CHAPTER XXXIV 

 THE BULLDOG 



ALTHOUGH in many respects the Bulldog and the Mastiff of to-day 

 are so widely different, there are many who believe that both breeds 

 are from the same common stock. The late Mr. Hugh Dalziel was 

 one of these. He said the very name Bulldog is comparatively 

 modern, and its application to ancient breeds seems rather to 

 jump with the desires and predilections of those who do so, than 

 to be warranted by historic facts, or sound deduction from such 

 facts. Neither de Langley, Juliana Berners, nor Dr. Caius, mentions 

 a breed of dog by the name of Bulldogs ; and we have to come 

 to quite recent times for the name. The fact appears to be that 

 this small Mastiff came to be known as the Bulldog because of his 

 vocation ; just as we find Spaniels named Cockers from their use 

 in woodcock shooting, and as Caius describes other Spaniels as dogs 

 for the partridge, dogs for the duck, etc., entirely because of their 

 adaptability, from size and other features, for the special work. 



The Bulldog was, doubtless, a draft from the Mastiff, and, being 

 selected for special work and bred for special requirements, gradually 

 assumed characteristics so well defined as to make a clear distinction 

 between him and the parent stock. This difference would be the 

 more marked and rapid, seeing that his congeners were also undergoing 

 modification in a divergent, if not an absolutely different, direction ; 

 and hence we have, at the present day, two varieties, of common 

 parentage, so widely different as the modern Bulldog and Mastiff are. 



Another theory put forward with regard to the origin of the 

 variety is that it was descended from the Spanish Bulldog a dog 

 that Mr. Adcock familiarised us with some years ago. Somehow 

 the Bulldog has got so indissolubly linked with this country that 

 the very close association may in itself have been sufficient to lend 

 a certain amount of colour to the purely British origin of the 

 Bulldog. 



Anyhow, the Bulldog of to-day is an entirely different animal, 

 both physically and mentally, from the Bulldog of fifty years ago. 

 Then he was a leggy, terrier-like, active brute, in whom the fighting 

 instinct was a chief and carefully fostered characteristic. Now 



