94 THE MASTIFF DURIFG ELIZABETH S REIGN. - 



coming on, and then give them great meals of beef, they will 

 eat like wolves and fight like devils." Hen. 5th, scene iii., 

 act 7. At first sight this may seem somewhat digressing 

 from my subject, but it is not so, as it not only shows how 

 the mastiff should be fed, but how they were fed in the days 

 when pluck and strength was the ideal standard they were 

 bred to. When dogs are required for courage and muscular 

 strength, they should be fed liberally on flesh. The modern 

 biscuit puffed up, flabby muscled mastiff, is no longer the 

 gladiatorial animal of the i6th century, although it may bo 

 the saginish glutton described by Juvenal, sat. iv., line 67. 

 Although I am aware, according to Col. H. Smith, the fierce 

 dogs of the feudal nobility of Europe, forming packs for 

 hunting the wolf and boar, were invariably fed on bread, 

 referring for a proof of this to our ancient books of Yenerie, 

 the ancient Welsh laws, and " Le Roi Modus" and household 

 institutions of the Dukes of Burgundy. 



Edward the Confessor also received yearly from the single 

 manor of Barton, near Gloucester, three thousand loaves of 

 bread for the feeding of his dogs. Such references are very 

 well, and prove that bread was much used, but it does not 

 disprove that flesh as well was not used. 



Col. II. Smith says " We may infer that food or climate 

 would not truncate or widen the muzzle, nor raise the frontals, 

 nor alter the posterior branches of the lower jaw as in the 

 mastiff.'' The truth of this altogether I am not prepared to 

 admit, believing in the old adage one part breed (i.e. original 

 conformation) two parts feed (i.e. habits and food) for 1 am 

 inclined to think with Thacker on fighting dogs, who says 

 "The fighting dog should have a greater quantity of bone 



