CHAPTER XV. 

 THE ALPINE MASTIFF. 



Hark ! Alpine mastiffs at the convent gate 

 Summons the brethren from their slumb'ring state. 

 Attended by the pious monks they tread 

 The frozen paths, if but to find the dead ; 

 So pass the lives of Bernard's dogs 'till years 

 Behold them buried 'midst their master's tears. 



,17. JL Wyi 



BEFORE further tracing the history of our English mastiff 

 through the noted restiscitators, it \\ill be advisable to make 

 a slight disquisition in reference to the old Alpine mastiff, 

 which was one of the crosses not unfrequently introduced 

 into the mastiff about 1835 and probably previously, and as 

 this breed differed considerably from even the smooth coated 

 modern St. Bernard, it will be as well to give such particulars 

 as will reveal their type, and account for the influence they 

 exercised on our mastiffs. 



I have pointed out that the Alpine dog whether termed 

 mastiff or St. Bernard, was seemingly unknown to Camden, 

 and therefore conclude the breed will not have been imported 

 into England until subsequent to 1600, and perhaps not until 

 the igth century even. 



Stonehenge in The Dogs of the British Isles, under the 

 St. Bernard, states that the portrait of Bernard de Menthon 

 (who was a Savoyard) is still in existence, and that his dog 

 is depicted on the same panel, and that the dog appears to 

 have been a bloodhound ; but as the benevolent founder of 



