298 



THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 



have also been, as sires, responsible for 

 the success of a good many dogs hailing 

 from other kennels. He has also been 

 fairly successful with blacks, which, how- 

 ever, have usually been purchased and 

 not bred by him, the two best being Master 

 Reuben, bred by Miss Joan Godfrey, and 

 Jetsam Bowdler, a bitch who has dis- 

 tinguished herself both in the ring and in 

 the field. At the present moment I am 

 inclined to think that one of the best, if 

 not the very best, coloured sire is John 

 Bull, bred by Mr. J. Coleman, by Blue 

 Peter out of Coaley. He only met with 

 moderate success as a show dog owing to 

 an undershot mouth, but he has not trans- 

 mitted this defect to any of his progeny 

 whom I have seen ; on the contrary, they 

 are remarkable for the excellence of their 

 heads and their true Spaniel type and ex- 

 pression. He is responsible, among others, 

 for Mr. Phillips's Rivington Ruth — who, 

 if she only had a little more bone, I should 

 consider about the best coloured bitch I 

 have seen — Susan Bowdler, and Clara 

 Bowdler, a trio whose heads, for bitches, 

 I consider almost perfect. 



Coloured Cockers are certainly " boom- 

 ing " just now, and as a consequence I 

 fear that the blacks, who are equally worthy 

 of support, are being rather neglected. 

 Certainly it is the case that whereas one 

 sees at most shows big classes of the former 

 filled with a good level lot with hardly a 

 bad specimen amongst them, the classes 

 devoted to the latter, besides not being 

 so well filled, are much more uneven, and 

 always contain a large proportion of weeds 

 and toys. A few years ago the black classes 

 were immeasurably superior to the coloured, 

 and it is to be hoped that in the near future 

 they will regain at least a position of equality 

 with them. 



I have not been able, owing to want of 

 space, to mention nearly all the successful 

 Cocker owners and breeders, nor all the 

 dogs which have made names for them- 

 selves in the show ring, but no article on 

 the breed would be complete without 

 quoting the following names, in addition 

 to those already mentioned : Mr. \V. 



Caless, O. Burgess, E. C. Spencer, O. H. 

 Ellis, R. Lloyd, J. H. Hickin, F. C. Hignett, 

 J. Smith, J. H. Campbell, J. Chiles, 

 Mrs. Crosfield, Miss Joan Godfrey and 

 Mr. Harding Cox, Miss Vera Canute, Mrs. 

 Greening, and Miss Bessie McCartie ; while 

 the following dogs are also deserving of 

 mention : Blacks — Bruton Floss, Bruton 

 Peter, Bruton Cora, Master Gilbert, Master 

 Clarence, Master Mathew, Westbury Madge, 

 Regalia, Mistress Rita, Kim of Machen, 

 Rivington Reine, and Little Jill. Coloured 

 — Dooney Belle, Doony Swell, Braeside 

 Rival, Nurscombe Joan, Nurscombe De- 

 borah, Truth, Byford Bluebell, Wilton 

 Sweetheart, Trafalgar Ben, Trafalgar 

 Beauty, Coleshill Claudian, St. Foy of 

 Monte Carlo, and many others. 



At the last few Field Trial meetings the 

 Spaniel Club has provided classes confined 

 to Cockers, which have filled fairly well, 

 and enabled the small breed to demon- 

 strate that it can in its way be quite as 

 useful as its larger cousins. Indeed, it 

 is a question whether at the trials of 

 1904 Mr. F. M. Brown's Beechgrove 

 Midget was not the best performer of the 

 whole number competing, as she showed 

 more dash and go than any of them, and, 

 despite her size, her retrieving was abso- 

 lutely perfect. A Cocker can very often 

 go and work as well where a larger Spaniel 

 cannot even creep, and for working really 

 thick hedgerows or gorse has no superior. 

 There seems to be every prospect of a 

 brilliant future, and increased popularity 

 for this charming breed, which, in my 

 opinion at least, it thoroughly deserves. 



Its interests are looked after both by 

 the Spaniel Club and the comparatively 

 newly formed Cocker Spaniel Club, and it 

 is also quite as much in favour on the 

 other side of the Atlantic as it is in the 

 United Kingdom. Indeed, the classes in 

 America and Canada compare very favour- 

 ably with our own, and I was particularly 

 struck with the great number of excellent 

 specimens to be seen benched in Madison 

 Square on the occasion of my visit to the 

 New York show. Red is a much more 

 common colour over there than it is with 



