CHAPTER VI. 

 THE BANDOG OR MASTIFF. 



The Friar set his fist to his mouth, 

 And whuted whutes three ; 

 Half a hundred good band-dogs 

 Came running over the lee. 

 P>l(ick Letter copy of Itobin Hood and the Curtail Friar. 



AFTER the evidences of the British mastiff left us by the poets 

 and artists at the time when the Roman supremacy over 

 Britain was in the height of its culture and civilization, scanty 

 are any traces of the breed until after the Norrnan conquest. 



The Saxons, a race of rude warriors, terse in their phrase- 

 ology and possessed of little skill in sculpture or carving, 

 apparently found the British mastiff used principally as a 

 watch -dog. 



Saxon sculptures are scarce and very rude, being seemingly 

 only copied from the Roman, and it is not surprising that no 

 sculptured figures of dogs of that period have been found. 

 Two of the most curious, perfect and best examples of pure 

 Saxon sculpture that I have seen are in Chichester Cathedral, 

 Sussex ; they were discovered in 1829, built into the walls, 

 and are supposed to have been brought from the Saxon 

 Cathedral, at Selsea, in Sussex. The subjects are scriptural 

 pieces, and are boldly carved raised figures in a kind of red 

 clay or deep red softish stone, and the long tunics, long curled 

 hair and beards, at once pronounce them to have been 

 executed while the pure Anglo-Saxon style of dress was 

 prevalent, prior to the conquest ; and as Selsea was founded 



