LORD TWEEDMOUTH & GUISACHAN HOUSE
The Golden Retriever originated in the Highlands of Scotland in the late 1800s and owes its development to Dudley Marjoribanks, (later known as Lord Tweedmouth).
The Gentleman’s Gundog.
The quest for a superior retriever suited to the Scottish climate, terrain and available game.
1865: It All Started With “Nous”
In 1865 Lord Tweedmouth purchased “Nous” from a cobbler near the town of Brighton in southern England. The only yellow puppy in a litter of black Wavy-Coated retrievers was whelped in 1864. This young dog had been given to the cobbler, as payment of a debt, by the gamekeeper of a local landowner, Lord Chichester. Marjoribanks took this young dog with him to Guisachan, his estate in Scotland, to join his kennel of sporting dogs. The image shows Nous with gamekeeper Simon Munro Circa 1872.
Belle: The Tweed Water Spaniel
In 1868 and 1871, breedings of Nous to Belle, a Tweed Water Spaniel (a breed now extinct), resulted in several yellow pups that became the foundation for a distinctive line of yellow retrievers.
Generations Of Breeding
Nous and Belle’s descendants were combined with wavy and flat-coated retrievers, another Tweed Water Spaniel, and a red setter. Marjoribanks kept primarily the yellow puppies (and a few blacks) to continue his line.
Before The Golden
The Rise Of Gun Dogs
To start, we need to visit Great Britain in the the mid-to-late 1800s. The shotgun had been invented, and subsequent improvements such as the percussion lock device made wild-fowling increasingly popular. Now hunters could shoot birds, but now they also needed to find the birds that had been downed, and this is where retrievers come in. The Flat-Coated Retriever was most probably a response to a growing sport, particularly among landed gentry.
The flurry of maritime activity between Newfoundland and England saw dogs being bought and traded to fill this niche, and some cynologists believe that all modern retrievers developed from the dogs brought over from Newfoundland. By the mid century, there were different lines of retrievers breeding true, and one of them was the Wavy Coated Retriever, the early name for the Flat-Coated Retriever.
As Scottish waterfowlers crossed water spaniels with retrievers to develop the Golden Retriever breed, they were aiming for a breed with high endurance and a soft mouth. While England recognized the breeds ‘Flat Coats – Golden’ in 1903 and later as Golden Retriever in 1911, the first AKC registration of a Golden Retriever didn’t occur until 1925.
