250 The Dog Book 
cock shooting he uses the term cock shooting almost entirely, such as: 
“Good questing spaniels are the only dogs for cock shooting.” “Here 
lies the difficulty of cock shooting.” 
We by no means hold that these extracts are at all conclusive and 
beyond a reasonable doubt, but we do hold that there was no distinct line 
as to small dogs being kept for woodcocks and large dogs for other covert 
work. In the brief description of the Clumber spaniel, then known as the 
Duke of Newcastle’s or Mansell’s breed, which appeared in the Sporting 
Magazine in 1807, even this, the largest of all the spaniels, was styled 
cock flusher; while in one of our pointer illustrations will be seen some 
small spaniels used for hawking. 
We have already shown that the field spaniel was very much mixed 
with cocker, or small spaniel strains up to the close of the seventies, and 
into the next decade to a smaller extent, and it is not necessary to attempt 
any tracing of lines previous to 1880 when the improvement in spaniels 
began in this country. At that time there were probably not a dozen 
spaniels in America that could get a highly commended card at New York 
among present-day cockers. George D. MacDougal, of Toronto, brought 
‘down to New York in 1881 a nice little lot, showing much more character 
than the most of the American entry. We then became associated with 
him in what he called the Lachine Kennels, and worked up sufficient 
interest among breeders to establish the American Spaniel Club at the next 
New York reunion. A black cocker sent out to us with the field spaniel Bene- 
dict from Mr. Jacobs’s kennel was about the best of the cockers section, but 
did not get the cup, the judge explaining that he thought we had won enough, 
and, having the field-spaniel cup and sundry first prizes, it was only fair to 
let someone else get the other cup. Such was dog-show practice in those days. 
With the establishment of the Spaniel Club the breed boomed, and as 
the great authority for dog men, Stonehenge, had praised the spaniel Brush, 
some breeders made a rush for Brush stock. Mr. Pitcher and Mr. Cum- 
mings, of New Hampshire, imported some of this blood from the Easton 
Kennel, as did the Hornell Club, but these were a mixed lot. Doctor 
Niven got the best cocker of all the Brush line in his Black Bess ; a very 
good bitch, nice size, good head and particularly good in coat. Doctor 
Niven also got her daughter Bene, who was by Bob III., the fighting field 
spaniel referred to in the previous chapter. Bene was also a nicely feathered 
bitch, and some preferred her to her dam. 
