152 THE GREAT BREEDERS MR. LUKEY. 



the creation and conception of subject many otherwise fair- 

 artists are very undynamic, and have to borrow and pirate 

 their conceptions from the mind of the poet and historian, 

 and in pictures like those of Moreland, Hogarth, Bewick, 

 Ansdell, and a few others we see the beauty and power of 

 the painter's mind, as well as skill in handling the brush. 



Mr. Lukey informed me that Harrison Weir took two 

 portraits of Bruce ist, one for himself, and the other he 

 presented to Mr. Lukey, who very kindly allowed me to have 

 his copy photographed, and 1 still possess the negative. 



In 1857 G. F. Pardon published his little book on Dogs, 

 and in it, page 156, is figured a mastiff by H. Weir; this is 

 an interesting little cut, as Weir had then seen and studied 

 Mr. Lukey's mastiffs, taking them for his models, and this 

 specimen is remarkably like the type of Mr. Lukey's Bruce 

 ist, also his descendant Peveril, and it may be accepted as a 

 good example of Mr. Lukey's type of that elate, although I 

 am unaware if it was merely an ideal or a portrait. It shows 

 the white blaze up the face, and white on breast, the bones 

 are enormous, and stern somewhat coarse. The second 

 edition of Wood's Natural History, published in 1854,, 

 contains another cut of the mastiff by H. Weir, with the tail 

 curled over the back, as in Bewick's examples. The larger 

 edition of Wood's -Natural History contains another cut of 

 the mastiff by Weir ; the head in this specimen is remarkabl}' 

 short, full, and grand, the limbs are very massive, and show 

 an animal inferior in no respect to our best modern specimens. 



In all Weir's mastiffs of about that date the skull is very 

 grand, the muzzle characteristically short and blunt, but the 

 coarseness about the stern and coat shows indication of the 



