612 The Dog Book 



toe to top of shoulder was 28^ inches, equal to not over 27 inches standard 

 measure. 



It need occasion no surprise that these gross exaggerations have been 

 accepted to such a large extent; for even at the present day owners whose 

 misinformation is not only easily detected, but is also very well known, add 

 a number of inches to the actual height of such dogs as Great Danes. Mr. 

 Lee in his " Modern Dogs " states that when he and Captain Graham 

 measured the Great Danes at Ranelagh show in 1885 "it was extraordinary 

 how the thirty-five and thirty-six inch animals dwindled down, some of them 

 nearly half a foot at a time." If that was the case such a short time ago, 

 when owners knew that the dogs might be taped at any time, we cannot won- 

 der at Goldsmith judging height by the size of a calf and saying the dog 

 stood four feet high, or that Buffon said a wolfhound he saw seemed to him 

 to be five feet high when seated. The latter was of course height to the top 

 of the head and Goldsmith might have meant the same in fact the great 

 probability is that he did mean that. Estimating by the size of a calf is on 

 a par with the elastic measurements such as "large as a potato," "large as 

 a baby's head," and conveys no accurate meaning. So also when we read 

 in books of 1600 to 1700 that the wolfdogs, as they were called then were 

 larger than mastiffs and larger than greyhounds, we must not think of the 

 largest greyhound or heaviest mastiff we have ever seen and at once conclude 

 that these old writers had similar dogs in mind when they made the compari- 

 son. Mastiffs in their days were very ordinary sized dogs and so, we imagine, 

 were greyhounds, though there was doubtless more latitude in their size than 

 is now the case with the coursing dogs which even yet sometimes vary in a 

 marked degree, such as that great bitch Coomassie, 44 Ibs., and Fullerton, 

 66 Ibs. 



Perhaps we have given too much space to old lore, considering that we 

 have little or no connection with the past in the wolfhounds now being shown. 

 About twenty years ago the extinction of this old breed was very well ac- 

 knowledged and the few enthusiasts who were endeavoring to build it up 

 were then discussing the question as to how to manufacture a breed which 

 would be an exaggeration of the Scottish deerhound in size, bone and sub- 

 stance. The consensus of opinion was that the Great Dane and deerhound 

 promised to be the most advantageous cross. Captain Graham had at 

 least one dog which had some claims to Irish ancestry and he was also used 

 and so was the borzoi, or Russian wolfhound. In fact anything which 



