The Great Dane. 327 



loggerheads with a Newfoundland, and the latter, 

 poor thing, was shaken like a rat, and would soon 

 have ceased to live, excepting in memory, had not 

 three strong, stout men choked off the immense 

 German Dog. 



This was about the time he was being introduced 

 to this country, or may be, rather, re-introduced, for 

 I am one who believes that a hundred years ago 

 there was in Ireland a Great Dane, not a wolf- 

 hound proper, but an actual Great Dane, just as he 

 is known to-day. Hence the confusion that has 

 arisen between the two varieties. From paintings 

 and writings of a past generation there is no difficulty 

 in making out this dog to be as old as any of the race 

 of canines that we possess, but as he is brought 

 forward here as a British dog, his history before he 

 became such would be out of place. However, it 

 may be said that M. Otto-Kreckwitz, of Munich, a 

 great authority on the breed, says that " the nearest 

 approach to the German Dogge (the Great Dane) of 

 our time is one which is represented on a Greek cojn 

 from Panormos, dating from the 5th century B. C., 

 and now in the Royal Museum, Munich. This dog 

 with cropped ears is exactly our long-legged elegant 

 Dogge with a graceful neck." The same authority 

 takes exception to the name of the Great Dane on 

 the grounds that, as he is now, he was actually made 



