THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
growth, though of course the cocker, the field spaniel, or the springer is 
much quicker. The Clumber, however, is untiring, easily broken, and 
does not require very severe handling. It is also in his favour that he is 
not so much given to running into shot or to chase game as is his high- 
spirited brother the springer. It has been said of the latter, by the way, 
that there is no gundog which possesses the inborn love of the gun to 
such an extent as he does. The scent of game seems to be a delight to the 
springer, and it is very charming to see a really good team at work. 
Quartering their ground like pointers or setters, all stop to a signal from 
their handler. A rabbit is pushed out of gorse, every dog drops to shot, 
and though the handler makes his choice of the springer he wishes to 
retrieve the dead game, not one of the other members of the team shows 
the least trace of jealousy. At one of the trials held in Yorkshire I remember 
the spectators getting quite excited during the working of Mr Evers - 
field’s team. A similar demonstration was made on one occasion in South 
Wales when Mr A. T. Williams’s Welsh springers were at work, while I 
have also seen capital performances by Clumbers handled by Mr Custance, 
who a few years since bid fair to bring back the lost popularity of the 
Clumber as an aid to the shooter. 
The Field Spaniel . — Very little need be said about the Field Spaniel beyond 
remarking that no gundog has been more improved since field trials 
became so popular. Shows were beginning to ruin the breed, field 
spaniels indeed being described by a very well-known and sound 
authority as elongated hair trunks. Thanks, however, to the institu- 
tion of working competitions in all parts of the country, that reproach 
is being slowly but surely removed, and as recently as Cruft’s Show 
in February, 1913, Mrs E. C. Rouse benched Clareholm Primus, one of 
the straightest legged and most typical field spaniels seen for many 
a year. As a fact he is just what lovers of the variety have been 
looking for. His influence on the breed must be great, and it is to be 
hoped that owners of working bitches, anxious to retain all that is 
good in the field spaniel, and at the same time eliminate the harm which 
has been done, will help Mrs Rouse to bring back the lost prestige 
of the breed as a gundog. Mr P. Eliot Scott, a Shropshire shooting 
man, proved that the black field spaniel was not so bad as he had 
been painted, by bringing out at the working trials the beautiful bitch 
Besford Beauty. She won several important stakes, thus proving that 
the lack of working qualities in the variety was more a matter of 
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