The Mastiff 555 



It is probable that in the case of the larger mastiffs which were kept as 

 watch-dogs, and were bred here and there by noblemen, that there was a 

 far more definite attempt to gain size and establish type, and to this we owe 

 the development of the dog into the mastiff of 1800. There is no reason to 

 doubt that at the close of the eighteenth century there was in England a large 

 square-headed dog, frequently marked with white and varying in body colour 

 from fawn to black, with brindles of various shades. But the name mastiff 

 ranged down to dogs of large bulldog size; in fact, the line of division be- 

 tween them was more that of use than anything else. At the head of the 

 bulldog chapter will be seen Bewick's bulldog; and comparing it with the 

 mastiff by him, it will be seen that there is extremely little difference 

 between them. 



That this mastiff of Bewick's was typical of all the mastiffs of his day 

 is quite out of the question; but that it was accepted as an excellent illus- 

 tration of quite a number of mastiffs is undoubtedly correct, for it was copied 

 for many years as the type, and, although Mr. Wynn detected some of the 

 copies, he yet did not notice all the plagiarisms, and passed some that owed 

 their origin to that past-master of wood engraving. We thought we had se- 

 cured a great find when we picked up a sheet illustration, evidently from some 

 natural history book, and published in 1800. A splendid mastiff, coloured 

 very dark sepia, almost black, with white markings, and a close inspection 

 showed ten stripes down the sides at wide intervals. When we got it home 

 we turned to the Bewick to see how closely they resembled each other, and 

 found it was a copy even to the peculiarly scolloped edge of the mark- 

 ings; but the dog being drawn to face the left made it at first appear a dif- 

 ferent animal. This same cut was used in the Encyclopaedia Britannica 

 (1792 edition) and will be found doing duty, as late as 1858, in Jesse's "An- 

 ecdotes of Dogs," where it is claimed as the work of W. R. Smith, a well- 

 know^n delineator of dogs. It is our old friend Bewick, however, unless 

 there were many mastiffs with identical markings on the flanks and hind- 

 quarters. 



To support Bewick we have a good mastiff in a Reinagle painting 

 dating from 1803. This dog shows a great deal more quality and breeding 

 than the rather common though well-proportioned dog of Bewick. From 

 their surroundings both of these dogs were watch dogs, and came of that 

 section bred for size; though from the comparative size of the mastiff in the 

 group behind the Bewick mastiff it does not appear that he considered it 



