CHAPTER XIV. 

 Tl'PE OF THE ENGLISH 'MASTIFF ABOUT 1820. 



The deep mouth'd mastiff bays the troubled night. 



Kirk White. Clifton Grovf. 



IN 182.. " The Sportsman's Cabinet," and " The Sportsman's 

 R pjsiiory '" were both published, and in them is given a 

 plate of a mastiff chained on a wood wharf, on the banks of 

 the Thames ; it was engraved by J. Scott from a drawing or 

 painting by P. Reinagle, A.R.A. I endeavoured to trace out 

 the original picture or s etch through the Rev. Hichens, 

 (own- r rind bn c der of some go( d mastiffs) who kindly 

 intv n led h.rcs< 11 in ih, n- tt< r. i ut he was unable to do so. 

 Thcr io a wry ruiigh -,nd inferior copy of this plate in Mr. 

 Veru Shaw's Book of the Dog, part ii., page 45, and in page 

 42 a slight mention is made of the engraving. 



Reinagle excelled as a canine painter, and the engravings 

 in the Sportsman's Cabinet and Repository are a treat to any 

 lover of the dog. The head of the mastiff is remarkably fine, 

 the dog has also the true mastiff carriage, and there are few 

 specimens superior to it in character at the present day. The 

 dog had the characfteriotic white on the face, neck, legs, and 

 stern ; there is a slight roughness about the end of the stern, 

 not unfrequent in the mastiff from 1750 to 1850, dir- perhaps 

 to an infusion of Alpine mastiff blood. 



In 1824 Sir E. Landseer (then aged 22) painted "The 

 Angler's Guard," being the figure of a mastiff and greyhound; 



