PRESENTED BY

THE DOMESDAY BOOK OF DOGS

A Canine Chronology

55 - 54 BC  Julius Caesar was impressed by the size and ferocity of the mastiff-like war dogs used by the Celtic tribesmen to disrupt his legionaries' ranks in his two failed sorties against The British.

  c. 200 AD  Oppian of Apamea, Cynegetica, describes a small dog 'breed' with an excellent scenting ability used by the ancient Britons called the Agassian/Agasseus. (Mair, 1928).

  c. 200 - 220  Remains of an unusually small breed of dog that would have stood about 8 ins at the shoulder were uncovered by archaeologists in 2023 at Wittenham Clumps in Oxfordshire. An artists impression shows a dog slightly smaller than a standard dachshund.

200 - 400  Dog remains discovered at the Vindolanda fort include the bones of hunting dogs, stock dogs and companion dogs. There is no evidence that any of the dogs were used for food. 

  c. 350  Remains of a dwarf dog discovered by archaeologists in 1997 and dated to the 4th century. Estimated live height 26 - 28cms and weight 10kgs. (Baxter, 2006).

  c. 600  From the Triads of Taliesin.

                Three things are there hard to prove:

                The oath of a dealer

                The promise of a wooer

                And the praise of a hunter of his dog.  Hubbard, 1948

630  De Canibus Veltricibus, one of the laws in the Capitularies of Dagobert I, very briefly describes traditional terrier work and also mentions seven breeds of dogs. They are: bibarhunt (possible terrier); hapihuhunt; hovauvarth (mastiff guard dog); leitihunt (hunting dog); spurihunt (possibly a lymer); suvarzuvild (bear-hunter, wild oxen-hunter); triphunt (trained hunting dog).  (Fisher, 1887) (Rivers, 1977). N.B. Frustratingly many authors from the nineteench century insisted on mistranslating the suffix hunt/hund as 'hound', this should be borne in mind when considering the suggested meanings of the names.

927  Athelstan, King of England, demanded an annual tribute from the five Welsh kings that included: gold, silver, 25,000 oxen and "sharp-scented dogs fit for hunting of wild beasts."  (Young and Turner, 1934)

  c. 945  The laws of Hywell Dda (Howell the Good), Prince of Wales, reference eight dog types: bugeilgi (shepherd-dog), bytheuad (hound), ci taeog (peasant dog), colwyn (presumed lap dog), gellgi (buckhound), gwalgi (watchdog), milgi (greyhound), orlhain (tracker),  

1016 - 1021  King Canute in his forest laws mentions two breeds of small dogs that could be kept in the forest without the need for expeditation: the ramhundt and velteres "all which dogs are to fit in one's lap." (Watkins, 1885).

1042 - 1066  In what could be a reference to bear-baiting, Norwich, paid King Edward the Confessor twenty pounds and "ten pounds to the Earl, and, beside these payments, twenty-one shillings and four pence for measures of provender, six sextaries of honey, a bear, and six bear-dogs..." Jesse, 1866.

  c. 1066 - 1100  In the first couple of decades or so after the conquest, the Normans brought several types of hound with them, although the Bayeux Tapestry contains precious little information on the subject. These imported 'breeds' were collectively known as Southern Hounds and they included, purportedly, the ancestors of The Gelli.

  c. 1100  First use of the terms dogge and dog, gradually supplanting the Anlo-Saxon 'hunt' or 'hundt'. Theories have been suggested, fanciful or otherwise for the origin of the word 'dogge', but few have noted that the Welsh for dog is 'gi'. The Welsh for a 'birding' spaniel 'might' be adargi while the Welsh for terrier or earth dog is daeargi, (literally daear = earth and gi= dog). Daeargi is pronounced 'die' 'are' and 'gi, with gi as in corgi'. So the migration from Welsh to English could have occurred thus: daeargi - dargi - dogge - dog.

1206  William de Breosa pays to King John a fine of "three war-horses and five hunters, and twenty-four scenting-hounds, and ten greyhounds, for the fine which he made with us for the castles of Grossemonte, Schenefride, and Lantelio." (Jesse 1866).  N.b. Probably three Monmouthshire castles: Grosmont; Skenfrith; White Castle. (Jones 1996)

1209  Earl Warren, Lord of Stamford introduced bull-baiting after having observed a fight between two bulls and then a chase of one of them by a pack of butchers' dogs. The requirements of the 'sport' gradually changed mastiffs and they came to be known as degenerate mastiffs. Over the years some grisly contraptions were used to disfigure the dogs' faces from puppyhood to enable them to obtain a better grip on the bull's nose. Acquired characteristics cannot be inherited, however, so to achieve the typical bulldog features of undershot jaw and laid back nose, it must have required an outcross to a breed that already sported something like those features or a lucky genetic sport cropping up in a litter; or possibly a combination of the two. This barbaric 'sport' was only finally banned in 1835.

1210  King John of England gifts an Irish Wolfhound, Gelert, to Prince Llewelyn of Wales.

1211  Possible first mention of terrier, from the rolls of King John:
              "xxiiij brachet,  i terreer  vj leporariorum"
or: twenty-four hounds, one terrier, six greyhounds.
(Latham 1975).  N.b. Fisher 1887 translates leporarios as greyhound.

1212  Possible first mention of otter hunting with a pack of otter hounds in the Rolls of King John, July 26th. "The King to the Sheriff of Somerset &c.

"We command you to provide necessaries for Ralph the otter huntsman, and Godfrey his fellow, with two men and two horses and twelve otter-hounds, as long as they find employment in capturing otters in your shire. And as soon as they cannot capture any, you are to forthwith send them back to us, and any cost you may incur through them shall be accounted to you at the Exchequer." Jesse, 1866.

1281  Edward I decrees that all wolves in England should be exterminated (Source: Wolves in the UK).  Thus sounding the eventual death knell for the English wolfhound.

1304 - 1305  Edward II, as prince of Wales, informs Count D'Evreux his French cousin that he has sent, amongst other things "some of our bow-legged hare-hounds of Wales, who can well discover a hare if they find it sleeping; and some of our running dogs who can swiftly chase it. Because we know well that you love much the sport of choice dogs." (Jesse, 1866).

1310 - 1320  A variety of dogs feature in the Queen Mary Psalter. There are fifty-two dogs depicted across twenty-seven bas-de-pages.  These include twenty-nine greyhounds of various sizes, mainly rose-eared but a few with short, drop ears; six small scenthound types; one large scenthound type; one lap dog and fifteen 'prick-eared curs'. One bas-de-page also depicts a fox being unearthed.

1376  Le livre du Roy Modus et de la Royne Racio published by Henri de Ferrieres. The book contains information on ten 'breeds': raches and kennets (large and small scent hounds respectively); chien d'oysel (bird dog or spaniel); lymers; mastifs; French Matins; the three types of alaunts (gentiles, veutreres, butchers) and greyhounds (term used in a similar fashion to our 'sighthound'). (Riviere & Son, 1839).

1387 - 1400  Chaucer writes The Canterbury Tales and uses both terms 'dogge' and 'dog'.

1400  Wolves in England believed probably extinct by this date. Coursing greyhound pedigrees from the time show that English wolfhounds from the Flixton, Folkstone and Stackston kennels were assimilated into the breed (Plummer, 1995).

1406 - 1413  Edward, second Duke of York, faithfully translates Count Gaston de Foix's Livre de Chasse,  with only slight changes for his English audience, and releases the work as The Master of Game.  Edward points out that small curs are sometimes called terriers while large curs might be called mastiffs. The work contains ten types or varieties of dog: alaunt; berslettis; cur; gentle hound; greyhound; lymer; mastiff; rache; spaniel, terrier. (Baillie Grohman and Baillie Grohman).

1415 Author of The Master of Game, Edward, second Duke of York, dies at Agincourt. As does Sir Piers Legh of Lyme Hall, Cheshire whose favourite mastiff bitch stood guard over the fallen knight 'til his retainers arrived. Rumour has it the bitch in question also whelped a litter of puppies on the battlefield.

 

  c 1475 Possible first use of the term 'Beagle' in the romance "The Squire of Low Degree." Caution should be taken as some older sources quote "With theyr bugles in that place" rather than "With theyr beagles in that place."  Watson, 1906.

1486  Dame Juliana Barnes (Berners or Bernes) in the Boke of St Albans, supplies a list of recognisable English 'breeds': "a Grehoun, a Bastard, a Mengrell, a Mastiff, a Lemor, a Spanyel, Raches, Kenettys, Teroures, Bocheris Houndis, Myddyng dogges, Tryndeltayles, Prikherid currys. And small ladyes' poppees that beere a Way the flees." This latter item on the list presumably refers to lapdogs (Vesey-Fitzgerald, 1957).

Le livre du Roy Modus et de la Royne Racio.

Riviere & Son. Library of Congress.

Researches into the history of the British dog.

George R. Jesse. 1866. R.Hardwicke, London.

Gleanings from the natural history of the ancients.

Morgan George Watkins. 1885. E. Stock, London.

The Forest of Essex ... William R. Fisher. 1887

Butterworths. London.

The Dog Book James Watson, 1906.

Doubleday, Page & Co. New York

The Master of Game. Chattos & Windus, London. 1909.

Edward of Norwich. Baillie-Grohman and Baillie-Grohman. 

Roosevelt, Theodore. Gaston III Phoebus, Count of Foix.

Oppian of Apamea, Cynegetica or the chase.
Translated by Alexander William Mair. 1928.

Fox-hunting.  J.R. Young 1934.

Longmans, Green and co.,

Dogs in Britain. Clifford Hubbard. 1948.

Macmillan and Co., London.

The Domestic Dog. Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald. 1957

Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.

Dictionary of medieval Latin from British sources. 1975

R.E. Latham.  British Academy, Oxford University Press.

Laws of the Alamans and Bavarians. 1977.

Theodore John Rivers. University of Pennsylvania Press.

The Development of the Dog. D.Brian Plummer, 1995.

The Boydell Press.

Woolhope Naturalists Field Club

Mrs. M. U. Jones.  1996.

A Dwarf 'Hound' Skeleton from a Romano-British Grave ...

Ian Logan Baxter.  Researchgate.  2006.

Dogs at Vindolanda.
Julie Stewart & Marilyn Kendall, 2017.

Tiny Roman dog remains found during Oxford archaeological dig.
BBC 2023.

The History of Wolves in the UK.

Back to HOME PAGE

.