THE ENGLISH MASTIFF n 



Tyre and Sidon are believed to have brought some of the 

 larger pugnaces, which would be readily accepted by the 

 Britons to supplant, or improve, their courageous but under- 

 sized fighting dogs. 



In Anglo-Saxon times every two villeins were required 

 to maintain one of these dogs for the purpose of reducing the 

 number of wolves and other wild animals. This would 

 indicate that the Mastiff was recognised as a capable hunting 

 dog ; but at a later period his hunting instincts were not 

 highly esteemed, and he was not regarded as a peril to pre- 

 served game ; for in the reign of Henry III. the Forest Laws, 

 which prohibited the keeping of all other breeds by un- 

 privileged persons, permitted the Mastiff to come within the 

 precincts of a forest, imposing, however, the condition that 

 every such dog should have the claws of the fore-feet removed 

 close to the skin. 



The name Mastiff was probably applied to any massively 

 built dog. It is not easy to trace the true breed amid the 

 various names which it owned. Molossus, Alan, Alaunt, 

 Tie-clog, Bandog (or Band-dog), were among the number. 

 The names Tie-dog and Bandog intimate that the Mastiff 

 was commonly kept for guard, but many were specially 

 trained for baiting bears, imported lions, and bulls. 



There is constant record of the Mastiff having been kept 

 and carefully bred for many generations in certain old English 

 families. One of the oldest strains of Mastiffs was that kept 

 by Mr. Legh, of Lyme Hall, in Cheshire. They were large, 

 powerful dogs, and longer in muzzle than those which we 

 are now accustomed to see. Another old and valuable strain 

 was kept by the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth. It is 

 to these two strains that the dogs of the present day trace 

 back. 



Mr. Woolmore's Crown Prince was one of the most celebrated 

 of Mastiffs. He was a fawn dog with a Dudley nose and light 

 eye, and was pale in muzzle, and whilst full credit must 

 be given to him for having sired many good Mastiffs, he must 



