ENGLISH SETTER, BY REINAGLE

With the exception of an ill-drawn hind leg and near fore foot this is the correct formation. The model had the shoulders, head, back and back ribs, rarely seen now except in hard-working dogs. ]

MR. HERBERT MITCHELL’S LINGFIELD BERYL, WINNER OF FIRSTS SIX TIMES IN SEVEN FIELD TRIAL OUTINGS IN THE SPRING OF 1906 ]

That a breed should have lasted without cross for so long, and now be as full of vitality as ever it was, can only be accounted for by the intensely searching selection of the fittest for work, in a manner that tries constitution as well. In America they have from thirty-five to forty field trials each year; the best and severest is the Champion Stake, and wisely the winners of this event are bred from to the exclusion of most others. To have won the stake is to have proved ability to hunt at an extreme tension for three hours without slackening up. That is to finish much faster than the average of fast dogs start when fresh in the morning. The only falling off that the author could discover, compared with the great dogs in England of the seventies and eighties, was the want of size of the best dogs there. Mohawk measured by the author under 21 inches at the shoulder. There are many large dogs of the blood out there, but they are not those of the most vitality, although they fairly compare in that respect with the best dogs in England. Besides the selection already referred to, what helps to keep up this in-bred race as workers, whereas it died out in England, is the number that are bred in the States and Canada. There are many thousands there; probably in England there are not more than two or three besides importations from America and their descendants. It should be stated, to make this clear, that the setters run of late by Mr. Llewellin at field trials have been cross-breds, and would not be registered in The American Field Stud Book as “Llewellin setters.” The following are referred to as cross-breds: Border Brenda, Count Gleam, Kitty Wind’em, Border Beauty, Orange Bloom, Pixie of the Fells, Countess Brenda, Countess Carrie, Miss Mabel, Countess Nellie, Puck of the Fells, and Countess Shield. That is to say, all the dogs run by Mr. Llewellin at field trials in the years 1903, 1904, and 1905.

Others who have the blood in this crossed form are Colonel C. J. Cotes of Pitchford and Captain H. Heywood Lonsdale of Shavington, near Market Drayton. The latter has some American-bred straight-breds, but reference is here made to their old and well-known field trial strains. Each of these kennels obtained a large draft of the pure bred sort in the early eighties, or late seventies, and introduced it widely into their own breeds. These were formerly founded on Lord Waterpark’s breed, and his were crossed very much with Armstrong’s Duke already referred to, so that the crossing of the two strains had the double benefit of out-crossing generally, and yet in-breeding to one particular dog, and that one as valuable in a pedigree as Duke. Some years ago, for an article in Country Life, the author tabulated the pedigree of Captain Lonsdale’s Ightfield Gaby, and found that he had eight distinct crosses of Duke, and as he was then by far the best setter in England, it was only history repeating itself in the matter of the most successful blood.

Thus the American straight-bred, as has been shown, was obtained by crossing three unrelated breeds of setters together. Unrelated setters cannot now be found without going to the black-and-tans and the Irish. But such crosses are not required as long as America has a strain of straight-bred ones uncrossed with anything on this side the water for a quarter of a century. Indeed, the value of the American cross has already been proved by Mr. Alexander Hall’s Guiniard Shot and Dash. They are bred from a bitch imported from America, but not a “straight-bred” one. These two and Captain Lonsdale’s Ightfield Duffer were the best setters seen in 1905, and in their absence another Ightfield bred one on one side of her pedigree, namely, Mr. Herbert Mitchell’s Lingfield Beryl, has carried all the spring field trials of the 1906 season by storm, and has beaten the pointers equally with the setters in single and in brace stakes too. She is a long way the best setter Mr. Herbert Mitchell has ever had. Like Ightfield Gaby, already mentioned as the best of his period, the only fault with her is that, with the same beauty of form and strength to carry her light setter-like body, she would have been better if larger.

Of course this is intended to be hypercritical, but it is necessary to point out that Gaby is 22 inches at the shoulder, and Count Wind’em, his best ancestor, was nearer 25 than 24 inches. This is too much to lose in twenty years, for it really means losing nearly half the size of the dog.

It is pleasing to note that the American cross with the old blood, even with small dogs on both sides, seems to recover the lost size. This is a great point; because, although a good little one is enormously better than a lumbering big one, yet a good big one is out of all proportion better than the same form on a small scale.