154 DOGS AND ALL ABOUT THEM 



where it should be short. There should be no topknot 

 like that of the Irish Water Spaniel. 



IV. THE CLUMBER SPANIEL is in high favour in the 

 Spaniel world, both with shooting men and exhibitors, and 

 the breed well deserves from both points of view the position 

 which it occupies in the public esteem. No other variety 

 is better equipped mentally and physically for the work it is 

 called upon to do in aid of the gun ; and few, certainly none 

 of the Spaniels, surpass or even equal it in appearance. 



As a sporting dog, the Clumber is possessed of the very 

 best of noses, a natural inclination both to hunt his game and 

 retrieve it when killed, great keenness and perseverance 

 wonderful endurance and activity considering his massive 

 build, and as a rule is very easy to train, being highly in- 

 telligent and more docile and " biddable." The man who 

 owns a good dog of this breed, whether he uses it as a re- 

 triever for driven birds, works it in a team, or uses it as his 

 sole companion when he goes gunning, possesses a treasure. 

 The great success of these Spaniels in the Field Trials pro- 

 moted by both the societies which foster those most useful 

 institutions is enough to prove this, and more convincing 

 still is the tenacity with which the fortunate possessors of 

 old strains, mostly residents in the immediate neighbourhood 

 of the original home of the breed, have held on to them and 

 continued to breed and use them year after year for many 

 generations. 



As a show dog, his massive frame, powerful limbs, pure 

 white coat, with its pale lemon markings and frecklings, and, 

 above all, his solemn and majestic aspect, mark him out as a 

 true aristocrat, with all the beauty of refinement which comes 

 from a long line of cultured ancestors. 



All research so far has failed to cany their history 

 back any further than the last quarter of the eighteenth 

 century. About that time the Due de Noailles pre- 

 sented some Spaniels, probably his whole kennel, which 

 he brought from France, to the second Duke of Newcastle, 



