488 Modern Dogs. 



the connecting link between the working and the 

 toy spaniels. We have been told that the Blenheims 

 at Marlborough House were excellent dogs to work 

 the coverts for cock and pheasant, and, excepting in 

 colour, there is in reality not much difference in 

 appearance between the older orange and white toys 

 (not as they are to day, with their abnormally short 

 noses) and the liver and white cockers H. B. Chalon 

 drew for Daniel's " Rural Sports" in 1801. 



Two of Chalon's little spaniels have just sprung 

 a woodcock, and charming specimens they are, 

 not too low on the leg, nor over-done in the matter 

 of ears, but sprightly little dogs, evidently under 

 2olb. weight, and of a type we do not find to-day. 

 Many of us lament the growing scarcity of this 

 variety as he was to be found fifty years ago and 

 more. Modern breeders tell us they have provided 

 us with a better and handsomer animal. It is an 

 open question whether they have done the former, I 

 acknowledge they have done the latter. 



Some few years ago I became the possessor of 

 a brace of black cockers, the most beautiful little 

 spaniels imaginable. How they were bred I am not 

 aware. This I do know, that wherever they went 

 they were admired more than any other dogs ; not in 

 the show ring they never appeared there but in 

 the streets and the country generally. At that time 



