A day of two halves – Grace – 4th July 2009
I took Grace down to the river later in the afternoon. We didn’t do a great deal of training other than a few drops and the obligatory recalls. Grace always recalls well so this is more to ensure that nothing slips. The river was very low despite a few torrential downpours. A very humid, damp walk.
A DVD arrived in the post today. Des O’Neile had made me aware of a piece of black and white TV footage from the 1960s of Lady Auckland and her famous Cromlix kennel. The TV programme was filmed for a Scottish television programme in 1966 and held in the Scottish Screen Archive. I requested that the programme be transcribed to DVD and for £25 a copy was made and sent. It is interesting on a number of levels – firstly it shows working cockers looking a lot larger than they do now, and working with undocked tails, secondly it shows a lab working – but not the short legged, barrel chested lab of today’s showring, but a much longer legged, deep chested dog, and finally it shows two pointers working – Swallow of Cromlix and Swift of Cromlix. They are both wonderful dogs to watch and both became FtCh if they weren’t at the time of filming. Lady Auckland’s trainer, Angie McLaughlin was also interviewed and he was specifically asked whether the dogs in his kennel were anything like those found in the ring – the answer was an emphatic ‘no’, with a following comment explaining that labradors were the only dog he would consider as dual purpose, but the show pointer, gordon setter and cocker spaniel were now too far removed from the working strains to be worth training for the field. This was 43 years ago…how many litters have been bred since and have all breeders kept an eye on working ability? If we lose the working ability, and I don’t expect to be very popular here, I feel we lose the breed.
The DVD is very interesting, not least because Swallow of Cromlix appears in Archie’s pedigree through the Embercombe line.
July 31, 2009 at 6:32 pm
What a coincidence! I lived at Cromlix House for several years and knew Angie. In fact he gave me my first job working in the kennels stirring tripe in an old bath (for 50 pence, I think!). My mother worked in Cromlix House, eventually becoming the cook. When my father died Lady Aukland had part of the house converted to make a flat for my mother and her two children. (Because of this they discovered the dry rot before it had gone too far so we might have saved her a fortune.) I remember the spaniels you mention. The locals joked that Lady Aukland would put her animals before humans but she was very kind to my family.
August 2, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Hi Sheena, what a great first hand account. Stirring tripe in an old bath must have tested your constitution to the limit though! She does sound like a wonderful woman. I am really grateful for this feedback, isn’t the internet a wonderful thing! Best wishes
Howard