the time of the Roman occupation of Britain, an officer was appointed with the title of Procurator Cynegii, whose business it was to obtain and transmit to Rome mastiffs that would prove useful as guards and, mayhap, in fighting in the arena either amongst themselves or with wild beasts. At about this period every two "villeins" were by law compelled to keep between them one mastiff dog, and the duties of the Procurator would, no doubt, be to collect the dogs, when fully grown, from these common people. Strabo tells us that the same mastiffs were used by the Gauls in times of war.

The Rev. M. B. Wynn, in his "History of the Mastiff," has been most praiseworthy in his researches as to the origin of the mastiff, and, I believe, has collected facts together which ought to convince even the most sceptical of the identity of the mastiff with that large dog which the Romans found in this country, and which they afterwards made useful and amusing in their degrading sports of the arena. There are numerous

illustrations on various pieces of ancient RomanBritish pottery which can easily be identified as representing a dog of the mastiff type, such a one as some nineteen hundred years or more ago might be found in this country, and utilised as guard to the flocks and herds, protecting them by their

size, strength, and ferocity from the wolves that then overran the country.

There might at the same time be a smaller variety of the same dog, but of this there is no proof, and that the early mastiff was quite different from the early bulldog in leading particulars may be safely inferred, especially when, in support thereof, there are extant illustrations dating from the Roman period where the mastiff is attacking a horse, which he is represented as doing from behind, and not flying at the nose or front, which is the natural seizing place of the true bulldog.

Mr. Wynn further says that in 1823, in a work entitled "Roman Antiquities, or the Durobrivæ of Antonicus Identified," there is a picture of a mastiff galloping after a horse, and, judging from the relative size of the two animals, which are both carefully and accurately delineated, such dogs must have been from 28 to 30 inches at the shoulder, heads broad and full, muzzle very short and broad, ears small and partially erect. Their necks and bodies are massive, limbs short and stout, sterns fine, and the tout ensemble that of long-bodied, muscular, heavy mastiffs. The same writer proceeds to say that such instances are proof of what the mastiff was say between A.D. 100 and 150, which would be about the time the vessels were made upon which

the figures were represented, and from which the engravings were taken. These," the author of the "History of the Mastiff" proceeds to say,

"are

the best drawn and most reliable evidences I have met with, and it would be ridiculous to class such dogs as bulldogs, with their manner of attack and large size; yet their broad skulls and short muzzles show their close affinity to the British bulldog."

There are other illustrations of large dogs extant taken from ancient pottery, and in some of them the ears of the animals are shown as cut, the latter no doubt done to prevent the aural appendages being torn, either when the dogs were fighting with each other, or with some wolf, or fox, or badger.

However, it would occupy too much space were I to enter fully into the origin of the mastiff and describe him seriatim from the earliest days to the present time. He was early known as the Alaun or Alan, the Molossus, and later, according to some authorities, as the Bulldog, but I should be inclined to believe-nay, do in reality believe-that our modern mastiff, as he appears on the show bench to-day, is very far removed from what he was when Julius Cæsar first landed on our shores, and although Mr. Wynn, Mr. H. D. Kingdon, and others have endeavoured to trace the breeding of these favourite dogs for many years back, their

labours have not had a successful result. A dog's pedigree for a hundred years, excepting, maybe, in a foxhound or greyhound, is not to be compiled with any degree of exactitude. Still there have been in this country, from earliest records to the present time, a breed of dog that has done duty as the mastiff, and so well has he performed his part that he may be well called the most historical dog of the day.

By the Romans and some others he was abased by the purposes to which he was put, for I do not believe he was ever intended as a hunting dog, or for the purpose of fighting with much more powerful beasts than himself. It has been said that King James I. loosed a powerful mastiff against a lion, to the discomfiture of the former, and a kennel companion met a like fate. But a third dog did so much better, worsting his antagonist, that the King said, "He that had fought the king of beasts should never fight a meaner creature," and forthwith this good "mastive" became a pensioner on the royal bounty. This is said to have happened in 1604, and about sixteen years later the same monarch prohibited bear-baiting on a Sunday. At this time it was the custom to crop the ears of most of the mastiffs, and in some cases their sterns were shortened likewise.

As I have already hinted, the mastiff was not originally a fighting dog; he was used as a watch and guard, and as such had special legislation given him so far back as the reign of Henry III., when the obnoxious Forest Laws were still in operation. At that time, and ever since William the Conqueror had appeared on the scene, no ordinary individual was allowed to keep a dog within the precincts of the Forests, though a special provision was made for mastiffs kept by farmers and substantial freeholders dwelling therein; indeed, no other dog than a mastiff was allowed to be kept within these precincts. They might keep such dogs for the protection of their houses and stock, provided that such dogs be expeditated according to law. This iniquitous law was carried out by cutting off the claws of the fore feet close to the skin. The operation was performed by " sitting one of the fore feet upon a piece of wood eight inches thick and a foot square, and with a mallet, setting a chisel of two inches broad upon the three claws of his fore feet, and at one blow cutting them clean off. And this expeditating (by some called hembling or lawing of dogs) ought to be looked af er by the caretaker of the forest every third year."

Dr. Caius, so well known and so often quoted