as a rule, do not breed on any system; far oftener will they purchase any winner, with little or no regard to looks or pedigree, and then breed from it with no science or discrimination.

The original object of dog shows-i.e. as far as sporting dogs are concerned-was of course to promote and preserve in the greatest possible perfection the properties and attributes, as well as the form-beauty, of the various breeds used in the field, and for some years after their first establishment this most laudable and useful purpose was to a great extent accomplished. At that time, however, it must be remembered that the animals shown were invariably used for shooting, and also that the judges were always sportsmen. It naturally followed, therefore, that although the prize winners were not necessarily superior in their field work, but sometimes even inferior to the dogs which were passed over, still, the winners must have had some merit in their special province, or they would not have remained in existence. Now all this is changed; dog shows have become a medium for money-making, and so the breeding of sporting dogs (so called) has become a regular business in itself and entirely divorced from the proper use of the animal.

Where, twenty-five years ago, there was one show, there are now one hundred; where three prizes at most were given for one particular breed, there are now a dozen or more, and the merits of the winners are thus complicated and lessened. The judges, too, are not invariably sportsmen; it is even probable that some of them have never seen the work of a Setter or a Pointer in their lives. How, then, is it possible for them to know that that dog of beautiful quality to which they give a first prize has shoulders so loaded that he could not gallop for an hour, or quarters so short or so weak that he could never get to the top of a high hill at all? There seems also to be no standard for size, so the Setter gets smaller every year. Again, how can it be expected that the modern show Setter can be anything but useless in "the field"? He spends nearly the whole of his time in a hamper or on a show-bench; he is fed on stimulating food, kept in warm kennels, and washed and brushed and combed and pampered. What chance can he ever have of cultivating or even preserving the sporting instincts of his far-away progenitors-far away indeed, for it must be remembered that this dog showing has been going on now for many canine generations. Of course it must stand to reason that the dog should lose altogether the sporting faculties of his forbears; and the worst of it is, nobody cares a cent whether he does or not!

The show-bench winner in the seventies and early eighties may be defined as the most refined member of a family of well-formed and keen, intelligent working Setters.

Now it presents a type peculiar to itself-a heavier type more after that of the Clumber Spaniel. It is clean cut and weil formed,

It is, however,

in head and ears and throat, and has a good coat. very deficient in hindquarters, and has a dull, apathetic, soft, unintelligent air, betokening a want of constitution begotten by the unnatural existence of shows, instead of the natural and invigorating life of the moors and fields.

Between the Show and the Field Setter there ought of course to be no difference; on the contrary, the show should help the sportsman to preserve in their fullest perfection the shape, the make, the attributes which are positively necessary for the proper performance of the field duties of his canine assistants.

Mr. Llewellin has preserved his peculiar blend of Setter blood

during thirty-two years absolutely intact from any outside admixture whatever; and we can trace back the pedigrees thereof for more than a century. He is therefore the only man living at the present time who can be said to possess a positively pure and unmixed strain of this beautiful dog.

The illustrations, Figs. 58, 59, and 60, are of great interest; they serve as an object-lesson of Mr. Llewellin's work. First we have Dan, representing one line of his blood-viz. a combination of the Gordon and Southesk strains; secondly, Countess, a pure Laverack of the Dash and Moll family, and perhaps the most beautiful and the truest-shaped bitch of her day; thirdly, Countess Bear, by Dan ex Countess. Here we have the result of the combination of these two lines; this animal, which shows the size of the Dan line and

the superb quality of the Laverack, was perhaps the most beautiful bitch in the world, and equally good in every sterling field quality. Such were the principal ancestors of the celebrated strain that their founder named "The Field Trial Setter," but which the American exporters called many years since "The Llewellin," by which name it is now known throughout the world.

The writer has always considered the character and disposition of the Setter to be the most intelligent and affectionate, as well as the most capable of cultivation, of any of the canine family. At the same time he must confess that the two cleverest dogs that he ever possessed were a Retriever and a Fox-terrier; but these were exceptional instances of almost more than human sagacity, besides which neither of them ever (so to speak) left his side by day or night. With the exception of these two, the Setter bears the palm from all other dogs he ever owned, and they have been many and diverse.

This is the more noteworthy because a Setter has not, as a rule, the chance of so much intimate human companionship as many other breeds, and it is human companionship most undoubtedly that is the greatest factor in the cultivation of the brain and the mind of the dog. One's Retriever is a far more constant and intimate friend, and Terriers and other house-dogs are far oftener in one's society. If, then, the Setter, with so many less advantages, excels these, it naturally follows that his powers in this direction must be far greater.

Even the most ardent lover of the Pointer would not deny the superior intelligence and affection of its rival in the field. To prove this, take one of the best specimens of both breeds that you can find, and put them together and work them, say, alternately. The writer had the opportunity of doing this once during two consecutive seasons. Both dogs were absolutely perfect specimens, as to working powers, of their respective breeds, both were perfectly broken, both would go from morning till night, and both did their work in the same style and form. It may be the Pointer was a trifle the better "laster," but all the same there was "a something" about the Setter which was unmistakable. One can only describe it by saying that the Pointer did his work most thoroughly and conscientiously because he loved the work, and the Setter because he not only loved the work, but loved his master, and loved him so much, too, that he would have died to please him. In comparing the two breeds an intelligent observer can hardly fail to notice this sort of thing.

The Pointer is a splendid dog, an admirable, a hard-working servant; he will do the practical part of his business as well as the Setter, it may be better-i.e. if you take all the Pointers in England against all the Setters. But the Setter is more than a hard-working

servant he is a devoted, a loving friend, who will go on till he cannot stand, because he wants to find game, to please himself—yes, but far more to please you. Of course this is not by any means the case with every Setter. One comes across many dogs of this breed, some of them very first class both in the field trial as well as in the shooting business, that care for nothing but the actual hunting, that would go with any one who carried a gun, and do not seemingly have any affection for any person living. Still, exceptions prove a rule.

A few instances of the sagacity of the Setter are here recorded, though in some of the cases sagacity is far too low a term.

When the writer was a boy of seventeen, living with a private tutor, he was the proud possessor of a Pointer, and a fellow-pupil of a Setter, which latter would always go with him in preference to his master. One morning in September the writer started early, about seven o'clock, to beat a rough, distant manor over which he had the right of shooting, taking the Pointer with him. He had to walk four miles along the road, and then began to beat straight ahead. About noon he sat down on the top of a high hill

commanding a full view of the beaten ground, and was regaling himself with divers sandwiches, when he noticed a black-and-white dog ranging the exact country he had been carefully beating, and of course thought at first that it was some rival sportsman who was ignorantly traversing the same ground. He looked and looked, but could see no man, and at last it struck him that the dog must be hunting him. By-and-by, as the dog topped a gate about half a mile below, the writer recognised the Setter Grouse. It was a most interesting thing to watch, as from that point he had made several wide detours in pursuit of marked birds and to beat likely fields, and so on. When the dog lost his scent he would make a wide cast like a hound and recover it, and at times, as in ploughed fields, would plod on the scent at a walk. At last he got into the big grass field where he was sitting, and with head up and stern down raced into him.

It appeared afterwards that his master thought that he would go out for a quiet shoot about noon, and loosed his dog. Grouse never even looked at him, but taking up the writer's five hours ago trail on the road, ran it at a great pace until finding him as he has described. Needless to say, the writer bought the dog and shot over him many seasons, and a most wonderful animal he turned out.

In woods, as well as in the open, the dog was first rate; in a wood he would range right away out of sight, and the writer used to saunter along at his ease with a very clever Retriever at heel. If in the course of a few minutes Grouse did not appear on his return quarter, one whistle would be given, and if he did not come then, the Retriever was told to find him. She would at once follow his trail slowly, looking back and waiting for her master at intervals, till at last she would suddenly back, and there the old boy would be, standing as stiff as a rock, and by hook or by crook the two dogs and the man would generally secure the object of attraction. If, again, one was working a river for water-fowl, the dog would take the opposite bank, if so directed, and point anything he came across, waiting until the Retriever swam over to put it up; he would never put it up himself or chase it when she did, but sit down and watch quietly what took place, and after the gun was loaded and the thing retrieved, he would continue the even tenour of his way. On several occasions, too, when he saw wild ducks on the water he would drop and hide himself and leave his master to stalk them, or, if he thought it could be done, he would make a circuit as quick as lightning, get in front of the ducks and jump into the water, barking furiously, and the ducks would thus frequently come right over the snug place where the writer had concealed himself when he had noticed the dog's tactics.

Another very clever Setter was owned by the writer when living in America for a few years. She was given to him as a puppy,