| 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 |
