116 THE ENGLISH MASTIFF. 



totally disused. The former, however, exhibited a greater ap- 

 pearance of magnanimity than the latter, as in them the amateurs 

 of the sport themselves attacked the bull; while those who delight- 

 ed in bull-baiting were only stupid starers, who employed their 

 dogs to perform a business which they themselves durst not un- 

 dertake, and to face an antagonist which they would have trem- 

 bled to approach. 



THE ENGLISH MASTIFF 



Was so famous in the time of the Roman emperors, that an 

 officer was appointed to breed and send to Rome such of this 

 species, as might be deemed proper for the combats of the 

 amphitheatre. But the genuine and unmixed breed of these 

 dogs, although not absolutely extinct, is now seldom met with ; 

 and most of those distinguished by that name are a compound 

 of different breeds. 



The real mastiff is much larger and stronger than the bull- 

 dog. .His ears are pendulous, his lips large and loose, his aspect 

 sullen, and his bark loud and terrific. The distinguishing charac- 

 teristic of his disposition is that of being a faithful guardian of 

 property, and suffering no depredation to be committed on the 

 premises where he resides. Dr. Gail us, who wrote in the reign 

 of Queen Elizabeth, informs us, that three of these dogs were 

 reckoned a match for a bear, and four for a lion ; but from an 

 experiment made in the presence of King James the First, it 

 appeared that a lion was not an equal match for three of them ; 

 for although two of the dogs were disabled in the conflict, the 

 third seized the lion by the lip, and held him for some time, until, 

 being dreadfully torn by his claws, he was obliged to let go his 

 hold ; and the lion, exhausted by the contest, took a sudden leap 

 over the dogs, and retired into his den. Experiments, however, 

 of this kind, cannot give us any just notion of the proportion 

 of courage and strength between those animals; for it must 

 be considered that the lion in question, besides having lost much 

 of his natural ferocity by the temperature of the climate, had 

 long been in a state of confinement under the subjection of man. 

 [t is therefore impossible to ascertain how many mastiffs would 

 be a match for that undaunted animal in his state of natural 

 fierceness, under the burning influence of an African sun, in the 

 deserts of Biledulgerid. 



The mastiff, conscious of the superiority of his strength, has 

 sometimes been known to chastise with great dignity the insults 

 or impertinence of his inferiors. An animal of this kind, be- 

 longing to a gentleman near Newcastle, had been frequently 

 teased and molested by the barking of a little mongrel ; but at 

 length, wearied with such impertinence, he took up the con- 



