The Mastiff. 3 



the time of the Roman occupation of Britain, an 

 officer was appointed with the title of Procurator 

 Cynegii, whose business it was to obtain and 

 transmit to Rome mastiffs that would prove useful 

 as guards and, mayhap, in fighting in the arena either 

 amongst themselves or with wild beasts. At about 

 this period every two " villeins " were by law com- 

 pelled to keep between them one mastiff dog, and 

 the duties of the Procurator would, no doubt, be 

 to collect the dogs, when fully grown, from these 

 common people. Strabo tells us that the same 

 mastiffs were used by the Gauls in times of war. 



The Rev. M. B. Wynn, in his " History of the 

 Mastiff," has been most praiseworthy in his re- 

 searches as to the origin of the mastiff, and, T 

 believe, has collected facts together which ought 

 to convince even the most sceptical of the identity 

 of the mastiff with that large dog which the 

 Romans found in this country, and which they 

 afterwards made useful and amusing in their de- 

 grading sports of the arena. There are numerous 

 illustrations on various pieces of ancient Roman- 

 British pottery which can easily be identified as 

 representing a dog of the mastiff type, such a 

 one as some nineteen hundred years or more ago 

 might be found in this country, and utilised as guard 

 to the flocks and herds, protecting them by their 



B 2 



