370 The Dog Book 



accepted as nothing but an old English word for mongrel, and not in any 

 way indicative of size, bulk or confined to the large dog we now call mastiff. 

 This group included everything outside of spaniels, hounds, toys, and to 

 some extent terriers. With regard to the latter, if this definition of mastiff 

 is kept in mind it will help readers of old books to understand how some 

 authors came to describe terriers as part mastiffs. With this kept in mind, 

 we will take our first quotation from Caius's "Treatise of English Dogges,'* 

 1570. Dividing English dogs into five sections, he puts the shepherd's 

 dog in the fourth section, and after having described all varieties of dogs 

 at some length he condenses the information in what he calls a *' Supplement 

 or addition, containing a demonstration of Dogges names how they had 

 their Originall.'* In this condensed fourth section he writes: "Of dogs 

 under the coarser kind we will deale first with the shepherde's dogge, whom 

 some call the Bandogge, the Tydogge, or the Mastyne, the first name is 

 imputed to him for service, Quoniam pastori famulator, because he is at 

 the shepherds his masters commandment. The seconde a Ligamento 

 of the band or chain wherewith he is tyed. The third a Sagina of the 

 fatnesse of his body." 



Following closely upon Caius we have the "Foure Bookes of Husband- 

 rie," 1586, to this effect: "The shepherd's Masty, that is for the folde 

 must neither be so gaunt nor so swifte as the greyhound, nor so fatte nor 

 so heavy as the Masty of the house; but verie strong, and able to fighte and 

 follow the chase, that he may beat away the woolfe or other beasts, and to 

 follow the theefe, and to recover the prey. And therfor his body should 

 be rather long than short and thick; in all other points he must agree with 

 the ban-dog." We will now take a jump of two hundred years, for we 

 know of nothing more until we come to Bewick's "History of Quadrupeds," 

 and from that we give his illustrations of the "Cur-dog" and the " Ban-dog.'* 



It is no stretch of the imagination for any person, if shown the bandog 

 illustration, and without knowledge of what it is, to state that it is a smooth 

 collie, as it is called nowadays; and that this bandog was a cattle dog is 

 proved by Bewick's description, which is as follows: 



"The Ban-dog is a variety of this fierce tribe [the bulldog and mastiff], 

 not often to be seen at present. It is lighter, smaller, more active and 

 vigilant than the mastiff, but not so powerful; its nose is smaller [narrower] 

 and possesses, in some degree, the scent of the hound. Its hair is rougher 

 and generally of a yellowish grey, streaked with shades of a black or brown 



