2i8 DOGS 



were seldom long-lived, for they were apt to be 

 poisoned out of pure malice. These heavy dogs 

 seldom care about much exercise ; they take life 

 quietly, like gouty old gentlemen, and love to lie 

 blinking and snoring in the sunshine. All the 

 same, I should not advise you to trust to that, for 

 they are all sinew and muscle, and as ready for a 

 spring as a panther. And when their jaws have 

 closed on your leg like the teeth of a spring-trap, 

 hot irons will hardly make them let go. Yet I 

 have known active mastiffs and amiable bulldogs. 

 One of the best retrievers I ever met — at least for 

 any four-footed thing, from red-deer to rabbits — was 

 three-fourths mastiff and one-fourth bull-terrier; out 

 rabbit-shooting he would jump about among the 

 sandhills like the briskest little spaniel or terrier. 

 And the only bulldog I ever owned was an impostor. 

 He came of a famous breed, and I had offered 

 him a home in his old age, when the master who 

 loved him moved into London. I never saw a 

 more truculent countenance ; it would have sent 

 him to the gallows, on mere suspicion, in any law 

 court in Europe. No doubt his ancestors had 

 submitted to the brutal mutilation, which cut lips 

 and jaw about to show the teeth. But appear- ' 

 ances are deceptive, and he was the most good- 

 tempered of mortals ; it is true that till he came to 

 me, he had never been on chain, but always kept 

 in a yard. I tried to take him out for walks, but 

 gave it up. His massive frame was cast in iron, 

 but his feet were in no sort of condition. The 



