49 Modern Dogs. 



ing his Rhea, a black specimen which won a great 

 many prizes. She, however, had little or no strain 

 of the cocker in her, and what excellence she pos- 

 sessed was imparted from the same blood that ran 

 in the pedigree of Bullock's Nellie and other 

 celebrities of her day. 



Perhaps the best class of cockers I have ever 

 seen was benched at Manchester in 1892. There 

 were fourteen of them, in many types ; but amongst 

 them specimens of both the old and modern style. 

 Mr. H. J. Price, of Long Ditton, had an excellent 

 team, his Ditton Brevity and Gaiety being particu- 

 larly excellent the one a blue and white, the other 

 a tricolour. Mr. Carew-Gibson, of Fareham, in 

 Grove Rose and Merry Belle, had a brace of 

 beauties, also of the old type, and his first named 

 won chief prize ; but other leading honours of third 

 and reserve were given to miniature modern spaniels, 

 both black, but certainly not like Rose and Brevity, 

 that took first and second honours. Mr. Phillips' 

 Rivington Merry Legs was another of the pure 

 strain, a black and white, that, I believe, came from 

 Exeter. 



I have particularly drawn attention to this class at 

 Manchester in proof, if such were needed, that there 

 still remains material in the country to popularise 

 the old-fashioned breed of cocker, and I fancy this 



