12 Modern Dogs. 



Crispin's day, October 25th, 1415, the battle of 

 Agincourt was fought, and the English had a 

 decisive victory over their Gallic neighbours. Sir 

 Peers Legh, of Lyme Hall, fighting for the victors, 

 lay wounded on the field, and when found by his 

 comrades he was guarded by a magnificent mastiff 

 bitch, who did not leave her master until he died 

 of his wounds in Paris, whither he had been 

 removed. The bitch pupped shortly afterwards, 

 but this did not prevent the warrior's family making 

 arrangements for the conveyance of the knight's 

 protector and her family to Lyme Hall, whither the 

 corpse was taken for subsequent interment in the 

 private vault of the Legh's, within the walls of 

 Macclesfield Parish Church. From these puppies 

 there sprung what was once supposed to be a pure 

 strain of mastiffs. But history is silent about even 

 the parent bitch herself, although it has been stated 

 positively that the Lyme Hall strain was descended 

 from dogs born generations before Agincourt was 

 won. I do not think that anyone who wishes to 

 improve his strain of mastiffs to-day would fly to 

 the Lyme Hall Kennels for the purpose. 



At the time of my visit, there was a very fine 

 painting by Nettleship, about 1876, of a mastiff, 

 and a right good dog too, evidently quite as good 

 as Miss Aglionby's Turk, and some others that 



