THE MASTIFF IN HENRY VTH ? S REIGN. 85 



not whelping until some time after reaching Paris, it is 

 palpable she must have got in whelp after leaving England, 

 and seeing the confusion, bustle, and even straits the English 

 army were in previous to Agincourt, it is very improbable 

 any care was taken over the paternity of the said litter, and 

 it is very probable that this Lyme Hall race were cross bred 

 mongrels from the commencement. 



I mention this because certain writers on the strength of 

 the legend have laboured in vain to try to establish a claim 

 for purity of the breed, saying that the Lyme Hall breed 

 presents the true and correct type of the English mastiff in 

 its purity. Although the breed has unquestionably varied in 

 type from time to time, and frequently presented character at 

 variance with any idea of mastiff purity, being highly sugges- 

 tive of a cross with the German boarhound or Great Dane. 



In the drawing-room window at Lyme Hall, is the reputed 

 portrait of Sir Peers Leigh, who met his death w r ounds at 

 Agincourt, and also a representation of the bitch, and in this, 

 and in the old pictures of the family, the breed is represented 

 of a pale fawn colour, but more recently the breed has been 

 of a deep red, which was the prevailing colour of mastiffs in 

 Lancashire formerly. 



The family appear to have kept up the breed by crossing 

 with specimens in the vicinity, and Lancashire has always 

 been noted for the number of bandogs kept to guard its 

 bleaching grounds, etc. But at Lyme Hall no record appears 

 ever to have been kept of the lineage of the race, neither has 

 any purity in type seemingly been cultivated, and the breed 

 has generally presented animals approaching the boarhound 

 in character, being too long in the head, pointed in the 

 muzzle, high on the leg and light in body, for mastiff purity. 



