Crass I. a) OP G). 69 
Gratius fpeaks in high terms of the excellency of 
the Britifh dogs, 
Atque ipfos libeat penetrare Britannos ? | 
O quanta eft merces et quantum impendia fupra ! 
Si non ad fpeciem mentiturofque decores 
Protinus : hee una eft catulis ja&tura Britannis. 
At magnum cum venit opus, promendaque virtus, — 
Ft vocat extremo praeceps difcrimine Mavors, 
Non tunc egregios tantum admirere Moloffos *. 
If Britain’s diftant coaft we dare explore, 
How much beyond the coft the valued ftore; 
If fhape and beauty not alone we prize, 
Which nature to the Britifh hound denies: 
But when the mighty toil the huntfman warms, 
And all the foul is roufed by fierce alarms, 
When Mars calls furious to th’ enfanguin’d field 
Eyen bold Moloffians then to thefe mutt yield. 
Strabo tells us, that the maftiffs of Britain were 
trained for war, and were ufed by the Gauls in 
their battles-+: and it is certain a well-trained maf- 
tiff might be of confiderable ufe in diftreffing fuch 
half-armed and irregular combatants as the adverfa- é' 
ries of the Gauls feem generally to have been before 
the Romans conquered them. 
The laft divifion is that of the Degeneres or Curs. 
The firft of thefe was the Wappe, a name derived 
* Gratii Cynegeticon. Liz. 175, 
t Strabo. Lib. iv. 
i 3 _ dy, 
