THE ALAN OR ALAUNT. 45 



Museum and other archives. In the Glossary the word 

 cosdawg is rendered molossus, with the following note : "In 

 the margin of a Harlean Lib. M.S. parchment 93, C. 23. 

 \Iaatyn mastinus quo vocabulo mavores iiostri molossnm " i.e. by 

 which they will denote the larger of our mastiffs. The 

 cosdawg (canis domesticus) is mentioned in the xvii of the 

 Triades. 



These \Yelsh words prove the early existence of the mastiff 

 and its ancient propensity of seizing and holding similar to 

 the more modern bulldog. 



From the father of English classics, Dan Chaucer, we read 

 that there existed in "Britain in his day a variety of dog called 

 the Alan, which appear also to have been termed Alauntes, 

 what these were exactly is not very clear, and the following 

 particulars arc about all I have been able to meet with in 

 reference to the breed. 



Xunnius, who iived it is believed about 620, states that 

 Britain was named after Brito the son of Hasicio, who was 

 the son of Alan, of the family of Zaphet, (Vide Nun, chap, ii.) 

 This ancient scrap of History may not be worthy of credence. 



Of the invasion of the Alan's into Gaul and Britain, there 

 are some curious fragmentary extracts from ancient writers, 

 compiled by Sir Isaac Newton, and given in his " Observations 

 upon the prophesies of Daniel 1733, part i, chap. 6. Spain 

 also was overrun by the Alan tribes. 



Modern writers have mauled and twisted this word Alan, 

 and the breed it designated, without proving or suggesting 

 anything satisfactory, or even probable, still, the term must 

 have had a derivation, and I am inclined to think it is 

 probably, the ancient British name for the mastiff, (although 



