576 The Dog Book 



mastiff, occasionally called the Alpine spaniel, and we think he was much 

 like a Leonberg, the result of cross-breeding between large dogs of no de- 

 cided breed. 



One of these Alpine mastiffs was brought to England in 1815 and is 

 always referred to as the Leasome Castle mastiff. Wynn has it the Lea- 

 sowe Castle, but his writing was hard to decipher and he seemed to ignore 

 proofreading. The Twentieth Century Dog is far from free from errors of 

 a similar nature, but as we must make a choice we say the Leasome Castle 

 dog. Wynn gives us information of an etching of this dog by Thomas 

 Landseer from a drawing in the possession of Mr. J. S. Morgan, made 

 in 1815, artist not named. In 1825 he credits Thomas Landseer with an- 

 other "Alpine Mastiff" from a drawing by his brother Edwin. This is the 

 illustration which we give. Between 1835 and 1845 he credits Edwin Land- 

 seer with another smooth-coated Alpine mastiff, tawney red, 31 inches at 

 the shoulder and measuring 68 inches from tip to tip. 



The Twentieth Century Dog gives a line drawing of the "Leasome 

 Castle St. Bernard, " for it has been claimed as that by St. Bernard fanciers, 

 including Mr. Kostin, the Secretary of the National St. Bernard Club of 

 England, and it is identified as a smooth dog. 



We are very strongly of the opinion that all of these mastiffs, or Alpine 

 dogs, are one and the same animal. No one will dispute the assertion that 

 Landseer never copied any person, but drew his dogs from life in his own 

 way. This is important because when we came to compare the Leasome 

 Castle reproduction with our copy of the 1825 etching we found them to be 

 of the same dog and from the same drawing, the only difference being a bush- 

 ier tail with a side twist at the end in the 1825 etching. Otherwise the dogs 

 are absolutely the same to a hair. That brings us therefore to the possi- 

 bility that the drawing which Mr. J. S. Morgan had and the painting said 

 to be in the possession of the Cust family, must have been done by Land- 

 seer. It must be borne in mind that he was sketching from life in a mar- 

 vellous manner at the age of five or six years, and was exhibiting paintings 

 in 1 8 19, when but seventeen years of age. The Leasome Castle dog picture 

 was also photographed, so Dalziel says, and the following statement was 

 printed on the card: " The dog was about a year old when he was received 

 at Leasome Castle in May, 1815. His length was 6 ft. 4 in., and height in 

 middle of back 2ft. 7 in., and he is now larger and is still growing." This 

 is followed by some general information. That statement must have been 



