CHAPTER XXIV

THE POINTER

THE pointing dog was first introduced into England about two hundred years ago This seems clear; because before the eighteenth century no trace of him can be found in either the pictures or books on sport, the first record of him in this country being a picture of the Duke of Kingston, with his kennel of Pointers, dated 1725. Now, these dogs are of the same elegant FrancoItalian type as the pointing dogs painted by Oudry and Desportes for the French kings at the end of the seventeenth century; so that, in spite of this picture by Tillemans being the earliest British representation, it cannot be supposed to depict the absolute pioneers of the breed; for the name "Pointer," derived from the Spanish punta, implies that the first ancestors of the breed must have come from Spain, probably brought back by our returning army after the Peace of Utrecht in 1712. And it must have been by judiciously blending the blood of the heavy Spaniard with that of the racing-like French dog, that the Duke of Kingston and enthusiasts of a similar stamp first created that monarch of his race, the English Pointer.

The forms of the dogs portrayed in this Tillemans picture completely demolish the vulgarly received idea that the cross with the Foxhound was necessary to give the Pointer quality or speed. In fact, this cross was most probably an experiment arising from the superstitious belief of some that the Foxhound was so superior an animal, that any other breed whatever must derive benefit from an admixture of his blood.

Colonel Thornton, in the dying years of the eighteenth century, seems, from the unanimous voice of his contemporaries, to have been the first to try this disastrous misalliance; and no doubt his immediate success in producing in this way such an animal as his celebrated Dash (sold for about £350), has induced many others since then to imitate his pernicious example.

In the earlier decades of the nineteenth century, sporting literature began to develop very rapidly; but, imbued with the true spirit of sport as most of it is, details as to individual dogs

and registers of pedigrees were still wanting, until the era of shows and field trials made their value, and the necessity of more accuracy on such matters, apparent. Good strains of Pointers existed in many kennels, and systematic breeding for improvement was taken in hand by Mattingley and others. Many of our great families owned kennels of distinct strains, and those of Earl Derby, at Knowsley, and Earl Sefton, have pretty largely contributed to produce the excellence of our existing Pointers. The Edge strain obtained merited fame, and when the kennels were broken up, after the death of Webb Edge, there were eager buyers at the sale at Strelley, some of the Pointers going to Prince Albert, and others to Mr. Statter, to Mr. Brailsford, of the Knowsley Kennels, and to Mr. George Moore, of Appleby.

Mr. Garth's celebrated Drake, whose pedigree is given very fully in the Kennel Club Stud Book, takes us back about half a century, with an almost unbroken lineage; and since Drake's time (he was whelped 1867) most of our Pointers have had their pedigrees minutely kept.

Mr. Lort, writing in 1887, says :

"Great improvements have been made, within the last ten or twelve years, in many of our now numerous Pointer kennels, insomuch that far better-looking dogs are now to be seen competing and winning at field trials; and many of our chief field-trial winners have figured in the prize lists of the leading shows, notably Prince Solms's Naso of Kippen, Mr. F. Lowe's Bang Bang and Duke of Hessen, Colonel Cotes's Carlo, Mr. Shield's Gladsome, and Mr. Salter's Osborne Ale, with many others. Some that have not been fortunate enough to win at field trials have shown themselves to be not only handsome but really good dogs at work.

On the show-bench, since the days of Hamlet, Wagg, and Ponto, the leading places have been successfully held by Mr. George Pilkington's Faust, Mr. Luck's Bang II., Mr. Norrish's Graphic, and last, but by no means least or worst, Mr. C. H. Beck's Naso of Upton. Amongst the opposite sex, the late Major Vaughan Lee's Maggie, Mr. Grant's Maggie, Mr. R. J. Lloyd Price's Bow Bells, Mr. Heywood Lonsdale's Peach, Mr. Beck's Nan, Mr. S. Price's Belle of Bow, and a host of others, have gained high positions.

We find the blood of old Champion Bang running strongly through the list of field-trial winners, Priam, Scamp, Bang Bang, Laurel, Lingo, Hero, and others, having done much to bring the good old blood into high repute; whilst Mr. Salter has been especially fortunate in producing such animals as Malt, Romp's Baby, Paris, and Osborne Ale, by crosses from Bang, on the Salter strain. My Naso (as good a dog as ever ran) earned a reputation, not only in this country, but also on the Continent, where many

of the strain have been in the hands of Prince Solms, among which Naso II., Duke of Hessen, and Naso of Kippen, all field-trial winners, come from the Prince's kennel; whilst Naso of Kippen, who has lately been exported at a long price, leaves behind him, in this country, three good sons in Mr. Beck's Naso of Upton and Rapid Ben (winner of the Field Trial Derby last year), and the Rev. W. J. Richardson's Rex of Milton. Mr. J. E. Lloyd Lloyd has also shown some very beautiful bitches in Daphne, Zasme, Ilma, and Lady Jane; but these have not appeared at field trials. Mr. Norrish's name, too, has been well known to the public through Graphic, Beryl, Glee, Revel, Revel III., Beau Ideal, and others. Sir Thomas Lennard, Mr. R. J. Lloyd Price, Mr. George Pilkington, Mr. J. H. Whitehouse, Mr. Barclay Field, and Mr. Heywood Lonsdale, have all done much to make the modern Pointer the most fashionable of sporting dogs."

The views of Mr. G. Thorpe Bartram, given in a contribution to the First Edition of "British Dogs," and since revised by him, are interesting. As a breeder, an exhibitor, and one devoted to the field sports in which dogs are employed, his remarks are well worthy of attention. Mr. Bartram says:

"The Pointer is now, and has ever been, most essentially a sporting dog. Although his origin is not quite clear, nor the country from which he was imported into England satisfactorily made out, still, he is generally credited with coming to us from Spain. Even now we not infrequently hear the phrase "That is a regular oldfashioned Spanish Pointer' applied to a heavy, lumbering dog, such as was much used by our forefathers. If his footing upon British soil cannot be traced back so far as the Setter's-or, at least, as the Setter has existed amongst us in some form or another -still, he seems to have been bred in this country for the purpose for which he is now used, and for that alone. In France, America, Spain, and Portugal, he is also used for sporting purposes.

He has always, as far as I can ascertain, been considered in England a distinct breed of dog, cultivated for finding game by scent, and trained to 'pointing' it when found-i.e. to come to a standstill upon scenting it. So innate is this propensity to point in a well-bred puppy of this breed that we frequently see him point the first time he is entered to game. This is regarded by some sportsmen as evidence of an original disposition to point peculiar to this breed; but all the information that I have obtained on this matter goes to show that it was first only the result of training, and now exists more as a communicated habit than anything else. It is advanced, in favour of the predisposition theory, that the Setter has been bred, trained, and used for precisely the same purpose, yet

he does not exhibit this quality-spontaneous pointing-in anything like the same degree. It is a fact that the Pointer does, as a rule, take to pointing much earlier in his training; but the cause of this I must leave for others to decide.

The Pointer, however different in form from what he now is, and in spite of the many crosses to which he has been subjected, seems to have experienced very little change in his leading characteristics. The crossing him with other dogs, which at various times has been tried, has not eradicated the 'stamp' peculiar to his breed; neither is it evident that the object sought by infusing into his veins blood foreign to him was so much to change his character as to introduce qualities that it was thought he might with advantage possess. By this I mean that it was not so much to produce, by crossing with other breeds, a dog to do the Pointer's work, as to render him more suitable to the work which he was, through change of circumstances, required to perform. In most cases, I believe, first crosses have proved failures, whether with Foxhound or other dog. The foreign blood thus imported had to be diluted (if I may use the expression) by crossing back again with the Pointer, before even so good a dog as the pure Pointer was produced. 'Droppers' -for such is the name given to the produce of the first cross between Pointer and Setter-are, in some few instances, fairly good; but they are no improvement on the Pointer or Setter proper. The Pointer of to-day is an animal that has been produced by the most careful exercise of knowledge, gained by keen observation, assisted by extensive breeding and sporting experience. He is now a dog specially adapted to his work. He has been rendered capable of doing it with the greatest amount of ease and efficiency. By careful selection he has been divested of all the lumber that was the cause of his distress in years gone by. His pace has been improved by a due regard to formation, and he is, as a consequence, capable of hunting a larger range of ground without becoming useless by excessive fatigue. The ease with which the present shape of his shoulders and chest allows him to sweep over his ground in graceful strides, and to preserve and exercise with advantage his gift of scent, is a pleasure to witness.

There is no doubt that the field trials and dog shows that have been held for the past fifteen years have greatly contributed towards the attainment of his present high state of excellence; but, much as I admire the modern Pointer, there is just one of his properties that I do not think has been improved, at least, by no means so much as have others-I mean his olfactory powers. He does not appear to possess any superior (or even equal) faculty of scenting game now to that he did years ago. But I am fully aware that the great speed at which most Pointers hunt the ground now, as compared with the old-fashioned dog of, say, twenty-five years

ago, ought to be taken into account in considering this matter. It is more than probable that, the slower a dog goes, the greater are his facilities for taking into his nostrils the atoms of scent. Assuming this to be the case, the slow dog of the past had an advantage in 'winding' game over the flyers of to-day.

I may be permitted to remark that many of my sporting friends who have used Pointers all their lives are of my opinion upon the subject. My father has used Pointers and Setters for nearly fifty years, and has within the last few trained some (and seen others at work) of my Pointers by Champions Rap, Pax, Chang, Macgregor, and Bang; and although he willingly admits their superior pace and style, yet he fails to detect any increased range of nose over that he has been accustomed to in good dogs he used very early in his sporting experience.

There is no doubt whatever that the modern Pointer, owing to his increased pace, and through being able to endure (by his better formation) harder work, with less fatigue, is of more service to the sportsman; still, there is room for improvement in him. What we want is to make him as much superior in nose as he is beyond his ancestors in pace. This as yet we have not accomplished. Of course, increased pace allows of more ground being hunted in the same time, and this of itself is a great advantage; and it is this alone, in my opinion, that gives the modern fast Pointer the advantage over his slower rival. To illustrate what I mean, I may say that I have often put down my field-trial winner Romp with good-nosed slow dogs (local celebrities, too), and, owing to her terrific pace, she could always take and keep the outside beat; consequently, her chances of finding game were much increased, and she invariably beat them 'hands down.' But it was only her pace, not her nose, that gave her the advantage. The dogs she could easily beat were her equals in nose. I have attended field trials for the last fifteen years, and in no case have I seen any Pointer exhibiting an increased range of nose over that I have seen in other good dogs.

A fear has often been expressed that, by breeding for pace, the staunchness of the Pointer would be detrimentally affected. I am pleased to say I do not find this to be the case. He is now, in this respect, all that a sportsman can wish for.

The Pointer, I am fully persuaded, is more readily trained to his duties than the Setter. He seems to take more kindly to his work, and is generally kept up to his training with less trouble. I have seen Pointers that have not been turned into a field for a year or two go and do their work in rare form, as if they had been in full training. I do not think the Pointer is such a companionable dog as the Setter. He is 'all there' when at work, but afterwards the kennel seems his proper place. He does