THE ENGLISH MASTIFF. 225 



in height at the shoulder, had killed his brother in 

 comhat, but was perfectly gentle, acknowledging 

 the caresses of strangers by a slight wagging of the 

 tail, but with a grave, and somewhat mournful look. 

 Cirino, Whitaker, and others, relate the exuberant 

 usurper zeal of Henry VII. for the prerogative of 

 Royalty, when he ordered a mastiff to be hanged, 

 because the animal had dared to engage singly with 

 his lord and sovereign the lion. And there is a 

 story related of another in the reign of Elizabeth, 

 when Lord Buckhurst was Ambassador at the Court 

 of Charles IX., who, alone and unassisted, succes- 

 sively engaged a bear, a leopard, and a lion, and 

 pulled them all down. 



The care these dogs take in watching is well 

 known, and the cool attention they have evinced in 

 walking by the side of a nightly thief, forbidding 

 his laying hands upon any article, yet abstaining 

 from doing him bodily harm, and suffering his 

 escape over the walls, is sufficiently attested. The 

 story of a mastiff who, long molested by a playful 

 cur, at last rose, took him up and dropped him in 

 the neighbouring water, is universally known ; and 

 we may add another, told of Chicken (the dog of 

 the 43d), who, passing up Union Street, at Ply- 

 mouth, was beset by a whole troop of curs, till they 

 quite impeded his sober walk, sufficiently to excite 

 his resentment, and accordingly he lifted one of his 

 hind legs, and astonished them all. The mastiffs 

 of the Continent are generally white, with very 

 large clouds of black or of reddish ; two which had 

 p 



