CHAPTER V. 

 THE BRITISH PUGNACES. 



Cry, Havock, ancl let slip the dogs of war. 



Shakespeare. Julius Ccesar. 



WHEN Marius, (who died B.C. 86) defeated the Cimbri, 

 according to Strabo, the war dogs so successfully defended 

 the women and baggage, that the battle had to be recom- 

 menced. These Cimbrican or German mastiffs were (together 

 with the Gallic greyhound) the probable ancestors of the 

 German boarhounds. 



The ancient uses of the war dogs were to guard the baggage 

 and chariots containing the women in times of war, and in 

 those of peace, to guard the houses of their masters, and to 

 assist in driving the half-domesticated cattle and swine from 

 the woods and forest glades, and to guard the folds from the 

 wolf. 



There is a breed indigenous to, or at least of great antiquity 

 in Holland and Germany, called the Dutch mastiff, and are 

 closely allied to the British variety, being of a very fierce 

 nature, and presenting the short truncated muzzle. This 

 breed, which are apparently the true descendants of the war 

 dogs of Gaul, have been much crossed says a well known 

 writer, with the larger mastiff. 



In the Chronicles of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, 

 there is mention of a mastiff called Dreadn aught, who saved 

 his master from the coils of a serpent by his courage and 



