The Mastiff. 1 1 



Without distinctive feature, there was one dark fawn 

 dog, others light fawn with black muzzles, and an 

 animal that had been obtained to improve the strain 

 that would have been best relegated to the tan 

 yard. I was sorry to come to the conclusion that 

 the Lyme Hall mastiff, with its historical traditions, 

 was become a thing of the past, its place being 

 usurped by inferior specimens not good enough to 

 obtain a prize at any of our smallest dog shows. 

 For the sake of his ancient repute it would have 

 been better had the mastiff of the Leghs been 

 allowed to entirely disappear, like the wild cattle 

 which not many years ago grazed in the adjoining 

 park, than to degenerate into the poor creatures we 

 saw in the kennels there a few months ago. 



Some twenty years or so since, my friend Mr. 

 H. D. Kingdon did his best to restore life and 

 give prominence to the Lyme Hall strain, but his 

 energy was entirely thrown away, and the few dogs 

 he did bring forward were small and poor creatures 

 in comparison with the superb specimens that had 

 for some time emanated from other kennels. About 

 half a century ago there was a turning point in 

 the history of the mastiff, which the succeeding 

 establishment of dog shows facilitated. 



Is the story of the origin of the Lyme Hall 

 mastiff too stale to be reproduced here ? On St. 



