Old English Bulldog The word 'Mastiff' was eventually dropped when describing these smaller Mastiffs, as the Mastiff proper was found too slow for bull-baiting. Eventually, the Greyhound was crossed into the breed, increasing the Mastiff's speed without losing the breed's ferocity. This step reduced the Old English Bulldog's size and weight, with the Greyhound's features seen in specimens of that time. Two other recognized members of the breed can be seen in the 1817 painting "Crib and Rosa", with Rosa exemplifying the form and size of the ideal type of Old English Bulldog, albeit deficient in wrinkles about the head and neck and
Old English literature the Bible ("Old English Hexateuch"), portions have been assigned to Ælfric on stylistic grounds. He included some lives of the saints in the "Catholic Homilies", as well as a cycle of saints' lives to be used in sermons. Ælfric also wrote an Old English work on time-reckoning, and pastoral letters. In the same category as Ælfric, and a contemporary, was Wulfstan II, archbishop of York. His sermons were highly stylistic. His best known work is "Sermo Lupi ad Anglos" in which he blames the sins of the English for the Viking invasions. He wrote a number of clerical legal texts