The Bulldog. 219 



only as a relic of a barbarous and bygone age. Most writers agree that 

 the bulldog existed in this country before any record, and that it is 

 indigenous to this, and has never been found in any other country. The 

 unfounded supposition " that he has been produced by a mixture of the 

 blood of the hyaena with that of the common dog " is not probable or 

 generally admitted. 



On the origin of the bulldog there has been some dispute between the 

 admirers of that breed and those of the mastiff, each being asserted to be 

 the stock whence the other is derived. All I can gather on the subject 

 points to the conclusion that the ancestor of both breeds was the dog 

 called the " alaunt," " mastive or bandog," the description of which is 

 more applicable to the modern bulldog than to the modern mastiff. Mr. 

 Jesse says " Cotgrave gives the following, which is evidently copied from 

 the 'Master of the Game ': Allan, a kind of dog, big, strong, thickheaded, 

 and short snouted. Allan de boucherie is like our mastive, and serves 

 butchers to bring in fierce oxen and keep their stalls. Allan gentil is 

 like a greyhound in all properties and parts, his thick and short head 

 excepted. Allan vautre, a great and ugly cur, of that kind (having a big 

 head, hanging lips, and slouching ears) kept only to bait the bear and 

 wild boar.' Du Fouilloux gives, in his 'Interpretations de Venerie' : 

 ' Allans qui sont comme Leuriers fors qu'il ont grosse teste et courte.' " 



The " Master of the Game," after reviewing the kinds of alaunt above 

 mentioned, says : " Te heued ye whiche should be greet and short; and 

 thouze ther Alauntes of alle heues ye vray hue of ye good Alauntz yat is 

 most common shuld be white, with a blak spot a bout ye eerys; small 

 eyne and white stondying eres. . . . Any beest yat he might come to he 

 shuld hold with his seseurs, and nought leave it, for an alaunt of his 

 nature holdeth faster his biting yan shuld three greehoundes. ... A 

 good Alaunt should be hardy to nyme al maner beestis without turning 

 and hold fast and not leave it." The " mastives " are by the same author 

 described separately as watch dogs. 



Dr. Kaye (or Caius, A.D. 1576) describes the " mastive or bandogge " 

 as watch dogs, " serviceable against the foxe and the badger, to drive 

 wilde and tame swyne out of medowes, pastures, glebe lands, and places 

 planted with fruite, to bayte and take the bull by the eare when occasion 

 so requireth . . . for it is a kind of dogge capable of courage, violent, 

 and valiant, . . . standing in feare of no man, in so much that no 



