20 



SECTION I. 

 NON-SPORTING AND UTILITY BREEDS. 



. , . CHAPTER L 



J" \ THE ENGLISH MASTIFF. 



BY W. K. TAUNTON. 



" The deep mouth' d Mastiff bays the troubled nigh/." — Kirke White. 



and the frowning Chow-Chow, which are 

 of snch recent introduction that they must 

 still be regarded as half-acclimatised for- 

 eigners. But of the antiquity of the Mastiff 

 there can be no doubt. He is the oldest 

 of our British dogs, culti\'ated in these 

 islands for so many centuries that the only 

 difficulty concerning his history is that 

 of tracing his descent, and discovering the 

 period when he was not familiarly known. 



It is possible that the Mastiff owes 

 his origin to some remote ancestor of alien 

 strain. The Assyrian kings possessed a 

 large dog of decided Mastiff type, and used 

 it in the hunting of lions ; and credible 

 authorities have perceived a similarity in 

 size and form between the British Mastiff 

 and the fierce Molossian dog of the ancient 

 (ireeks. It is supposed by many students 

 that the breed was introduced into early 

 Britain by the ad\-enturous Phrenician 

 traders who, in the si.xtli century B.C., 

 voyaged to the Scilly Islands and Corn- 

 wall to barter their own commodities in 

 exchange for the useful metals. Knowing the 

 requirements of their barbarian customers, 

 these early merchants from 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 undersized 

 fighting dogs. 



Before the invasion by Julius Casar, 

 55 B.C., the name of Britain was little 



CANIS MOLOSSUS. 



Ftom "Iconn Animaliiim" {17S0), by G. F. RicIlI. 



OF tlie many different kinds of dogs 

 now established as British, not 

 a few have had their origin in 

 other lands, whence specimens have been 

 imported into this country, in course 

 of time to be so improved by selection 

 that they have come to be commonly 

 accepted as native breeds. Some are 

 protected from the claim that they are 

 indigenous by the fact that their origin is 

 indicated in their names. No one would 

 pretend that the St. Bernard or the New- 

 foundland, the Spaniel or the Dalmatian, 

 are of native breed. They are alien immi- 

 grants whom we have naturalised, as we 

 are naturalising the majestic Great Dane, 

 the decorative Borzoi, the alert Schipperke, 



