CHAPTKR XVII. 



THE GRKAT BREKDKRS Mr. LUKKY. 



"It is not a bark, loud, open, and free '' 



' As an honest old watch-dog's bark should be." 



Jngoldsby Legend*. " The Witches' Frolic." 



I MUST now ask my readers to retrace a few years with me, 

 in order to follow the career of the more noted, but not 

 greater breeder, Mr. Thompson's contemporary, Mr. T. H. V. 

 Luke) 7 of Wimbledon Park and Morden, Surrey, and subse- 

 quently for many years of Locksbottom, Kent. Mr. Lukey 

 was the son of a Kentish Squire, and was born in 1804, and 

 died August i8th, 1882. As a young man he went into the 

 Coal trade, having his place of business in Milford Lane, 

 London, and was from his youth fond of dogs, being a breeder 

 and fancier of the King Charles' Spaniels, which brought him 

 into contact with most of the better class of the London Dog 

 Dealers of that date, among them Bill George, George White 

 of Knight sbridge, and Frank Redmond of the Swiss Cottage. 



I mention these particulars in order to show that Mr. Lukey 

 was no novice in dogs when he commenced keeping mastiffs 

 in 1835, in the following manner he informed me : 



Walking along the Serpentine, in London, one morning, he 

 noticed a magnincient black mastiff, accompanied by a man- 

 servant in livery, andenquiringwhosedogit was, he learnt that 

 it belonged to the Marquisof Hertford, and that its name was 

 " Pluto." Mr. Lukey thereupon thought he should like such 

 a dog, and calling upon the Marquis, he asked permission to 



