126 THE MASTIFF FROM ELIZABETH'S REIGN. 



acute in consequence) and prompts their actions. That dogs 

 know their master by his individual scent, and perhaps by 

 his footstep, I have proved often enough, for at any hour in 

 the night, however dark, I have got up and gone down to my 

 mastiffs, and into their kennels without any light, felt for 

 them, and untwisted their chains, and put little puppies back 

 to their mothers, and some have been animals that would 

 have torn a stranger down at once. That dogs are able to 

 perceive instinctively the temper their owner is in at the time 

 I feel sure. Again, at whatever hour at night I might have 

 come home, or walked about the grounds, my own mastiffs 

 never barked at me, although they would do so at once if a 

 stranger came, and strangely enough, if a stranger was with 

 me. 



That the dog knows his master by his individual scent, 

 may at once be seen by the curious and puzzled air a dog 

 will smell at his master in a new suit of clothes; he probably 

 also recognises his footfall, but it is certain a dog can tell his 

 master's presence at a considerable distance at night, simply 

 through scent, and it is very probable that owing to the 

 contemplated murder and robbery on the valet's part, he was 

 in that excitable state of temperament as to be actually 

 repulsive to the dog that night, which caused the animal 

 instinctively to seek the society of his master. 



There is little doubt that both horses and dogs instinctively 

 feel and are influenced by the spirits and temperament of 

 their masters, and are bold or timid, according very much to 

 their master's nature, and it is not improbable that scent is 

 the medium by which they are influenced, and strangers who 

 are not frightened of dogs are in far less danger from them, 

 than those that are. 



