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Every cock is proud on his own dunghill.

A cock is crouse on his ain midden.

This proverb has descended to us from the Romans: it is quoted by Seneca.ssss1 Its medieval equivalent, Gallus cantat in suo sterquilinio, was probably present to the mind of the first Napoleon when, in reply to those who advised him to adopt the Gallic cock as the imperial cognizance, he said, "No, it is a bird that crows on a dunghill." The French have altered the old proverb without improving it, thus: "A dog is stout on his own dunghill."ssss1 The Italian is better: "Every dog is a lion at home."ssss1 The Portuguese give us the counterpart of this adage, saying, "The fierce ox grows tame on strange ground."ssss1

An Englishman's house is his castle.

But sanitary reformers tell him truly that he has no right to shoot poisoned arrows from it at his neighbours. The French say, "The collier (or charcoal burner) is master in his own house,"ssss1 and refer the origin of the proverb to a hunting adventure of Francis I., which is related by Blaise de Montluc. Having outridden all his followers, the king took shelter at nightfall in the cabin of a charcoal burner, whose wife he found sitting alone on the floor before the fire. She told him, when he asked for hospitality, that he must wait her husband's return, which he did, seating himself on the only chair the cabin contained. Presently the man came in, and, after a brief greeting, made the king give him up the chair, saying he was used to sit in it, and it was but right that a man should be master in his own house. Francis expressed his entire concurrence in this doctrine, and he and his host supped together very amicably on game poached from the royal forest.