The Mastiff 563 



Crown Prince era, culminating in the production of that grand dog Minting, 

 which came to this country before the EngHshmen realized what they were 

 losing. 



By way of demonstrating the improvement in mastiffs during the show 

 period and up to 1885 we give reproductions of some heads which were illus- 

 trated in the American Kennel Register in November, 1885. The head of 

 King was then incorrectly stated to be that of Governor, the correction com- 

 ing from Mr. Wynn, who also advised us that the head of Duchess was not 

 that of Hanbury's Duchess as we had been led to believe. We certainly did 

 not invent the name, and it was probably an error on the part of some person 

 who wrote the name on the photograph. In all likelihood we got the photo- 

 graphs from Mr. William Wade, of Pittsburg, a gentleman who took a deep 

 ,\nterest in mastiffs and knew more regarding the breed than any person in 

 this country and who could only have been excelled by Mr. Wynn, owing to 

 the latter's personal knowledge of dogs of his day. 



Mr. Wynn also wrote that he thought the head of Turk did not do the 

 dog justice and sent a small photographic reproduction from Webb's book 

 on dogs; but while Webb's likeness shows a somewhat flatter skull, the 

 Kennel Register picture shows more filling-up of muzzle before the eyes. 

 There were a number of Duchesses, and which this one was which we then 

 reproduced Wynn could not say and of course we could not. He sent a 

 drawing of Hanbury's Duchess which was a copy of an illustration made by 

 Harrison Weir in 1862, which shows a far shorter and thicker head, and 

 Mr. Weir was then considered the best illustrator of dogs. 



How Mr. Wynn was able to accept that illustration as representing a 

 mastiff, which he states in his book weighed only 102 pounds at 15 months, 

 we are at a loss to imagine; for the Weir drawing, as he copied it, seemingly 

 by a tracing, represents what looks like one of at least 140 pounds and might 



be more. 



In the same letter Mr. Wynn sent us a photograph of the Russian mas- 

 tiff he mentions on page 22 of his book, with this description: "He was a 

 low-standing animal, being not more than 29 inches at the shoulder with 

 round barrel, short stout limbs, and one of the most typical mastiff heads I 

 have ever seen; eyes remarkably small, and grey in colour; the muzzle 

 short, blunt and very deep; lips extremely pendulous; ears very small; 

 coat short, very dense and somewhat woolly; colour a deep red chestnut, 

 with blue or slate coloured points and a white streak up the face, white on 



