black colour. Arcussia speaks of them, and of their
being used in connection with the sport of hawking, but from his time
up to the middle of the nineteenth century, though many colours are
spoken of as being appropriate to the various breeds of Spaniels,
no author mentions black.

The first strain of blacks of which we know much belonged to Mr. F.
Burdett, and was obtained from a Mr. Footman, of Lutterworth,
Leicestershire, who was supposed to have owned them for some time.
Mr. Burdett's Bob and Frank may be found at the head of very many
of the best pedigrees. At his death most of his Spaniels became the
property of Mr. Jones, of Oscott, and Mr. Phineas Bullock, of Bilston,
the latter of whom was most extraordinarily successful, and owned
a kennel of Field Spaniels which was practically unbeatable between
the dates of the first Birmingham Show in 1861 and the publication
of the first volume of the Kennel Club's Stud Book in 1874, many,
if not most, of the dogs which won for other owners having been bred
by him. His Nellie and Bob, who won the chief prizes year after year
at all the leading shows, were probably the two best specimens of
their day. Another most successful breeder was Mr. W. W. Boulton,
of Beverley, whose kennel produced many celebrated dogs, including
Beverlac, said to be the largest Field Spaniel ever exhibited, and
Rolf, whose union with Belle produced four bitches who were destined,
when mated with Nigger, a dog of Mr. Bullock's breeding, to form the
foundation of the equally if not more famous kennel belonging to Mr.
T. Jacobs, of Newton Abbot.

It was Mr. Jacobs who, by judiciously mating his Sussex sires
Bachelor, Bachelor III., and others with these black-bred bitches,
established the strain which in his hands and in those of his
successors, Captain S. M. Thomas and Mr. Moses Woolland, carried all
before it for many years, and is still easily at the top of the tree,
being the most sought for and highly prized of all on account of its
"quality."

If Black Spaniels are not quite so popular at present as they were
some years ago, the fault lies with those breeders, exhibitors, and
judges (the latter being most to blame) who encouraged the absurd
craze for excessive length of body and shortness of leg which not
very long ago threatened to transform the whole breed into a race
of cripples, and to bring it into contempt and derision among all
practical men. No breed or variety of dog has suffered m