6io The Dog Book 



No one seems to have seen the references to the wolfhound in Nicholas 

 G)x's "Gentleman's Recreation." What he says was probably original with 

 him and referred to conditions about 1675. His first mention of the wolf- 

 hound is in the description of the greyhound. " The best greyhound hath 

 a long body, strong and reasonably great, not so big as the wolfdog in 

 Ireland. " A little further on in his chapter on foreign methods of hunting 

 he says: 



"Although we have no wolves in England at this present, yet it is cer- 

 tain that heretofore we had routs of them, as they have to this very day in 

 Ireland; and in that country are bred a race of greyhounds which are com- 

 monly called wolfdogs, which are strong, fleet and bear a natural enmity to 

 the wolf. Now in these greyhounds of that nation there is an incredible 

 force and boldness, so that they are in great estimation, and much sought 

 after in foreign parts, so that the King of Poland makes use of them in his 

 hunting of great beasts by force." 



Accepting the situation which seems to point to wolfdogs in Ireland 

 being in part rough dogs of greyhound formation and that there were also 

 smooth dogs there, we have a similar condition to what was the case in the 

 south of France at the time of Gaston Phoebus, with his alauntes and mas- 

 tins. Then we have these mastins illustrated in the paintings of Snyders 

 and others as rough dogs of greyhound formation, dogs which bear a striking 

 resemblance to the dog we show in the portrait of the Earl and Coun- 

 tess of Arundel. This is not a dog put in to fill up the canvas but 

 must have been a favourite dog, as the painting is in every way a portrait. 

 Whether it is possible to get the history of this dog we cannot say, but we 

 have not been able to find out anything regarding it. All we know is that 

 Rubens was in England in 1630, and presumably this was painted then. 

 The size of the dog is muchgreater than the greyhounds of that period and 

 we infer that it is an Irish wolfdog. If it is accepted as such by the reader, 

 let him turn to the chapter on the Great Dane and compare this dog with 

 the mastins in Snyders' wild boar hunt. None of these mastins are 

 portrait dogs, but represent the type of the wolfdogs kept for their 

 courage, while the Arundel dog was a pet, well fed and well groomed. 

 Yet the similarity bietween them is too marked to be overlooked or cap- 

 tiously discarded. 



We know very well that the wolfhound did not originate in Ireland and 

 our opinion is that some of the parent stock of the mastins and the 



