THE SPANIELS 303 



THE SUSSEX 



In the last Edition of "British Dogs," the article on Sussex 

 Spaniels commenced with a question as to whether this variety had 

 become extinct ! This question, at that time asked satirically, could 

 not be, at any rate as regards the Rosehill strain, answered to-day 

 with an unqualified negative. For, sad though it is to have to 

 write such words, the fancy Sussex of to-day is only fit for a dog 

 show ; and though possibly he may still claim to be Sussex, the 

 Spaniel i.e. the working element exists in him no longer. It is 

 safe to say that the only good workers of the present day are of 

 very mixed descent ; but whether the fresh blood will be successful 

 in electrifying the breed into new life, depends on whether a band 

 of practical sportsmen will take the necessary trouble. As this is 

 more than doubtful, we must prepare to look upon this grand old 

 breed as moribund, especially as the Sussex, when young, is as 

 delicate to rear as the Clumber himself. 



Personally, the writer has refreshed his strain with much outside 

 blood of other liver-coloured Springers, and by this he has restored 

 its excellent working properties ; but he has failed so far in grafting 

 a vigorous constitution on to the old characteristics. 



No doubt the so-called Rosehill breed of self-coloured golden 

 livers was much in-bred before leaving its birthplace, on account 

 of the colour being purely the whim of its founder and his followers. 

 In Sussex, before the Rosehill, there had been for generations a breed 

 of Spaniels which were chiefly liver-and-white. " A Quartogenarian," 

 writing to the Sporting Magazine in November, 1833, mentions 

 " the large brown-and-white Springer, chiefly in use in the large, 

 wet, clayey woodland coverts in Sussex, Kent, etc." 



Indeed, in a heavily wooded county like Sussex, it seems surprising 

 that this whole liver should ever have been seriously cultivated by 

 sportsmen, as such a colour is the most unsuited of all for woodland 

 shooting, being nearly invisible in dark places, and at all times 

 presenting a perilous resemblance to that of the hare. The writer 

 always uses one of these Spaniels when he is on the prowl after 

 duck and snipe, and he has found none other so useful for this sport, 

 on account of this very unobtrusiveness of tint. 



Although "Castra," who wrote the article for the first Edition 

 of " British Dogs," quotes Youatt as if that author had written of 

 Sussex Spaniels, Youatt's language hardly justifies this interpretation ; 

 for it evidently refers to the Spaniel breed generally, and not to 

 any one of its modern subdivisions. Youatt says : " The Spaniel 

 is evidently the parent of the Newfoundland dog and the Setter; 

 while the Retriever, the Poodle, the Bernardine, the Esquimaux, 

 the Siberian, and the Greenland dogs, the shepherd and drover's 

 dog, and every variety distinguished for intelligence and fidelity, 



