CHAPTER V.

THE IRISH SETTER.

It has often struck me as being extraordinary that so little is known of the origin of the Irish setter —that he is an old dog in his purity there is not the slightest doubt. He has been alluded to by writers early in the present century, but they have failed to tell us what kind of a dog he was, either in colour or form. I believe him to have been red, or red and white in colour, a smart active animal, full of courage, rather headstrong, an untiring worker, with olfactory organs quite as good as any other dog used for a similar purpose.

And how strange it seems that the native Irish dogs are for the most part red or brown. This may be a favourite Milesian colour, or it may be the result of accident. One cannot say that the Irish red setter, the Irish terrier, and the water spaniel of Ireland, came at any recent date from one stock. Still, their colours, if not quite alike, are

similar, and for modern tastes, the redder the terrier and the setter are, the better.

Failing to find anything of particular interest in the early days of the Irish setter, I turned to Mr. W. C. Bennett, of Dublin, a gentleman who has made the variety his hobby, and he most kindly promised to do what he could for me in the matter. The following particulars from his pen will no doubt be

read with interest :

"My inquiries relative to the above breed have tended to convince me that, so far at least as the Midland and Western Counties of Ireland, Dublin, and its vicinity, were concerned (which were best known to my three first named informants, whose experience and opinions are given below), the red setter was but seldom encountered, and that red and white Irish setters (differing in many essential qualities and in general appearance from the English variety) were well known and highly esteemed.

"That this assertion will be met with indignant denial from the owners and exhibitors of the red

dogs at present gracing the bench and holding their own in Field Trials, I am quite prepared for, but how far back does their recollection carry them? The first gentleman I interviewed on the subject was Mr. Mahon, one of the old Ross Mahon stock, of Galway fame, now over eighty years of age, and son

of the Rev. H. Mahon, of Castlegar, an ardent sportsman and owner of many setters, all of which were red and white, and who held the opinion often expressed to his son, that this was the true colour of the Irish setter. This gentleman's recollection carried him back to the last century (he having died in the year 1838).

"The present Mr. Mahon informs me that in his early days dogs wholly red were rare, though such, he admits, existed, and were considered more difficult to break than the red and white, which, he says, were smaller. A strain of them, called the 'Ahascragh breed,' kept in his family were highly prized, but which, from being bred in and in by the gamekeeper, Jemmy Fury, degenerated into weeds. He especially mentions one, called Sylvie, which he obtained from Charles Mahon, of Mount Pleasant, co. Mayo; she was a big bitch, beautifully feathered, very enduring and staunch, and with her he hoped to resuscitate the Ahascragh strain. Owing, however, to the death of his father, he abandoned the attempt. Mr. Mahon purchased two dogs from Mr. Buchanan for Sir St. George Gore, about the year 1838, which were wholly red in colour, and this gentleman appears to have kept the whole coloured almost, if not entirely, in his kennels.

"Mr. Baker, of Lismacue, co. Tipperary, was a

firm adherent of the red and white variety, and Mr. Mahon considers his breed a particularly good one; they had black noses, and were fine upstanding dogs, selected with care, with good feathering and low carriage of stern.

"My next informant was Mr. John Bennett, of Grange, King's County, who hunted the county for over 30 years, and whose recollection goes back to the early part of the present century. So far back as the year 1835 he owned a light red bitch called Cora, which he mated with a red dog, the property of the late Captain Vaughan, of Golden Grove, King's County, one of the O'Connor breed, which so far as he can recollect, were all red. Captain Vaughan had two brace of the strain in his kennels, and all these were red with black noses, sterns carried low (a point then, as now, highly valued), large sized and muscular.

"Mr. Bennett considers the O'Connor and Yelverton O'Keeffe's strain of red and white setters

the best he ever shot over. The latter paid great attention to keeping them pure, and adhered to the parti-coloured in preference to the whole coloured variety, though, strange to say, the last of the race was a red dog in the possession of the late Charley O'Keeffe, of Parsonstown, son of Yelverton O'Keeffe. This Mr. Bennett accounts for by Yelverton