It is highly possible that story which has endured since the days of the first recorded Golden Retrievers up to the middle of the twentieth century, was either created by or voluntarily maintained by, Lord Tweedmouth himself. In any case, he would have had the opportunity deny any untruth before his death.
Was it that that he was satisfied with the romantic aspect of this mystery or simply that he did not want other potential breeders to work from roots as himself and thereby obtain similar results? We lean strongly towards the latter hypothesises.
These are the letters of Duncan Mc Lennan, the chief gamekeeper of the Guisachan House estate, who had authentified the legendary Russian origins of the Golden Retriever.
We see him on this photograph, on the front steps of the manor house of Guisachan, perhaps at the start of a hunt. The dog sitting on the step above him is a "lurcher" ( a cross between a greyhound and a gun dog), however, the dog sitting in a most characteristic attitude at his feet,
would have been the famous NOUS, perhaps the genetic father of all
Golden Retriever
Once upon a time,(1858) there was a young British nobleman who assisted at a circus show in the seaside town of Brighton, on the South coast of England. He was amazed by an item performed by some large yellow dogs that came from the Caucasus. So impressed was he that he decided immediately on purchasing two. The owners of the dogs, initially refused to sell, saying that these dogs were the crowd-pullers. An agreement was finally reached, though after much bartering, and it was the entire troup of eight dogs who took to the road back to Guisachan House. Thanks to Russian Beaters that he could at last develop his breed. It was said that he bred only from these dogs and their descendants for many years, until around 1880, using only a bloodhound for outcross blood.
Elsewhere, this new breed was rapidly becoming known, but under many differing names : first "Russian Tracker" then "Russian Yellow Retriever" then "Golden Retriever".
At the Crufts dogshow in 1913, only one award of "CC" was up for the Russian Trackers and Golden Retrievers to play for !!! and it was the dogs inscribed as "of Russian origin" that won.
What a lovely story, but one which would not stand long against simple analysis;
Nobody has ever been able to find a single example of these famous Russian dogs, either in Russia, Caucasus or even in Tibet. No trace has been found of them, therefore the origin itself apears to remain a mystery.
There are two existing clues, which could support the Caucasan theory. Letters from the gamekeeper Duncan Mc Lennan and the fact that Lady Marjoribanks presented a pale dog, named Sultan, son of Mosow a Tweed Water Spaniel.
According to the carefully kept records (1835-1890) of Lord Tweedmouth's great nephew, the sixth Earl of Ilchester, there was no mention of Russian dogs. The truth was that in 1865 Lord Tweedmouth bought his first Yellow retriever at Brighton, a dog named Nous, bred by the Earl of Chichester and that in 1867 he got a Tweed Water-Spaniel named Belle, from his cousin. Nous and Belle produced four yellow puppies in 1868 and these were the foundation for the breed.
Ah well. It was a lovely story.
