The Norfolk Spaniel 267 



tion, which leaves no unsettled question as to the Duke's specialty: "Our 

 Maryborough and King James's spaniels are unrivalled in beauty. The 

 latter breed, that are black and tan, with hair almost approaching to silk 

 in fineness (such as Vandyke loved to introduce into his portraits), were 

 solely in the possession of the late Duke of Norfolk. He never travelled 

 without two of his favourites in the carriage. When at Worksop he used 

 to feed his eagles with the pups, and a stranger to his exclusive pride in 

 the race, seeing him once thus destroying a whole litter, told His Grace 

 how much he should be delighted to possess one of them. The Duke's 

 reply was a characteristic one: 'Pray, sir, which of my estates should 

 you like to have ?' 



In America quite a number of the old-fashioned sort are to be met 

 with, more particularly about old settlements, where work for a dog of 

 semi-aquatic habits can be advantageously used. Mr. D. S. Hammond, 

 of Boston, informed us some time ago that in the outlying districts about 

 Boston they are quite numerous, and we can speak as to the frequency 

 with which they are met about the Hackensack meadows. In the village 

 of that name we have seen at least half a dozen businesslike dogs about 

 the streets, doubtless the descendants of dogs originally brought for the 

 mixed shooting which the meadows afforded so plentifully in the days of 

 Frank Forester. 



We fully agree with Mr. Lee when he writes in "Modern Dogs": 

 "Liver-and-white spaniels, almost infinite in shape and size, may be seen 

 running about the streets in any country place. The sporting shopkeeper 

 considers him the best shooting dog; and so he may be when properly 

 trained, for he is a leggier, closer and better-coated dog than the ordinary 

 spaniel we see when standing at the ringside. He will retrieve well from 

 both land and water, work a hedge-row or thick covert, and indeed do 

 anything that is the special work of the spaniel. Some of these liver-and- 

 white spaniels are comparatively mute, whilst others are terribly noisy, 

 yelping and giving tongue when hunting almost as freely as a hound. Still 

 the chances are that the rustic sportsman who keeps but one dog and has 

 not accommodation for more, prefers a liver-and-white spaniel, be it Nor- 

 folk or otherwise, and as a rule, if he be not addicted to poaching, prefers 

 it to make a noise when rabbiting in the dense gorse coverts." 



To describe what we have always known as the Norfolk spaniel is 

 a very easy task. He is a dog of no exaggerations, except perhaps in the 



