THE SPORTING SPANIEL. 



29 1 



officially recognised the variety known by 

 the name at the head of this section. 

 For a long time the old-fashioned liver and 

 white or black and white Spaniels, longer 

 in the leg than either Sussex or Field 

 Spaniels, had been known as Norfolk 

 Spaniels, and under this title the Spaniel 

 Club had published a description of them. 

 There had, howe\'er, been a considerable 

 amount of discussion about the propriet}^ 

 of this name of " Norfolk," and the weight 

 of the evidence adduced went to show 

 that as far as any territorial connection 

 with the county of that name went, it was 

 a misnomer, and that it probably arose 

 from the breed having been kept by one 

 of the Dukes of Norfolk, most likely that 

 one quoted by Blaine in his " Rural Sports," 

 who was so jealous of his strain that it 

 was only on the expressly stipulated con- 

 dition that they were not to be allowed 

 to breed in the direct line that he would 

 allow one to leave his kennels. 



Accordingly, when this old breed was 

 taken up by the Sporting Spaniel Society, 

 they decided to drop the name of " Nor- 

 folk," and to revert to the old title of 

 " Springer," not, in my opinion, a very 

 happy choice, as all Spaniels are, properly 

 speaking, Springers in contradistinction to 

 Setters. The complete official designation 

 on the Kennel Club's register is " English 

 Springers other than Clumbers, Sussex, 

 and Field," a very clumsy name for a 

 breed. There is no doubt that this variety 

 of Spaniel retains more resemblance to the 

 old strains which belonged to our fore- 

 fathers, before the long and low idea found 

 favour in the eyes of exhibitors, and it 

 was certainly well worth preserving. The 

 only way nowadays by which uniformity 

 of type can be obtained is by somebody 

 having authority drawing up a standard 

 and scale of points for breeders to go by, 

 and the Sporting Spaniel Society are to 

 be commended for having done this for 

 the breed under notice, the fruit of their 

 action being already apparent in the larger 

 and more uniform classes to be seen at 

 shows. At first no doubt it was a spirit 

 of protest against the exaggerated 



" fanciers' " specimens of Field Spaniels, 

 which were only too common, which led 

 them to establish what they styled " Work- 

 ing Type Classes " ; but these classes 

 proved anything but a success, as, besides 

 Norfolk Spaniels or Springers, they were 

 filled with all sorts of nondescripts, the 

 only apparent qualification being the posses- 

 sion of sufficiently long legs. Many, if not 

 most, of them were misfit Field Spaniels, 

 who would have had a short shrift but for 

 the new field of industry opened to them 

 by these novel classes. Indeed, five or 

 si.x years ago I have several times seen 

 litter brothers at a show, one in the orthodox 

 Field Spaniel classes and the other in the 

 " Working Type." 



For the last three years, however, matters 

 have been improving, and, although one 

 can hardly say that the type has ever yet 

 been properly fixed, things are tending 

 that way, and before long we may hope 

 to see as uniform classes of Springers as 

 of any other breed of Spaniels. 



As the officially recognised life of the 

 breed has been such a short one, there 

 are naturally not very many names of 

 note among the prize-winners. The princi- 

 pal breeders and owners have so far been 

 Mr. W. .^rkwright, Mr. Harry Jones, Sir 

 Hugo FitzHerbert, Mr. C. C. Bethune 

 Eversfield, and Mr. Winton Smith ; the 

 dogs which have most distinguished them- 

 selves in the show ring being Ark, Fan- 

 some, Tissington Fan, Tissington Bounce, 

 and Beechgrove Will. These dogs have 

 done very well indeed at the field trials, 

 notably those owned by Mr. C. C. Bethune 

 Eversfield, Nimrod, Velox Powder, Cas- 

 monite Powder, Amberite Powder, Nitro 

 Powder, and Schwab Powder, and Mr. 

 Gardner's Tring, who was the first Spaniel 

 to lower the colours of the redoubtable 

 Clumber bitch Beechgrove Bee. 



They are undoubtedly the right dogs 

 for those who want Spaniels to travel 

 faster and cover more ground than the 

 more ponderous and short-legged Clumbers, 

 Sussex, or Field Spaniels do, but I do not 

 think their work is equal in finish and 

 precision to that of either of the two former 



