Although this fancier has almost entirely confined himself, as an exhibitor, to one variety, Curly-coated Retrievers, he has brought out so many good specimens from his West of England kennels that his name is well known to many of my readers in connection with them; and when you see the prefix Tiverton in front of the names of any of those dogs, you may expect to find type and quality. I have very often had them before me in teams of Sporting Dogs, and it is seldom they are "out of the money" in the keenest competition.

I am able to give an excellent portrait of Mr. Darbey, accompanied by Champion Tiverton Victor, a dog of the highest class.

As I remember dogs from this kennel taking bench honours so long ago as the seventies (beginning, I think, with his Doctor and Wonder, who in those days were constantly sent to shows all over the country quite unattended, but generally were high up in the prize lists, and sometimes captured the prize for Best Sporting Dog in the Show), I am sorry to hear their owner, whose business as a manufacturer requires his whole attention, contemplates retiring altogether from the show rings, and can only hope some enterprising fancier will take up the running, which, with such an excellent strain to work with, ought to promise considerable chances of rivalling the successes so long obtained by the owner of the Tiverton kennels in all the best assemblies of Doggy People.

MR. SAMUEL DARBEY WITH HIS CURLY-COATED RETRIEVER CHAMPION TIVERTON VICTOR.

From photo by Walter Mudford, Tiverton.

I need not give any list of the many prizes taken with this strain, for any of my readers interested in the variety can find them recorded in the chronicles of the stud books and shows for the last quarter of a century, as I do not remember any kennel from which so many good specimens have been produced, and I have often admired the high quality and uniformity of type displayed in the teams exhibited by Mr. Darbey.