muzzle than those which we are now accustomed to see. Another old
and valuable strain was kept by the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth.
It is to these two strains that the dogs of the present day trace
back.

Mr. Woolmore's Crown Prince was one of the most celebrated of
Mastiffs. He was a fawn dog with a Dudley nose and light eye, and
was pale in muzzle, and whilst full credit must be given to him for
having sired many good Mastiffs, he must be held responsible for the
faults in many specimens of more recent years. Unfortunately, he was
indiscriminately bred from, with the result that in a very short time
breeders found it impossible to find a Mastiff unrelated to him.

It is to be deplored that ever since his era there has been a
perceptible diminution in the number of good examples of this fine
old English breed, and that from being an admired and fashionable
dog the Mastiff has so declined in popularity that few are to be seen
either at exhibitions or in breeders' kennels. At the Crystal Palace
in 1871 there were as many as sixty-three Mastiffs on show, forming
a line of benches two hundred yards long, and not a bad one among
them; whereas at a dog show held twenty-five years later, where more
than twelve hundred dogs were entered, not a single Mastiff was
benched.

The difficulty of obtaining dogs of unblemished pedigree and
superlative type may partly account for this decline, and another
reason of unpopularity may be that the Mastiff requires so much
attention to keep him in condition that without it he is apt to become
indolent and heavy. Nevertheless, the mischief of breeding too
continuously from one strain such as that of Crown Prince has to some