THE SPORTING SPANIEL. 



A good many have, I am pleased to say, 

 won prizes both at Field Trials and in the 

 show ring — notably Ch. Hempsted Toby, 

 Rivington Reel and Pearl, and Beechgrove 

 Bertha and Mand. This is as it should be, 

 and proves that there is no reason for the 

 assertion so commonly made about all 

 sporting breeds, that show strains are no 

 use for work. 



In the year 1905 there was an animated 

 controversy carried on, principally in the 

 columns of The Field, about the desirability 

 or otherwise of a Clumber Spaniel's eye 

 " showing haw." These two words had 

 been included in the Spaniel Club's de- 

 scription ever since it was first drawn up 

 some twenty years previously, but a good 

 many members of the newly formed Clumber 

 Spaniel Club thought that they should be 

 deleted, as they considered the point an 

 undesirable one, on the grounds that an ex- 

 posed haw in a working dog rendered the 

 eye liable to injury or inflammation from 

 cold or from the pre- 

 sence of dust or other 

 foreign bodies. A joint 

 committee of the two 

 clubs was held at the 

 Field Trial meeting of 

 1904, and this amend- 

 ment was passed, but 

 upon its coming before 

 the Spaniel Club in the 

 spring of the following 

 year it was strongly 

 opposed by several 

 members, including Mr. 

 James Farrow, Mr. 

 Haylock, and others of 

 long experience in the 

 breed, who declared 

 that the exposed haw 

 had always been one 

 of the most typical 

 features of a Clum- 

 ber's head, and that 

 without it the true expression would be 

 entirely lost. Notwithstanding this oppo- 

 sition, the reformers won the day, and 

 these words no longer exist in the de- 

 scription published by either Club. But 



36 



the dispute did not rest here, and was re- 

 opened in The Field by Messrs. Holmes, 

 Rawdon Lee, and Bryden, who adduced 

 many arguments in favour of the " haw," 

 and no doubt made out a very good case for 

 its antiquity, at least as far back as the 

 days of Tower and John o' Gaunt. They, 

 however, failed to convince their oppo- 

 nents, and as they were outnumbered in 

 both Clubs, and numbers are what count 

 when it comes to voting, they failed to get 

 the words " showing haw " reinstated. 



My own opinion is that they failed ut- 

 terly to establish their case that this pecu- 

 liarity was an original characteristic. No 

 doubt it was present in Mr. Holmes' dogs, 

 but was it in the original strain ? I doubt 

 it, as it is not shown in Wheatley's picture, 

 nor is it mentioned in any of the descrip- 

 tions published by old writers, even in 

 that given by " Stonehenge," who was 

 such a close observer that one may safely 

 assume he would have had something to 



MR. R. PRATTS CH. 

 BY WORSALL JUDGE" 



COLWYN CLOWN 



—DAPHNE. 



say about such a point if he had considered 

 it an essential one. Anyhow, the matter 

 being in doubt, and the point being a use- 

 less, if not an absolutely harmful one in a 

 sporting dog, I see no use in retaining the 



