44 THE ALAN OR ALAUNT. 



The bulldog having no native name, shows that the breed 

 did not exist in Wales, unless it was derived from dwarfed 

 specimens of the gafaelgi. 



In all works like the Mabinogion we can hardly expect 

 words to be used in a very specific sense, and with regard to 

 the " cedenog " or shagginess, all our mastiffs formerly, 

 probably had a more shaggy coat. The coat being long and 

 rugged is mentioned as a characteristic of the Lancashire 

 mastiff, in the time of Hen. viii., and some strains of bulldogs 

 were formerly very inclined to a woolly and roughish co;it. 



W. Wotton, S.T.P. and his coadjutor M. Williams, A.M. 

 R.S.S. in their famous work Leges Wallace or Welsh Laws 

 of Howel Dda Etc., published 1730, renders cosdawg as a 

 molossus or mastiff, whereas one of the most learned of modern 

 Welsh scholars. The Rev. Silvan Evans, Rector of Llamvrin, 

 (to whom for the foregoing information 1 am mainly indebted, 

 and who kindly gave me all the information in his power on 

 the subject) holds that cosdawg means a dog of inferior breed, 

 literally a plebeian dog, and it is certain that they were of little 

 consideration, according to the value of dogs in the Welsh 

 Laws, being only estimated at fourpence. 



Xvii " Can-is Dottiest icus (cosdawg} ab quemcunqnt pertinent 

 etiam Regis, fucrit iv denarios tantnm valet. DC Prctiis Caintiii. 



The Laws of Wales, Ecclesiastical and Civil of" Howcl the 

 good" were compiled from still earlier ones, and werecoacer- 

 vated and written after a kind of national convention, and 

 received the confirmation of Rome in 930, and have been most 

 wonderfully preserved. They were published by W'otton and 

 Williams in 1730, in a large folio, Welsh and Latin; being 

 compiled from various parchment M.S.S. in the British 



