the 1st recorded Labrador by Lord Malmesbury
Two Kennels paternal to those of to-day (both derived from the dogs mentioned above) existed in that of the 6th Duke of Buccleuch, started in 1882, when " Ned " was given by Lord Malmesbury, and that of The Hon. A. Holland Hibbert, afterwards Viscount Knutsford, started in 1884, when he procured '' Sybil'' from Lord Grimston. The retrievers of the sixth Duke of Buccleuch at that time-1882-consisted of some wavy or flat-coated dogs and a few red or yellow dogs given by Lord Ilchester. The above mentioned " Ned'' 1882 was taken out shooting in August 1883, being in the hands of an incompetent man. The dog had not even been taught to carry. The man who had taught him nothing said he was useless. At that time most of the dogs at Langholm Lodge belonged to the keepers ; and it is possible that had ''Ned'' belonged to. him he might have taken more trouble. " Ned " was trans- ferred to the care of a good breaker, and in I885 he stood out as a paragon. '' Where is Ned ? '' 'vas the general cry of everybody ‘Yith birds to pick up. '' Ned '' was, in fact, a revelation of keen excellence ; and when "Avon" 1885 arrived as a puppy from Hurn Court, he was handed over to a first-class man. ''Avon'' even outshone "Ned", but there was not much to choose between them. ''Ned" was a little compact dog of perfect shape, about nineteen inches. ''Avon'' was slightly larger, perhaps nearly twenty inches, and a lovely little dog in his prime. There is no good photograph of either of these dogs, but one is shown of ''Avon'', aged eleven, extracted from the feet of a group of gamekeepers. Lord Malmesbury also gave "Dinah" 1885 to Lord Home; and in 1887, "Nell" 1886 to the Duke of Buccleuch. It was decided to mate "Dinah" with one of the only true Labrador dogs I eft from the first imported, namely, the Duke of Hamilton's " Sam" 1884, at that time the property of Mr. Houldeworth. Fortunately, two fine bitches survived from the first litter, namely, " Dinah" and "Trick" 1888. "Nell" 1886 having been mated with "Sam", produced " Gip " and "Nell " 1889. Thus there were enough bitches to be mated with " Ned " and " Avon ".
The Kennel was firmly founded on sound premises, and a record of every dog bred in this Kennel has been care- fully kept ever since. Their owner gradually dispensed with all other breeds of retrievers, and his keepers had to break his dogs, and no others. In the meantime Lord Malmesbury had given " Juno " an.d " Smut" 1885 to the Hon. Herbert Cairns (later third Earl Cairns). The Hon. A. Holland Hibbert mated his first Labrador " Sybil" 1884 (by Lord Grimston's '' Sancho " '80 out of his " Siren " 'So), with Lord Cairns' " Smut", and later mated their granddaughter " Sarah " 1894 with " Buccleuch Nith" 1891, whereby "Munden Sixty" 1897 came into the world. The Duke of Buccleuch gave '' Scottie " 1887 to Mr. Holland Hibbert, and the Munden Kennel was safe. Mr. F. Barnett's Kennel "vas founded on the same lines. All this can be easily seen by studying the pedigree of " Daniel " (facing page 44).
https://dai.mun.ca/PDFs/cns/TheLabradorDogItsHomeAndHistory.pdf
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