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CHAPTER XXVI. 



THE SPORTING SPANIEL. 



BY COLONEL R. CLAUDE CANE. 



" Or were I sprung from Spaniel line, 

 Was his sagacious nostril mine. 

 By me, their never-erring guide, 

 From wood and plain their feasts supplied, 

 Knights, squires, attendant on my pace, 

 Had shared the pleasures of the chase." 



—John Gay (1727). 



I. The Spaniel Family. — The Spaniel 

 family is without any doubt one of the 

 most important of the many groups which 

 are included in the canine race, not only 

 on account of its undoubted antiquity, 

 and, compared with other families, its 

 well authenticated lineage, but also because 

 of its many branches and subdivisions, 

 ranging in size from the majestic and 

 massive Clumbers to the diminutive toys 

 which we are accustomed to associate with 

 fair ladies' laps and gaily decked pens at 

 our big dog shows. 



Moreover, the different varieties of Setters 

 undoubtedly derive their origin from the 

 same parent stock, since we find them 

 described by the earlier sporting writers 

 as " setting " or " crouching " Spaniels, 

 in contradistinction to the " finding " or 

 " springing " Spaniel, who flushed the 

 game he found without setting or pointing 

 it. As time went on, the setting variety 

 was, no doubt, bred larger and longer in 

 the leg, with a view to increased pace ; 

 but the Spaniel-like head and coat still 

 remain to prove the near connection be- 

 tween the two breeds. 



Baron Cuvier, the eminent naturalist, 

 speaks also of a breed known as the Alpine 

 Spaniel, which does not, in spite of its 

 name, to my mind, seem to bear any relation 

 to what we know as Spaniels, but rather 

 to have been the ancestor of the modern 

 St. Bernard, probably by means of a cross 

 with some breed of Molossian origin. 



Mr. C. A. Phillips, however, is inclined 

 to believe that this Alpine Spaniel is re- 

 sponsible for a part, at least, of the blood 

 flowing in the veins of our modern Clumbers, 

 whose origin has always been more or less 

 like that of " Jeames," " wropt in mys- 

 tery." He bases this theory on certain 

 similarities in the head and colouring of 

 the St. Bernard and the Clumber, and as 

 no one has gone more deeply into the 

 matter than Mr. Phillips, who was my col- 

 laborator in writing " The Sporting 

 Spaniel," it is worthy of a considerable 

 amount of respect, though doubtless it 

 would at the present time be very difficult 

 either to prove or disprove. 



All the different varieties of Spaniels, 

 both sporting and toy, have, with the ex- 

 ception of the Clumber and the Irish Water 

 Spaniel (who is not, despite his name, a 

 true Spaniel at all), a common origin, 

 though at a very early date we find them 

 divided into two groups — viz. Land and 

 Water Spaniels, and these two were kept 

 distinct, and bred to develop those points 

 which were most essential for their dif- 

 ferent spheres of work. The earliest men- 

 tion of Spaniels to be found in English 

 literature is contained in the celebrated 

 " Master of Game," the work of Edward 

 Plantagenet, second Duke of York, and 

 Master of Game to his uncle, Henry IV., to 

 whom the work is dedicated. It was 

 written between the years 1406 and 1413, 

 and although none of the MSS., of which 



