THE SPANIELS 331 



of a Clumber, but with a bit of longish hair about the top of the 

 skull. This was, perhaps, the reason why ' Idstone ' wrote : ' English 

 Water Spaniels are simply crosses and modifications of the Irish 

 race. In many cases they are imperfect examples of that for which 

 Mr. M'Carthy and Captain Montresor are celebrated neither 

 better nor worse.' If ' Idstone ' meant that the dogs to which he 

 and other judges had given prizes were such as he describes in 

 the above quotation, the writer is prepared to endorse his words. 

 He must, however, add that * Idstone,' for a man of considerable 

 learning and wide experience, was apt to adopt narrow and superficial 

 views, and he was prone to dogmatise, as dog judges are very apt 

 to do. Clearly, if the dog was a cross or a modification of another 

 breed, and not what he was called, he should not be recognised 

 by his pretensions ; but ' Idstone ' begs this question, for there 

 is no reasonable assumption that English sporting writers during 

 centuries, who described the English Water Spaniel, were writing 

 of that of which they knew nothing. There is no evidence that 

 the Irish Water Spaniel had any existence as a distinct breed so 

 recently even as the early decades of the present century; yet it 

 is on the supposition that the Irish Water Spaniel is an older variety 

 than the English Water Spaniel that ' Idstone's ' whole argument 

 rests." 



Taking the principal writers from the beginning of last century 

 we find that they mostly mention two varieties of dog used in wild- 

 fowling, the larger of which they call the Water Dog, the smaller 

 the Water Spaniel. Both of these are described as curly-haired, 

 and various theories of their production from crosses with other 

 breeds have been more or less plausibly suggested ; it is, however, 

 hardly necessary to father the looks of either of them on any out- 

 side cross. 



Our sporting forefathers were practical men, and showed that 

 they were so in their selection of dogs suited to the work to be 

 done ; and although it is true they held peculiar notions as to the 

 relations between the colour of the coat and the courage of the 

 beast, such time-honoured superstitions are far less ridiculous than 

 the freaks of modern fancy laid down by self-elected lawgivers 

 such as, for instance, that an Irish Water Spaniel must have the stern, 

 or caudal vertebra covered with skin only and as innocent of 

 hirsute adornment as a mop-handle ! 



It is probable that a large and a small Water Spaniel, or Water 

 Dog, would naturally result from the different requirements of 

 sportsmen. He who frequented the sea-coast would require a 

 bigger and stronger dog than the inlander who found his quarry in 

 marshes, rivers, and sedgy ponds. Shakespeare's Water-rug was 

 probably a Water Spaniel, which he used in hunting the water- 



