The English Water Spaniel. 155 



In the "Sportsman's Cabinet" (1802), he is described as having "the 

 hair long and naturally curled, not loose and shaggy," and the 

 engraving which accompanies the article from a drawing by Renaigle, 

 engraved by Scott represents a medium-sized liver and white curly- 

 coated spaniel, with the legs feathered but not curled. The woodcut in 

 Youatt's book on the dog is very similar, and in his first work on the dog 

 " Stonehenge" copied this from Youatt's book, and did not hesitate, in 

 addition, to give the points of the " Old English Water Spaniel." It is, 

 therefore, the more astonishing to find him saying in his most recent, 

 work, " I do not pretend to be able to settle the points of the breed." 



The Kennel Club at their shows have, as has been already said, a 

 class for " Water spaniels other than Irish," and the title of the class is 

 well deserved, for a more heterogeneous collection than generally com- 

 poses it could scarcely be found outside the Dogs' Home, and in the 

 judging the description of the old English water spaniel as given by all 

 our writers on the subject is utterly ignored. Had the Kennel Club set 

 up a standard of their own, which sportsmen and exhibitors could read 

 and understand, there would be at least something tangible to deal with, 

 something to agree with or condemn ; but they ignore the only descrip- 

 tions we have of the breed, and give us nothing but chaos instead, for 

 dogs have won in this class of every variety of spaniel character, except 

 the right one. 



It is true Youatt says, " the water spaniel was originally from Spain, 

 but the pure breed has been lost, and the present dog is probably 

 descended from the large water dog and the English setter;" but whilst 

 all seem to agree that our spaniels came originally from Spain, no one has 

 ever contended that they exist as imported without alteration by selec- 

 tion or commixture with allied varieties ; and from all descriptions I 

 have met with the " large water dog" referred to by Youatt was in great 

 part water spaniel, whilst our English setter it is very generally agreed 

 springs from the land spaniel. 



As already said, from the earliest times we have the old English water 

 spaniel described as differing from the land spaniel. Edmond de Langley, 

 in " The Maister of Game," writes of the land spaniel, " white and tawny 

 in colour and not rough coated," whereas the water spaniel is by every 

 writer described as rough and curly coated, but not shaggy, and this very 

 decided characteristic is ignored in the judging of water spaniels at our 



