THE SPORTING SPANIEL. 



269 



Some of the writers of about a hundred 

 years ago speak of the " small or carpet 

 Spaniels," and of Blenheim Spaniels being 

 used in their day for sporting purposes, and 

 as being " excellent and indefatigable in 

 their work," while Needham remarks that 

 " the kind which has attained the great- 

 est distinction is that denominated King 

 Charles's Spaniel." No one going round 

 the toy dog benches at the Crystal Palace 

 Show nowadays could picture the goggle- 

 eyed, pug-nosed, pampered little peculiarities 

 he would see there lolling on satin cushions 

 and decked out with many-coloured ribbons, 

 taking such violent exercise as would be 

 entailed by even half an hour's hunting in 

 the easiest of coverts ; but there is no doubt 

 that these effete little monsters have the 

 same ultimate origin as most of our modern 

 sporting varieties, and not longer ago than 

 thirty years the writer has had many a 

 good day's sport shooting rabbits in gorse 

 over a team of King Charles's Spaniels be- 

 longing to a cousin in the South of Ireland, 

 which were, however, rather bigger and 

 stronger than those which seem nowadays 

 to catch the judge's eye. 



Nearly all of the early writers, both 

 French and English, are agreed that the 

 breed came originally from Spain, as its 

 name seems to imply, the only dissentients 

 I can remember being Needham, who says 

 it is " indisputable " that it is indigenous, 

 and De Cherville, who puts forward the 

 ingenious theory that it must have come 

 from Russia, since it is a long-haired breed, 

 and that all long-haired animals come from 

 the frigid zone. On the whole, I think we 

 may dismiss such fanciful theories as these, 

 and assume that such early authorities as 

 Gaston Phoebus, Edward Plantagenet, and 

 Dr. Caius had good enough reasons for tell- 

 ing us that these dogs were called Spaniels 

 because they came from Spain. 



Having touched lightly upon the con- 

 nection between the toy breeds of Spaniels 

 and their sporting cousins, I will leave the 

 former to be dealt with by those who are 

 no doubt better qualified to speak of their 

 good qualities and fitness for their present 

 role, and confine myself to those varieties 



which are used in aid of the gun, either in 

 teams or braces or singly, treating each 

 breed both from the showgoer's and the 

 sportsman's point of view, the latter of 

 which, I am sorry to say, is too often lost 

 sight of nowadays by those who breed and 

 exhibit this most eminently sporting of all 

 dogs. 



The following distinct breeds or varieties 

 are recognised by the Kennel Club : (i) Irish 

 Water Spaniels ; (2) Water Spaniels other 

 than Irish ; (3) Clumber Spaniels ; (4) Sussex 

 Spaniels ; (5) Field Spaniels ; (6) English 

 Springers ; (7) Welsh Springers ; (8) Cocker 

 Spaniels. Each of these varieties differs 

 considerably from the others, and each has 

 its own special advocates and admirers, as 

 well as its own particular sphere of work 

 for which it is best fitted, though almost any 

 Spaniel can be made into a general utility 

 dog, which is, perhaps, one of the main 

 reasons for the universal popularity of the 

 breed. How popular it is is demonstrated 

 by the enormous entry obtained at our 

 leading shows, the entry at the Kennel 

 Club's Jubilee Show of 1905 amounting to 

 no fewer than 349, while that of 1906 was 

 only twenty less totals not even ap- 

 proached by any other breed except Fox- 

 terriers, who were, however, a long way 

 behind. 



II. The Irish Water Spaniel. There 



is only one breed of dog known in these 

 days by the name of Irish Water Spaniel, 

 but if we are to trust the writers of no 

 longer ago than half a century there were 

 at one time two, if not three, breeds of 

 Water Spaniels peculiar to the Emerald 

 Isle. These were the Tweed Water Spaniel, 

 the Northern Water Spaniel, and the 

 Southern Water Spaniel, the last of these 

 being the progenitors of our modern strains. 

 Of the two first-named varieties, the Tweed 

 Spaniel is almost certainly extinct, if it 

 ever existed at all as a distinct and separate 

 breed. Mr. Skidmore, who, forty or fifty 

 years ago, was one of the most enthu- 

 siastic supporters of Irish Water Spaniels 

 and one of the greatest authorities on them, 

 describes them as looking as if they had 



