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Dogs and All about Them
·
Robert Leighton
162
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?
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