158 TYPE OF THE ENGLISH MASTIFF ABOUT l82O. 



as a canal causes a certain amount of moisture or slavering, 

 always to be present in dogs in which this peculiarity of the 

 true hound is strongly marked, as in the bloodhound ; the 

 mastiff should be quite free from anything of the sort. In the 

 true mastiff, also in the bulldog, the portion of the lip that 

 covers the cynodonts should be' very pendulous, the upper lip 

 falling forward and hiding the lower lip, and any appearance 

 of the inner hairless skin or true lips, while the corners of the 

 mouth (which in the hound hang, showing the indented 

 hairless inner lip, forming the flew) should in the mastiff 

 group be puckered up, giving a pouting appearance, as if the 

 animal had a gum boil or swollen face. 



I give precedence to this homely sort of language because 

 it is comprehensive, and all my readers will more readily 

 understand it, and it lias the advantage of being English, 

 although it may perhaps call forth a sneer from those \vho 

 would use dog-latin terms, the radical meanings of which they 

 often could not define themselves. I>ut to describe more 

 technically, while the lips should be deeply pendulous the 

 zygomatic muscles in the mastiff should be stronger and less 

 relaxed than in the hound, causing the corners of the mouth 

 to be more confined. 



The mastiff was still constantly to be found at the homes 

 of the farmer and English gentleman about 1800. \Ye see 

 this in Washington Irving s description of Ready Money 

 Jack Tibbets Farm House in Bracebridge Hall, published 

 1824. " The fat superannuated mastiff lay in the sunshine at 

 the door," and Fenmore Cooper writing about 1830, mentions 

 the mastiff in The Pioneers. 



