Page 27 - ShowSight Presents The Golden Retriever
P. 27
At the Guisachan Gathering in 2006, Golden Retriever enthusiasts enjoyed a picnic on the grounds of the ruins of Guisachan House. The Golden Retriever Club of Scotland asked Lynn Kipps to take a photograph and the result is this historic photograph of 188 Goldens at their ancestral home. Photo © Lynn Kipps. Used with Permission. Copies available for sale from Lynn Kipps (lynn@kipps.co.uk).
and did it in harsh terrain with tough cover---no pretty, cutover fields here. It took real endurance and sound ath- letic structure suited for traversing rocky mountainsides and rolling moors covered with tough, wiry heather and bracken, and a sensible waterproof coat to work in the Scottish climate, which is generally any- thing from damp to downpour.
Gerry Clinchy, author, Golden breeder and field enthusiast, commented on an online discussion group, Off the Beaten Path: “I also would be of the opinion that those particular gentlemen took their hunting and their hunting dogs pretty seriously. Hunting back then was a sig- nificant addition to the larder, not just an occasional delicacy. I find it hard to believe that Lord Tweedmouth spent all that effort just to produce a “sweet” hunting dog. The sweet temperament came along as proba- bly a pleasant bonus to the breed’s service- ability on the hunt. And the breed must
have been serviceable or it would not have survived when there were always the Labs and Flat Coats and various other breeds to take up the slack if Lord Tweedmouth’s new “design” couldn’t keep up.”
Marcia Schlehr, artist, author and breed authority, responded with “Gerry is quite right about the seriousness of the “gentlemen” and their “sport”. The Guisa- chan record book, where dogs are invento- ried and litters noted, also contains notes about the game acquired during the year. There are many years where the numbers of pheasant, grouse, blackcock, hare, deer, etc. number into the thousands! And it was all used to feed people on the estates, along with the cattle and sheep raised there. Of course, the family got the pick of the lot, but counting family and guests, staff, workers, and their families housed on the estate, some 200 people altogether.”
“Before mechanical refrigeration, per- ishables were kept in a cool house or lar-
der, with ice cut from the loch each win- ter and stored under sawdust insulation for future use. Meat could also be salted, or dried. Back in those days there were no “seasons’ for game and no bag limits. The landowner owned the game on his land (and Guisachan originally was some 20,000 acres) and had all rights to it. It was considered just as much a cash crop as the cattle and sheep. By the way, tracking wounded deer was another job the retriev- ers had to do. And that job required a fair amount of courage as well as bidability and an excellent nose.”
At an earlier Guisachan Gathering in 2006, Golden Retriever breeder-judge Nancy Talbott took the time to walk the hillsides around Guisachan (and it’s nearly ALL hillsides and mountains). Nancy had an “epiphany” that occurred while travers- ing the lands where Goldens originally worked, a new understanding of what was required, physically, for a retriever
