ORIGIN OF THE WATER SPANIEL. 453 



and curled, not loose and shagged ; his head must be round, his ears broad and hanging, his qycs 

 full, lively, and quick. His nose very short, his lip hound-like, his chaps with a full set of strong 

 teeth. His neck thick and short, his breast sharp, his shoulders broad. His forelegs straight, his 

 chine square, his buttocks round, his belly gaunt, and his thighs brawny, Sue. 



"For the training this dog you cannot begin too soon with him, and therefore, as soon as he can 

 lap, you must teach him to couch and lie down, not daring to stir from that posture without leave. 

 Observe in his first teaching to let him eat nothing till he deserves it, and let him have no more 

 teachers, feeders, cherishers, or correctors but one ; and do not alter that word you first use in his 

 information, for the dog takes notice of the sound, not the language. When you have acquainted 

 him with the word suitable to his lesson, you must teach him to know the word of reprehension. 

 You must also use words of cherishing, to give him encouragement when he does well. There i^ 

 also a word of advice, instructing him when he does amiss. 



" Having made him understand these several words, you must next teach him to lead in a string 

 or collar orderly, not running too forward nor hanging backward. After this you must teach him 

 to come close to your heels without leading, for he must not range by any means unless it be to 

 beat fowls from their covert, or to fetch the wounded. In the next place you must teach him to 

 fetch or carry anything you throw out of your hands. And first try him with the glove, shaking it 

 over his head and making him snap at it, and sometimes let him hold it in his mouth and strive to 

 pull it from him. At last throw it a little way and let him worry it on the ground, and so, by 

 degrees, make him bring it wherever you can throw it. If you use him to carry dead fowl it will 

 not be amiss, for by that means he will not tear or bruise what fowl you shoot. 



" Having perfected this lesson, drop something behind "you which the dog does not see, and, 

 being gone a little way from it, send him back to seek it by saying ' Back, I have lost.' If he 

 seems amazed, point with your finger urging him to seek out, and leave him not till he hath done 

 it. Then drop something at a greater distance, and make him find out that too, till you have 

 brought him to go back a mile. Now you may train him for your gun, making him stalk after you, 

 step by step, or else couch and lie close till you have shot. 



" The last use of the Water-dog is in moulting time, when wild fowl cast their feathers and are 

 unable to fly, which is between summer and autumn. At this time bring your dog to their coverts 

 and hunt them out into the stream, and there with your nets surprise them, for at this time sheep 

 will not drive more easily. Though some may object that this sickly time is unseasonable, yet, 

 if they consider what excellent food these fowls will provide when crammed, the taking of them 

 may be very excuseable." 



From the directions he gives it certainly appears that Nicholas Cox had studied the art of 

 breaking the Water-dog to retrieve, and valued him above all other breeds for this object. The 

 description which he furnishes is not quite in accordance with our modern views ; for though he 

 states that the jacket should be curly and not shaggy so as to get easily matted, he gives it as his 

 opinion that the nose should be very short, which is a feature we do not care to find in the Water- 

 dogs or Spaniels of the nineteenth century. On the whole, however, the Water-dog which Nicholas 

 Cox describes must doubtless have been a serviceable companion to the sportsman of his day ; and 

 if not quite of the modern type, he appears to have borne something of a resemblance to indifferent 

 specimens of what is now the Water-dog par excellence, viz., the Irish Water Spaniel, a breed which 

 has apparently monopolised the place made vacant by the retirement of the English Water 

 Spaniel. There can be no doubt but that the original Water Spaniel was a cross between the 

 Water-dog and the Land Spaniel. William Taolin, in 1803, says: "From the great similitude 



