THE MASTIFF FROM ELIZABETH'S REIGN. I2/ 



However to resume the story, Sir Henry Lee brought the 

 dog home with him, and had a collar made for it, on which 

 was the motto " More faithful than favoured." In the picture 

 the head and neck are all of the dog introduced, and on the 

 collar may be read the words "more faithful." 



Judging from the head, the dog seems to have been a fierce 

 looking animal, the ears are short, in colour he seems to have 

 been a red fawn, with black ears and muzzle, and white on 

 the face. Viscount Dillon, to whom I applied for information, 

 kindly wrote to me, saying the picture was sent to the 

 Exhibition at Manchester in 1855, and photographed, but 

 that he knew of no exact engraved copy. It is the oldest 

 representation in oil of a bona fide English mastiff that I know 

 of, and probably the oldest in existence, for it may be worth 

 mentioning that it was only about the beginning of the i6th 

 century that oil was adopted as a vehicle for painting, being 

 brought into repute by Leonardo da Vinci, who was born in 

 1452, and died 1519 ; and the English school of painters being 

 very limited from the reign of Edward vi. to Elizabeth, 

 consisting of very few besides More, Fred Zuccaro, (who had 

 to quit Rome through having caricatured several officers of 

 the Papal court by representing them with asses ears) Isaac 

 Oliver, and Lucas Heere. Perhaps a careful study of the few 

 existing Fresco paintings in England would reveal earlier 

 forms of the mastiff. 



It has been justly remarked that the poet can depict action, 

 while the painter, can only catch the form for a particular 

 instant ; and up to 1600 we have to rely principally on the 

 poets for the form etc. of the English mastiff, but from that 

 date the brush vies with the pen in handing down the type, 

 and from that date we have an illustrious array of painters. 



