THREE OF MR. ARKWRIGHT’S WHOLE-COLOURED POINTERS—LEADER, DESPATCH, AND
LARGO
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Mr. William Arkwright holds that any foxhound blood is bad; it must
therefore have tried him very highly when he discovered that all
pointers are the descendants of hounds. Doubtless there is a difference
between hounds, and possibly the foxhound is the last kind one would
wish a pointer to resemble; but, after all, a hound’s business is to
catch and kill, whatever sub-title he may claim, and consequently it
follows that pointers were evolved from dogs whose business was to catch
and kill. If, therefore, our dogs are sufficiently opposed in instincts
to their ancestors, there can only be a sentimental objection to a
perceptible external trace of hound. As a matter of fact, half the
pointers seen at field trials have _too much_ “point,” and not one in
fifty too little. No doubt it was the tendency for the natural point to
increase in every generation that caused the sportsmen of Colonel
Thornton’s period (about 1800 a.d.) to cross with the foxhound.
The pointer undoubtedly came to this country both from France and Spain.
The former was a light made and the latter a heavy dog. They were
apparently not related, but both became the ancestors of the modern
pointer. With all this chance of cross breeding, our grandfathers do not
appear to have been satisfied, and were for ever trying other crosses to
improve their breeds. Colonel Thornton had a remarkable dog by a
foxhound, and other sportsmen had very celebrated droppers—that is,
crosses between pointer and setter. It came to be the fashion to think
that these crosses never perpetuated their own merit in the next
generation, and they got a bad name in consequence. Had this not been
the case, probably no pure bred setters or pointers would have been
handed down to us, and perhaps there were none so handed on. It seems to
the author that there must have been ancestral reasons of the most
imperative kind for the differences as found in noted strains of
pointers in the middle of the nineteenth century.
My experience has shown that cross breeding does not of necessity imply
equal degrees of cross blood in the offspring. It never implies half and
half; and although it generally does mean cross breeding to some slight
extent, that slight cross can be eradicated in future generations by
selection. Of all means of selection by externals for blood, colour and
coat are the most trustworthy. It is exceedingly strange that dogs of
the same ancestry but of different colours can be bred together for
twenty generations and never blend colours in the offspring. This
blending of colour happens but very rarely, and as colour is more or
less indicative of blood, almost certainly for one, so it remains
through many, generations. In discussing setters the author has had
occasion to relate more fully his own experience of this remarkable
tenacity of colour, in spite of colour crossing, and also to note the
curious fact that along with colour is inherited much of the character
that originally belonged to or accompanied it.
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.
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