THE BRITISH PUG>;ACES. 55 



well-known British Prince Caractacus. This Cimobline lived 

 in the reigns of Tiberias and Caligula, and died before the 

 Autumn of 43 A.D. He was the first to mint money with an 

 impression, having procured artists, and masters of the mint, 

 from the Continent. 



On one side of a coin, illustrated in Whitaker, is the figure 

 of a naked man bearing a club, on the reverse, a figure seated 

 on what Whitaker thought to be the figure of "the British 

 mastiff bearing a child on its back.' 1 I exulted on first reading 

 this account (kindly sent me by Miss J. E. Walker of Clifton, 

 a good judge and enthusiastic admirer of the mastiff, of which 

 she possesses some fine specimens. Miss Walker is also a 

 most accomplished lady, gifted with the sounder erudition, 

 those of the last century were not unfrequently possessed of) 

 seeing that if correct, it would be an unquestionable proof of 

 the size and power of the British mastiff" of that date, for I 

 need hardly point out no bulldog could bear even a child on 

 its back. 



But after careful inspection of the cut of the coin, engraved 

 first by Dr. Pettingall, from Mr. Da lines collection, I feel 

 bound, although reluctantly, to differ in opinion from the 

 learned writers, as to what the impressions were really 

 intended to represent. 



In all humility I would suggest that the one side was 

 intended not to represent the British king, but Hercules, as 

 the emblem of power, and I may suggest further that Cunob- 

 lines mint master being probably a Roman (as Whitaker 

 points out) his dies would be of Roman artistic design, which 

 would fully account for any allegorical representation of 

 Hercules, as the emblem of power and strength. That 

 Hercules was known to the Britons at an early date, through 



