Googe as Foure Bookes of Husbandrie. This work was originally adapted from De Re Rustica by 1st century Roman writer Columella, which highlights the Roman connection. Certainly from Roman to medieval times, Mastiff-like dogs were used in the blood sports of bull-baiting, bear-baiting, lion-baiting, and dog fighting, as well as for hunting and guarding. Dogs known as Bandogs, who were tied (bound) close to houses, were of the Mastiff type.They were described by John Caius in 1570 as vast, huge, stubborn, ugly, and eager, of a heavy and burdensome body - noted for their use as guard dogs on remote estates. The naturalist Christopher Merret in his 1666 work Pinax Rerum Naturalium Brittanicarum has a list of British mammals, including 15 kinds of dog, one of which is "Molossus, Canis bellicosus Anglicus, a Mastif". Literally, "Molossus, warlike English dog, a Mastiff", and perhaps the first conflation of the breeds Molossus and Mastiff. When in 1415 Sir Peers Legh was wounded in the Battle of Agincourt, his Mastiff stood over and protected him for many hours through the battle. The Mastiff was later returned to Legh's home and was the foundation of the Lyme Hall Mastiffs. Five centuries later this pedigree figured prominently in founding the modern breed. Other aristocratic seats where Mastiffs are known to have been kept are Elvaston Castle (Charles Stanhope, 4th Earl of Harrington and his ancestors) and Chatsworth House. The owner of the Chatsworth Mastiffs (which were said to be of Alpine Mastiff stock) was William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire, known to his family as Canis. Mastiffs were also kept at Hadzor Hall, owned by members of the Galton family, famous for industrialists and scientists, including Charles Darwin. Some evidence exists that the Mastiff first came to America on the Mayflower, but the breed's further documented entry to America did not occur until the late 19th century. From the early 19th century to World War I In 1835, the Parliament of the United Kingdom implemented an Act called the Cruelty to Animals Act 1835, which prohibited the baiting of animals. This may have led to decline in the aggressive Mastiffs used for this purpose, but Mastiffs continued to be used as guards for country estates and town businesses. Systematic breeding began in the 19th century, when J.W. (John Wigglesworth) Thompson purchased a bitch, Dorah, from John Crabtree, the head gamekeeper of Kirklees Hall, whose dogs