54 THE BRITISH PUGNACES. 



agility. The dog is stated to have been descended from the 

 fore-mentioned cross. However, the Dutch mastiff is still to 

 be met with occasionally in Holland. About 1875, Mr. Theo 

 Basset, (perhaps the best fox terrier judge in England, and 

 at one time a mastiff admirer himself) told me of one of these 

 Dutch mastiffs he had seen in Hamburg, standing not more 

 than 28 inches at shoulder, and weighing iSolbs. He made 

 me a rough sketch of this dog, showing it to have been a long, 

 low, massive animal, with vast bones, but short limbs ; coat 

 and stern both fine. Such very much appears to have been 

 the figure of the ancient pugnaces of Gaul and Britain. 



Meagre as are the records left by the classical writers, there 

 are other and more certain proofs of the exact forms and 

 characteristics of the early British mastiff, and it is to the 

 artist rather than to the penman at this early date, that we 

 are indebted for the type of these war dogs. 



In the History of Manchester, by the Rev. Whitaker, 1773, 

 (a curious and rather rare book, not unfrequently referred to 

 by antiquarians) are some interesting particulars relating to 

 British dogs, but the reader must take his remarks in general, 

 emu grano salis, many being premised on totally incorrect 

 basement, and are contradictory, at the same time the work 

 is an elaborate compilation of historical and curious matter, 

 collected by a too credulous writer, but talented antiquarian, 

 gifted with a flowing diction, and he accepts such matter as 

 the spurious poems of Ossian as genuine history and reliable 

 information. His knowledge of dogs, as might be expected, 

 was plainly very limited. Among a tangled mass of historical 

 information on the mastiff and bulldog, Whitaker gives the 

 cut of a coin of Cunobline successor of Cassivelaunus Pen- 

 dragon or head king, as his name implies, and father of the 



