230 The Dog Book 



Purely as a Sussex spaniel Bachelor would have passed into the records 

 with no more claim to be remembered than many other champions of his 

 breed, but he fell into the hands of Mr. Jacobs of Newton Abbott, Devon- 

 shire, who used him to advantage in crossing on spaniels of various strains, 

 mainly on blacks, with the object of getting a purer and deeper black, as 

 pigeon fanciers cross dun and black birds for that purpose. At that time 

 we had quite a little correspondence with Mr. Jacobs and he told us his 

 reasons for using Bachelor. He succeeded far beyond his expectations, but 

 that is another story, and what he did, being not Sussex, but field spaniel 

 lore, will appear in that section of spaniel history. What Bachelor looked 

 like, indeed what a really good heavyweight spaniel should look like, will 

 be seen by the illustration of Bachelor. 



The only exhibitor in America who has had anything in the Sussex 

 spaniel line has been Mr. Rowland P. Keasbey, but his have been and are 

 more liver-coloured field spaniels than Sussex, the peculiar golden shade 

 being missing. His Coleshill Rufus was of as pure Sussex strain as was 

 possible to get probably at the time he was imported, but back in his pedi- 

 gree there are many black crosses. Mr. Keasbey also purchased from Mr. 

 Newington some of his Rosehill dogs, he having about as pure Sussex as 

 any, but the golden shade is apparently not to be retained. What remains 

 of the Sussex in this country is incorporated as a colour distinction of the 

 field spaniels, being shown in the classes for liver-coloured spaniels. 



In the Sporting Magazine for July, 1807, there is an engraving by J. 

 Scott from a painting by Marshall of three spaniels, the property of Mr. John 

 Carr, of Monmouthshire, described as follows: "The one to the left is of 

 the Sussex breed, the other the common cockers; all of them remarkably 

 good, but the Sussex-bred one certainly shows the most blood, and the sort 

 is esteemed by the best-informed sportsmen to be the most genuine of the 

 spaniel race." The one to the left is a black and white, or he may be a black- 

 and-white roan. A dog of good substance and not so high on the legs as 

 the other two, which we take to be orange or red and white, quite settery 

 in shape, with long, rather narrow heads; the tails of the centre one, which 

 is standing, and of the Sussex, are truncated. 



The illustration we give from a painting by A. Cooper is referred to by 

 "Idstone," who states that the sportsman seated, holding the woodcock, 

 is Sir Edwin Landseer the artist, and the dog facing him is a Sussex spaniel. 



It is not necessary to write further of a breed which practically does 



