FROM A PAINTING BY G. STUBBS
]
[Illustration:
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.
[Illustration:
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
]
[Illustration:
COL. C. J. COTE’S CHAMPION FIELD TRIAL PITCHFORD RANGER ON LORD HOME’S
LANARK MOORS
]
[Illustration:
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.
[Illustration:
FIELD TRIAL WINNER PITCHFORD BEAUTY ON THE RUABON HILLS
]
[Illustration:
FIELD TRIAL WINNER PITCHFORD BANG
]
[Illustration:
CAPTAIN STIRLING’S BRAG OF KEIR (FIELD TRIAL WINNER)
]
[Illustration:
COL. C. J. COTES’ FIELD WINNER PITCHFORD DUKE ON THE RUABON HILLS
]
[Illustration:
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.
[Illustration]