144 THE MASTIFF IN THE IQTH CENTURY. 



Bloomfield in his poem " The Farmer's Boy," published in 

 1800, throws some light on the treatment of the mastiff in his 

 day, and it is recounted of the poet Byron, that during the 

 two years he was at Cambridge, (1807 about) he annoyed the 

 Dons of the College by among other freaks, keeping bulldogs, 

 and a bear in his rooms. 



In 1810 was published the second edition of John Bignall's 

 work " Letters on Natural History," in it is a woodcut of a 

 mastiff of the true old fashioned type, he is fastened to a 

 kennel on a sea wharf. This dog shows the true short head, 

 blunt muzzle, and pendulous lips ; he has also the white blaze 

 up the face, and the ears are cropped. 



From this date there are numerous pictures of the mastiff 

 in various works, some showing the true type, others very 

 plainly crosses with the St. Bernard, boarhound, and blood- 

 hound; and it remains only to notice the most typical, or 

 those that are portraits of the ancestors of our present mastiffs 

 according to the date ef their being made. 



Some of the ancestors of most of our present race of mastiffs 



can be traced back to about 1810, and the history of the breed 

 is best shown by tracing the existence, systems, and successes 

 of their most noted breeders. 



In persuance of this plan, about 1800, Thompson, Esq., 

 Commissioner, living at St. Ann's, on the site of the ancient 

 chapel of St. Ann's in the Briers, in the parish of South 

 Owram, near Halifax, Yorkshire, possessed some fine mastiffs, 

 which he kept as a protection to his house and a rabbit 

 warren. 



He had been a mastiff breeder and fancier for years previous 

 to that date, but left no record of his dogs, and all that is 



