EARLY DOGS 



and her long-haired and other Terriers, though for lack of specific 

 detail on the part of the writers of those days and of sculptures, 

 the actual conformation of the last named is left practically to 

 conjecture. 



The early Romans classified the dogs in accordance with their 

 utilitarian properties. Thus we have 

 Canes villatici, or House-dogs , Canes 

 pastorales, or Shepherd-dogs ; and Canes 

 venatiri, or Sporting dogs. The last were 

 again subdivided into Pugnaces, or Fight- 

 ing dogs, like the Mastiffs, Bulldogs, 

 etc., and the Sagaces, or Hunting dogs, 

 like the Greyhounds. 



As already hinted, the early Britons 

 had a most formidable Mastiff -like 

 animal that, history says, was exported to 

 Rome to give battle in the arena of the 

 amphitheatre with the bulls. There were, 

 too, the Greyhound, which does not ap- 

 pear to have undergone any great modi- 

 fication ; and the Gazehound, that Op- 

 pian describes as a small hunting dog 

 with a good voice, crooked-legged, slight, 

 and shaggy, but possessing feet armed 

 with formidable nails. This last state- 

 ment is somewhat peculiar, as one would 

 imagine a dog that was used for hunting 

 could not very well possess long toe- 

 nails. 



In the tenth century mention is made 

 of Bloodhounds, Spaniels, Shepherd-dogs, 

 and House-curs, and of course Mastiffs ; 

 but neither coins, sculptures on monu- 

 ments, nor pottery of the period, give 

 anything like a true representation of the 

 dogs. All show a more or less exagger- 

 ated type (Fig. 12). 



Coming to more recent times, we find 

 the dearth of specific information with 

 regard to dogs quite as great as that 

 which characterised pre-mediaeval days; while the representations 

 of dogs upon monumental tombs are often so rude as to give but 

 the slightest clue to the identity of the animals thereon depicted. 

 Sometimes it is the Greyhound that is thus selected as an emblem 

 of fidelity ; at others a spotted dog, it may be a Dalmatian of the 

 period (Fig. 13), and at yet others a lapdog (Fig. 14), by some 



