"There can be little doubt that with the advent of Crown Prince came a new era in the history of the mastiff. In him we had a dog of a very striking personality, not by any means confined to his peculiar and ugly colour. Crown Prince was probably a more compact, shorter-bodied, shorterfaced, and more massive-headed mastiff than almost any dog of the race that had preceded him. The novelty of his appearance, it is to be presumed, caused an enormous demand for his services at stud, and it is only to be regretted that mastiff breeders at that time should have so neglected nearly every other dog. Thus we are now placed in the unenviable position of being absolutely compelled to inbreed to an alarming extent or to introduce some other strain with which to invigorate our modern blood. That Crown Prince and Beau together are responsible for the present fashionable type of head is evident, but it is to be feared the former also gave us a lighter eye and a shorter body, as well as those disfiguring straight hocks, which were so prevalent - and are still too often met with - a few years ago. The loss of density or blackness of face markings, too, may also be traced to him.

"But the faults we got from Crown Prince were unquestionably emphasised by the rush upon the dog, to the neglect of almost all others; and had his services been sought a little less exclusively, we might not now have to regret many of the faults of our present dogs - inbreeding having developed them - or that the means of breeding at. all are so difficult.

"In a great number of cases where Crown Prince was probably used to suitable bitches, he proved himself the progenitor of some of our very best mastiffs - best, not only because of successes on the show bench, but because they exhibited his good qualities with few of his bad ones. This was strikingly shown in the case of Dr. Turner's The Lady Isabel, in Mr. T. W. Allen's Montgomery, in Capt. J. L. Piddocke's Toozie, and others.

"One cannot pick up a catalogue of even four or five years ago without noticing how the number of entries in the mastiff classes have fallen off. That this is in any way due to decadence in the mastiff's popularity I do not for a moment believe. Even in so short a period dog shows have enormously increased in number, with the result that exhibitors can now pick their shows, with the almost inevitable result that the classes do not fill so well, although the total number of mastiffs exhibited has possibly decreased but very little. Then the general body of owners still required education in the requisite points, and, pending this, did not hesitate to show their dogs, adding, if not to the quality, to the quantity, and the "tail" of the classes.

"Latterly, whether our mastiffs, as a breed, be better or worse than in the days of Lukey and his contemporaries, the general type has become more uniform, and in consequence owners of those dogs which would appear to be mastiff only in colour, have learnt the futility of showing them.

"It is, perhaps, not too much to say that the 'Description of the Mastiff,' issued by the Old English Mastiff Club, and given on another page, has, as a description of a perfect dog, never been approached, and if it were but possible now to produce a mastiff as a living model of the description, we should be able to point to it as deserving of admiration from the fancier, the artist, and from him who keeps his mastiff as companion and friend.

"But there is one point which has no place in the required show points of the mastiff. Still it is, in all dogs, and more especially in a large, powerful creature, of fundamental importance. It is the temper. Now, so long as the owner remain merely the exhibitor, keeping a dog as a machine with which to win prizes, bestowing no pains upon the education of his puppies, or, at most, leaving any tuition in the hands of an indifferent kennelman, so surely will the inherent courage, docility, and beauty of temper of the mastiff gradually become mere history of the past.

"Dog shows unquestionably tend to develop excitability, and if this be fomented by neglect and carelessness at home, we must not wonder if the would-be owner of a mastiff requires some further proof of the trustworthiness of the breed than a discussion in the public prints, no matter how much in favour of the dog it may be.

"But, two show-points have some bearing on the question of temper; not that either is any actual indication as to what it may be, although they certainly give an impression with regard to it. The first is the colour of the eye. Is it possible to regard the dog owning a pair of light eyes, glaring out from a black or dark face, without feeling considerable doubt of his amiability? I think not. The second point is the undershot jaw. While this gives an awe-inspiring and imposing character to the head, it destroys all benignity of expression, even to a greater extent than the light eye, and, necessary as I consider the extreme power of a mastiff's under-jaw to be, its strength should lie in its width and depth rather than in its elongation to any great extent beyond the upper jaw. We have seen this extreme development of under-jaw very evident in Mr. T. W. Allen's Montgomery, Mr. W. K. Taunton's Beaufort, Capt. Piddocke's Toozie and Jubilee Beauty, Ogilvie and Lord Clive, and in many others, and I venture to think all these extremely good headed dogs would have been even better had they been a little less underhung. It is given in the 'Description of the Mastiff,' that the muzzle is to be blunt, and at a right angle with the upper line of the face; an impossibility if one jaw is to protrude so far beyond the other.

"When good qualities are exaggerated - for we can have too much of a good thing - or become altogether ignored, it is necessary to make allusion thereto. Mere show points are for the consideration of the fancier alone, perhaps, but even he should insist upon soundness of limb and development of those parts indicative of power, activity, and a good constitution. Many of our mastiffs are not all they should be in forelegs and feet, many are narrow-breasted and contracted in the ribs, evidence of a bad constitution, and many more have weak stifles, weak hocks, and thighs almost devoid of muscle.