THE ENGLISH MASTIFF. 171 



shall not refuse to lay before my readers Mr. Kingdon's views of the origin 

 of the pure breed, which he believes to be now confined to Lyme Hall, in 

 Cheshire, and his own kennels, but most of his dogs .are now more or less 

 crossed with the modern mastiff. He says : " There appear to be recorded 

 only four ancient seats of the mastiff in its purity, and these four most cele- 

 brated strains have been preserved, each in its integrity ; the oldest of these, 

 pre-eminent for its antiquity and purity, has been thus preserved by the ancient 

 family of Legh, at Lyme Hall, in Cheshire, where it seems to have been even 

 previous to 1415, and has been handed down by them in its integrity and 

 purity ; another at Chatsworth, by the Duke of Devonshire ; a third at Elvaston 

 Castle, by Lord Harrington; and a fourth at Hadzor Hall, by the Galtons." 

 Two of these four are said to be extinct, and, as he says, " there remains only the 

 Lyme Hall and Elvaston breeds in their legitimacy, and of these the Lyme 

 Hall stands pre-eminent." But, unfortunately, although it is readily admitted 

 that a breed of mastiffs has been maintained at Lyme Hall for many generations, 

 there is no written evidence that it has been kept pure, and we may just as well 

 depend on the purity of Mr. Lukey's brindled bitch with which he started his 

 kennel, and which was bred by the Duke of Devonshire, as on that of the Lyme 

 Hall strain. The fact really is, that there is no breed among existing British dogs 

 which can be traced through all its generations for 200 years, and very few 

 individuals for half that time. Foxhound and greyhound pedigrees are the oldest 

 and most carefully kept, but with very few exceptions even they do not extend 

 much beyond the latter period ; and excluding them no breed goes back even for 

 half a century without a doubtful link in the chain of pedigrees. 



In determining the points which are desired in any individual of a particular 

 breed, it is idle to go back for centuries and select some strain of which we have no 

 reliable record, and which, if obtained, would probably prove to be very different 

 from what we want. For example, the foxhound is admitted to be descended from 

 a hound which was very different from him in many important respects ; yet, 

 according to Mr. Kingdon, we ought to take the old type and reject the modern 

 one. Instead of proceeding in this illogical way, the master of hounds nowadays 

 improves upon the old type by every possible means, and the result is a hound 

 which does what is asked from him, in a manner which would be far beyond the 

 powers of his ancestors. So with the mastiff we want a large and handsome dog, 

 possessed of a temperament which will bear restraint under provocation, and, at the 

 same time, of courage to defend his master till the death. These mental properties 

 were carefully attended to by Mr. Lukey, who may be considered to be the founder 

 of the modern English mastiff, and his example has been carefully followed in 

 this respect by Mr. E. Hanbury, Capt. Gamier, Miss Aglionby, Miss Hales, Mr. 

 M. B. Lynn, Mr. Lindoe, Mr. Nichols, and Mr. W. George. All these eminent 

 breeders have taken Mr. Lukey's breed as typical of what they desire to produce, 

 and the results of their efforts may be compared with Mr. Kingdon's dogs on 

 perfectly equal terms, inasmuch as it is admitted that full attention has been paid 

 to the demand for a mild temperament and other mental attributes which 



