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It was not such a very grand place, this estate of the Baron, after all. It had an air about it of having seen better days, but the host was a good fellow, and his welcome genuine, and we were all happy to be there. No keepers in green fustians, no array of thoroughbred dogs, but instead four plain setters with a touch of shepherd in them.
On the afternoon of the fifth day, as he was taking a solitary stroll about the country, having about made up his mind to be off to town, just as he was crossing Jog's buttercup meadow on his way to the stable, a rapid bang! bang! caused him to start, and, looking over the hedge, he saw a brawny-looking sportsman in brown reloading his gun, with a brace of liver-and-white setters crouching like statues in the stubble.
Action and reaction are equal; the fighting instinct has been impressed on our nature by hereditary transmission for countless generations, and we cannot hope suddenly to make man a peaceful animal any more than we can hope to breed setters from South African wild dogs.
Besides, the former they have their Emissaries, Scouts, and Setters up and down, to cry up the skill And feigned Cures done by them, Nurses, Good-fellows, Midwives, &c. to make up the cry and full noise.
Suddenly the trail kinked sharply to the right, and the Dog-Wolf, swift-rushing, overshot it. "E-u-h! at fault," he muttered. "Some trick of the fool Cow's." Back and forth, back and forth like Setters the four Killers scurried. "H-o-o-oh! here away!" cried A'tim, picking it up; and on again galloped the Gray Hunters.
If space allowed we could note at least a dozen divisions of the group of hounds or chasing dogs, each of which has developed a peculiar assemblage of qualities, more or less precisely adapted to some particular game. Perhaps the most special adaption which man has brought about in his domesticated animals is found in our pointers and setters.
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.
Gilbert Fenton heard the familiar clash of the billiard-balls as he went into the hall, where a couple of liver-coloured setters were dozing before a great fire that roared half-way up the wide chimney. There was no other life in the hall; and Mr. Fenton was conducted to the other end of the house, and ushered into that tobacco-tainted snuggery in which he had last seen the Baronet.
And so she led him past the low, crooked outbuildings at the back, where he saw old Uncle Ben busy over the preparation of his dinner, and frisky Rosetta, his daughter, playing with one of the Colonel's setters. Then Virginia took a well-worn path, on each side of which the high grass bent with its load of seed, which entered the wood.
A few days later, while I was standing by the fence, Slingsby came up and said, "Beautiful dog you have there." "Yes; it's a setter." "Indeed! A setter, hey? The tax on setters is two dollars. I'll collect it now, while I have it on my mind." I settled the obligation, and the next day Slingsby came around again. He opened the conversation with the remark,
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