THE SPORTING SPANIEL 157 



more, and to have shot over them almost daily during the 

 season, but at his death they were dispersed by auction, and 

 none of them can be traced with any accuracy except a dog 

 and a bitch which were given at the time to Relf, the head 

 keeper. Relf survived his master for forty years, and kept 

 up his interest in the breed to the last. He used to say that 

 the golden tinge peculiar to the Rosehill breed came from a 

 bitch which had been mated with a dog belonging to Dr. 

 Watts, of Battle, and that every now and then what he 

 termed a <4 sandy " pup would turn up in her litters. Owing 

 to an outbreak of dumb madness in the Rosehill kennels, a 

 very large number of its occupants either died or had to be 

 destroyed, and this no doubt accounted for the extreme 

 scarcity of the breed when several enthusiasts began to revive 

 it about the year 1870. Mr. Saxby and Mr. Marchant are 

 said to have had the same strain as that at Rosehill, and 

 certainly one of the most famous sires who is to be found 

 in most Sussex pedigrees was Buckingham, by Marchant 's 

 Rover out of Saxby's Fan. 



It was from the union of Buckingham, who was 

 claimed to be pure Rosehill with Bebb's daughter 

 Peggie that the great Bachelor resulted a dog whose name is 

 to be found in almost every latter-day pedigree, though Mr. 

 Campbell Newington's strain, to which has descended the 

 historic prefix " Rosehill," contains less of this blood than any 

 other. 



About 1879 Mr. T. Jacobs, of Newton Abbot, took up this 

 breed with great success, owning, amongst other good speci- 

 mens, Russett, Dolly, Brunette, and Bachelor III., the latter 

 a dog whose services at the stud cannot be estimated too 

 highly. When this kennel was broken up in 1891. the best 

 of the Sussex Spaniels were acquired by Mr. Woolland, and 

 from that date this gentleman's kennel carried all before it 

 until it in turn was broken up and dispersed in 1905. So 

 successful was Mr. Woolland that one may almost say that he 

 beat all other competitors off the field, though one of them. 



