74 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 28, 1905. 
Shooting over Spaniels, 
The spaniel is the only breed of "gun-dog" which has 
been kept in a very high state of efficiericy, so far as ap- 
pearance and physique are concerned, without any assist- 
ance from the richer classes. Spaniel trials are quite a 
^ovelty, and spaniel breeding either for shows or per- 
formance was until recent days confined to a few en- 
thusiasts, though they got capital results. The Clumber, 
with its association with the Duke of Newcastle, is one 
of the few exceptions to the rule that these dogs were not 
the result of the careful and. select breeding of noblemen 
or great landowners. It is true that they were an indis- 
pensable part of the sporting outfit of every estate at the 
beginning of the last century. In the main they were 
keepers' dogs, used in rough shooting to get the scarce 
pheasant of the day for the house. Partridge shooting, 
not cover shooting, was the "smart" thing from 1750 fill 
1840, and the grandees devoted nearly all their attention 
to their famous breeds of pointers. Perfectly broken and 
bred to a degree of fineness which is the envy of the 
present day, the pointers of eighty or ninety years ago^ 
were really a very artificial product. When times changed, 
they disappeared, and were it not for enthusiasts like Mr. 
Arkwright, and for their usefulness on the Scotch moors 
where driving the grouse is not yet taken up, we should 
see very few of them. Even as it is, pointers are the 
rarest breed of "gun-dogs." There are few places in 
England where they could be said to be either common 
or easy to purchase. 
The cheerful spaniel stands in quite a different position. 
It has maintained itself locally, among the middle class 
and among the farmers, in unimpaired efficiency, notwith- 
standing all the changes and chances of this mortal life, 
wherever there are thick hedgerows, '"shaws" as in 
Sussex, or furze brakes and rough banks and broken 
ground. In Ireland that wonderful dog-of-all-work, the 
red setter, has to some degree taken its place. Yet the 
Irish water spaniel is still almost the most useful ".gen- 
eral" dog that any one can own. Lastly, the merits of the 
spaniel as a fast and bold retriever are so far recognized 
that it is very commonly seen both at cover shoots and 
behind the butts on the grouse moors. Less docile than 
the retriever, the spaniel has more initiative, as a rule, 
than the dogs which have had most of the spirit bred 
or broken out of them by keepers anxious to make "per- 
fect non-slip" retrievers. An old English sportsman con- 
nected with the Ministry at The Hague used to vow that 
he "wouldn't give a damn for a dog that was not ready 
and willing tO' assist its master on any possible occasion," 
?. confession of faith intended to co^•er the excursions and 
alarums of his own particular retriever, which he ex- 
pected to course and kill any rabbit he wounded. Without 
Bantam's 1903 Cruise. 
BY WILLIAM P. MORRISON. 
_ The morning of the 23d of June, 1903, found me land- 
ing from one of the Bath and Boothbay steamers at 
Southport, Me. The morning was still fine, but it looked 
as if, as usual, I was to have rain on this the first day — 
the day when clothes and bed and bedding are to be 
taken aboard, and, if comfort and health are to be con- 
sidered, taken aboard dry. 
A call at the post-office and the walk around by the 
draw-bridge consumed twenty minutes; but during the 
last ten I had had my good little old ship Bantam in 
sight, and I began to feel that the summer's fun had 
begun._ But first of all must come the beforementioned 
busy time of turning things out of trunks and boxes pnd 
bundles into the ship's lockers; and this consumed the 
whole day — between showers. Captain M. always de- 
clared, as he helped me get my things out, that I would 
never get them all stowed; but I always did, and when 
they were all in their places, one would not know that 
i had an unusual lot of duffle aboard. I suppose, how- 
ever, most single-hand cruisers would think that I had; 
for instance, golf clubs and clothes and fifteen or twenty 
books. But I calculated to have an outing of ten weeks, 
and concluded that it was worth a little trouble the first 
day in order to have the means of enjoying a pleasant 
change ashore when opportunity offered. "All the com- 
forts of home," mixed in with the necessary roughing 
it that every single-hander must experience, will not de- 
tract from the romance of the cruise, and will add to its 
pleasures and health-giving qualities. I call myself a 
single-hander because during most of the ten weeks I 
am alone, and during the three or four weeks when I 
have the pleasure of having one friend or another with 
me, the undivided responsibility of the sailing depart- 
ment usually falls upon me. 
Bantam is 27ft. over all, 21ft. 6in.. waterline, 8ft 
breadth, 5ft. draft, and carries about 550 sq. ft. of sail. 
She has no centerboard, and there is 4ft. 6in. to 4ft. loin. 
bead room under a low house. The house conid easily be 
6m. higher and not be higher than most boats of her 
size. Query, however, whether it is worth while. Six 
inches more would not give full standing height, and at 
present there is height enough to enable one to sit erect 
on transoms which, with the bedding on them, are as 
high as an ordinary chair; and to stand erect enough to 
pull one's trousers on or to move about the cabin with- 
out being uncomfortably cramped. On the other hand, 
six inches added to the house would have some effect on 
accepting this view, it may be admitted that the "go" of 
a retriever spaniel is often a refreshing contrast to the 
over-timid anxiety of the retriever of the day. 
To understand the value of spaniels, it is almost neces- 
sary to visit the localities in which they have continued 
to flourish, and to watch their wonderful courage, dash, 
and unflagging energy under difficulties of all kinds and 
descriptions. In Sussex the ordinary type, now known 
by the name of the county, remained as the principal 
stand-by for working the great woods and the network 
of "shaws" or narrow bushy belts of coppice and trees 
with which that county is covered. It was absolutely the 
only means of getting the numerous rabbits and rare 
pheasants in the "shaws" to- show themselves or to give 
a chance of a shot. The Ground Game Act has so de- 
pleted the rabbits that these spaniels are already rapidly 
decreasing in numbers as a local and county dog. On the 
other hand, there is a demand for the breed all over 
England, and kennels which are maintained at a high 
pitch O'f excellence, such as those of Mr. Campbell New- 
ington at Ticehurst, are a fine nucleus for maintaining the 
type. 
At present the great strongholds of the spaniel are 
Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall. The high banks and the 
enormous area of the furze-brake, the sloping cliffs, and 
the broken ground round the moors are full of rabbits, 
while wild pheasants and woodcock are pretty common, 
and this ground must be worked by spaniels. The furze 
is too prickly for terriers. Sturdy as they are, they can- 
not last out a day like the thick-coated spaniel. The rab- 
bits, too, are so numerous and the cover so much to their 
liking, that they are not easily killed down, while Devon- 
shire people of all classes like keeping a handsome dog, 
even though they can only use it occasionally. The result 
is that the spaniel population of that county probably ex- 
ceeds the number in any other five. Teams of seven or 
eight are commonly owned by Devonshire landowners, for 
at least two couple are needed for a day's shooting on 
the rough hillsides, and these dogs cannot fairly be used 
on two consecutive days. Add to this that most farmers, 
and a good many innkeepers and tradesmen, own one, 
and the percentage of spaniels to the general canine popu- 
lation can readily be guessed. The writer once went 
down to Devon dogless, to the outskirts of the parish of 
Sidbury, a place up the Sid Valley, which has given its 
name to one of the most irrepressible and persevering 
races of spaniels on the face of the earth. He was about 
to shoot some plantations and rough hillsides, and know- 
ing the ease with which the dogs can be obtained, merely 
sent word to one of two likely people to intimate that he 
should be glad of "one or two" spaniels near a certain 
wood at a certain hour next day. Half a dozen were on 
the scene to start with. The raljbits in the big plantation 
must have thought that their last hour was come, judging 
from the energy and the desperate assaults on bramble, 
brake and bracken made by this, the first division. But 
these were presently reinforced by volunteer spaniels from 
the valley, who, hearing shots, sneaked ofY up the hill, 
sidled in at convenient corners, and joined in the fray. 
Bantam's windwardly qualities, and certainly would not 
add to her looks. 
The cockpit seats, too, are as high as ordinary chairs. 
This, to my mind, is one of the most important points 
about a boat under the item "comfort." Nothing is 
so tiresome as sitting at the tiller all day perched on 
the apices of one's hip bones. I speak from the ex- 
perience of a thin man. Fat sailormen may be able to 
stand it. 
Bantam is rigged as a pole-mast sloop, with two head- 
sails. Her model is rather of the compromise cutter 
type. Both headsails run on stays, and either can be 
hoisted or lowered from the cockpit. Halliard and 
down-haul are spliced together so as to make them one 
endless piece of running rigging. They were formerly 
separate, but there was so much halliard in the cockpit 
when the headsails were up that, after one or two ex- 
periences with them catching around cleats, etc., and 
preventing the sails coming down handily, I cut off about 
half of each down-haul and spliced the ends to the hal- 
liards. The main halliards do not lead aft. The dis- 
advantage of being unable to cast off the main halliards 
of an uncapsizable boat instantly is so slight that it is 
counterbalanced by the advantage of having so much 
rope forward out of the way. For a single-hander, the 
important thing is to have all the headsail rigging lead 
aft. One has plenty of time to hoist one's mainsail 
leisurely before getting the anchor in the morning; and 
usually plenty of time to lower it in the evening after 
the hook has taken the bottom. But in coming into port 
one must be able to handle one's jib and staysail quickly. 
This is still more important in getting under way. If 
there is another boat on either side of you and one astern 
and it is blowing, your little ship can do a lot of 
"thmgs" after you break the anchor out of the mud, 
while you haul in three or four fathoms of cable, make 
it fast, get up a headsail and get way on. And if you 
anchor in ten fathoms, as it is sometimes convenient to 
do— for instance, at Castine or at Cliff (Crotch) Island 
in Casco Bay, it seems an awful long time before you 
hear the anchor clank against the bobstay. So I have the 
cable of one of my anchors lead aft. This is the process 
of getting under way: Hoist the mainsail and coil and 
stow halliards behind the standing parts: get the cable 
neariy up and down, then take the bight aft and coil 
down what I have; then brace feet against the cabin 
house and break out the anchor; haul up, make fast to 
cleat on side deck outside the cockpit, get up jib and 
trim sheets. As soon as she has way on, I get up stay- 
sail, and then I have time to coil up the rest of the 
cable. Of course it is inconvenient to have the cable 
all over the cockpit, but not nearly so much so as if it 
Considering the noise, the number and the vigor of the j 
spaniels, not one rabbit should have been left unshot i 
above ground, and a number were shot. But the volun- | 
teer spaniels were so irrepressible that as and when they <' 
could be caught, they were tied up by bits of rope or any 
handy ligature to trees, where they rent the air with in- ^ 
dignant barks and howls. 
Spaniels in those parts are lent and borrowed with a 
great freedom, and a certain number of casualties are f 
expected, especially when the scene of action is the cliffs. 
Those dogs unused to^ the ground frequently "go- out 
over," a euphemism for falling over 'Some hundreds of 
feet of precipice. A dog jumps over what he thinks is a 
bank, and alights in the sea 200 feet below. Others get | 
peppered with shot when dr.tving rabbits in the furze. I 
"Dear, dear, I fear that must be Mr. Brown's dog," re- 4 
marked a careless shooter in the hearing of the writer, as 
a dog went off home, limping down the hill and howling 
dismally, from a noted furze-brake. "Never mind, sir, 
never mind," was the keeper's comforting reply. "He bor- 
rowed our old Bess last Christmas and shot 'un dead." 
These scratch packs are only used for hustling difficult 
cover, like the cliffs or big furze-brakes. For more regu- .1 
lar shooting a pack of four or five, well in hand, give 
charming sport. These packs are usually composed of , 
several generations. A veteran dog who is the "model" 
of the rest, a couple of well broken three-year-olds, and 
two intelligent puppies bustle down the hedgerows, sniff 
round CA'cry furze bush, pry under the brambles, and 
worm their way among tufts, tussocks, and boulders, all 
their sterns wagging and all their nostrils widespread, 
and open in merry chorus after every rabbit started. They 
do what it is the ambition of every trainer to make them 
do — they come back when called, even from the hot pur- 1 
suit of some escaping rabbit. At the end of a cover they I 
hustle up the wild pheasants that have run there and 
squatted, and in no case dO' they leave a rod of ground \ 
untried throughout the day. Hedgerow shooting Avilh 
spaniels is excellent sport, especially in . a "heavy land" 
country where there are ditches. Spaniels are adepts at 
working a ditch, smelling upwards both on the near side ' 
and under the stumps and "stubs." They have also an 
abounding faith, which makes them work hard in the 
most unpromising places, and ready and eager to take 
more than their share of work. Their "slap-dash" ways , 
often cause people to credit them with less intelligence 
than dogs which work more slowly. In reality they are ; 
full of resource, and their exploits in retrieving wounded ' 
birds are wonderful. A small brown and white spaniel 
broke its fore leg, which was set in stiff bandages 
hardened with some preparation. It could only go on 
three legs, but hopped out' after its master with the other -. 
dogs when these were taken for a walk. There had been 
a pheasant shoot, and the little spaniel could not resist 
slipping off! to smell down the side of a small belt. It 
discovered a winged cock pheasant, dashed after it on 
three legs, and caught and retrieved it, hopping into the 
road with the big bird in its mouth ! — C. J. Cornish, in j 
* 'ounty Gentleman. j 
were on the forward deck mixed up with the headsail ; 
sheets and down-hauls. The cable spatters up the cock- ' 
pit, too ; but that is soon remedied. . On account of this ' 
latter objection, however, I find this mode of getting 
under way is unsatisfactory when there are ladies aboard. 
As soon as the cable is coiled up and stowed on the 
cockpit floor, I have time to go forward and fish the ; 
anchor. In regard to the headsail halliards, I forgot to j 
say that they lead down the shrouds and through blocks ' 
lashed to the chain plates. This keeps them clear of the 
cleat-rail around the mast. I am aware that some of ' 
m.y wrinkles are unyachty, but a single-hander must 
needs do as he best can. ' i 
Bantam is uncapsizable, having about 3,000 pounds of 
lead on her keel ; but having no pronounced bilge, she 
heels to the wind rather easily, so that she is slow in a 
light and uncertain head wind, as under such conditions 
she is constantly shaking the wind out of her sails. She 
is best in a strong, free wind. Her fastest long run has 
been from the red buoy at the mouth of Townsend's 
Gut, Boothba}^ to Camden, via Franklin Light, and 
south through Llerring Gut, a distance of 45 sea miles in ' 
7h. 2om., an average of over 6 knots. This was done 
before half a gale from the S.W., which of course was 
free except through Herring Gut, under whole mainsail, 
but no spinnaker. Under other conditions I do not con- 
sider her fast, though perhaps she would do better in 
charge of a skipper who is more efficient as a speed- 
getter. But comfortable! Well, I have lived on her 
an average of ten weeks each year for the last three 
years — barring getting most of my meals ashore — and I 
don't see how I could have been more comfortable in a 
house on; land. 
Well, all the necessaries were aboard, and that night 1 
found me, after a pleasant call on Captain M. and his | 
family, snugly tucked away between Bantam's crisp ] 
sheets and warm blankets, and though the rain pattered ! 
down upon the deck only three feet above my head, I ! 
soon was in dreamland, and knew nothing till daybreak. 
After taking an observation which did not disclose any 
favorable promises from the weather man, I crawled 
back intO' my warm bed and continued my sleep till 6 :30, 
when I rowed across the Gut for breakfast, to he had at 
an unostentatious but good little hostelry. You must 
know that this is Townsend's Gut I am speaking of — 
the busiest little reach of water in Maine in summer. 
Mrs. T, saw me coming, and began the manufacture of ; 
cne of her wonderful omelettes, so- that by the time I 
reached the table it was ready, hot and puffy. ' 
It soon turned to rain, so I spent the day between 
Captain M.'s shop and Bantam, fixin.g up little odds and 
ends and changing the running rigging to suit my own 
