io Modern Dogs. 



be neither too gentle nor too curt, that he must 

 neither fawn upon a thief nor flee upon his friends ; 

 very waking, no gadder abroad nor lavish of his 

 mouth, barking without cause ; neither make it any 

 matter though he be not swift, for he is but to 

 fight at home, and to give warning to the enemy." 



Whether some of our modern breeders have 

 endeavoured to produce an animal similar to that 

 described by Conrad Heresbach one cannot tell, 

 but from the "very great feet" often seen nowa- 

 days, and the decided slowness in their paces of 

 others, it might be thought a return to the dog as 

 described in the middle of the seventeenth century 

 had been sought to be brought about. Certainly I 

 have seen prize winning modern mastiffs that would, 

 from sheer inability, not be " gadders abroad." 



To come to modern times a huge leap of over 

 many centuries must be made, but before actually 

 entering upon a description of the race as it is at 

 present, an omission would be caused were the 

 Lyme Hall mastiffs to be omitted. It has been 

 said that at the seat of the Leghs at Lyme Hall, 

 in Cheshire, a strain of mastiffs has been kept 

 intact for many years. This is, however, not the 

 case. On a recent visit to the ancient residence 

 I found but about seven mastiffs present, and these 

 were of a very inferior character in every way. 



