86 THE MASTIFF IN HENRY VTH'S REIGN. 



The mastiff being present with Sir Peers Leigh at Agincourt, 

 shows that at that date the breed was often the favourite 

 companion and guard of the wealthy, and their courage was 

 to use the words of Shakespeare simply unmatchable a 

 characteristic the bulldog has kept up, if not its larger relative 

 the mastiff in all instances. 



In 1472 Caxton had returned to England and introduced 

 the art of printing, and about that date Albert Durer (of 

 whom Longlellow so justly said 



" Emigravit is the inscription on the tomostone where he lies, 

 Dead he is not, but departed, for the artist never dies." 



brought to a fair state of perfection the art of engraving on 

 wood, to produce woodcuts. Caxton's "Golden Legend" 

 being full of his work. 



According to Berjeau, in 1496 was printed at St. Albans, 

 (from which the work took the name of the Book of St Albans) 

 a treatise on Hunting, by Dame Juliana Berners of Sopewell 

 Priory. She was related to Lord John Bourchier Berners, 

 author of Froissart's Chronicles, Chancellor of the Exchequer 

 and Governor of Calais, under Henry viiith. Juliana Berners 

 was one of the earliest female writers of England, of whom 

 Hollingshed says: "She was a gentlewoman endued with 

 mighty gifts, both of mind and body, and wrote certain 

 treatises on hunting and hawking, delighting herself in those 

 exercises and pursuits." Honest Strutt less gallantly says : 

 She was sister to Lord Berners, and that her treatises on 

 hunting (which was illustrated by Wynkyn de Worde) was 

 evidently compiled from the works of Twici and Gyfford, and 

 the enlargement of their tract, made by the Master of the 

 Game to Henry ivth, compiled for his son, Prince Henry, 

 afterwards King Henry 5th, which work was entitled " The 

 Maister of the Game." M.S. of the Harlean Collec, Vide 

 Strutt, Lib. i, ch. i, xiii. 



