542 The Dog Book 



the dog, and that Butler talked some foreign language to the gentleman; and 

 when the lady had looked at the dog for some time she spoke to one of the 

 persons attending her, and he came to Gardner and gave him a sovereign. 



In the account of this dog in the NewSy the height is put at 37 inches, and 

 it may have been not far out, measured to the top of the withers, for Gardner 

 assured us more than once that he had measured to the height of the withers, 

 that is, standard measure, and that he was a good 34 inches. The old 

 "doctor" was singularly careful in his statements, and we never doubted the 

 accuracy of his measurements nor his memory. Now we have this dog 

 quoted by an English kennel paper as having been 37 inches in height. The 

 dog was shown at Windsor in November, 1857; and, undoubtedly upon the 

 authority of Butler, the News stated that Prince was barely a year old and 

 was born in Pennsylvania. Be that as it may, Gardner said the young man 

 was a recent immigrant, and Gardner was mixed up in the buying of the dog 

 or at least personally knew all that was done at the time. We therefore con- 

 sider that Prince was a German importation, and have every confidence in 

 saying that he was a 34-inch dog. His size put him in a class by himself, and 

 is excellent proof that the ordinary run of large dogs was nowhere near his 

 height, at least in England as well as in this country. Doubtless his height 

 has been exceeded, but we prefer outside or thoroughly reliable measurement 

 when it comes to a record height, for dogs do shrink wonderfully when home 

 measurements are tested by an outsider of experience. We shall therefore 

 give no endorsement to any present day claims, some of which are far in ex- 

 cess of Prince's height. 



Nothing proves more clearly the German fostering of this breed than 

 the number of Great Danes in this country before they were known as a 

 show dog in England and their being kept exclusively by Germans. Under 

 various names these dogs were entered in the miscellaneous class until 1886, 

 when an added class was put on for them at New York and eleven dogs were 

 entered. Two of these were owned, and one had been bred, by Mr. J. Black- 

 burn Miller, who is still one of the popular judges of the breed, and always 

 draws a large entry when he officiates at New York. One reason for no 

 class having been put on before this was that at one of the shows held at the 

 American Institute building, either in 188 1 or 1882, the Great Danes had 

 been such a bad-tempered lot that Mr. Lincoln, who then acted as super- 

 intendent of the New York shows, barred them as much as he possibly could, 

 and it was not until his death, when Mr. Mortimer had taken the office, that 



