DISTINCTION ANECDOTES. 



The Water Spaniel is endowed with a full share of the sagacity of his species, 

 and in his obedience and attachment to his master, lie equals his fellow of the land, 

 although he d<x>s not testify it by that caressing- and endearing softness, for which 

 the latter is so much distinguished and admjred. This appears to be a natural dis- 

 tinction, and not to be attributed merely to the rough and hardy mode of life of 

 the \\ ater Dog, since in his puppyhood, the distinction is evident. The most ex- 

 quisitely delicate breed of the land spaniel, which \u e\er witnessed, at the same 

 time possessing 1 internal sensibility in an equal degree, was in the hands of a 

 Trainer of Race Horses. They were of a reddish yellow and white, the coat and 

 flew soft and glossv beyond description, and the eyes beaming with the tenderest 

 affection of the smallest kind, but in form, most resembling the Springer. The 

 bitch, Fanny, mother of the breed, on her foot being taken, casting a look of in- 

 expressible softness into the face of the person, would return the friendly squeeze, 

 with a sensibility almost human. A Gentleman begged a son of this bitch, and 

 named it Charles. The young dog gradually conceived an unbounded affection for 

 his Master, and was never easy in his absence. The Gentleman was taken dange- 

 rously ill, in consequence of which, the dog was restrained from visiting him in his 

 chamber, which had such an effect upon him, that he seemed to take no rest, but 

 whenever lie \\as permitted, remained at the door of the house, looking up towards 

 the chamber window, and making the most doleful and lengthened bowlings. All 

 this \\e witnessed, and made no doubt at the time, that the animal possessed suffi- 

 cient intelligence to be fully sensible of the misfortune, which attended his beloved 

 master. According to the ancient notion, we all took it for granted that, the howl- 

 ing- of the dog must pro\ e a fatal omen ; in contempt of which, however, the patient 

 recovered, and the first meeting between him and his enraptured dog, was a treat 

 to those who beheld it, and which no feeling- heart could have witnessed unmoved. 

 Of the affection, fidelity, and gratitude of the dog, 4lu IT can be no doubt ; and 

 among the most eminent in those respects stands the Spaniel ; but we cannot help 

 suspecting that, somewhat too much has occasionally been built on this foundation, 

 and nature overtopped, 



