Who was Lord George Scott
and why this book matters.
Lord George William Montagu-Douglas-Scott was the son of the sixth Duke of Buccleuch — the same family that, together with the Earl of Malmesbury, had imported and selected the Newfoundland dogs that would become the Labrador Retriever. He was not writing about a distant history: he was documenting the history of his family kennel, with direct access to the original records, breeders' letters and the archives of the great Scottish estates. The foreword is signed by the Secretary of the Kennel Club, who had personally encouraged its publication.
1822: W. E. Cormack in Newfoundland.
Short and long coat — same breed, practical choice.
Scott quotes Cormack's 1822 account — the first detailed written documentation of the St. John's dog. The passage attests to the coexistence of the two coat varieties at the origin, and the exclusively practical reason why fishermen preferred the short coat.
"The dogs are admirably trained as retrievers in fowling and are otherwise useful. [...] The smooth or short-haired dog is preferred because in frosty weather the long-haired kind become encumbered with the ice on coming out of the water."W. E. Cormack, 1822 — citato in Lord George Scott, The Labrador Dog: Its Home and History, 1936, p. 17
Cormack does not describe two different breeds: he describes two coat variants of the same working dog. The preference for the short coat was functional to the polar climate. There was no judgement of quality or purity. The long-haired specimens were equally capable, equally used, and sold to the English.
1814: Colonel Hawker.
"Rough hair" and short coat — the earliest testimony.
Colonel Peter Hawker's 1814 description is the earliest source cited in the book. Hawker explicitly distinguishes two types of Newfoundland dog: the first with rough hair, the second — preferred for hunting — with short smooth hair. Both come from the island. Both are called by the same name.
"The one is very large, strong of limb, rough hair and carries his tail high. [...] The other, by far the best for every kind of shooting [...] is generally black and no bigger than a pointer, very fine legs with short smooth hair, does not carry his tail so much curled as the other, and is extremely quick, running, swimming, and fighting."Colonnello Peter Hawker, 1814 — citato in Lord George Scott, The Labrador Dog: Its Home and History, 1936, p. 17
The "rough hair" of the first type is a morphological description, not a defect. Long hair was present in the original landrace just as much as short hair. Hawker prefers the short coat for practical reasons — not because he considers long hair impure or non-Labrador.
1887: Lord Malmesbury's letter.
The "close coat" as criterion — because it was needed.
In 1887, accompanying the gift of the bitch Nell to the Duke of Buccleuch, Malmesbury wrote the first written definition of the "true" Labrador. The fact that he feels the need to specify the coat as a discriminating criterion is indirect evidence that long-haired specimens were present — even in the finest kennels.
"We always call mine Labrador dogs, and I have kept the breed as pure as I could from the first I had from Poole, at that time carrying on a brisk trade with Newfoundland. The real breed may be known by their having a close coat, which turns the water off like oil, and, above all, a tail like an otter."Lord Malmesbury, lettera al Duca di Buccleuch, 1887 — citata in Lord George Scott, The Labrador Dog: Its Home and History, 1936, p. 33
If all the dogs had short coats there would have been no need to specify it. Long hair was not an anomalous exception: it was a frequent enough presence to require a definition to distinguish it from the standard.
1882: the "wavy or flat-coated dogs"
in the Buccleuch kennel.
In describing the sixth Duke of Buccleuch's kennel in 1882, Scott uses a revealing formula: the kennel most directly descended from the original lines was not composed exclusively of short-coated Labradors.
"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."Lord George Scott, The Labrador Dog: Its Home and History, 1936, p. 29
If long hair was present in the Buccleuch kennel, it was present everywhere. Scott does not flag this as a problem: it is simply the description of what was there. "Wavy or flat-coated" was the common name for retrievers with longer coats — including what would later become the Flat Coated Retriever as a separate breed.
The second Newfoundland variety:
compact, muscular, long hair, fringed tail.
Sir John Middleton, in the second part of the book, quotes a zoological description that distinguishes two morphologically distinct types of Newfoundland dog. The second corresponds entirely to the appearance of the modern long-haired Labrador.
"There is also another breed, with long hair, and a long, full-fringed tail, of moderate stature, compactly made, very muscular, and of a black colour. The dogs known in England as Newfoundlands are generally of larger stature, rough, rather loosely made, and apt to be weak in the loins and hinder quarters."Citato in Sir John Middleton, Part II di Lord George Scott, The Labrador Dog: Its Home and History, 1936, p. 54
Moderate stature, compact build, very muscular, black in colour, long hair with fringed tail. That is the Wavy Coat — not the large show Newfoundland, but the compact working dog that carried the same FGF5 gene that resurfaces today in Labrador puppies.
What this book tells us,
overall.
The "Labrador Dog: Its Home and History" is the most authoritative document available on the origins of the breed. What it says is clear: long hair was a constituent part of the original landrace. It was present in Newfoundland, in the Malmesbury kennels, at Buccleuch. Selection towards the short coat was a deliberate choice by British breeders during the nineteenth century — not a purification of something that had always been that way. The long-hair gene is not an intrusion: it is a survivor.