THE SPORTING SPANIEL. 



273 



on both sides, and a more liberal spirit. 

 has removed these differences, or at least 

 smoothed them down, so that one may- 

 entertain hopes of a happier future, and 

 the advent of a new Club, the Sporting 

 Irish Water Spaniel Club, if it will only 

 work in harmony with, and not antagonistic- 

 ally to, the existing organisations, may be 

 hailed as a good omen. 



Within recent years the most success- 

 ful owners have been Mr. Trench O'Rorke, 

 Mrs. F. Carter Michell, Mr. J. Conley, Sir 

 Hugo FitzHerbert, Mr. Jelly Dudley, and 

 Mr. J. J. Holgate. The last named gentle- 

 man possesses probably the best brace being 

 shown at present, Ch. Young Patsey Boyle 

 and Ch. Southboro' Jewel ; while Mr. 

 Trench O'Rorke has shown successfully 

 Clonburn Aileen, Clonburn Molly, Clonburn 

 Biddy, Clonburn Chieftain, Clonburn Peggy, 

 and Our Chance, all good typical Irish Water 

 Spaniels, and most of them of his own breed- 

 ing. Mrs. Mitchell's list includes the fol- 

 lowing names, all very well 

 known as prize-winners : Kate 

 O'Shane, Kempston Tessa, 

 Kempston Connaught, Kemps- 

 ton Shannon, Kempston Kath- 

 leen Mavourneen, and Kemps- 

 ton Eileen II. ; while Mr. 

 Conley has made history with 

 his Poor Pat ; and Sir Hugo 

 FitzHerbert's Tissington, and 

 Mr. Jelly Dudley's Meshacke, 

 Donna, and Shamus O'Flynn 

 have done quite their share 

 in keeping up the reputation 

 of the breed. 



There is no member of the 

 whole canine family which has 

 a more distinctive personal ap- 

 pearance than the Irish Water 

 Spaniel. With him it is a case 

 of once seen never forgotten, 

 and no one who has ever seen 

 one could possibly mistake him 

 for anything else than what he 

 is. His best friends probably would not 

 claim beauty, in the aesthetic sense, for 

 him ; but I know no dog more attractive 

 in a quaint way peculiarly his own, or 



more intelligent-looking. In this particular 

 his looks do not bewray him ; he is, in 

 fact, one of the most intelligent of all 

 the dogs used in aid of the gun, and in 

 his own sphere one of the most useful. 

 That sphere, there is no doubt, is that 

 indicated by his name, and it is in a 

 country of bogs and marshes, like the south 

 and west of Ireland, of which he was origin- 

 ally a native, where snipe and wildfowl 

 provide the staple sport of the gunner, that 

 he is in his element and seen at his best, 

 though, no doubt, he can do excellent work 

 as an ordinary retriever, and is often used 

 as such. 



But Nature (or Mr. McCarthy's art) has 

 specially formed and endowed him for the 

 amphibious sport indicated above, and has 

 provided him with an excellent nose, an 

 almost waterproof coat, the sporting in- 

 stincts of a true son of Erin, and, above all, 

 a disposition full of good sense ; he is high- 

 couraged, and at the same time adapt- 



ive. J. J. holgates CH. YOUNG PATSEY BOYLE 



BY CH. PATSEY BOYLE IRISH DOLLY. 



Photograph by Chancellor, Dublin 



able to the highest degree of perfection in 

 training. His detractors often accuse him 

 of being hard-mouthed, but, so far as my 

 opinion goes, I do not consider this charge 



