DOG-BREEDING 



(cagnolo), and would do his best to obtain one. In 1540 

 Lady Lisle wrote to Madame du Bours in reply to a request 

 for poodles for the crossbow or hackbut, " I will send 

 to England for poodles (barbets), for I can get none in this 

 town except one which I send for your son. He is very 

 good at retrieving the head or bolt of a crossbow, both in 

 water and on land, and will fetch a tennis ball or a glove 

 put on the end of a stick, and other tricks." In 1546 

 Henry VIII sent to Mary of Hungary " greyhounds and 

 running dogs," and in the same year he made the French 

 queen " the gladdest woman in the world " by a present of 

 " hobbies, greyhounds, hounds and great dogs." In this 

 year, too, Anne of Cleves, who is credited by Lady Lytton 

 with possible introduction of the liver-and-white toy spaniel 

 into England, sent two brace of English greyhounds to her 

 brother, the Duke of Cleves.* In 1559 the envoy of the 

 Duke of Mantua at Queen Elizabeth's Court wrote : " The 

 Queen did not act thus with the French Lords, to whom she 

 gave gifts more than splendid, viz. To Mons. Montmorency : 

 . . . divers dogs mastiffs, great and small, hounds (scurieri) 

 and setters a quantity of every sort." These were no doubt 

 reared in the royal kennels in the Isle of Dogs, near the palace 

 of Greenwich. The breeding of fine mastiffs was probably 

 due to a state of public opinion which breathed the sentiment : 



Let dogs delight to bark and bite, 

 For God hath made them so. 

 Let bears and lions growl and fight, 

 For 'tis their nature too.f 



and considered dog-fighting, together with bull and bear- 

 baiting, to be little less than national pastimes. J Bull- 



* " Calendar of State Papers, Henry VIII." f Isaac Watts. 



J " The fee of the Master of the Cocks [under James I] exceeded the united 

 salaries of two Secretaries of State." 



" The Master of the Buckhounds, who is also one of the Ministry, ranks next to 

 the Master of the Horse." " Murray's Dictionary," vol. vi, p. 213. 



45 



