THE MASTIFF DURING ELIZABETH'S REIGN. Q2 



This custom continued until 1830 to 1840, for Mr. Thompson 

 remembered seeing mastiffs so employed in Yorkshire up to 

 that date about ; and I may point out that a dog no larger 

 than the largest modern bulldog, could not carry any great 

 weight of tinker's tools composed of irons, solder, metal, files, 

 etc. The dog employed plainly being as large as a fair-sized 

 mastiff. 



Caius goes on to say: "Besides the qualities recounted, 

 " this kind of dog hath this disposition natural to them, that 

 " they love their master's liberally, and hate strangers despite- 

 " fully, wherefore to their masters when travelling, they are 

 " a singular safeguard, defending them forcibly against 

 "villains and thieves," I will warn my readers that I have 

 condensed and modernized the language of Caius somewhat. 



From the mention of the vast heavy body it is palpable 

 that Caius was writing of the sort we now term mastiff, and 

 from his mention " that the greater and weightier sort were " 

 used for water drawing, that there was more than one sort of 

 mastiff or bandog at the time Caius wrote, which throws light 

 on Laneham's statement written about 1575, " that the bears 

 were baited by a great sort of bandog." Vide Nicholl's 

 Progress, vol. i, fol. 249. 



From Spencer and Caius it is evident the terms bandog 

 and mastiff did service for the mastiff group generally, the 

 larger sort being the true mastiff, the smaller the progenitor 

 of the modern bulldog. From Berjeaus work, it is plain that 

 a dog very similar to the modern bulldog existed in 1494, Vide 

 plate 9 of the work "A bulldog licking a beggar's sores." 

 This plate was taken from the first edition of " The Ship of 

 Fools," by J. B. Von Olpe. Also plate 13 in Berjeau, repre- 

 sents a short-faced turn-up muzzled bulldog, drawn by the 



