9781422279366

Talent spotting Dudley Marjoribanks (later the first Lord Tweedmouth) owned a 20,000-acre estate in Inverness, Scotland, called Guisachan. Marjo- ribanks was keenly interested in developing a superb retriever suit- ed to the Scottish climate, terrain, and type of available game. In 1865 he purchased Nous from a cobbler near the town of Brigh- ton in southern England. Nous was the only yellow dog in a litter of black Wavy-Coated Retrievers. The one-year-old dog had been given to the cobbler by the gamekeeper of a local landowner, Lord Chichester, to settle a debt. Marjoribanks took this young dog with him to Guisachan to join his kennel of sporting dogs. In 1868 he started his breeding program by mating Nous with Belle, a Tweed Water Spaniel (a breed now extinct) from the Lady- kirk area on the River Tweed. The result was three yellow puppies: a male named Crocus, and two females, Cowslip and Primrose. These puppies became the foundation of the Golden Retriever breed. We have detailed knowledge of

how the breed evolved in the early days, thanks to the meticulous re- cord-keeping of Lord Tweedmouth. Aristocratic connections Lord Tweedmouth kept Cow- slip and Primrose at Guisachan and gave Crocus to his son (later the sec- ond Lord Tweedmouth). A second litter by Nous and Belle produced Ada, given to Lord Tweedmouth’s nephew, the fifth Earl of Ilchester (at right), who started the Ilchester line of Golden Retrievers. Lord Tweedmouth continued his

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