THE BRITISH MASTIFF. 4! 



that they were getting scarce in their purity,* having been 

 much crossed with the larger and swifter breeds. This 

 mention on Arrian's part of the crossing of the pure British 

 pugnaces, to obtain greater size, shows very clearly how the 

 British mastiff was manufactured, and accounts for the breed 

 being mentioned by various subsequent writers as the greater 

 and lesser sort.' 



However, there have been some writers and dog fanciers 



[in England, whose imagination being as elastic as their 

 veracity, have been sufficiently insane, as to endeavour to 

 make ont that the English mastiff exists in its purity and is 

 quite a distinct family from the courageous English bulldog 

 The two breeds nevertheless have evidently arisen from a 

 common origin. 



Arrian's incidental mention of the want of swiftness in the 

 British pugnaces, is very suggestive of the kind of mastiff 

 described by Dr. Cains in Elizabeth's reign, as "stubborn 

 "and of a heavy and burdenous body, and therefore of but 

 " little swiftness." Arrian further states that the dog was 

 anciently classed into two groups, that of Canes sagaces and 

 Canes pugnaces, or Bellicosi, the latter, the pugnacious dogs 

 being used in war, belonging to the Albanian, Arcadian, Atha* 

 manian, Egyptian, Hyrcaman, Iberian (Spanish?) Locrian, 

 Lybian, Laconian, Mede, Magnesian, Pannonian, Ser or 

 Indian, Briton, Celt, anil a few others nearly allied, and that 

 the most prevalent idea of the ancients was that the Bellicosi 

 or pugnaces came from Asia. This latter remark as to the 

 supposed Asiatic origin of the British mastiff is of weigiit, as 

 it goes a long way towards confirming the presumption that 

 there was an early importation of the Assyrian or Asiatic 

 mastift into Britain. 



o 



