The chief of the spaniels are the setters, but as they no longer claim
connection at one end of the group, and as the King Charles and Blenheim
spaniels are no longer granted the status of gun-dogs at the other
extremity of it, the number of breeds is limited in fact, but unduly
enlarged by Stud Book classification.
The only sporting breeds in reality, although there are more nominally,
are the Irish water spaniel, used as a retriever, the English water
spaniel, or half-breds of that almost extinct race, of which the curly
retriever is a survival, but with a cross; the clumber, the English
springer, the Welsh springer, and the cocker. Field and Sussex spaniels
seem to have gone off in work, although they are said to have come on in
appearance. There was an outcry that the show field spaniels were bred
out of true proportion, and there were reports of the same dogs being
observed in two different parishes at the same time. The drain-pipe
order of body is not quite as exaggerated as it was before the
reformation that occurred about 1898, but the black field spaniels and
the Sussex dogs of the shows even now tend to a Dachshund formation.
Still, the former are as handsome as dogs can be, and are in every sense
spaniels to look at, although mostly too long and heavy for work, and
suggesting hound cross by the high angle at which they carry their
sterns. The truest bred spaniels when at work carry the stern at an
angle of about 45 degrees with the earth, pointing downwards, and not
much higher in kennel; but the majority of show spaniels carry the stern
above the level of the back, and consequently suggest hound blood.
Besides this fault, they have others from the shooter’s point of view.
Their ears are too long, and they could not work in the feather they
constantly carry. It is strange that the form of these spaniels should
have been so grotesquely altered by selection for exhibition, and yet
the old formations of clumbers, springers, and cockers have remained
very much what they always have been. This is the more surprising,
having regard to the fact that Sussex, black field, and cocker spaniels
are now much of the same blood. The real cockers, which were at one time
called King Charles spaniels, have become lap-dogs, and the smaller
specimens of the other races have taken their places. And yet some
cockers are distinctly the right shape and not too long, whereas the
other exhibition races, named above as too long, are less workmen than
the cockers although so much bigger.
The black field spaniels appeal to me as dogs. The refinement of their
heads and the beauty of their coats go nearer to a success by man in
producing a working race by mental design and physical measurement than
specimens of any other show dogs, whereas the short heads of the modern
Sussex spaniel look to contain no sense, and the work seen at field
trials must have been very disappointing to the owners of both kinds. It
has been a puzzle to the author how men who use the gun at all can be
satisfied with such work. However, people will often sacrifice sport for
a hobby.
At a period when science assents to the possibility, although not the
probability, of raising up a pure breed in spite of the introduction of
a cross of blood, and when the Irish wolfhound has been created out of
crosses with the German boarhound and the Scotch deerhound, it is not
wonderful that a faint trace of Sussex spaniel blood in a pedigree is
considered enough to warrant inclusion under that heading in the Stud
Book. But really it is not known what the original Sussex spaniels were
like. It does not follow that because all that is known is gathered from
Rosehill, that the dogs there were of the old Sussex strain, or that the
information given about them was reliable.
It is not of much importance to sportsmen in any case, except that it
has a bearing on the whole ancestry of the spaniel. So far as the author
knows, whole-coloured liver, according to the records, is not a spaniel
colour at all. On the other hand, whole colours were very much
appreciated as long ago as 1776, but we do not hear of any except
black-and-tan and red dogs—that is, of the colour of a “bright chestnut
horse.” This colour is still to be seen in America, where it is the most
common in work, but the author has only heard of it, and never seen it
in England.
It is only natural to suppose that if spaniels and setters were
originally the same dog they were also of the same colour, and we hear
of no ancient whole liver-coloured race of either sort. There is little
doubt that the latter is a modern creation, and the colour is easily
produced. If a liver-and-white dog of any breed is crossed with a
whole-coloured one of any sort or colour, some of the produce will
generally come whole liver-coloured. Therefore, may we not assume that
the first liver-coloured setters and spaniels were produced by crossing
the black-and-tans or the reds of either breed with the liver-and-white
water spaniels? The author has previously stated his belief that colour
is greatly indicative of blood. A few years ago there was a race of
liver-and-white setters in the North of England, all of which had a
top-knot formed of hair longer than the rest, and in one specimen the
author noticed a peculiarity distinct from anything noticed in other
breeds. It was a ticked liver-and-white in colour, and wherever the hair
was of that shade it was also distinctly longer than the white in which
it was set, so that the appearance was that of a lot of little tassels.
Spaniels that are liver-and-white colour will generally be found to
carry more feather on their ears than any others in the same litters,
and many of them have curly feather there, when their differently marked
brothers and sisters have straight hair to the ear tips. If it is true,
therefore, that colour and hair is indicative of blood, we have to
believe in either the pointer or the water spaniel cross wherever liver
colour is found in setters or spaniels, although the cross may be
several centuries old. Perhaps the best working breed of spaniels now is
that liver-and-white race that has been for 100 years in the family of
the late Sir Thomas Boughey, once Master of the Albrighton hounds. But
more evidence is to be found that the Sussex spaniels were not
originally liver-coloured. This is the fact that to the present time
those with any Rosehill blood occasionally produce what is called a
sandy puppy, which is practically the colour original to the Irish
setter, the spaniel as described by the _Suffolk Sportsman_ in 1776, and
the spaniel as now found in America.
From the shooter’s standpoint the source of origin does not matter much.
But what matters is how the various present-day races or crosses can
work.
Since the establishment of field trials for spaniels, every sort has
been seen in public work, and their positions have been as clearly
defined as any sportsman wanting information could desire. At first a
clumber called Beechgrove Bee distanced all competitors. She was
light-made for her race, and had a narrow head and rather pointed nose.
Next to her to assume command was Mr. Gardner’s Tring, a liver-and-white
springer; and about the same time a curly dog called Lucky Shot did very
well, but was rather short of nose. He has since been called an English
water spaniel, but it is doubtful whether he was less of a springer, or
Norfolk spaniel, than Tring, except by reversion a little more to the
curly ancestors of both. But all these dogs were thrown into the shade
by Mr. Eversfield’s black dog with a white chest, named Nimrod, which
carried all before him at the 1904 trials, and would probably have done
the same again in 1905 had it not been for the presence of a
liver-and-white dog of Sir Thomas Boughey’s breeding, also belonging to
Mr. Eversfield. The spaniels above named have stood out from all
competitors at the time of their prime, and none others have done so.
Their type of formation has all been the same except in the case of the
clumber. That is, they have been neither long nor low, but short-backed
and active, with legs at least as long as the dogs were deep through the
heart. Although one of them was a black in colour, he was most removed
from the dog-show black field spaniels and all of them, and may safely
be called by the re-created term “springer.”
[Illustration:
MR. EVERSFIELD’S FIELD TRIAL WINNING ENGLISH SPRINGER SPANIELS OF A
LIVER-AND-WHITE BREED KEPT FOR WORK ALONE IN THE FAMILY OF THE
BOUGHEYS OF AQUALATE FOR A HUNDRED YEARS
]
[Illustration:
RED AND WHITE FIELD TRIAL WELSH SPRINGER SPANIELS BELONGING TO MR. A.
T. WILLIAMS
]
[Illustration:
FIELD TRIAL ENGLISH SPRINGER SPANIELS OF THE LIVER-AND-WHITE
(AQUALATE) BREED BELONGING TO MR. C. C. EVERSFIELD
]
But meantime there have been other good although not remarkable dogs at
the field trials. Mr. Eversfield has had many, Mr. Alexander has always
been hard to beat, Mr. Phillips has had some excellent clumbers, as also
has Mr. Winton Smith, besides Beechgrove Bee already spoken of, and Mr.
B. J. Warwick has had good dogs. Mr. A. T. Williams, of Neath, has had
good teams of red-and-white springers, which have, as far as the shows
are concerned, monopolised the classes for this one colour. It is said
to have been bred true to this red-and-white mixture for many years in a
few families in South Wales. At the same time, there were other families
in South Wales which bred spaniels of many colours for the woodcocks and
the very stiff coverts of the South-West corner, or Little England
beyond Wales, as it was called. Thirty-five years ago the author shot
over black-and-white, liver-and-white, and red-and-white dogs, all from
the same litters, and these were the most determined hunters and the
quickest stayers then known. But as the author knows of none now
representative of them except the red-and-white Welsh springers, these
may be taken for the type, and they are undoubted hard workers and quite
careless of bramble and gorse.
Retrieving spaniels have been very highly spoken of by as practical big
bag-makers as the late Sir Fred Milbank, who used them for grouse
driving. All the breeds above named retrieve well except the Welsh
springers, none of which have been broken with that intention, so far as
is known to the author. Mr. Williams only works spaniels in coverts and
in teams, and believes that a retriever proper is the best for his own
work.
It is not possible to have several spaniels seeking dead at one time
unless they are all within sight; but there is no fear of tearing the
game when the dogs can be seen, as they can be upon a moor, or in open
cover, or in fields.
The difference of opinion between sportsmen as to which are the better
dogs for retrieving probably arises because of mental reservations of
those who express opinions. The advocates of spaniels are probably
speaking of a team, and those who sing the praises of retrievers are
thinking of one retriever against one spaniel. Except upon the line of a
runner, a single retriever is usually much better than a single spaniel
on any ground, and although the spaniel is quicker on the actual line of
the runner, he usually takes much longer than the retriever to find the
fall of the bird or the place to start from. Altogether, the retriever
is preferable, unless a team of retrieving spaniels can be worked at the
same time, and even then several retrievers will probably be as
satisfactory, except that they take up more room in traps and motor
cars.
The best spaniel for all-round purposes is the English springer; he is
active, stays well, and can retrieve well. The clumber cannot be coupled
with him, because he is not supposed to stay, and moreover he is as big
as a retriever to get about country, and without being nearly as active.
In the New Forest, where shooters are limited to a fixed number of dogs,
nobody will look at a clumber; so that for heavy work a change of team,
or dog, at lunch-time would probably be needed were clumbers relied
upon. No such charge can be brought against either English or Welsh
springers, but the cockers are only one remove better than toys, the
field black spaniels, and the Sussex breeds.
Irish water spaniels have been mostly kept and altered for show, and the
few that the author has seen at work of late years have been extremely
moderate performers.