60 THE BRITISH PUGNACES. 



mouth, and seemingly undershot. This specimen seems to 

 have had some rough hair about the neck, which lion-like 

 mane we see depicted in Hogarth's bull-mastiff, and which 

 formerly was a very common feature both in the mastiff and 

 bulldog, and accounts partly for the Welsh epithet of 

 " cedenog gafaelgi " or shaggy mastiff. It is worthy of 

 notice that in this instance, the ears are figured as having 

 plainly been cropped, which practice appears to have been of 

 great antiquity, and very universal, probably spread by the 

 Romans, who seem to have had the idea of doing away with 

 all superfluous appendages. Perhaps the earliest mention 

 we have of docking a dog's tail was the action of Alcibiades, 

 who cut off his dog's tail, to give the Athenians something to 

 talk about. The practice of cropping the ears is self-evident, 

 and even humane under some circumstances, but the origin 

 and reason for docking the tail is inexplicable. 



In page n, no. 314 of Mr. Smith's work is the head of a 

 mastiff on the handle of some utensil, the ear is uncropped, 

 of medium size, and pointed backwards, the only other feature 

 particularly worthy of note in this, is the heavy blunt muzzle. 

 There is in the Archaelogica Cantiana a plate, lithographed 

 by Thos. Kell, of London, from a drawing of Humphrey 

 Wickham, Esq., from a Romano Britannic pottery vessel in 

 the collection of Mr. Teanby. Wr. Wickham very kindly 

 furnished me with particulars and a tracing. The subject, 

 an imbossed hunting scene, in which the dog is chasing a 

 hind. This compared with the foregoing examples I have 

 mentioned, is a very rough piece of art, and possibly partially 

 distorted by the action of firing. The dog is quite as large 

 as the hind, has a large short head, with the tongue hanging 

 out of the side of his mouth from the exertion of the chase, 



