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FIELDING THE REAL SPRINGER
By David Hancock

  Half a century ago, I was confused at conformation dog-shows and at working gundog tests by two very different sizes of the English Springer Spaniel. At one show I thought that the big liver and white gundog before me was an Epagneul Francais and at more than one working test, I thought the small liver and white spaniels might be Cockers, despite the liver colour. Then I read a piece by gundog expert Wilson Stephens in 1978 that read: “In the Gundog Group these breeds which have lost their working potential tend to become the smallest. In such numerically small breeds as Curly-coated Retrievers, Clumber and Sussex Spaniels, the working capacity is peripheral if not extinct. Where the working capacity is the strongest the breeds are also the largest.” He was referring to Labrador Retrievers and English Springer Spaniels. He went on to point out that the show English Springer and the working English Springer are virtually distinct breeds – with some commentators on his words agreeing with him but saying that such a split in physical form was not irreparable. I wonder! I too had found the working springers the smallest and the show springers far bigger, heavier and almost setter-like. Two different breed-types emerging - that is never good for any breed. Depictions of the breed in earlier centuries nearly always featured the smaller type and I suspect that this is the correct breed-type.  

 Few would dispute the supremacy of the English Springer Spaniel at spaniel work in the 20th/21st century. With the Labrador Retriever, the springer has dominated gundog work since the First World War; these two breeds having on sheer field merit, ruled the roost in the working gundog world. The astounding rise in popularity here of the hunt, point and retrieve breeds from mainland Europe in the last fifty years may in time change the whole emphasis of dog-work in the shooting field, but, of our native breeds, the fondness of sportsmen for these two gundog breeds continues without check. If asked to describe their breed, most working springer owners would respond on the lines of "liver and white spaniel, foot and a half high and a real goer!" The Kennel Club would opt for their descriptive if not particularly accurate 400-odd word Breed Standard. But for the latter to state that this breed is "of ancient and pure origin, oldest of sporting gundogs" with a gait or movement "strictly his own" withstands no serious scrutiny. And phrases in this authorised Breed Standard like: "skull of medium length", "eyes medium", "nicely feathered ears", " jaws strong", “body neither too long nor too short", "hindlegs well let down" and "ears lobular, good length and width" offer precious little help with their vagueness.

 What is abundantly clear however to any admirer of the breed who studies dogs and prizes breed characteristics is that the English Springer has simply lost its essential type. Broadly speaking the show type looks like a docked setter whilst the working dog resembles a liver and white Cocker. Gundog men don't always care about appearance, quite naturally, more about performance. But you can lose a breed with that simplistic narrow approach. In her informative book All About the English Springer Spaniel of  1980, Olga Hampton, a much-respected and very knowledgeable breed expert, wrote: “Always remember that the English Springer is a dog that should be built for work and that the original Standard was laid down by the shooting fraternity…All must accept that the English Springer is a working breed and it might be said that appearance should not be the only criterion in assessing the dog” But her gentle advice was soon totally ignored by show ring judges after her time.

   Two hundred years ago, Richard Lawrence, a veterinary surgeon of great experience with dogs, was writing in "The Complete Farrier" that :"The true English springer differs but little in figure from the setter, except in size; varying only in a small degree, if any, from a red yellow or liver colour, which seems to be the invariable external standard of this breed." So, our knowledgeable more distant ancestors considered the breed to be setter-like; contemporary experts have ruled out all mention of this in the extant blueprint for the breed. The "pure origin" of the breed, claimed by the Kennel Club but disputed by countless authoritative writers, has not been improved in the last hundred years by the introduction of Pointer, Irish Setter and black and tan Field Spaniel blood, as the much-respected Frank Warner Hill has testified. I am never against the introduction of outside blood to revitalise any purebred strain and I don't believe that small size variations or colour matter at all. But type does matter, it is a sign that the real blood is present.

Blaine, writing in 1807, stated that: "The variety of Spaniels are numerous. A popular distinction made between them by many writers is into Springers, Cockers, and Water Spaniels. Conventionally this distinction is understood, but critically it will not bear examination, particularly as regards the first two divisions." This is supported by the fact that the Welsh Springer has been called the Welsh Cocker for much of its history. Another authority of that time wrote that: "The true English Spaniel differs but little in figure from the Setter except in size." That great expert CA Phillips wrote early in the 20th century that: "...strictly speaking, all the different varieties of Spaniels are 'Springers', the name originally having been used in contradistinction to 'Setters'..."

 The Kennel Club-authorised Breed Standard states that the English Springer is the "highest on leg and raciest in build of all British Land Spaniels", going on to claim that this breed is "of ancient and pure origin". Gervaise Markham however was writing in the 17th century: "It is reasonable that people should cross Land Spaniels and Water Spaniels, and the Mungrells between these, and the Mungrells of either with the Shallow Flew'd Hound, the Tumbler, the Lurcher and the small bastard Mastiff...all of which are yet inferior to the truebred Land Spaniel--if one could still find one of those". Not much support for the "pure origin" claimants of the KC!

 The springers that I see working in the field are anything but high on the leg and racy in build, as the KC also insists they must be. One day a pedantic, dissatisfied purchaser of a springer pup might invoke the Trades Descriptions Act! What is the difference between these springers and a sprocker - a springer-cocker cross? Colour is not much of a guide either in identifying a real English Springer. The KC nowadays decrees that their colour should be: Liver and white, black and white, or either of these colours with tan markings. Around 1807, Captain Brown, regarded as "a very creditable authority" described them as red, yellow or liver colour and white. Eighty years ago, the Breed Standard itself specified: black and tan; liver and tan; black, liver, black, tan and white; liver and white; liver, tan and white; lemon and white, roans etc. Whatever happened to the lemon and whites? Are they springers no longer? This edition of the standard incidentally put the weight of the dog at about 40lbs. Forty years later it was 50lbs. On the question of colour, the standard of forty years ago stated that: "...any recognised Land Spaniel colour is acceptable"; did this mean that whole-coloured jet-black was acceptable? For this is a land spaniel colour.

 Writing in 1906, Rawdon Lee stated that the breed could be of "any hue, barring orange and white, which is now the acknowledged colour of the Welsh springer or cocker". One hundred years before this, they could be 'red' - the Welsh Springer colour. So, in this breed, prized for its ancient origin, the ancient colours are no longer desired! The American KC insists that "off" colours such as lemon, red or orange should be penalised and their possessors not placed. Yet they also insist that those dogs in the breed lacking true English Springer type should be penalised. The true type in their country of origin contained red and yellow in 1807 and lemon in 1907. The real purpose behind the American wording is given away in the preamble to the AKC Breed Standard: "Unquestionably the present standard has helped to make the Springer more uniform as a breed." In other words, uniformity is seen as having more merit than traditional variety. This is breeding to suit the breeders not the dog. The result of such thinking in this country has been to remove the rich variety in coat colours in the breed, i.e. its ancient heritage. Yet today we have a breed which is anything but uniform.

County not the Duke

 Inadequate research into the association of the sporting spaniel with the word 'Norfolk' has not helped the English Springer Spaniel’s breed history; again and again, breed historians link this name with the Duke of Norfolk. The poet Southey's collection contains references to the Duke of Norfolk and his spaniels. These were not sporting spaniels however but Toy spaniels , being described as "King James's", black and tan, and "solely" in his possession. In his valuable and authoritative The Dog Book of 1906, James Watson comments: "...even the usually trustworthy Dalziel is found surmising that this was the Duke of Norfolk's breed, hence the name. (Rawdon) Lee follows suit and quotes Youatt as to the Duke getting the black and tan by crossing with the terrier." But the link is with the county rather than the duke.

 A number of writers have denied the existence of Norfolk spaniels but authors such as Vero Shaw, 'Idstone', 'Stonehenge' and Stables describe them fully under that name and virtually as English springers. Bede Maxwell, in her powerfully-argued and forthrightly-written The Truth about Sporting Dogs, does get nearer to the truth when she writes: "My thought is that the name could be purely geographical". She then suggests a link between the Norfolk Spaniel, liver and white and bigger than other spaniel breeds, and the Coke family of Holkham Hall in Norfolk in the very early part of the 19th century. She quotes 'Idstone's' reference to the fact that "Mr. Coke and the Duke (i.e. of Gordon) bred from the same stock" -- Gordon setters in this case, as clear evidence of Coke's possession of high-quality gundogs.

Coke’s Spaniels

 Leighton-Boyce and Gompertz, the justly well-respected breed historians of setter breeds, both acknowledge that Alexander, fourth Duke of Gordon (1743-1827) obtained his original setters from Thomas William Coke (1754-1842), later Earl of Leicester, around 1815. Coke also favoured pointers, as Reinagle's portrait of him in 1815 indicates. Coke would have needed dogs for spaniel work too. They too would have been bred to his standards and therefore coveted. Thornhill describes Coke as..."a man of fortune, surrounded with gamekeepers...pointers, setters, etc, without number..." Coke is nationally famous as an agricultural innovator and an acknowledged breeder of farm animals, but also as a superlative shot and sporting landowner. But any link between this celebrated sportsman and a particular type of sporting spaniel is best illustrated in three separate portraits of him. For the two major portraits of Coke on display at his family home to feature spaniels indicates to me the value he placed on them. The third painting shows Coke as a youth, but also features a brown and white spaniel and again confirms his partiality for this type of dog.

  There would have been no shortage of spaniel work in Norfolk when Thomas Coke and his neighbours were shooting. His estate comprised 40,000 acres, with the first game records starting in 1789. From Elveden Hall on Breckland Heath up on the Suffolk border across to the Sandringham estate, there was Lord Walsingham's Merton, Lord Henniker's Thornton, Lord Abemarle's Quidenham, the Duke of Grafton's Euston, as well as Holkham, with Lord Kensington's Heydon Hall, Lord Orford's Houghton and the Windhams' Felbrigg not far away. Walked up shooting on estates such as these would have demanded the support of spaniels by the hundred. The nearby fens and the needs of the wildfowlers would have substantially increased that demand. There is a delightful picture, by William Redmore Bigg in 1803, of a shooting party at Felbrigg Hall which depicts the Norfolk type of spaniel. There is another painting, 'A Big Shoot at Sandringham in 1867' by Thomas Jones Barker, which also portrays perfectly the liver and white spaniels in use in Norfolk in those times.

Water Dog Capability

 The Norfolk Spaniel featured the liver colour (inherited from the water dog as the surviving water spaniels and some retriever breeds illustrate today) and a coat inclined to curl (associated too with the water spaniels and also inherited from the ancient water dogs, as the Barbet of France, the Wetterhoun of Holland, the Portuguese and Spanish dogs demonstrate to this day). Spaniels in a county such as Norfolk, with its fens, lengthy coastline and long wildfowling heritage, would need to be good in water. If Coke's spaniels were anywhere near as good as his other livestock, they would not have been confined to Norfolk for very long.

 Vero Shaw described the Norfolk Spaniel as like a thick-made English setter, liver and white - heavily flecked, with a blaze of white up the forehead. He gave this spaniel more height than the Clumber or Sussex and less bone but stated that frequent crosses had been made between these breeds. Dalziel describes the Norfolk as belonging to the springer family, liver and white and leggy. 'Stonehenge' says the breed should stand 17 to 18" and Youatt states that the Norfolk of his day was larger, stouter, and stauncher than the "common Springer". Across the sea from Norfolk lies Holland with traditional trade routes between the two. Holland was once famous for its hawking and its hawking dogs, as well as its decoy dogs (the Kooikerhondje surviving to this day) and water dogs (their Wetterhoun also remaining). The Wetterhoun is remarkably similar to our (now extinct) English Water Spaniel: curly-coated, liver and white, 21" at the withers.

Springer’s Development 

 In 19th century Norfolk, dark reddish-brown springer spaniels, retrievers and water spaniels were frequently interbred, good dog to good dog, performance rated above purity as usual in past times. At Aqualate, Shropshire, the Boughey family kept a stud book from 1813 onwards for their 'springer' spaniels, introducing the blood of a French poodle at one stage for "extra sagacity". The Boughey's Mop 1 and Velox Powder are an important part of the pedigree English Springer's heritage. A century ago, there was a small barrel-chested wildfowling dog in Cambridgeshire known locally as the Fen Spaniel, renowned for its resistance to the cold and wet, and in time no doubt, subsumed into the other spaniel breeds. Perhaps another example of the lost sporting dogs of East Anglia. For a century, the English Springer Spaniel has been our most successful sporting spaniel. The topknots and curly coats have been mainly bred out, although they still crop up from time to time. But the Norfolk influence has lasting significance. Men like Coke of Norfolk and Boughey of Aqualate bred for excellence in the field not handsomeness of appearance. They have left us an outstanding breed to provide both an efficient service in the shooting field and great companionship at the hearth. The prowess of working springers in Norfolk in past centuries should never be devalued by being blurred with the Toy dogs of a Duke, wherever his dukedom is located.          

 “The Norfolk spaniel is still be found scattered throughout the country, and is generally of a liver and white colour, sometimes black and white, and rarely lemon and white; usually a good deal ticked with colour in the white. Higher on the leg than the Clumber or the Sussex, he is generally more active than either, sometimes almost rivalling the setter in lightness of frame; his ears are long, lobular, and heavily feathered, and he is a very useful dog when thoroughly broken…but he is so intermixed with other breeds that it is impossible to select any particular specimen as the true type.”

‘Stonehenge’ writing in his The Dogs of the British Islands of 1878.  

  In her book on the breed, Olga Hampton makes a point on size: “Many show springers are well up to size, and, conversely, there are some very small Field Trial dogs being worked. On the whole the Springer is required to work in cover and a large dog tends to jump over rather than work through. It could be that size makes it physically impossible for the dog to get underneath. A dog should stand approximately 20 inches at the shoulder for either sex. As far as weight is concerned, it must be consistent with an active life. The dog must be well-covered but muscle is required – not fat.” I don't mind a springer which is 16" or 22" at the withers. I can see no reason to object to a lemon and white, orange and white or even a mahogany red and white springer, if it can work. But a lack of true type is much more worrying. I see English Springers which look more like Cavalier King Charles Spaniels than a small setter; some feature an almost Afghan hound-like skull or an excessively curly coat like the old English Water Spaniel. The renowned O'Vara springers, like FT champions Spy, Spurt, Spark and Sarkie were considerably smaller than say the Sandylands' springers bred by Gwen Broadley. But all of them had the essential type so necessary if this breed is to retain its identity beyond coat colour. I don't believe this 'typiness' comes from any idiosyncrasies of gait, as the breed standard hints, although their manner of hunting can be most distinctive.

 For me, the essential type in springers is revealed in: the overall appearance of a small setter, the shape of the head, the eager look in the eye and the ratio of body length to body height. The correct English Springer body has the same measurement from the withers to the ground as from the withers to the root of the tail. This ratio produces a thoroughly functional dog, develops the best drive and allows a balanced symmetrical physique. If this ratio is respected, cloddy short-legged dogs or bassetised, long-backed ones are ruled out. The eager look in the eye I would rate highly; I see too many lazy springers which lack any strong desire to work. This cannot augur well for the future of this distinguished sporting breed. It is the desire to work, keenness to hunt, willingness to give service, backed by good construction and sound movement which makes any working dog. In 1790 this type of spaniel was described rather neatly with these words: "...is lively, active and pleasant; an unwearied pursuer of its game; and very expert in raising woodcocks and snipes from their haunts in woods and marshes, through which it ranges with amazing perseverance". Perhaps these are the only words a sensible breed standard really needs, for they tell us what an English Springer is designed to do - work!