My memories of English Setters over the years
By James Dalton
On the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the English Setter Club of Ireland I thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the men and dogs who have represented the breed over the years. From reading about the breed, it appears to have peaked in these isles about the turn of the century. Edward Laverack who died in 1910 could be called the champion of the breed. His book “The Setter” first published in 1872 in London by Longmans, Green and Co., is a classic and a collectors item. It was reprinted in 1976 by Eyre and Spottiswoode Ltd for C W Sorenson, Horsford Kennels, Lydbury, North Shropshire. It is impossible to write anything about English Setters of this period without mention of Richard Purcell Llewellyn who was a pupil of Laverack. He developed his own strain of English Setter which carried his name and in America they even opened a separate register for them. Llewellyn died in 1924. He had a first, second and third in the Kennel Club Derby at Orwell Park in 1921, which was a very prestigious stake at the time and still is to this day. It was run in April on paired partridge at that time and the dogs then were mainly handled by professional trainers. It was run as a futurity stake in which the litters were entered at birth and had the various forfeits claimed at four, nine and twelve months with an entrance fee of ten pounds as is the case with horses and greyhounds today for the Derby and Oaks. The last futurity stake was run in 1926 and had a prize fund of over £500, what would that be in today’s money! This stake is now run in the summer on grouse. La Besita, which Hotchwait called the last of the great Llewellyns, won the National in 1926 and it is said the decline set in from that date.
The Second World War from 1939 – 45 saw most of the European and English kennels either ravished or dispersed, but William Humphries coped with the situation by sending some of his dogs to Ireland mainly to Reg Chapman and Bob Devlin in Waterford. They had Billy Phelan from Ballinmult to train and handle them professionally. In 1927 William Humphries returned from America and bought Purcell Llewellyns house, contents and the remaining Llewellyn setters from his housekeeper. He then set out to revamp the bloodlines by importing some Llewellyns from America. The results were mainly successful as the records show. He registered three successful prefixes: Bondhu, Windem and Dashing, which he said were three families, but that is questionable. In the early sixties our own Jim Blake had a very nice bitch called Coolwinna La Besita, I wonder was this the great come-back?
I will endeavour to give some of the owners, dogs and breeding over my years of trialling, many good owners and dogs may be missed as the list is great. I came into the trial scene first as a spectator and then as a competitor in the early sixties and on talking to some of the old triallers at the time, they told me of some of the dogs and owners of the 1950’s and I have compiled a list from then until the year 2000.
(Please let us know if any dogs have inadvertently been omitted and we shall up-date the records – Glynlark – blog-site editor)
Click on the links below to access the lists:
The English Setter from Ireland 