The Rhœbe blood came into note when this celebrated brood bitch was crossed with Duke, a dog bred from a Netherby dog, and a Staffordshire bred bitch, belonging to the late Sir Vincent Corbet. Amongst many good offspring, Rhœbe had one peculiar dog called Dan. He stood over 27 inches at the shoulder, and had more bone than any foxhound. This setter won the Champion Stake at the National Field Trials in 1871. His chief merits were that he was very fast without distressing himself, and his tremendous strength and stride enabled him to go round fast small ones without appearing to be trying, and meantime to flick his stern as only those going within their powers can. Setter breeding was revolutionised when this dog was bred to the best bitches of Mr. Laverack’s sort.
Mr. Laverack’s dogs in the sixties were known mostly upon the show bench; but what was then less well recognised was that no dogs had done harder work upon the moors for many canine generations. They were said to be in-bred to only two animals on all sides of this pedigree, and to go back seventy years without any cross whatever. It is probable that Mr. Laverack had forgotten what crosses he did make; but in any case he crossed with the black-white-and-tan Gordons of Lord Lovat’s kennel, and whether he kept the offspring or not, there was generally a trace of tan about the cheeks of his black-and-white ticked dogs. In any case, his dogs were very much in-bred, until some of them suddenly came liver-and-white in one litter, and red, and black, whole-coloured in another. None of the latter were allowed to mix with the Rhœbe and Duke strain of setters, and indeed these were only crossed with the blood named above, and with that of John Armstrong’s Dash II., a son of a Laverack setter dog, and descended from a bitch said to be a sister of that Duke mentioned above. From this limited material in point of numbers, but of three distinct strains of blood, the finest setters of modern times were produced, including many that won principal honours of the show and also of the field trials. In England they took most of the field trials for setters for some years, and in America they took all stakes that were open to both pointers and setters for even longer. To apportion the merit amongst the original three strains would be difficult, but as the setter breeding of the future depends on a proper understanding of that of the past, some few remarks may be of use. First, it has to be admitted that the Rhœbe blood was as successful when crossed with the Laverack race as when braced up by the cross with Duke. Also that Duke’s descendants from other crosses than that of Rhœbe were better than any others, except her own so crossed descendants. Duke and the Laveracks never were directly crossed together, and there is nothing to be had from the pedigree of Kate, the grand-dam of Armstrong’s Dash II., because it has been variously given at different times. On the book, then, the merit was due to Rhœbe and Duke in equal proportions, but the book is wrong. The reason for this being said is that the brothers and sisters of Dan, by Duke from Rhœbe, were a poor lot. They were great big 26 inch dogs and 24 inch bitches, and one of them, namely Dick, in appearance with Dan made the most remarkable brace that ever won the stake at the National Trials, and apparently there was not a pin to choose between them, except that Dan was the faster. They hunted out what is now the Waterworks field at Acton Reynold in a style of ranging, pointing, and backing that could not be improved on even in imagination, and the way they had of going down on their elbows, and standing up behind, with their great flags on a line with their backs, and consequently pointing upwards at an angle of 45 degrees, was a revelation in style, just as the pace was, for it was so easily done that they had lots of time to flick their sterns as they went. When they were taken up without a mistake, no others, even without a mistake too, could have been in the running. But Dick was a flat-catcher, wanting in stamina, courage, and in nose, for he was a bad false pointer. Dan was the only one of the litter, as far as they were known to the author, that was a perfectly honest dog, and exhibited no more at a field trial than in private. It is therefore not possible to discredit the Laverack bitches that, when crossed with Dan, again and again produced litters in which there was scarcely any difference between the best and the worst, and in which, when the best died, the worst were good enough to find themselves running against Ranger for the National Championship. But this is not all the evidence in favour of the Laveracks, for, when heavy dogs of that strain were crossed with the very moderate sisters of Dan, the produce was far better than either the sires or dams. It was only when the three sorts were blended that anything like uniformity, or a distinct breed, appeared, and the offspring were far more true to type, and merit in work, when the tail-male line was to Duke and the tail-female a Laverack, than when the order was reversed. The Stud Book shows the field trial winnings of the sort, and it will always be remembered that once, when the Field Trial Derby was a very big stake, four setter puppies of this breed, belonging to Mr. Llewellin, took the four first places in it that could fall to setters. In other words, they put out all the other setters and then defeated the best pointer. At other times they won the brace stake one day, and one of the brace the single stake the next. Then Count Wind’em and Novel on one occasion took the two championships at Birmingham Show for good looks, and beat the best pointers and setters at the National Trials as well. Count Wind’em was about 25 inches at the shoulder, long and low, and neither hot “muggy” weather in August, nor hillsides of the steepest on which grouse lie, could tire him. One field trial judge of the day who saw the way he did the heather against such dogs as Dash II., and other winners of the time, compared the sight to that of a great racing cutter sailing round a 20–rater. It was all done without an effort, and therein lay the conserved energy that kept on as long as any man could follow.
In America this breed was first called the “Field Trial breed,” then “Llewellin setters,” and also “The straight-bred sort,” by which it is generally known in conversation. At the time of writing (June 1906) the last pure bred one of the race that has run at an English field trial was Mr. Llewellin’s Dan Wind’em, bred in the last century. But in America nothing has ever been able to suppress the pure bred ones at the field trials there. When they have not won, their 90 per cent. of pure blood descendants have done so. In 1904 the author was on a visit to America, and, having been requested to help judge their Champion Stake, did so, with the result that one of these pure breds defeated all comers. This dog was called “Mohawk,” and in the same kennel was another setter named “Tony Man.” The latter had a slight trace of outside blood, but the two were almost identical to look at. Tony Man had just previously beaten Mohawk, and won the stake of the United States Field Trial Club in first-rate style. But the trace of outside blood was so very much regarded by the American sportsmen that the author heard Tony Man offered for sale at £200, whereas he was assured on independent evidence again and again that Mohawk could easily earn £500 a year at the stud. This great difference is caused not at all by any great difference in the prospective merits of the descendants of the two dogs, but merely by the fact that those of one can be registered as “straight-bred,” and those of the other cannot. The book of reference is The American Field’s Stud Book, where those with any cross whatever are registered as English setters, and the others as “Llewellin setters.” These straight-bred ones trace on all sides to seven dogs bred in the sixties of last century—namely, Mr. Laverack’s Dash II., his Fred, and his Moll III., Mr. Blinkhorn’s Lill I., Mr. Thomas Statter’s Rhœbe, Sir F. Graham’s Duke, and Sir Vincent Corbet’s Slut.
THE ENGLISH SETTER, BY REINAGLE
With the exception of an ill-drawn hind leg and near fore foot this is the correct formation. The model had the shoulders, head, back and back ribs, rarely seen now except in hard-working dogs.
MR. HERBERT MITCHELL’S LINGFIELD BERYL, WINNER OF FIRSTS SIX TIMES IN SEVEN FIELD TRIAL OUTINGS IN THE SPRING OF 1906
That a breed should have lasted without cross for so long, and now be as full of vitality as ever it was, can only be accounted for by the intensely searching selection of the fittest for work, in a manner that tries constitution as well. In America they have from thirty-five to forty field trials each year; the best and severest is the Champion Stake, and wisely the winners of this event are bred from to the exclusion of most others. To have won the stake is to have proved ability to hunt at an extreme tension for three hours without slackening up. That is to finish much faster than the average of fast dogs start when fresh in the morning. The only falling off that the author could discover, compared with the great dogs in England of the seventies and eighties, was the want of size of the best dogs there. Mohawk measured by the author under 21 inches at the shoulder. There are many large dogs of the blood out there, but they are not those of the most vitality, although they fairly compare in that respect with the best dogs in England. Besides the selection already referred to, what helps to keep up this in-bred race as workers, whereas it died out in England, is the number that are bred in the States and Canada. There are many thousands there; probably in England there are not more than two or three besides importations from America and their descendants. It should be stated, to make this clear, that the setters run of late by Mr. Llewellin at field trials have been cross-breds, and would not be registered in The American Field Stud Book as “Llewellin setters.” The following are referred to as cross-breds: Border Brenda, Count Gleam, Kitty Wind’em, Border Beauty, Orange Bloom, Pixie of the Fells, Countess Brenda, Countess Carrie, Miss Mabel, Countess Nellie, Puck of the Fells, and Countess Shield. That is to say, all the dogs run by Mr. Llewellin at field trials in the years 1903, 1904, and 1905.
Others who have the blood in this crossed form are Colonel C. J. Cotes of Pitchford and Captain H. Heywood Lonsdale of Shavington, near Market Drayton. The latter has some American-bred straight-breds, but reference is here made to their old and well-known field trial strains. Each of these kennels obtained a large draft of the pure bred sort in the early eighties, or late seventies, and introduced it widely into their own breeds. These were formerly founded on Lord Waterpark’s breed, and his were crossed very much with Armstrong’s Duke already referred to, so that the crossing of the two strains had the double benefit of out-crossing generally, and yet in-breeding to one particular dog, and that one as valuable in a pedigree as Duke. Some years ago, for an article in Country Life, the author tabulated the pedigree of Captain Lonsdale’s Ightfield Gaby, and found that he had eight distinct crosses of Duke, and as he was then by far the best setter in England, it was only history repeating itself in the matter of the most successful blood.
Thus the American straight-bred, as has been shown, was obtained by crossing three unrelated breeds of setters together. Unrelated setters cannot now be found without going to the black-and-tans and the Irish. But such crosses are not required as long as America has a strain of straight-bred ones uncrossed with anything on this side the water for a quarter of a century. Indeed, the value of the American cross has already been proved by Mr. Alexander Hall’s Guiniard Shot and Dash. They are bred from a bitch imported from America, but not a “straight-bred” one. These two and Captain Lonsdale’s Ightfield Duffer were the best setters seen in 1905, and in their absence another Ightfield bred one on one side of her pedigree, namely, Mr. Herbert Mitchell’s Lingfield Beryl, has carried all the spring field trials of the 1906 season by storm, and has beaten the pointers equally with the setters in single and in brace stakes too. She is a long way the best setter Mr. Herbert Mitchell has ever had. Like Ightfield Gaby, already mentioned as the best of his period, the only fault with her is that, with the same beauty of form and strength to carry her light setter-like body, she would have been better if larger.