THE MASTIFF. 137 



from doing him any bodily harm, and suffering his escape 

 over the walls," but leaving his master's property intact. A 

 mastiff who had been left by his master, who was a sweep, 

 in charge of his bag of soot in a narrow street in Southampton, 

 refused to leave it either for coaxings or threats, and rather 

 than desert his duty allowed himself to be run over and killed. 

 The Mastiff's ^ ne mastm nas a powerful scent, and remark- 

 Discrimina- able skill in discovering the lost property of his 

 tion. master. Captain Brown gives the following ex- 

 tract from a letter from St. Germains: "An English gentle- 

 man some time ago came to our Vauxhall with a large 

 mastiff, which was refused admittance, and the gentleman 

 left him in the care of the body-guards, who are placed there. 

 The Englishman, some time after he had entered, returned 

 to the gate and informed the guards that he had lost his 

 watch, telling the sergeant, that if he would permit him to 

 take in the dog, he would soon discover the thief. His 

 request being granted, the gentleman made motions to the 

 dog of what he had lost, which immediately ran about 

 amongst the company, and traversed the gardens, till at last 

 he laid hold of a man. The gentleman insisted that this 

 person had got his watch; and on being searched, not only 

 his watch, but six others, were discovered in his pockets. 

 What is more remarkable, the dog possessed such a perfec- 

 tion of instinct as to take his master's watch from the other 

 six, and carry it to him." 



The Mastiff Mr. Jesse gives the following story which he 

 as Protector. re p rm ted from a contemporary newspaper: 



"A most extraordinary circumstance has just occurred at 

 the Hawick toll-bar, which is kept by two old women. It 

 appears that they had a sum of money in the house, and 

 were extremely alarmed lest they should be robbed of it. 

 Their fears prevailed to such an extent, that, when a carrier 

 whom they knew was passing by, they urgently requested him 

 to remain with them all night, which, however, his duties 



