The Great Dane. 277 



stamps him as a distinct variety, and one of such noble qualities, that 

 I would like to see such encouragement given at our Kennel Club 

 shows to this variety, and to the Eussian wolfhound, and a few others, 

 as would stimulate breeders to produce them and bring them forward 

 at our shows in greater numbers. 



CHAPTER XIV. THE GREAT DANE. 

 BY CORSINCON. 



THE most consistent and also persistent advocate for including the 

 great Dane among the list of British dogs is Mr. Frank Adcock, of 

 Shevington Hall, Wigan, and his monster dog Satan and bitch Proserpina, 

 known among the habitues of dog shows as "the Devil and his wife," 

 are the specimens of the breed most familiar to the dog showing public. 



The great Dane is referred to by those eminent naturalists, Linnaeus 

 and Buffon, as a prominent and distinct variety. 



Buffon, who I am disposed to think held exaggerated views of the 

 influence of climate, classes the great Dane among those varieties that 

 had been modified and formed by climatic influence, and owing his origin 

 to the sheepdog, and the small Danish dog in his thesis is a modified 

 bulldog. 



To follow out this argument would, however, carry us too far from the 

 present subject, but I must, in passing, point out the discrepancy 

 between Buffon, the author of the "Sportsman's Cabinet," and Youatt, 

 the latter looking on the Dalmatian as the small Dane, and the great 

 Dane identical with it in all but size. 



The great Dane has long been a recognised breed throughout central 

 Europe, and, as already observed in the article on the German boar- 

 hound, that dog has probably a good deal of the Dane blood in him. 



The Danish dog and the Irish wolfhound have been held, by Buffon and 

 other writers, to be identical, and most of the best authorities on the 

 subject admit a strong agreement in principal features. 



Buffon observes of the Irish wolfhound that he strongly resembled in 



