The English Springer Spaniel - A Complete Anthology of the Dog

By Read Books Ltd.

The English Springer Spaniel - A Complete Anthology of the Dog gathers together all the best early writing on the breed from our library of scarce, out-of-print antiquarian books and documents and reprints it in a quality, modern edition. This anthology includes chapters taken from a comprehensive range of books, many of them now rare and much sought-after works, all of them written by renowned breed experts of their day. These books are treasure troves of information about the breed - The physical points, temperaments, and special abilities are given; celebrated dogs are discussed and pictured; and the history of the breed and pedigrees of famous champions are also provided. The contents were well illustrated with numerous photographs of leading and famous dogs of that era and these are all reproduced to the highest quality. Books used include: The Kennel Encyclopaedia by J. Sidney Turner (1911), Dogs Of The World by Arthur Craven (1931), Hutchinson's Dog Encyclopaedia by Walter Hutchinson (1935) and many others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: May 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781447491231

Book preview

THE ENGLISH SPRINGER

This good old English name has been recently revived by the Kennel Club to designate the old-fashioned, medium-legged Spaniels of all colours that are neither Clumber nor Sussex Spaniels, and to distinguish between them and the short-legged variety, which is for the future to be classed under the (appropriately modern) title of Field Spaniel. The title in full description of the subject of this section would be: English Springer, except Clumber Sussex and Field.

Stonehenge, in his Manual of British Rural Sports (1858), calls all large Springers that are not Clumber or Sussex, Norfolk Spaniels; but this appellation, after serious consideration, the Kennel Club has finally rejected, because of the prevalent belief, deeply rooted though fallacious, that the Norfolk Spaniel was always liver-and-white in colour. The epithet of Norfolk was derived from a Duke of that cognomen, who established an improved breed of sporting Spaniel, and has nothing to do with the county—in fact, it was probably at first interchangeable with Sussex, the native home of the Duke in question.

We find in Harewood’s Dictionary of Sport (1835), on page 318, the following clear definitions:—The true English Springer differs but little in figure from the Setter, except in size, being nearly two-fifths less in height and strength than the Setter; delicately formed, ears long, soft, and pliable, coat waving and silky, the tail somewhat bushy and pendulous, and always in motion when actively employed. The Cocker, though of the same race, is smaller than the Springer. It has also a shorter and more compact form, a rounder head, shorter nose, ears long, the limbs strong and short, the coat more inclined to curl than the Springer’s, and longer, particularly in the tail, which is generally truncated. And again, on page 314:—"The Spaniel (Canis extrarius), says the author of British Field Sports, is a dog of high antiquity, and has ever been applied to his present purposes, namely, those of finding and bringing game when killed to his master, whether by land or water. Taplin, in the Sportsman’s Cabinet" (1803), insists, also, upon the similarity in type of the Setter (or Setting-Spaniel) and the Springer (or Springing-Spaniel), so that Mr. Harewood’s ideas in 1835, were by no means newfangled.

These Spaniels were originally brought over from France some hundreds of years ago, for Caius in 1576 treats of them at some length and with evident knowledge, although Edmund de Langley (1341-1402) and Juliana Berners (1486) apparently borrowed from foreign sources their allusions to a dog known to them by repute alone.

In the British Museum there is a collection of sporting engravings, dated 1551, after Jean de Tournes. One of these represents a French Spaniel, or Barbet, retrieving a duck, and the dog is much of the same type as Shirley in the illustration at Fig. 67. But, after all, the main interest about the English Springer lies in his being to-day the most generally useful gundog in Britain. Unique in his adaptability, in his sunny disposition, and in his