CHAPTER VII. 

 THE ENGLISH MASTIFF. 



When we knock at a farmer's door, 



The first answer shall be his vigilant mastiff. 



More's Antidote against Atheism. 



WITH the Norman conquest, bringing with it a culture of 

 everything in any way connected with hunting, we get further 

 insight to the broad-set, heavy pugnaces or ban-dogs of 

 England, and although neither the artist nor sculptor have 

 left many indications of the type of the breed at that date, 

 old tapestries reveal a few interesting examples. 



There are some dogs figured on the celebrated Bayeux 

 tapestry, attributed to Matilda, the wife of the Conqueror. I 

 have seen no accurate drawing of these animals, therefore 

 cannot pronounce an opinion if the mastiff is among them. 

 The best work on this tapestry is that of the Rev. J. C. Bruce 

 entitled "The Bayeux Tapestry Elucidated." 



There is also some very fine tapestry of the I5th century 

 preserved at Hardwick, in Derbyshire, boar and other hunting 

 scenes being figured. As Rogers wrote 



" The storied arras, source of fond delight, 



" With old achievement charms the wildered sight." 



Pleasures of Memory. 



A careful research among the Anglo-Saxon M.S. of that 

 date might reveal forms of the mastiff. Books in the Saxon 

 language declined after the conquest, and Norman-French 

 became the language of the upper classes, the law, and 

 literature. William ist trying even to abolish the English 

 tongue, causing all laws to be written in Norman-French or 

 Latin. 



