Early Spaniels and Setters 101 



"My spaniels clam'ring loud, awake the morn 

 With notes of joy and leaping high, salute 

 With grateful tongue my hand, and frisk around 

 In sportive circles; till the loaded gun 

 Breaks off their idle play, and at my heels 

 Submiss they follow, and await the word 

 That bids them dash into the welcome woods/' 



"Though silently we beat 

 At other seasons, let our joyful cheers, 

 In concert with the op'ning dogs, resound 

 'Hie in.' At that glad word away they dart, 

 And winding various ways, with careful speed 

 Explore the cover. Hark! that quest proclaims 

 The woodcock's haunt. Again! now joining all, 

 They shake the echoing wood with tuneful notes. 

 I heard the sounding wing but down the wood 

 He took his flight. I meet him there anon. 

 As fast I press to gain the wish'd for spot, 

 On either side my busy spaniels try. 

 At once they wheel at once they open loud, 

 And the next instant, flush the expectant bird." 



"arrested by the shot, 



With shattered wing reversed and plumage fair 

 Wide scattering in the wind, headlong he falls. 

 See how the joyful dogs exulting, press 

 Around the prostrate victim, nor presume 

 With lawless mouths to tear his tender skin. 

 Obedient to my voice, one lightly brings 

 The lifeless bird and lays it at my feet." 



Our final quotation will be a short one from the description of duck- 

 and snipe-shooting: 



" Curled on their warm and strawy beds, repose 

 My dogs, save two, whose coats sable and white, 

 And speckled legs, and tail well fringed and ears 

 Of glossy silken black, declare their kind 

 By land or water, equally prepared 

 To work their busy way. My steps alone 

 These follow in the depth of Winter's reign." 



The sable and white is not the misnamed sable of the present-day collies, 

 but black and white. 



That this poetical sportsman was correct in his thus setting aside 



