172 THE DOGS OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 



are peculiarly essential to this breed. Now Barry is without doubt Mr. Kingdon's 

 piece de resistance, and yet he is as a satyr to Hyperion when compared with Lukey's 

 Governor or Baron, Hanbury's Prince, Green's Monarch, Wallace's Turk, Field's 

 King, Miss Hales's Lion, or Miss Aglionby's Wolf, besides some dozen or more 

 other dogs of nearly equal merit and celebrity. For these reasons I shall discard 

 all further mention of the Lyme Hall strain, and proced to describe the modern 

 mastiff as founded by Mr. Lukey, and improved on by Capt. Garnier, Mr. Hanbury, 

 and the other eminent breeders mentioned above. 



Mr. Lukey began to breed mastiffs rather more than forty years ago, taking 

 a brindled bitch bred by the then Duke of Devonshire as his foundation. Putting 

 her to Lord Waldegrave's celebrated dog Turk, and her puppies to the Marquis 

 of Hertford's Pluto, he obtained a strain with which he stood for some years almost 

 alone as the celebrated mastiff breeder of the day, without any outcross. At 

 length, fearing deterioration by further in-breeding, he resorted to Capt. Garnier's 

 kennel for a sire, the produce being that magnificent dog Governor, by Capt. 

 Garnier's Lion out of his own Countess, a daughter of his Duchess by his 

 Bruce II., who was by his Bruce I. out of his Nell. Of the breeding of his own 

 Lion, and Lord Waldegrave's Turk, Capt. Garnier writes as follows, in a 

 letter which was published at length in the last edition of " Dogs of the British 

 Islands " : 



" About this time I bought of Bill George a pair of mastiffs, whose produce, 

 by good luck, afterwards turned out some of the finest specimens of the breed 

 I ever saw. The dog Adam was one of a pair of Lyme Hall mastiffs, bought by 

 Bill George at Tattersall's. He was a different stamp of dog to the present 

 Lyme breed. He stood 30^in. at the shoulder, with length of body and good 

 muscular shoulders and loins, but was just slightly deficient in depth of body and 

 breadth of forehead ; and from the peculiar forward lay of his small ears, and 

 from his produce, I have since suspected a remote dash of boarhound in him. 

 The bitch was obtained by Bill George from a dealer in Leadenhall Market. 

 Nothing was known of her pedigree, but I am as convinced of its purity as I am 

 doubtful of that of the dog. There was nothing striking about her. She was 

 old, her shoulders a trifle flat, and she had a grey muzzle, but withal stood 29in. 

 at the shoulder, had a broad round head, good loin, and deep lengthy frame. 

 From crossing these dogs with various strains I was easily able to analyse their 

 produce, and I found in them two distinct types one due to the dog, very tall, 

 but a little short in the body and high on the leg, while their heads were slightly 

 deficient in breadth; the other due to the bitch, equally tall, but deep, lengthy, 

 and muscular, with broad massive heads and muzzles. Some of these latter stood 

 33in. at the shoulder, and by the time they were two years old weighed upwards of 

 1901b. They had invariably a fifth toe on each hind leg, which toe was quite 

 distinct from a dew-claw, and formed an integral portion of their feet. By bad 

 management, I was only able to bring a somewhat indifferent specimen with me 

 on my return to England from America a badly reared animal, who nevertheless 

 stood 32in. at the shoulder, and weighed 1701b. This dog Lion was the sire of 



