272 



THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 



them was Dymphna (K.C.S.B. 33,9 OI )> who 

 had a most successful career, winning the 

 title of Champion, in my opinion one 

 of the soundest and most typical bitches 

 ever shown, though to please some critics 



MR. J. J. HOLGATE'S CH. SOUTHBORO' JEWEL 



BY FORTH PADDY SOUTHBORO 1 FINOLA. 



Photograph by Chancellor, Dublin. 



she might have been just a size bigger. 

 Otherwise it was hard to pick a fault in her. 

 She was bred by Mr. Doherty, and was by 

 The Shaughraun out of Madame Blair. 

 Mr. J. C. Cockburn's Dunraven, born 1888, 

 and Mr. A. E. Daintree's Rock Diver, by 

 Barry Sullivan out of Madame Blair, both 

 did a lot of winning, but undoubtedly the 

 two most successful Irish Water Spaniels of 

 this period were Dermot Asthore (K.C.S.B. 

 38,557), and Duck O'Donoghue (K.C.S.B. 

 40,594), both owned during the greater part 

 of their show career by Mr. T. Camac 

 Tisdall. The dog was bred by Mr. T. S. 

 Carey, and was beaten the first time he 

 was shown by Killaneal, a dog belonging 

 also to Mr. Camac Tisdall, and a son of 

 Madame Blair, who did a lot of winning at 

 the best shows of that year, 1894. Dermot 

 Asthore, who was a very good and typical 

 dog, despite a defective jaw, was practic- 



ally unbeaten by his own sex for the next 

 four years. 



Duck O'Donoghue, by Free O'Donoghue 

 out of Madame Blair, was a very beautiful 

 bitch who was not shown until she was five 

 years old, when she came out 

 at Dublin under Mr. S. E. 

 Shirley, and created a great 

 sensation, winning all before 

 her. She quickly attained the 

 rank of Champion, winning 

 championship after champion- 

 ship at all the leading shows, 

 and only, as far as I can re- 

 member, being beaten twice 

 in classes confined to her own 

 breed once at Armagh, by 

 her kennel mate Dermot 

 Asthore, and once at Bir- 

 mingham, by Kempston Tessa. 

 Her show career lasted but a 

 short time, and she made her 

 last appearance in 1897 at the 

 same show, Dublin, where she 

 had made her sensational debut 

 two years before. She ex- 

 celled in make and shape, and, 

 above all, in type ; but she 

 must have been a difficult 

 bitch to keep in condition, and 

 I never saw her in perfect coat. Unfor- 

 tunately, she was not a success as a brood 

 bitch. 



During the last few years, I am sorry to 

 say that the breed seems to have been 

 progressing the wrong way, and classes at 

 shows have not been nearly so strong, either 

 in numbers or in quality, as they used to 

 be. Yet there have been, and are still, 

 quite a large number of good dogs and 

 bitches to be seen, and it only needs en- 

 thusiasm and co-operation among breeders 

 to bring back the palmiest days of the Irish 

 Water Spaniel. 



A few years ago there was, to the great 

 regret of. everyone who had the interests 

 of the breed at heart, a certain amount of 

 friction between the Spaniel Club and the 

 Irish Water Spaniel Club, which may have 

 done, and probably did, a great deal of 

 harm ; but the exercise of common-sense 



