THE SPANIEL.
Of this elegant animal, said to be of Spanish extraction, there are several varieties in this country; but it is more than probable that the English Spaniel, the most common and useful breed, is indigenous. It has received from nature a very keen smell, good understanding, and uncommon docility, and is employed in setting for partridges, pheasants, quails, &c. His steadiness in the field, his caution in approaching game, his patience in keeping the bird at bay till the fowler discharges his piece, are objects worthy of admiration. Many sportsmen prefer him to the pointer; and if water is plentiful he is more useful, for his feet are much better defended against the sharp cutting of the heath than those of the pointer, as he has a great deal of hair growing between the toes and round the ball of the feet, of which the pointer is almost destitute. He also ranges much faster, and can endure more fatigue.
“When milder autumn summer’s heat succeeds,
And in the new-shorn field the partridge feeds,
Before his lord the ready spaniel bounds;
Panting with hope, he tries the furrow’d grounds;
But when the tainted gales the game betray,
Couch’d close he lies and meditates the prey;
Secure they trust th’ unfaithful field beset,
Till hovering o’er them sweeps the swelling net.”
Pope’s Windsor Forest
