138 THE MASTIFF IN THE l8TH CENTURY. 



refused admission, and the owner in consequence left him in 

 charge of someone outside. Soon after the gentleman finding 

 his pocket had been picked of his watch, requested permission 

 to bring the dog in, who he stated would soon find the thief, 

 the request being granted, the gentleman made signs to his 

 dog expressive of what he wanted finding, the animal imme- 

 ;diately traversed the garden, seeking among the company 

 .until he detected the culprit, who his owner insisted must be 

 the person, and who on being searched was found not only in 

 possession of the watch in question, but six others were 

 discovered in his pockets. This occurence is mentioned in 

 Jesse's Anecdotes of Dogs, without giving the source from 

 ^yhence it was derived, and Daniel, vol. i. gives also a 

 garbled account of it, and 1 mention it as it not only shows 

 ,that the English gentry about 1750 to 1780 constantly kept 

 ,the English mastiff as a companion, but it also shows the 

 sagacity as well as keen sense of smell the breed possesses 



when they care to exert the latter faculty, 

 t' 



In 1753 was born at Cherryburn, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, 



Thomas Bewick, a man destined to reanimate the method of 

 illustrating works by woodcuts ; he has left many delineations 

 of the English mastiff. 



His careful, life-like, and spirited engravings of animal life 

 arc well known, and his woodcuts furnish an excellent example 

 of the type of the mastiff from 1780 to 1810. About 1800, 

 when the mastiff had become very scarce in its purity, the 

 term bandog was used to define a mongrel wa c hhdog, such an 

 animal as would arise from a cross between the old English 

 mastiff and the sheepdog or Farmer's cur, and such were very 

 much the sort of watchdogs used by Farmers from 1750 to 

 1800. 



