The Field Spaniel 235 



for length was so enforced that extremely bad-fronted dogs figured promi- 

 nently at English shows of the early eighties. We recall the most adverse 

 criticisms passed upon a dog called Beverlac, a prominent winner scaling 

 over fifty pounds and of extreme length. 



It was during this period that Mr. Jacobs took up the breed and 

 purchased some of the then winning strains, such as Nigger, of the Bullock 

 line, and some of Mr. Lang's bitches, of which the sisters Smutty and 

 Negress were the prime factors in his main start. Later he got the Sussex 

 spaniels Bachelor (illustrated in the article on the Sussex spaniel, Part III.), 

 and Russet, which he renamed Ladyship, and we might say that with 

 these he made himself and his strain the talk of dogdom the world over. 

 First he tried Nigger on Smutty and Negress, and in 1878 got one fairish 

 dog called Boss. That year he decided to follow pigeon breeders colour- 

 breeding methods to bring about better black, so he secured Bachelor and 

 bred him to the two black bitches, and the result was eminently successful. 

 From Smutty he got Kaffir and Zulu, the latter of which he sold to Mr. 

 Royle, of Manchester, for a high price. 



From Negress he got Lass o' Devon, liver, and the great bitch Squaw, 

 black, with which he had wonderful success both at stud and in breeding, 

 but the second litter from Bachelor and Negress was not nearly so good; 

 Negro and Benedict, the latter of which we imported in 1881, being the 

 best. We do not know of any further breeding from the bitch Smutty. 

 Mr. Jacobs then proceeded to inbreed, and crossed Zulu on Lass o' Devon 

 and got a winner in Ladybird, and the pedigree of his winners showed 

 that he still believed in crossing the colours, for he got Bend Or from the 

 black Kaffir out of the Sussex Russet, renamed by him Ladyship. Pur- 

 suing this successful line of breeding, Mr. Jacobs continued to turn out 

 good dogs year after year, not of course with uniform success, but always 

 showing dogs capable of getting in the prize lists at the few important 

 shows at which he exhibited outside of the local shows in the west of England. 

 In a few years he took the prefix of Newton Abbot, and all his dogs in 

 later years were so distinguished. A good deal of his breeding got into 

 other kennels, but no one seemed quite able to produce from those that 

 came from Newton Abbot the equals of Mr. Jacobs's turnout, and his ex- 

 hibiting was continued until 1892, when he had in his kennel perhaps the 

 best he had ever had, a bitch for which Mr. Woolland gave $1,250, renam- 

 ing her Bridford Perfection. When she left the show ring it was with an 



