SIR JOHN FIELDING'S AUTHORITY WAPPITS. 161 



found the proper remedies, by those who value their dog's. Formerly, the mastiff 

 spaded bitch was deemed the most vigilant and fierce guardian. 



After all these high commendations of the Mastiff, which protected the property, 

 and sweetened the rest of our forefathers, but the pure breed of which, is no longer 

 to be found among us, we cannot help inclining to the opinion of the late Justice, 

 Sir John Fielding, who like justice herself which he administered, was blind, 

 namely, of the superior utility of the Wappit, over every species of the large dog, 

 however fierce ; and more particularly since the loss or degeneration of the pure 

 Mastiff breed. Sir John gathered from the best authority, that of the thieves 

 themselves, with whom he had the honour of a more numerous acquaintance than 

 any other man, that they never dreaded half so much the attacks of the fiercest 

 large dog, as the tongues of the smallest, which they could find no possible means 

 to quiet, but knocking them on the head, and that, these everlasting and active 

 babblers rendered quite impracticable. Besides, these sleep lightly, and may even be 

 said to be watchful in their sleep. A bitch in heat, it was said, would quiet the 

 large dogs, but not the small and real Wappits. Perhaps a large Yard Dog should 

 have an attendant of the smaller kind, whence would arise a double security, from 

 the courage of the one, and from the alarm given by the barkings of the other. Or 

 a cry of a couple or two of Wappits, make an excellent guard, running from place 

 to place, and encouraging each other to give tongue and tattle on the approach of 

 a stranger : they might, at the same time, well earn their daily bread at a Coun- 

 try House, as vermin-killers. 



It might be deemed extraordinary, did not things upon a level in point of com- 

 mon sense, often occur, that no one, dealer, sportsman, or other, should find it worth 

 while, to preserve the so-long-famed breed of the English Mastiff in its original 

 purity, and that we should prefer the execrable and useless race of the Bull Dog. 

 So it has happened however, and if there be any true bred Mastiffs left in the 

 Country, they must need be things to be far fetched and dear bought. So we 

 found it, many years ago, when we purchased one at a considerable price, as a 

 guard in a lonely situation. If size and kindness of nature alone, had constituted 

 the Mastiff, we had been suited to perfection ; but as a guard, the dog was of no 

 kind of use, having no faculty to make distinction between friends and foes, but 

 ready at all times, to associate and shake hands with all men. We were sorry to 

 part with this jolly and good-natured animal, but he was too expensive for a use- 

 less inmate. What, in fine however, ought to diminish our regret at the loss of the old 

 English Mastiff, is, as we have before observed, the satisfactory substitution of the 

 Newfoundland Dog ; a race which merits to be kept pure, and free from our 

 silly and boyish propensity to crossing of breeds. 



To recur to History, during those polite and enlightened times, when our high- 

 minded Kings, and delicate Queens, and Princesses, experienced such ecstatic 

 delight in the Royal amusement of Bear Bailing, three Mastiffs were considered 



