Mastiffs: Gentle giants revered by Shakespeare, feared by thieves, adored by families

‘What the Lion is to the Cat, the Mastiff is to the Dog,’ wrote Sydenham Edwards in Cynographia Britannica (1800). It’s a fitting comparison — though not for the reasons one might expect. Rather than sheer ferocity, Edwards celebrated the breed’s gentle temperament:‘His courage does not exceed his temper and generosity... I have seen him down with his paw the terrier or cur that has bit him, without offering further injury... In a family, he will permit the children to play with him, and suffer all their little pranks without offence.’In short, the mastiff is a big softie.

Although known for its affectionate and docile nature, the mastiff’s size and strength have long made it an ideal guard dog — a role it has played across centuries.

When the Romans invaded in 55BC, they encountered huge dogs in Britain, some of which were taken back to Rome to fight wild animals in the Colosseum. In Henry II’s reign, mastiffs kept by gamekeepers were even subjected to a cruel practice known as being ‘lawed’ — having toes removed to prevent them from chasing and catching game.

In John Caius’s De Canibus Britannicis (1570), mastiffs were described as guardians that kept homes free from ‘thieves, robbers, spoilers, and night wanderers’. The breed’s legendary loyalty is perhaps best captured in the tale of Sir Piers Legh II, wounded at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 and protected on the field by his mastiff bitch. Shakespeare himself referenced the breed in Henry V: ‘That island of England breeds very valiant creatures; their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage.’ That same mastiff returned home and founded the Lyme Park line, kept by the Legh family until the early 20th century. One of their dogs, Lion, is immortalised in a portrait still hanging in the entrance hall at Lyme Park, Cheshire — another appears in a stained-glass window of the drawing room.

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During both World Wars, the mastiff population in Britain plummeted — families could barely feed themselves, let alone such a colossal dog (the mastiff holds Guinness World Records for both the longest and heaviest dog ever recorded).

Luckily, some mastiffs had been exported to the United States, and these dogs helped revive the breed in Britain from the 1950s onwards. Today, mastiffs come in a variety of shades — including apricot, fawn and brindle — and retain their historical blend of courage, loyalty and calm affection.