Setter
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Setter. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a dog of the spaniel family. It gets its name from a habit of crouching when it scents its quarry. Darwin thinks this habit merely the exaggerated pause of an animal about to spring upon its prey. While the natural thing for a setter to do is to set or crouch, the dog has been trained to stand rigidly erect like a pointer when it has found game. It is much used as a bird dog in this country. The common setter is a large, handsome, active dog, speedy rather than courageous. Its color is generally white, with large, liver-colored spots. The Irish setter, similar in form and habits, is of a solid, dark, mahogany-red color. The Gordon setter is black with red or tan marks on each side of the muzzle, on the hind legs below the hocks, and on the fore legs below the knees. English setters are divided into two classes, the Lewellyns, and the Laveracks. The former are black, white, and tan in color, the latter black and white. Seven against Thebes, Expedition of the, in Grecian legend an expedition of seven heroes against Thebes. When Oedipus was driven forth from his kingdom of Thebes, his two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, agreed to share the kingdom and reign alternately year by year. Eteocles had the first turn, and was so delighted with his power that, when the year was up, he refused to surrender the kingdom to his brother. Polynices fled to King Adrastus of Argos for help. Adrastus raised an army to help Polynices, and asked Amphiaraus, his brother-in-law, to join them. Amphiaraus was a soothsayer and, foreseeing disaster and his own death, advised against the expedition. But when Amphiaraus married Adrastus' sister, Eriphyle, he had agreed that any dispute arising between himself and Adrastus should be settled by Eriphyle: Polynices knew this, and bought Eriphyle's favor with the necklace and peplus of Harmonia, which fortunately he had brought with him from Thebes. Eriphyle insisted on the expedition, therefore, and Amphiaraus was obliged to consent. The others who made up the "Seven" were Tydeus, Hippomedon, Capaneus, and Parthenopaeus, king of Arcadia. All met death except Adrastus. This expedition was a favorite subject for the epic and tragic poets of Greece. Ten years later the Epigoni (or descendants), the seven sons of these seven chiefs, undertook a second expedition against Thebes, which was successful. They thus avenged the death of their fathers. See Oedipus
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a breed of dog employed in shooting, where he fills the same vocation as the pointer. The setter is divided into three varieties-the English setter, the Gordon setter, which is native to Scotland, and the Irish setter. There was one time a variety known as the Welsh setter, but it is now extinct. As early as the 16th century the then Duke of Northumberland owned a dog trained by himself to set game, an idea soon followed by others. For many years, however, the spaniel or any other suitable dog was selected to train to the habit of setting game; and it is not till the beginning of the 19th century that any reliable record of a distinct breed of setting dogs can be found. The English setter is bred from the spaniel probably by crossing with the pointer. Though at one time setters were known of nearly all colors, at the present time the English setter is generally white with red markings, or ticked with black spots known as a "blue Belton." The Gordon setter was founded by the Duke of Gordon about 1800, by crossing the existing setter with a collie bitch which had been trained to set. The Gordon was originally a black, tan, and white dog, though white has gradually disappeared from the breed. The Gordon setter should now be a rich and glossy black marked with tan on face, chest, and legs. The origin of the Irish setter is unknown.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 list of "Lewellyns" and "Laveracks" reflected two breeders' strains of the English setter rather than colour classes, and both names now survive mainly among American field-trial men; the Gordon setter, which Collier's in 1921 still saw shedding its white, is today required to be black and tan alone. The Irish setter has also divided: the red-and-white dog that both accounts folded into the breed is now a separate one, the Irish Red and White Setter, recognised by the Kennel Club in the 1980s and by the American Kennel Club in 2009. Every variety has since split into heavier show lines and lighter field lines, and the English setter is now on the UK Kennel Club's list of vulnerable native breeds, with annual registrations in the low hundreds. The Irish setter also entered medical history: the mutation causing its inherited blindness (rod-cone dysplasia, in the PDE6B gene) was pinned down in 1993, among the first canine disease genes ever identified.
Written for this edition, 2026.