The Haining is a country house and estate in Selkirkin the Scottish Borders. The present house dates from the 1790s, and was a property of the Pringle Family. In 2009, the house and grounds were bequeathed to The Haining Charitable Trust which manages the estate for the benefit of the people of Selkirkshire and the wider public. The Haining Charitable Trust is now working on developing the building as a centre for exhibitions and events, highlighting art, culture and history.
At an auction to raise funds to renovate the Haining, one of the lots was a landscape titled “Dandy Dinmonts by the Haining Loch”. Signed by Scottish artist Robert Smellie in 1888, it was bought by canine art dealer, Paul Keevil, who wondered if the four males, bitch and puppy depicted in the scene were studs from the breed’s history.
Paul Keevil’s research discovered that one of the pedigree’s founding fathers, Old Ginger, belonged to Robert Pringle, owner of the Haining estate in the 1840s. After Pringle’s death, Old Ginger passed to Eaglesfield Bradshaw-Smith of Blackwood House, Dumfriesshire, who used Old Ginger as a stud.
Eaglesfield’s records uncovered Old Ginger’s father to be a wee dog called Old Pepper, of unknown pedigree, because he was caught in a poachers’ trap by the gamekeeper to the 5th Duke of Buccleuch on Bowhill estate near Selkirk, in 1839. Additionally, Mr Keevil tracked down Old Ginger’s mother Vixen, and his grandmother Wasp, who also belonged to Robert Pringle and his sister at the Haining – establishing Selkirk as the cradle of the Dandie Dinmont pedigree. Finally Mr Keevil unearthed one last detail : Vixen’s father, The Mertoun Dandie, was bred by Sir Walter Scott himself, so not only did Scott name the breed, but he helped create it too.
At an auction to raise funds to renovate the Haining, one of the lots was a landscape titled “Dandy Dinmonts by the Haining Loch”. Signed by Scottish artist Robert Smellie in 1888, it was bought by canine art dealer, Paul Keevil, who wondered if the four males, bitch and puppy depicted in the scene were studs from the breed’s history.
Paul Keevil’s research discovered that one of the pedigree’s founding fathers, Old Ginger, belonged to Robert Pringle, owner of the Haining estate in the 1840s. After Pringle’s death, Old Ginger passed to Eaglesfield Bradshaw-Smith of Blackwood House, Dumfriesshire, who used Old Ginger as a stud.
Eaglesfield’s records uncovered Old Ginger’s father to be a wee dog called Old Pepper, of unknown pedigree, because he was caught in a poachers’ trap by the gamekeeper to the 5th Duke of Buccleuch on Bowhill estate near Selkirk, in 1839. Additionally, Mr Keevil tracked down Old Ginger’s mother Vixen, and his grandmother Wasp, who also belonged to Robert Pringle and his sister at the Haining – establishing Selkirk as the cradle of the Dandie Dinmont pedigree. Finally Mr Keevil unearthed one last detail : Vixen’s father, The Mertoun Dandie, was bred by Sir Walter Scott himself, so not only did Scott name the breed, but he helped create it too.
