CHAPTER XI 



THE CLUMBER SPANIEL 



HE Clumber spaniel affords a most striking illustration of 

 the difficulty experienced in tracing the history of dogs, 

 when it comes to some special variety. Here is a breed 

 said to have been kept at one place, by one of the leading 

 families of England, and to have been there for two hundred 

 years, having according to accepted tradition originally been presented to 

 one of the Dukes of Newcastle by the Due de Noailles. 



"Idstone" in "The Dog" (1872), wrote as follows: "They were 

 given, Daniel tells us, to one of the former Dukes of Newcastle by the Due 

 de Nouailles. Vero Shaw, or whoever wrote the Clumber article for his 

 "Book of the Dog," had read "Idstone" thoroughly and says: "We learn 

 on the authority of Daniel that the breed was imported into this country 

 by a Duke of Newcastle, who acquired them from the Due de Nouailles 

 many years ago." Lee in his "Modern Dogs," writes: "It (the intro- 

 duction) was probably about the middle of the eighteenth century when 

 the Due de Nouailles presented the then Duke of Newcastle with a number 

 of spaniels, which in France had the reputation of being better than any 

 others, as they were steady workers and easily brought under command, 

 i. e., there was little difficulty in training them." Mr. Lee, it will be seen, 

 added materially to the number of crows in the original story and rather 

 mixes things by immediately saying: "Although in various parts of France 

 many spaniels are still found and used in work, I have not been able to trace 

 any kennels of true Clumbers in that country." The Clumber article in 

 Stonehenge's first edition (1867) did duty up to and including his 

 fourth and last edition in 1878, and the Daniel story is not given, so that 

 it would seem to have originated with "Idstone." 



We have preserved the letter "u" in the name of the French nobleman 

 to show that each of these writers after "Idstone" copied from him. The 

 slightest investigation on their part would have proved several things: 

 first, that Daniel makes no mention of Clumber spaniels nor the names 



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