"Feet and Legs. 'Fore-legs' straight, well boned. They should be well furnished with wavy hair all round and down to the feet, which should be large and round. 'Hind-legs' stifle long, hock set low; they should be well furnished except from the hock down the front. "Coat.-Neither woolly nor lank, but should consist of short crisp curls right up to the stern. Top-knot should fall well over the eyes. It, and furnishing of ears, should be abundant and wavy. "Colour.-Dark rich liver or puce (to be judged by its original colour). A sandy light coat is a defect. Total absence of white desirable; any except a little on chest or a toe, should disqualify. "General Appearance. That of a strong, compact, dashing-looking dog, with a quaint and very intelligent aspect. They should not be leggy, as power and endurance are required of them in their work. Noisy and joyous when out for a spree, but mute on game. And it may be stated that the Irish water spaniel is the only dog of his variety not subjected to the custom of having his tail docked or shortened. The weight of the Irish water spaniel should be from 50lb. to 60lb., or, maybe, a trifle over the latter. figures. Colonel the Hon. Le Poer Trench's wellknown dog Shaun, at five years old, scaled 64lb. ; his young dog Shamus, at one and a half years old, 63lb.; his bitch Harp, at eight and a half years old, 54lb.; and the three and a half years old Erin, 61lb. These three dogs may be taken as typical specimens of this variety, and of about the average and ordinary weight. CHAPTER XII. THE ENGLISH WATER SPANIEL. PERSONALLY I should not have taken any further notice of this variety than has already been done, believing it to be almost, if not entirely, extinct, its place being now occupied by the ordinary retriever; but the Spaniel Club still acknowledges it, so some introduction to their description is required. The old-fashioned water dog our great grandfathers used was the English water spaniel. Mostly liver and white in colour, with a curly coat, it was just such an animal as would be produced through a cross between the modern brown curly-coated retriever and an ordinary liver and white spaniel. Reinagle, in the "Sportsman's Cabinet," gives us such a dog, and later, so recently as 1845, Youatt describes and illustrates the "Water Spaniel." That writer gives it a good character for docility, &c., and Ewan Smith draws him not unlike a modern curly retriever, but evidently liver and white. Certainly his illustration makes this spaniel a bigger dog than we should have taken the English water spaniel ever to have been. However, the dog is not bred or kept now as a special variety, nor is there much likelihood of its being quickly resuscitated. Youatt said that the true breed was, even at the time he wrote, lost, and the variety was then a cross between the "water dog" and the English setter. However, I believe that the old "water dog" and the English water spaniel were identical, and my opinion is pretty well supported by those who may be considered authorities on the matter. At some of the earlier Birmingham dog shows classes were provided for English water spaniels, but few entries were obtained, and, these becoming fewer and fewer, the classes were discontinued entirely. I have not seen such a spaniel on the bench or in the ring for a long time; the Kennel Club Stud book during the past few years will be searched in vain for an entry of the breed, and the last so entered in 1886 had no pedigree attached them. Curiosities rather than eligibilities for any Stud Book. In some recent remarks on the English water spaniel Mr. J. F. Farrow, of Ipswich, says: "The grandest specimen of this variety of spaniel I ever saw was Mr. P. Bullock's Rover, which I came across at Birmingham in 1869, when awarded the second prize in the English Water Spaniel dog class. Although beaten for the first place at this exhibition, he made such an impression upon me that I can see him in my mind's eye at the time of writing these notes, almost as clearly as when I was looking at him at the Birmingham Show in 1869. I had more than one conversation with those old spaniel and sporting dog judges, Mr. W. Lort and the Rev. T. Pearce ("Idstone") in reference to this dog, and both thought him a most typical specimen. He won first prize at Birmingham in 1866, 1868, 1870, and at the Crystal Palace, and gold medal at Paris in 1865-the latter a win that, however, the owner and breeder of Rover thought more of, and a medal he was more pleased to show his friends, than any of his numerous other prizes. This dog was a beautiful, bright chestnut-red in colour, with a very deep square body, which was not long, legs straight, and about twice as long as the fashionable field spaniel seen at our present exhibitions, with beautiful flat bone, which in quantity was sufficient to carry his grand body without being lumbersome. I never heard the weight of Rover, but should judge him, in show |