222 British Dogs. 



Crib and Rosa (1817), Lucy (1834) " Mr. Howard and his Pets," 

 " The Bull Loose," and others. 



On the suppression of bull-baiting by Act of Parliament in the early 

 part of the present century the bulldog lost its peculiar occupation, but 

 was preserved from extinction in the families of some of its admirers and 

 bred in all its purity. 



After some considerable time the breed became fashionable for awhile 

 as a companion. Subsequently an attempt was made to breed it as small 

 as possible, for a toy, by crossing it with the terrier, but this attempt only 

 resulted in a travestie of the true breed, and eventually failed on account 

 of the tendency to revert to the original size. 



Of late years strenuous attempts in the opposite direction have been 

 made by a few breeders to increase the bulldog's size, by breeding it with 

 the mastiff and large foreign dogs, and also to have the gigantic mongrel 

 race received as a new standard for the old breed, with which it differs 

 in the most important points (the broad mouth and receding nose 

 especially). The result is the obliteration of the characteristic type. 



In spite of all the breed has suffered from the neglect and disparage- 

 ment of its opponents, and the injury it has sustained from its more 

 mischievous and inventive patrons, there still remain true representatives 

 of the original bulldog for the use of those breeders who wish to preserve 

 the correct type of the pure, old-fashioned dog, and who are wise enough 

 to decline to be misled by false pedigrees and specious arguments into 

 breeding from novel-shaped parents under pretence of improving the 

 breed and restoring it to what it is alleged to have been before bull- 

 baiting became a separate sport. There are men still living who remem- 

 ber bull-baiting being practised ; some of such have frequently described 

 it to me, and their descriptions of the sport agree entirely with the one 

 quoted by Jesse, dated 1694. The baited bull, like the coursed hare, 

 was supposed to be better for eating than when killed in cold blood. 

 The bull was fastened by a rope or chain, about four or five yards long, 

 to a ring round a stake, and the dogs were slipped at him (generally) 

 singly. " The dog that runs fairest and furthest in wins." The owner 

 of the bull charged a certain sum for each dog slipped, and both he and 

 the owners of the dogs made collections amongst the spectators. My 

 informants agree that the dogs used were of the same type and size as 

 the best medium-sized dogs of the present day, but one says that some 



