Later on the order was reversed, and we believe--though cannot be certain--at the London Kennel Club Show. Champion Lawyer--at one time in my possession--was a heavily built type of Sussex. The Rev. Mr Shields, Mr Fuller, and Mr Newington, all had some of the pure Rosehills, and I also bought a good bitch from Mr Henry Hawkins by Rover III. ex Duchess. The last time that old Buckingham ever appeared on the show bench--and then not for competition--was at the Royal Lancashire Agricultural Society's Show, held at Preston about 1880.
Although the litter out of which I bought Countess was an exceptionally good one--and Countess very typical--Messrs Willet would not award them prizes, owing, they said, to the faintest evidence of tan markings, observed with difficulty.
The typical colour for the Sussex is a light golden liver, and this Bachelor certainly was, Rover being darker.
Poor old Bachelor had a violent death through fighting with a kennel companion--a Gordon Setter.
Champion Rover III. was withdrawn from the show ring for some reason.
Even in those days animated discussion went on in the Press as to what was and what was not typical of the Sussex. There is no gainsaying one fact, and that is that the Sussex of twenty years ago existed in a different state of purity to what he does in the present day.
In casually looking over recent entries at the Kennel Club Show of Sussex Spaniels, it is questionable whether there is a single animal so entered that can justly claim the title of Sussex.
When Mr Jacobs had old Champion Bachelor in his possession, he had not more than one Sussex bitch to mate him with, to my recollection. There can be no doubt that the great improvement--for the show bench--of the modern Spaniels began when Jacobs crossed Bachelor with old Negress, a black Field Spaniel bitch. It destroyed the purity of the Sussex, but if it had not been indulged in, there would, in all probability, have been no class for the breed now. Blacks, livers, and liver and tan, all used to come in the same litter out of Negress, who certainly constituted the nucleus of a fortune to her owner.
The points of the Sussex are as follows:--
_Coat._--Flat, and slightly wavy, but absolutely free from any tendency to curl. Soft and abundant.