Like the bulldog, the old English mastiff was bred in this country in the earliest times of which we have any reliable record; but, whether in these former ages the two breeds were distinctly separate, and whether the modern bulldog and mastiff can be traced to one or the other of them, are points which must ever remain unsettled. Mr. F. Adcock and Mr. Kingdon would no doubt write half a dozen volumes in support of the superior antiquity and purity of their respective proteges; but, after all, a jury empanelled to deliver a verdict between them would probably be discharged without agreement upon it, and I shall not certainly attempt to do that which I think a 12-man engine would fail in doing. My object is simply to describe the mastiff as I find him; but, nevertheless, I shall not refuse to lay before my readers Mr. Kingdon's views of the origin of the pure breed, which he believes to be now confined to Lyme Hall, in Cheshire, and his own kennels, but most of his dogs are now more or less crossed with the modern mastiff.

He says : "There appear to be recorded only four ancient seats of the mastiff in its purity, and these four most celebrated strains have been preserved, each in its integrity; the oldest of these, pre-eminent for its antiquity and purity, has been thus preserved by the ancient family of Legh, at Lyme Hall, in Cheshire, where it seems to have been even previous to 1415, and has been handed down by them in its integrity and purity; another at Chatsworth, by the Duke of Devonshire; a third at Elvaston Castle, by Lord Harrington; and a fourth at Hadzor Hall, by the Galtons." Two of these four are said to be extinct, and, as he says, "there remains only the Lyme Hall and Elvaston breeds in their legitimacy, and of these the Lyme Hall stands pre-eminent." But, unfortunately, although it is readily admitted that a breed of mastiffs has been maintained at Lyme Hall for many generations, there is no written evidence that it has been kept pure, and we may just as well depend on the purity of Mr. Lukey's brindled bitch with which he started his kennel, and which was bred by the Duke of Devonshire, as on that of the Lyme Hall strain.

The fact really is, that there is no breed among existing British dogs which can be traced through all its generations for 200 years, and very few individuals for half that time. Foxhound and greyhound pedigrees are the oldest and most carefully kept, but with very few exceptions even they do not extend much beyond the latter period; and excluding them no breed goes back even for half a century without a doubtful link in the chain of pedigrees.

In determining the points which are desired in any individual of a particular breed, it is idle to go back for centuries and select some strain of which we have no reliable record, and which, if obtained, would probably prove to be very different from what we want. For example, the foxhound is admitted to be descended from a hound which was very different from him in many important respects; yet, according to Mr. Kingdon, we ought to take the old type and reject the modern one. Instead of proceeding in this illogical way, the master of hounds nowadays improves upon the old type by every possible means, and the result is a hound which does what is asked from him, in a manner which would be far beyond the powers of his ancestors. So with the mastiff - we want a large and handsome dog, possessed of a temperament which will bear restraint under provocation, and, at the same time, of courage to defend his master till the death. These mental properties were carefully attended to by Mr. Lukey, who may be considered to be the founder of the modern English mastiff, and his example has been carefully followed in this respect by Mr. E. Hanbury, Capt. Garnier, Miss Aglionby, Miss Hales, Mr. M. B. Lynn, Mr. Lindoe, Mr. Nichols, and Mr. W. George. All these eminent breeders have taken Mr. Lukey's breed as typical of what they desire to produce, and the results of their efforts may be compared with Mr. Kingdon's dogs on perfectly equal terms, inasmuch as it is admitted that full attention has been paid to the demand for a mild temperament and other mental attributes which are peculiarly essential to this breed.

Now Barry is without doubt Mr. Kingdon's piece de resistance, and yet he is as a satyr to Hyperion when compared with Lukey's Governor or Baron, Hanbury's Prince, Green's Monarch, Wallace's Turk, Field's King, Miss Hales's Lion, or Miss Aglionby's Wolf, besides some dozen or more other dogs of nearly equal merit and celebrity. For these reasons I shall discard all further mention of the Lyme Hall strain, and proced to describe the modern mastiff as founded by Mr. Lukey, and improved on by Capt. Garnier, Mr. Hanbury, and the other eminent breeders mentioned above.

Mr. Lukey began to breed mastiffs rather more than forty years ago, taking a brindled bitch bred by the then Duke of Devonshire as his foundation. Putting her to Lord Waldegrave's celebrated dog Turk, and her puppies to the Marquis of Hertford's Pluto, he obtained a strain with which he stood for some years almost alone as the celebrated mastiff breeder of the day, without any outcross. At length, fearing deterioration by further in-breeding, he resorted to Capt. Garnier's kennel for a sire, the produce being that magnificent dog Governor, by Capt. Garnier's Lion out of his own Countess, a daughter of his Duchess by his Bruce II., who was by his Bruce I. out of his Nell. Of the breeding of his own Lion, and Lord Waldegrave's Turk, Capt. Garnier writes as follows, in a letter which was published at length in the last edition of "Dogs of the British Islands":-

" About this time I bought of Bill George a pair of mastiffs, whose produce, by good luck, afterwards turned out some of the finest specimens of the breed I ever saw. The dog Adam was one of a pair of Lyme Hall mastiffs, bought by Bill George at Tattersall's. He was a different stamp of dog to the present Lyme breed. He stood 30 1/2in. at the shoulder, with length of body and good muscular shoulders and loins, but was just slightly deficient in depth of body and breadth of forehead; and from the peculiar forward lay of his small ears, and from his produce, I have since suspected a remote dash of boarhound in him. The bitch was obtained by Bill George from a dealer in Leadenhall Market. Nothing was known of her pedigree, but I am as convinced of its purity as I am doubtful of that of the dog. There was nothing striking about her. She was old, her shoulders a trifle flat, and she had a grey muzzle, but withal stood 29in. at the shoulder, had a broad round head, good loin, and deep lengthy frame.

From crossing these dogs with various strains I was easily able to analyse their produce, and I found in them two distinct types - one due to the dog, very tall, but a little short in the body and high on the leg, while their heads were slightly deficient in breadth; the other due to the bitch, equally tall, but deep, lengthy, and muscular, with broad massive heads and muzzles. Some of these latter stood 33in. at the shoulder, and by the time they were two years old weighed upwards of 1901b. They had invariably a fifth toe on each hind leg, which toe was quite distinct from a dew-claw, and formed an integral portion of their feet. By bad management, I was only able to bring a somewhat indifferent specimen with me on my return to England from America - a badly reared animal, who nevertheless stood 32in. at the shoulder, and weighed 1701b. This dog Lion was the sire of Governor and Harold, by Mr. Lukey's bitch Countess, and so certain was I of the vast size of the breed in him that I stated beforehand, much to Mr. Lukey's incredulity, that the produce would be dogs standing 33in. at the shoulder - the result being that both Governor and his brother Harold were fully that height.

In choosing the whelps Mr. Lukey retained for himself the best marked one, an animal that took after the lighter of the two strains that existed in the sire; for Governor, grand dog and perfect mastiff as he was, compared to most others of the breed, was nevertheless shorter in the body, higher on the leg, and with less muscular development than Harold, while his head, large as it was, barely measured as much round as did his brother's. I, who went by the development of the fifth toe (in this case only a dew-claw), chose Harold, a dog which combined all the best points, except colour, of both strains, and was a very perfect reproduction on a larger scale of his dam Countess. This dog was the finest male specimen of the breed I have met with. His breast at ten months old, standing up, measured 13in. across, with a girth of 41in., and he weighed in moderate condition 1401b., and at twelve months old 1601b., while at 13 1/2 months old Governor only weighed in excellent condition 1501b with a girth of 40in.; and inasmuch as Governor eventually weighed 1801b. or even more, the size to which Harold probably attained must have been very great.

His head also in size and shape promised to be perfect.