The Great Dane 539 



More to the point, however, we have a Dane in the Ridinger, with ears 

 cropped round as in the Tempesta picture. This is a good type of dog, and 

 is in marked contrast to that in Buffon, whose "Histoire Naturelle" was 

 illustrated throughout by De Seve, a poor hand at dogs. His matin, 

 grand Danois, and levrier (a small greyhound) are all very much alike in 

 outline, and the latter two more particularly in the badly formed hind- 

 legs. The Great Dane is very deficient in squareness of muzzle compared 

 with what we see in most representations of the breed, although the Syd- 

 enham Edwardes drawing does not show much of this feature. Buffon 

 gives us a table of dimensions of the dogs he considers the principal varieties, 

 and this may either be an average in the way of measurements or of a selected 

 specimen. M. Daubenton, in whose section of the chapter this appears, 

 gives no clue as to that in his introductory remarks. The measurements 

 are recorded in the old style of the French pied, which was 13! inches of our 

 measurements. Altered to our scale the Great Dane is given as 28 inches at 

 the forequarters and i inches less at the hindquarters, length of head nj 

 inches and girth of muzzle at midway to the eyes 13 inches. These figures 

 exceed those given for the matin by only about an inch. The only notice- 

 able differences in their comparative measurements is in the circumference 

 of the body which seems to show an extremely light-bodied dog. Behind 

 the forelegs the matin is given as 2 feet, and the Great Dane as 2 feet 8 inches, 

 and the greatest circumference of the body is an inch larger in the matin, 

 and an inch and a half in the Great Dane. 



To give an idea what those figures represent we have measured our Irish 

 terrier Borthwick Lass close behind the forelegs and find her girth, tight, 23 

 inches. She has with increasing years more girth than most terriers of her 

 height, but not excessively so; yet she is practically the same as the matin 

 record. Another point not given in the measurements is the weight, and 

 this we find in a paragraph referring to a matin between three and four years 

 old. The measurements are slightly larger than in the table: 2 feet 2 inches 

 at the withers, and 2 feet 2j inches greatest girth, and weighing but 73 

 pounds. That would make a Great Dane, such as he describes as typical 

 of the breed, weighing about 85 pounds. We leave the reader to draw his 

 own conclusions from the presentation of these facts which show what the 

 largest dog of Eastern Europe one hundred and fifty years ago was when 

 measured and put on the scales. 



It is probably true that at this period the breed was larger and heavier 



