THE ENGLISH MASTIFF. 8l 



that he never saw the original tract by Tvveci, which was 

 written in French, about 1300. The M.S. Strutt quoted 

 from is t in English, and he judges from its appearance, it 

 would be nearly coeval with the original, but the name of 

 John Gyfford is joined to that of Twety. In this tract it is 

 stated that ' the " mastiff" is a good hounde for hunting the 

 wild boar.' Now as Gyffords translation into English of the 

 original French treatise was made soon after 1300, it would 

 be a little previous to the time of Chaucar, and from the first 

 tract might be gathered the original Norman -French word 

 for the English mastiff. 



The M.S. by Gyfford is in the Cotton Library, at the British 

 Museum, Vespasian B xii., but Strutt does not mention how 

 the word mastiff is spelt in this instance. 



Thos. Hearne, the antiquary, in 1725 published Robert de 

 Brunne's translation (made between 1303 and 1338) of Peter 

 I.angtofts Chronicle of England, in which work, p. 189, L 8, 

 the word mastiff is spelt " mastyf," being made to rhyme with 

 hastif. The Promptor'um Parvulorum Sive Dictionarius 

 Clericorum, a very valuable work, made about 1440, gives 

 the word masi-yf or mestyf, the latter being probably only an 

 ignorant variety of spelling the word. 



It is worthy of remembrance that Edward 3rd, who came 

 to the throne in 1327, banished the Norman-French language. 



Chaucer (who was born in 1328, and died 1400) having had 

 a liberal education, being some time at Cambridge, and it is 

 believed studied some time also at Oxford, might be trusted 

 for using the common and correct term for the mastiff, and 

 we find him using the Saxon word bandog, and older British 



