264 THE DOGS OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 



are now dead. She is (1866) two years old, but has never bred in consequence 

 of the difficulty experienced in finding a mate of the same strain. As would be 

 expected from her greyhound shape, she is fast and active, and is very affectionate 

 in disposition, so that if the breed could be naturalised it would be acceptable to 

 many as a novelty in the pet department. 



THE GREAT DANE. 



BY FRANK ADCOCK, ESQ. 



" The dog has so frequently been represented on canvas that it would be 

 idle to refuse a description of it in a work professing to treat of the dog in all his 

 varieties." So commences the paragraph on this breed in the second edition of 

 " Stonehenge," and so far, it appears to me, such paragraph is strictly accurate. 

 There are only thirteen additional lines in the work alluded to in which to describe 

 the appearance and give the history of this most ancient race of dogs, and I think 

 you will confess that the information therein contained fairly merits the term 

 " meagre." 



It is useless to speculate upon the origin of this breed, beyond submitting that 

 it must have come into existence after the Flood at any rate ; for otherwise certain 

 long-nosed, loose, and limber animals yclept mastiffs by a Devonian gentleman not 

 unknown to fame would clearly never have maintained their existence. That the 

 Great Dane is sufficiently ancient to "boast the claims of long descent" all the books 

 that I have found bear ample testimony, whilst old paintings, both English and 

 foreign, but more especially the latter, show beyond all dispute that he has remained 

 true to type for a thousand years, more or less ; and not only in outward form is 

 this so, for a personal knowledge of these dogs, commencing on the Continent in 

 1856, has demonstrated the fact that they retain the marvellous courage and power 

 which warranted their use in the arena and as war dogs by the ancients. These 

 dogs have been for some hundreds of years in the possession of the nobility of this 

 country, and are so still. A splendid painting (date fifteenth century, I think) of 

 the head of a dog of this breed can be seen in the Spencer collection at South 

 Kensington, and helps to prove the assertions I make ; and there can be no doubt a 

 class for these dogs will shortly be made at our own large shows, as is the case in 

 Paris and other large Continental shows, for the qualities of this breed only require 

 to be known to be valued. Enormous in size, sensitive in nose, of great speed, 

 unyielding in tenacity and courage, and full of intelligence, there is no dog that can 

 so well sustain the part of the dog of the hunter of large game, the guardian of the 

 camp, the keeper's night dog, the companion of long and lonely journeys on horse or 

 on foot ; and when judiciously used as a cross, the result for some of the purposes 

 named is even more useful. Surely such a dog deserves more than the sixteen 



