JET (LORD RUTHVEN'S)
BLACK WATER-DOGS IMPORTED AND THE FouNDATION OF LABRADOR RETRIEVERS The " Labrador " retriever seems to be a misnomer. It should surely be " The St. John's ", for the Labrador was in Colonel Peter Hawker's day, 1814, the name of a huge dog with long rough hair (vide p. 17). It is possible that some of these black water-dogs were imported to Poole harbour during the end of the eighteenth century, but the first record there is of imported Labrador dogs is that of those which the fifth Duke of Buccleuch and tenth Earl of Home and Lord John Scott imported between 1825 and 1835 from Newfoundland.* There is no record of the port at which they were disem- barked, and although there was quite a good trade between Newfoundland and Greenock at that time, a memorandum written in 1896 suggests that they arrived at Poole Harbour. These dogs were bred from ; some of this breed were given to friends, such as the Duke of Hamilton and Lord Ruthven living in the South of Scotland. Some names of these dogs are recorded, such as the Duke of Buccleuch' s Brandy, Moss, Drake (1840), Nell (1848), and Lord Home's "Jock", Drake and Nell.
Preston Hall Diver was by a dog of Lord Malmesbury's ; dam Lord Ruthven's Jet, about which he wrote that she was the last of the Labradors at Winton: The Hon. M. Guest's Sankey and last 1872 Kielder dai.mun.ca/PDFs/cns/TheLabradorDogItsHomeAndHistory.pdf |