Lessons from the gundog golden age
Golden ages are funny things. Nobody tends to recognise them at the time and it’s only later, looking back, that they are duly acknowledged. I’m sure nobody who lived in the early years of the 20th century realised that those heady seasons leading up to World War I would become the golden age of the gundog, but I reckon that’s what they were.
In 1900, Queen Victoria was still on the throne, the hammerless shotgun was a novelty and neither the labrador retriever nor the English springer spaniel had been recognised by the Kennel Club. Within a year, Victoria was dead and her son, Bertie — King Edward VII — ascended the throne. A passionately keen shooting man, he did much to popularise driven game shooting, a sport
