At the winter show of the Kennel Club in 1886 Boss III. once more met Psycho, and Boss III. was put back and Psycho again brought to the front. I acted as judge on that occasion, and I put Boss III. back simply because of his want of Clumber expression, or, in other words, because his is not a Clumber's head. In the descriptive particulars of the Clumber Spaniel, in the standard of points and description of the different varieties of Spaniels just published by the Spaniel Club, the head of the Clumber is very fairly handled, and reads as follows: 'Large, square, and massive, flat on top, ending in a peak at occiput, round above eyes, with a deep stop; muzzle heavy and freckled, lips of upper jaw slightly overhung; skin under eyes dropping, and showing haw.'

I hope our Spaniel judges in future will go for this class of head, and thus save the expression of this beautiful Spaniel from being something between those of the ordinary Field Spaniel and the Clumber. A friend informed me, after judging of Spaniels at the Birmingham Show of 1886, that the judges, the Rev. A. L. Willet and Major Willet, told him they would no longer recognise the long, Field Spaniel character of Clumber head. This fact, with the description issued by the Spaniel Club, should, and I hope will, destroy the fear I had in 1885 about the head of the Clumber of the future. Two of the best Clumbers now being exhibited are Mr. Holmes's (Lancaster) Tower and Mr. J. A. Parlett's (Edgware Road) Trust. Referring to Trust reminds me of another point in which we have lost ground of late years in our Clumber, and that is colour. Trust certainly has little colour; nevertheless, what there is is nearly a liver colour - a most objectionable colour for a Clumber. Trust is, however, not alone, for very many of the Clumbers now being exhibited are far too dark in the colour of their markings, and judges will do well to make a stand against this.

The colour of the Clumber is very important, and I regret to see that the Spaniel Club, in describing the colour, have certainly not handled this point so clearly and strongly as I think they ought to have done.

The Club's description is as follows: 'Plain white, with lemon markings; orange permissible, but not so desirable; slight head markings with white body preferred.' Now, in judging to this description, unless the work is placed in most careful hands, we shall see the colour of our Clumbers gradually become too dark a shade of lemon. I would have added to this description of colour issued by the Spaniel Club the following: 'A decided liver-coloured marking to be a disqualification.'"

Mr. Farrow's notes, though they appeared nearly fifteen years ago, are of such interest that they are worthy of reproduction to-day, although they have been written from a purely show-ring point of view.

But since the last Edition of this book, Working Trials for Spaniels have been instituted by the Sporting Spaniel Society, whose example has been duly followed by the Spaniel Club, so that a new era may be said to have commenced for all the Land Spaniels - a much-needed reformation for the show-spaniel world.

This seems to be the most appropriate place for an account of the origin and methods of these trials, as at the beginning Clumbers carried off the lion's share of the prizes, although it must be confessed the competitors were more distinguished for Clumber pedigree than for actual type.

Every sportsman must regard trials as of the highest importance to the welfare of all breeds of working dogs, as they are the only protection against the incursions of Fancy. Not that Spaniel trials, any more than Pointer and Setter trials, will ever indicate unerringly the best dog - they are not, and cannot be, sufficiently protracted for that; but the winners at them are always well-broken, capable working-dogs, and that is exactly what we, under the glamour of the show-ring, were forgetting that Spaniels were ever meant to be !

The writer is proud to say that he himself was responsible for starting these trials; and they take their origin from his visit to Mr. Isaac Sharpe about five years ago, when he was in search of a Spaniel for his own use. Mr. Sharpe had at that time eight or nine very useful ones; and it was while selecting from these, and lamenting with their owner the general decadence of the race, that the idea was conceived. It was quickly embodied in rules which are practically unaltered up to the present; and was enthusiastically adopted by the Sporting Spaniel Club, since renamed Sporting Spaniel Society, which had been shortly before instituted to recall public attention, if possible, to the work of Spaniels, and to the physical conformation necessary for it.

It is encouraging that the Spaniel Club should have very sensibly imitated the trials of the Sporting Spaniel Society, and if only it persevere with them, its types must right themselves in the end; for even the obstacles interposed by • pride or vested interests must eventually crumble when attacked by practical proof.