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Pointing Dog Blog

The world of pointing dogs in words and images, moving and still.

Whit's fur ye'll no go past ye

Dog Willing

We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilization - Voltaire

Carl Suhrlandt, A day's grouse shooting on the Glen Tanar Estate, Aberdeenshire, 1889

Carl Suhrlandt, A day's grouse shooting on the Glen Tanar Estate, Aberdeenshire, 1889

So I fell into yet another rabbit hole today.

With a belly full of coffee and dogs snoozing at my feet, I thought I would put the finishing touches on a chapter I am writing about the golden age of bird dogs in the UK. But I needed just one more nugget of information, an interesting tidbit of trivia to give the reader a wee bit more insight into the period.

And since I had already quoted from an article written by a fellow on his way to shoot grouse on the Scottish moors in the 1880s, I thought I’d add something about a fairly common practice at the time: the purchasing or hiring of dogs just before the season.  I was curious to find out how much it cost back then and where did sportsmen go to find dogs for sale or hire.

So, off I went for a quick (ha!) trip to google-land to see if I could find an answer. And sure enough, I did! So I added a few more lines to the chapter and carried on…sort of.

You see, while it only took me about 15 minutes to find the info, I ended up spending hours reading the incredibly interesting book in which I found it. Once again, I'd stumbled into a rabbit hole.

So if you are focused on trying to get something done today, stop right now, put your phone down and back slowly away from your computer. But if you are even remotely interested in 19th century shooting sports in Scotland — and let's face it, only dog-crazy people like me (and you?) are — click this link. Not only will you discover where to purchase a dog and how much it will cost you to hire one for the 1882 shooting season, but you will also learn about the game and terrain found in the various regions of Scotland, how to get there by train or ship, how much you will have to pay for your hotel, food and ale, and even how much you should tip your 19th century Uber driver when he picks you up in his horse-drawn carriage.

https://archive.org/details/highlandsportsm00hallgoog/page/n15/mode/2up

 


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