CHAPTER II 

 THE MASTIFF 



MUCH has been written upon the origin of the Mastiff, but the 

 writers are by no means agreed upon the subject. There can, 

 however, be no doubt that a dog possessing many of the qualities 

 of our Mastiff of the present day has been known in this country 

 from time immemorial. The Romans, when they invaded these 

 islands, found the natives possessed of a large and powerful race 

 of dogs, from which the Mastiff, as known to us, is in all probability 

 descended. Many of these dogs were exported to Rome, to take 

 part in the sports of the amphitheatre, which shows how highly 

 their courage was estimated in those days ; and it is stated that a 

 special officer was appointed to superintend the selection and 

 transmission of these dogs. 



The Mastiff is one of the three kinds of Cur dogs mentioned 

 in the old Welsh laws of the ninth century, and is constantly re- 

 ferred to by old English writers as a house-dog and guardian of 

 live stock and other property. In the forest laws of Henry II. 

 the keeping of these dogs in or near royal forests was the subject 

 of special regulations which would now be considered cruel and 

 oppressive. The statute, which prohibited all but a few privileged 

 individuals from keeping Greyhounds or Spaniels, provided that 

 farmers and substantial freeholders dwelling within the forests might 

 keep Mastiffs for the defence of their houses within the same, pro- 

 vided such Mastiffs be expediated according to the laws of the 

 forest. This " expediating," " hambling," or " lawing," as it was 

 indifferently termed, was .intended so to maim the dog as to reduce 

 to a minimum the chances of his chasing and seizing the deer, and 

 the law enforced its being done after the following manner : " Three 

 claws of the fore foot shall be cut off by the skin, by setting one 

 of his fore feet upon a piece of wood 8 inches thick and i foot 

 square, and with a mallet, setting a chisel of 2 inches broad upon the 

 three claws of his fore feet, and at one blow cutting them clean off." 



The etymology of the word Mastiff has exercised many writers, 

 and very opposite opinions have been expressed with reference to 



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