22O British Dogs. 



weapons will make him shrincke nor abridge his boldness ... No 

 dogge can serve the sundry uses of men so aptly or so conveniently as 

 this sort." 



From the descriptions it is evident that the original ' ' alaunt,' ' " mastive 

 or bandog," was a dog distinguished by a large, short, and thickhead and a 

 short muzzle, and his chief qualities were his high courage and his ability 

 to " pin and hold." These characteristics have always been, and still 

 are, peculiar to the bulldog, "as true a dog as ever fought at head." 

 " The broad-mouthed dogs of Britain " could only refer to a breed having 

 the broad mouth possessed by the bulldog, and by no other dog. In the 

 middle ages dogs that were used for the same general purposes, although 

 of various kinds, were most probably called by the same name, alaunt (of 

 which there were several sorts, as described above), meaning any house 

 or watch dog, in contradistinction to hounds. The dog that was used, 

 as Dr. Caius says, "against the foxe and the badger," &c., would be the 

 same used in baiting animals, and as "sport" increased it must soon 

 have become apparent that a certain size and make of dog was best 

 adapted for a certain purpose. Spenser wrote, A.D. 1553-98 : 



Like as a mastiff, having at a bay 



A salvage bull, whose cruell homes do threat 



Desperate daunger if he them assaye. 



Baiting the bear and the bull was undoubtedly a very ancient pastime, 

 and was patronised by persons of both sexes of the highest rank, as 

 recorded in cases where King Henry II., Queen Mary, Princess Elizabeth, 

 &c., were interested spectators. 



The bull being very different in its mode of combat to other animals, 

 caused bull-baiting to become a distinct sport, for which a distinct class 

 of dog was exclusively kept. One author says, " The bulldog exhibits 

 that adaptation to the uses to which he is rendered subservient which we 

 see in every race of dogs ; and we have only to suppose the peculiar 

 characters of the animal, called forth from generation to generation by 

 selection, to be assured that a true breed would be formed. This has 

 been so in a remarkable degree in the case of the bulldog. After the 

 wild oxen of the woods were destroyed, the practice was introduced so 

 early as the reign of King John of baiting the domesticated bull and other 

 animals, and thus the breed of dogs suited to this end was preserved, 

 nay cultivated, with increased care up to our own times, ' ' centuries after 



