26 DOGS 



ganger to their owners and a terror to the neighbour- 

 hood. But the natural disposition is gentle, with an 

 intuitive desire to afford protection, so that a well-trained 

 mastiff is at once the best of companions — not given to 

 quarrel, solicitous of notice from those he serves — and 

 proves with his intelligence and high mettle the best 

 guard of persons and property.' 



A tanner who had a mastiff which guarded his yard 

 once had occasion to suspect his foreman of dishonesty. 

 The foreman had always given the dog his food, and the 

 two were on the best of terms. Knowing the dog so well, 

 the dismissed foreman thought there would be no danger 

 in stealing a number of hides from the yard ; so in the 

 dead of night he drove his cart close against the wall and 

 jumped over into the yard. The mastiff showed no sur- 

 prise at the nocturnal visit, but he followed him about 

 pretty closely. The cart was soon loaded, and the fore- 

 man began to climb the gate. But these proceedings 

 seemed to excite the dog's suspicions, for the man had 

 usually only to draw the bolt. Without the slightest 

 hesitation the mastiff seized the man, and held him tight 

 till the morning, when his master made his appearance. 



Another anecdote is that a gentleman dropped a 

 sovereign when he was leaving home, and on his return in 

 the evening was told the dog was ill and refused to eat, 

 but that it would not let the servant take the food away, 

 but had been lying with its nose on the pan without 

 attempting to touch it. The master at once went to see 

 the dog, when it jumped to its feet and laid the missing 

 sovereign upon the floor. 



Chambers, in his ' Anecdotes of Dogs,' relates that Sir 

 Henry Lee, of Ditchley, in Oxfordshire, had a mastiff which 

 guarded the house and yard, but had never met .with any 

 particular attention from his master and was not a 

 favourite dog. One night as Sir Henry was retiring to 

 his bedroom, attended by his favourite valet, an Italian, 

 the mastiff silently followed them upstairs, which he had 

 never done before, and, to his master's astonishment, pre- 



