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Dogs and All about Them
·
Robert Leighton
186
II.
THE
IRISH
WATER
SPANIEL.--There
is
only
one
breed
of
dog
known
in
these
days
by
the
name
of
Irish
Water
Spaniel,
but
if
we
are
to
trust
the
writers
of
no
longer
ago
than
half
a
century
there
were
at
one
time
two,
if
not
three,
breeds
of
Water
Spaniels
peculiar
to
the
Emerald
Isle.
These
were
the
Tweed
Water
Spaniel,
the
Northern
Water
Spaniel,
and
the
Southern
Water
Spaniel,
the
last
of
these
being
the
progenitors
of
our
modern
strains.
The
history
of
the
Irish
Water
Spaniel
is
in
many
ways
a
very
extraordinary
one.
According
to
the
claim
of
Mr.
Justin
McCarthy,
it
originated
entirely
in
his
kennels,
and
this
claim
has
never
been
seriously
disputed
by
the
subsequent
owners
and
breeders
of
these
dogs.
It
seems
improbable
that
Mr.
Justin
McCarthy
can
actually
have
originated
or
manufactured
a
breed
possessing
so
many
extremely
marked
differences
and
divergences
of
type
as
the
Irish
Water
Spaniel;
but
what
he
probably
did
was
to
rescue
an
old
and
moribund
breed
from
impending
extinction,
and
so
improve
it
by
judicious
breeding,
and
cross-breeding
as
to
give
it
a
new
lease
of
life,
and
permanently
fix
its
salient
points
and
characteristics.
However
that
may
be,
little
seems
to
have
been
known
of
the
breed
before
he
took
it
in
hand,
and
it
is
very
certain
that
nearly
every
Irish
Water
Spaniel
seen
for
the
last
half
century
owes
its
descent
to
his
old
dog
Boatswain,
who
was
born
in
1834
and
lived
for
eighteen
years.
He
must
have
been
a
grand
old
dog,
since
Mr.
McCarthy
gave
him
to
Mr.
Joliffe
Tuffnell
in
1849,
when
he
was
fifteen
years
old;
and
his
new
owner
subsequently
bred
by
him
Jack,
a
dog
whose
name
appears
in
many
pedigrees.
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