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?

But, apart from the question of their origin, the different varieties have many other attributes in common; all perform the same kind of work, and in the same manner; consequently the system of breaking or training them varies only according to the temper or ideas of those who undertake their schooling.

Few dogs are more admired than English Setters, and those who are looked upon as professional exhibitors have not been slow to recognise the fact that when a really good young dog makes its appearance it is a formidable rival amongst all other breeds when the special prizes come to be allotted.

Seen either at its legitimate work as a gun dog or as a domestic companion, the English Setter is one of the most graceful and beautiful of the canine race, and its elegant form and feathery coat command instant admiration. Twenty years ago it was known by several distinct names, among the more important being the Blue Beltons and Laveracks, and this regardless of any consideration as to whether or not the dogs were in any way connected by relationship to the stock which had earned fame for either of these time-honoured names.

It was the great increase in the number of shows and some confusion on the part of exhibitors that made it necessary for the Kennel Club to classify under one heading these and others which had attained some amount of notability and the old terms have gradually been dropped.

Doubtless the English Setter Club has done much since its institution in 1890 to encourage this breed of dog, and has proved the usefulness of the club by providing two very valuable trophies, the Exhibitors’ Challenge Cup and the Field Trial Challenge Cup, for competition amongst its members, besides having liberally supported all the leading shows; hence it has rightly come to be regarded as the only authority from which an acceptable and official dictum for the guidance of others can emanate.

The following is the standard of points issued by the English Setter Club:

HEAD — The head should be long and lean, with well-defined stop. The skull oval from ear to ear, showing plenty of brain room, and with a well-defined occipital protuberance. The muzzle moderately deep and fairly square; from the stop to the point of the nose should be long, the nostrils wide, and the jaws of nearly equal length; flews not too pendulous. The colour of the nose should be black, or dark, or light liver, according to the colour of the coat. The eyes should be bright, mild, and intelligent, and of a dark hazel colour, the darker the better. The ears of moderate length, set on low and hanging in neat folds close to the cheek; the tip should be velvety, the upper part clothed with fine silky hair.

NECK — The neck should be rather long, muscular, and lean, slightly arched at the crest, and clean cut where it joins the head; towards the shoulder it should be larger, and very muscular, not throaty with any pendulosity below the throat, but elegant and bloodlike in appearance.

BODY — The body should be of moderate length, with shoulders well set back or oblique; back short and level; loins wide, slightly arched, strong and muscular.  Chest deep in the brisket, with good round widely-sprung ribs, deep in the back ribs that is, well ribbed up.

LEGS AND FEET — The stifles should be well bent and ragged, thighs long from hip to hock. The forearm big and very muscular, the elbow well let down. Pasterns short, muscular, and straight. The feet very close and compact, and well protected by hair between the toes.

TAIL — The tail should be set on almost in a line with the back; medium length, not curly or ropy, to be slightly curved or scimitar shaped, but with no tendency to turn upwards; the flag or feather hanging in long, pendant flakes; the feather should not commence at the root, but slightly below, and increase in length to the middle, then gradually taper off towards the end; and the hair long, bright, soft and silky, wavy but not curly.

COAT AND FEATHERING — The coat from the back of the head in a line with the ears ought to be slightly wavy, long, and silky, which should be the case with the coat generally; the breeches and fore legs, nearly down to the feet, should be well feathered.

COLOUR AND MARKINGS — The colour may be either black and white, lemon and white, liver and white, or tricolour that is, black, white, and tan; those without heavy patches of colour on the body, but flecked all over preferred.

At twelve months the puppy becomes an adult in an official sense. Between the ages of six and twelve months he may be entered as a puppy in the various shows, but after twelve months he must take his chance with the grown dogs though he will not yet have attained his full growth.

The time when full height and weight are reached varies with the breed. The larger the dog, the longer time he will take. He will reach his matured height first, possibly as early as nine months, but he is still a gangling youngster that will not come to the top of his form until he is around two years of age.

Small breeds may do so at fifteen months. Once the full height has been reached, there will be no more development in this direction. The weight will change, but once the skeleton is completely formed, there will be no variation in the height of any dog.

Young puppies, and grown dogs for that matter, de­rive great enjoyment from chewing anything they can get hold of. This should be kept in mind, and wood, metal, broken glass, or anything which is likely to splinter must be kept from them.

A very small particle of some sharp material may puncture the intestine and cause death from either peritonitis or internal hemorrhage. Even rubber balls should not be given as toys if they are painted, and they must always be too large for the puppy to swallow. Do not give him a ball which he can chew into pieces.

Many authorities give a definite age at which puppies should be weaned, but in my estimation this is not pos­sible. It may sometimes be necessary to start this change in feeding as early as three weeks. On the other hand, it may frequently be left until the puppies are five or six weeks old.

There are various causes which necessitate early removal of the puppies from their dam. If a large litter or sickness makes her milk supply fail, the only way out of the difficulty is to aid her by taking at least part of the load from her. It is a good plan to start teaching the puppies to lap as soon as they are able to stand alone. This is usually when they are about three weeks old. Any of the prepared puppy formulas are sat­isfactory, or condensed milk may be used.

A pan kept specially for the purpose makes a very good feeding dish. In it is placed a small quantity of either slightly diluted condensed milk or one of the prepared formulas, mixed according to directions. When the pan is first placed before the puppies, curiosity will usually draw them about it. But they will not know what it is for until their noses are gently pushed into the liquid. When they lick off their lips, they will find that they like the taste, and from then on it is easy.

By starting this feeding about the third week, some of the load is taken from the dam. Should her milk supply fail, the puppies are partially trained to carry on for themselves. Early weaning is also an advantage for a show bitch, as it prevents her body from becoming so badly depleted that she would have to go through a long period of preparation before again being shown in anything like good condition.

For the first two weeks the bitch will stay with the puppies almost constantly. Then she will start leaving them for periods which gradually increase in length. She may stay where she can keep an eye on the whelping box or may wander off if allowed her freedom. She will not go far, however, and no fear need be entertained that she will desert them.

By the time the puppies are four weeks old some tiny, needle-sharp teeth will have erupted. They will prick the skin of the nipples and breasts and make nursing more and more of an ordeal to the bitch. In some cases this is so irritating that it becomes necessary to bathe the breasts several times a day with a warm boracic acid solution, or a warm, very dilute solution of Zonite. At other times it becomes necessary to use an ointment, such as Ozonol. “When ointments are employed, the pup­pies must be kept away from the mother, and before they are returned, the breasts and nipples must be thor­oughly sponged off.

If the puppies learn to lap while they are still nursing, what they get from lapping is merely supplementary feeding and does not have to be as carefully balanced as it will be after they leave the dam. For this purpose I use condensed milk diluted with one third of boiled water. To this is added a small amount of dicalcium phosphate and a few drops of cod-liver oil for each pup.

If whole cow’s milk is used, one-half teaspoonful of but­ter should be added for every eight ounces of milk.

After the puppies have lapped fluid only for two or three days, a small amount of the meal fed to the grown dogs is sifted into the milk through a fine-meshed sieve. This addition is in a very small amount at the start and is increased from day to day. By the time the bitch has stopped feeding them, they are getting a large percent­age of solid food.

When the transition from liquid to solid food is grad­ual and is carried out while the puppies are still receiv­ing an appreciable amount of milk from the dam, the chances of digestive upsets are much smaller.

This method also affords the bitch more comfort, for if the puppies are left to feed on her alone as her milk supply is dwindling instead of growing to meet their increased appetites, they not only lacerate her nipples badly but they drain her system of a great deal of vitality. This energy could well be used to her own advantage in re* covering from her whelping.

My puppies are fed four times a day from the time they are weaned until they are three months old, and their feeding schedule begins when they are first taught to lap. They get their first meal of the day in the early morning, the next at noon, the third when the older dogs are feeding around six o’clock, and the last one around midnight.

These times may be set to suit the individual breeder, but adhering to a rigid schedule is very neces­sary. Do not feed at one hour one day and at a different time the next. Puppies are like babies—the more care taken to provide proper diet and regular feeding, the healthier the growing youngster will be

It has never been made quite clear in history why the Spaniards had a dog that was very remarkable for pointing all kinds of game. They have always been a pleasure-loving people, certainly, but more inclined to bull-fighting than field-craft, and yet as early as 1600 they must have had a better dog for game-finding than could have been found in any other part of the world. Singularly enough, too, the most esteemed breeds in many countries can be traced from the same source, such as the Russian Pointer, the German Pointer, the French double-nosed Griffon, and, far more important still, the English Pointer.

A view has been taken that the Spanish double-nosed Pointer was introduced into England about two hundred years ago, when fire-arms were beginning to be popular for fowling purposes. Setters and Spaniels had been used to find and drive birds into nets, but as the Spanish Pointer became known it was apparently considered that he alone had the capacity to find game for the gun.

This must have been towards the end of the seventeenth century, and for the next fifty years at least something very slow was wanted to meet the necessities of the old-fashioned flintlock gun, which occupied many minutes in loading and getting into position. Improvements came by degrees, until they set in very rapidly, but probably by 1750, when hunting had progressed a good deal, and pace was increased in all pastimes, the old-fashioned Pointer was voted a nuisance through his extreme caution and tortoise-like movements.

There is evidence, through portraits, that Pointers had been altogether changed by the year 1800, but it is possible that the breed then had been continued by selection rather than by crossing for a couple of decades, as it is quite certain that by 1815 sportsmen were still dissatisfied with the want of pace in the Pointer, and many sportsmen are known to have crossed their Pointers with Foxhounds at about that time. By 1835 the old Spanish Pointer had been left behind, and the English dog was a perfect model for pace, stamina, resolution, and nerve.

The breed was exactly adapted to the requirements of that day, which was not quite as fast as the present.  Men shot with good Joe Mantons, did their own loading, and walked to their dogs, working them right and left by hand and whistle. The dogs beat their ground methodically, their heads at the right level for body scent, and when they came on game, down they were; the dog that had got it pointing, and the other barking or awaiting developments.

There was nothing more beautiful than the work of a well-bred and well-broken brace of Pointers, or more perfect than the way a man got his shots from them. There was nothing slow about them, but on the contrary they went a great pace, seemed to shoot into the very currents of air for scent, and yet there was no impatience about them such as might have been expected from the Foxhound cross.

The truth of it was that the capacity to concentrate the whole attention on the object found was so intense as to have lessened every other propensity. The rush of the Foxhound had been absorbed by the additional force of the Pointer character. There has been nothing at all like it in canine culture, and it came out so wonderfully after men had been shooting in the above manner for about forty years.

It was nearing the end of this period that field trials began to occupy the attention of breeders and sportsmen, and although Setters had been getting into equal repute for the beauty of their work, there was something more brilliant about the Pointers at first. Brockton’s Bounce was a magnificent dog, a winner on the show bench, and of the first Field Trial in England. Newton’s Ranger was another of the early performers, and he was very staunch and brilliant, but it was in the next five years that the most extraordinary Pointer merit was seen, as quite incomparable was Sir Richard Garth’s Drake, who was just five generations from the Spanish Pointer.

Drake was rather a tall, gaunt dog, but with immense depth of girth, long shoulders, long haunches, and a benevolent, quiet countenance. There was nothing very attractive about him when walking about at Stafford prior to his trial, but the moment he was down he seemed to paralyse his opponent, as he went half as fast again.

It was calculated that he went fifty miles an hour, and at this tremendous pace he would stop as if petrified, and the momentum would cover him with earth and dust. He did not seem capable of making a mistake, and his birds were always at about the same distance from him, to show thereby his extraordinary nose and confidence. Nothing in his day could beat him in a field.  He got some good stock, but they were not generally show form, the bitches by him being mostly light and small, and his sons a bit high on the leg.

None of them had his pace, but some were capital performers, such as Sir Thomas Lennard’s Mallard, Mr. George Pilkington’s Tory, Mr. Lloyd Price’s Luck of Edenhall, winner of the Field Trial Derby, 1878; Lord Downe’s Mars and Bounce, and Mr. Barclay Field’s Riot. When Sir Richard Garth went to India and sold his kennel of Pointers at Tattersall’s, Mr. Lloyd Price gave 150 guineas for Drake.

The mid-century owners and breeders had probably all the advantages of what a past generation had done, as there were certainly many wonderful Pointers in the ‘fifties, ‘sixties, and ‘seventies, as old men living to-day will freely allow. They were produced very regularly, too, in a marvellous type of perfection.

Mr. William Arkwright, of Sutton Scarsdale, Derbyshire, has probably the best kennel in England at the present time. He discovered and revived an old breed of the North of England that was black, and bred for a great many years by Mr. Pape, of Carlisle, and his father before him.

With these Mr. Arkwright has bred to the best working strains, with the result that he has had many good field trial winners. For a good many years now Elias Bishop, of Newton Abbot, has kept up the old breeds of Devon Pointers, the Ch. Bangs, the Mikes, and the Brackenburg Romps, and his have been amongst the best at the shows and the field trials during the past few years.

There are, of course, exceptions to the rule that many of the modern Pointers do not carry about them the air of their true business; but it would appear that fewer people keep them now than was the case a quarter of a century ago, owing to the advance of quick-shooting, otherwise driving, and the consequent falling away of the old-fashioned methods, both for the stubble and the moor.

However, there are many still who enjoy the work of dogs, and it would be a sin indeed in the calendar of British sports if the fine old breed of Pointer were allowed even to deteriorate. The apparent danger is that the personal or individual element is dying out. In the ‘seventies the name of Drake, Bang, or Garnet were like household words. People talked of the great Pointers. 

They were spoken of in club chat or gossip; written about; and the prospects of the moors were much associated with the up-to-date characters of the Pointers and Setters. There is very little of this sort of talk now-a-days. Guns are more critically spoken of. There is, however, a wide enough world to supply with first-class Pointers.  In England’s numerous colonies it may be much more fitting to shoot over dogs. It has been tried in South Africa with marvellous results.  Descendants of Bang have delighted the lone colonist on Cape partridge and quails, and Pointers suit the climate, whereas Setters do not. 

The Pointer is a noble breed to take up, as those still in middle life have seen its extraordinary merit whenever bred in the right way. As to the essential points of the breed, they may be set down as follows:

HEAD — Should be wide from ear to ear, long and slanting from the top of the skull to the setting on of the nose; cheek bones prominent; ears set low and thin in texture, soft and velvety; nose broad at the base; mouth large and jaws level.

NECK — The neck should be very strong, but long and slightly arched, meeting shoulders well knit into the back, which should be straight and joining a wide loin. There should be great depth of heart room, very deep brisket, narrow chest rather than otherwise, shoulders long and slanting.

LEGS AND FEET — Should be as nearly like the Foxhound’s as possible. There should be really no difference, as they must be straight, the knees big, and the bone should be of goodly size down to the toes, and the feet should be very round and cat-shaped.

HIND-QUARTERS — A great feature in the Pointer is his hind-quarters. He cannot well be too long in the haunch or strong in the stifle, which should be well bent, and the muscles in the second thigh of a good Pointer are always remarkable. The hocks may be straighter than even in a Foxhound, as, in pulling up sharp on his point, he in a great measure throws his weight on them; the shank bones below the hock should be short. 

COLOUR — There have been good ones of all colours. The Derby colours were always liver and whites for their Pointers and black breasted reds for their game-cocks. The Seftons were liver and whites also, and so were the Edges of Strelly, but mostly heavily ticked.  Brockton’s Bounce was so, and so were Ch. Bang, Mike, and Young Bang. Drake was more of the Derby colour; dark liver and white. Mr.  Whitehouse’s were mostly lemon and whites, after Hamlet of that colour, and notable ones of the same hue were Squire, Bang Bang, and Mr. Whitehouse’s Pax and Priam, all winners of field trials. There have been several very good black and whites. Mr. Francis’s, afterwards Mr. Salter’s, Chang was a field trial winner of this colour. A still better one was Mr. S. Becket’s Rector, a somewhat mean little dog to look at, but quite extraordinary in his work, as he won the Pointer Puppy Stake at Shrewsbury and the All-Aged Stake three years in succession. Mr. Salter’s Romp family were quite remarkable in colour—a white ground, heavily shot with black in patches and in ticks. There have never been any better Pointers than these. There have been, and are, good black Pointers also.

HEIGHT AND SIZE — A big Pointer dog stands from 24-1/2 inches to 25 inches at the shoulder. Old Ch. Bang and Young Bang were of the former height, and the great bitch, Mr. Lloyd Price’s Belle, was 24 inches.  For big Pointers 60 pounds is about the weight for dogs and 56 pounds bitches; smaller size, 54 pounds dogs and 48 pounds bitches. There have been some very good ones still smaller.