THE BRITISH PUGNACES. 65 



manner by writers treading on the footsteps of each other, 

 when treating on the mastiff and bulldog, both having laid 

 claim to the same fallacy, that at the time of the Roman 

 dominion over Britain there existed an officer (Procurator 

 Cynegii) who was stationed at Winchester, and that his 

 business was to selecl: British mastiffs or bulldogs, and 

 forward them to Rome to fight in the Amphitheatre. 



Now the most absurd part of this hackneyed statement is 

 that none of its users are able to state any authority for their 

 assertion, except by referring to some predecessor. Camden 

 is the earliest author I know who has treated on this, and 

 from what he writes, it would appear that the error was 

 extant at his time ; yet it will readily be seen from what is 

 said in Gough's Edition of Camden, that the whole super- 

 structure hangs on the translation of a single word, namely, 

 that of Cynoacii or Cynegii. I have never met with anything 

 to warrant any reason for believing such an Officer, Steward, 

 or Agent for mastiffs or dogs of any sort existed, either in 

 any Greek or Latin author coeval with the Roman occupation, 

 and it is only probable that had there been any Roman 

 agent stationed to procure and forward dogs to Rome, some 

 mention or reference to it would have been found in the 

 classics. 



There is nothing in the Monumenta Historica compiled by 

 the record commission that warrants any such assertion, and 

 the passage in Gough's Camden goes a long way to prove it 

 is an error that has crept in and grown. 



Camden under Hantshire writes, upon the town of Winches- 

 ter. ' The city was certainly considerable in the Roman 



K 



