270 Modern Dogs, 



Dane, as we know them now, had a common origin, 

 and that they were the foundations of the mastiffs 

 and other large dogs which, at a later period, had 

 in a measure made Great Britain famous for its 

 powerful and ferocious varieties of the canine race. 

 Many authorities of the past generation write to 

 prove that the Irish wolfhound, if not a Great Dane, 

 was a smooth-coated creature very like him ; and 

 additional evidence that such was the case is to be 

 found in the following instance. 



Some eight or nine years ago, I was shown by the 

 Earl of Antrim a life-sized painting of an enormous 

 hound which had been in his family for about a 

 hundred years. Through generations this had been 

 handed down as a true Irish wolfhound, a noble 

 creature that had saved the life of one of his lord- 

 ship's ancestors under peculiar and extraordinary 

 circumstances, so the faithful creature had its por- 

 trait painted. Now this dog was a huge southern 

 hound in appearance, marked like a modern fox- 

 hound, with long pendulous ears, possibly an animal 

 identical with the matin of old writers. The paint- 

 ing, which I believe is in the Kennel Club, gives 

 the idea that the subject had, in life, stood about 

 thirty-four inches high at the shoulders. 



It was but natural, when I introduced this interest- 

 ing discovery to the public through the columns of 



