Unlike many breeds, the development of the Golden Retriever in historical terms is fairly recent. Thanks to the painstaking research carried out by breed historians—firstly the late Elma Stonex, and latterly Val Foss and Frank and Anne Weekes—the history is quite defined and documented.The breed originated from a series of matings carried out by Lord Tweedmouth from 1864 onwards. The starting point was his acquisition of a good looking yellow coloured Flat Coated Retriever which he took to his estate at Guisachan, near Inverness in Scotland. He mated this dog to a Tweed Water Spaniel, a breed now long extinct, and then selectively bred the offspring with occasional outcrosses to Irish Setters and black Flat Coated Retrievers.