Natural Hiflory of the Ancients. 47 



the benefit of a good many " filly women " at 

 prefent : " Thefe dogges are Htle, pretty, proper, 

 and fyne, and fought for to fatiffie the delicate- 

 nefle of daintie dames and wanton womens wills 

 inftrumentes of folly for them to play and dally 

 withall, to tryfle away the treafure of time, to 

 withdraw their mindes from more commendable 

 exercifes, and to content their corrupted con- 

 cupifcences with vaine difport " (a felly fhift to 

 fhunne yrckfome ydleneffe)." And again, " that 

 plaufible proverbe verified upon a Tyraunt, 

 namely that he loved his fowe better than his 

 fonne, may well be applyed to thefe kinde of 

 people who delight more in dogges that are 

 deprived of all poffibility of reafon, than they doe 

 in children that be capeable of wifedome and 

 judgement." 



Another chapter leads to the canes ruftici the 

 dogs properly affociated by the ancients with 

 Great Britain. And firft comes the fhepherd-dog, 

 which, the author explains, need not be fierce, as, 

 thanks to King Edgar, England holds no wolves. 

 The maftifF, or bandog, which " is vafte, huge, 

 ftubborne, ougly and eager, of a hevy and 

 burthenous body, and therefore but of litle 

 fwiftnefle, terrible, and frightfull to beholde, and 

 more fearce and fell than any Arcadian curre 

 (notwithftanding they are faid to have the genera- 

 tion of the violent lion)," obtains a long notice with 

 divers hiftorical anecdotes. A good many crofs- 

 divifions follow in as many different feclions treat- 

 ing of the " dogge-keeper " (or watch-dog) ; the 



