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 well formed, in head and ears and throat, and has a good coat. It is, however, 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.

Fig. 59. - Mr. Purcell Llewellin's English Setter Countess.

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.