THE MASTIFF DURING ELIZABETH'S REIGN. 103 



probable that not until the reign of Elizabeth was there 

 any endeavour to decrease the size of the ancestors of our 

 modern dwarfed bulldogs. 



Alken in his "National Sports" gives an account of the 

 way in which the term bulldog came into use. And Delabere 

 Blaine, who wrote about 1790 to 1810, in his Encyclopaedia 

 of Rural Sports says that " British cultivation has enlarged 

 the proportions of the mastiff greatly from the original breed 

 of the ancients, mentioning the lips characteristically pendu- 

 lous, and to a much greater degree than those of the bulldog, 

 which breed he states without doubt is an artificial animal 

 of spurious origin, and possibly derived from a stunted 

 specimen of the mastiff of rickety habit; and further states the 

 belief of Sydenham Edwards was that the bulldog arose from 

 a cross between the mastiff and pug, and admits the possibility 

 of crossing the Dutch pug (often called the small mastiff) 

 with the English mastiff, and thus producing the bulldog, 

 but suggests this would involve the solution from what source 

 the pug itself was derived. 



The originality however of these three breeds from one 

 common stock need not be doubted, when we see existing in 

 Great Britain the vast cart horse of the shires and fens, and 

 the stunted \Yelsh and Shetland ponies of the mountains and 

 cold barren districts. 



In the reign of Elizabeth the Law took notice of the 

 mastiff, stating ' There are four species of dogs, viz. a mastiff, 

 a hound, (which comprehends greyhound, bloodhound, etc.), 

 a spaniel, and a tumbler. 7, co. 18, a Cro. Eliz. 125. And 

 a trover or trespass lies for them. Cro. Eliz. 125. 



A man hath a property in a mastiff, and where a mastiff 

 ialls on another dog, the owner of that dog cannot justify 

 killing the mastiff. Cro. Eliz. 125. 



