THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
that, if possible, the dogs should be tried on water-fowl as well as on 
ordinary land game. The competition was not a success, though conditions 
were favourable; still, for all that, it is a pity the stake was not persevered 
with. A thoroughly trained Irish water spaniel should be a quick and 
tender retriever of fur and feather, from land or water, bringing his game 
right to hand, and carrying when necessary. It is an advantage if he is 
kept to heel excepting when retrieving or when sent to beat a marsh or 
other covert. When beating coverts, by the way, he should do so thoroughly 
and systematically, working to his handler’s signs or whistle if required. 
In approaching birds which are at rest or feeding on either land or water 
an Irish water spaniel should keep very close, running, walking, creeping, 
or lying down according to the directions of his owner, and remaining 
perfectly steady, no matter how much shooting there is, and not moving 
till sent to retrieve. He should have a good nose, and, of course, know 
how to use it in finding wounded game or runners, and should be 
useful for retrieving to pointers or setters or even to non -retrieving 
spaniels. Even for ferreting an Irish water spaniel can be made useful, 
but of course he should be free from chase when either hares or rabbits 
are afoot. 
It cannot be doubted that the institution of field trials for spaniels has 
done a great deal of good, and in the early days of the movement it was 
astonishing how well Clumbers did. Mr Winton Smith’s Beechgrove 
Bee and Minette were a wonderful brace, and they did more to make the 
reputation of Alexander, their worker , than any other spaniels since handled 
by that very capable man. The first trial, by the way, was won by a bitch 
neither a cocker nor a springer in type, brought from Northumberland 
by Mr Isaac Sharpe. She was perfectly broken, and her owner’s clever 
working was a revelation to all who were at the meeting, including Mr W. 
Arkwright, who was one of the judges. At the end of the meeting, when 
this little spaniel had been awarded all honours to which she was entitled, 
she was tried in a large lake, bringing out all kinds of game, and, as a 
wind up, Mr Arkwright said to her handler, “Well, Sharpe, is there 
anything your spaniel cannot do ? ’’ Mr Sharpe smiled and replied, in the 
broad Northumberland dialect, which he has never quite shaken off, 
“ Well, Sir, she canna talk! ’* As a fact that was really all the little spaniel 
could not do. Since those days very fine ground has been visited from 
year to year, while the number of spaniel meetings has increased in a 
way never contemplated when the movement started. Pitlochry, Kirkcud- 
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