dog to look at, but quite extraordinary in his work, as he won the Pointer Puppy Stake at Shrewsbury and the All-Aged Stake three years in succession.  Mr. Salter’s Romp family were quite remarkable in colour—­a white ground, heavily shot with black in patches and in ticks.  There have never been any better Pointers than these.  There have been, and are, good black Pointers also.  HEIGHT AND SIZE—­A big Pointer dog stands from 24-1/2 inches to 25 inches at the shoulder.  Old Ch.  Bang and Young Bang were of the former height, and the great bitch, Mr. Lloyd Price’s Belle, was 24 inches.  For big Pointers 60 pounds is about the weight for dogs and 56 pounds bitches; smaller size, 54 pounds dogs and 48 pounds bitches.  There have been some very good ones still smaller.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE SETTERS

I. THE ENGLISH SETTER.—­In some form or other Setters are to be found wherever guns are in frequent use and irrespective of the precise class of work they have to perform; but their proper sphere is either on the moors, when the red grouse are in quest, or on the stubbles and amongst the root crops, when September comes in, and the partridge season commences.

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, is supposed to have been the first person to train setting dogs in the manner which has been commonly adopted by his successors.  His lordship lived in the middle of the sixteenth century, and was therefore a contemporary of Dr. Caius, who may possibly have been indebted to the Earl for information when, in his work on English Dogges, he wrote of the Setter under the name of the Index.

Though Setters are divided into three distinct varieties,—­The English, the Irish and the Gordon, or Black and Tan—­there can be no doubt that all have a common origin, though it is scarcely probable, in view of their dissimilarity, that the same individual ancestors can be supposed to be their original progenitors.  Nearly all authorities agree that the Spaniel family is accountable on one side, and this contention is borne out to a considerable extent by old illustrations and paintings of Setters at work, in which they are invariably depicted as being very much like the old liver and white Spaniel, though of different colours.  Doubt exists as to the other side of their heredity, but it does not necessarily follow that all those who first bred them used the same means.  Of the theories put forward, that which carries the most presumptive evidence must go to the credit of the old Spanish Pointer.  Where else could they inherit that wonderful scenting power, that style in which they draw up to their game, their statuesque attitude when on point, and, above all, the staunchness and patience by which they hold their game spellbound until the shooter has time to walk leisurely up, even from a considerable distance?

But, apart from the question of their origin, the different varieties have many other attributes in common; all perform the same kind of work, and in the same manner; consequently the system of breaking or training them varies only according to the temper or ideas of those who undertake their schooling.