THE BULLDOG. 143 



ing this animal) after their entrails had been torn out, and while 

 they were in the last agonies of death. Indeed when they do lay 

 hold of an object, it is always necessary to choke them off, with- 

 out which resource they would scarcely ever be persuaded to let 

 go. From confinement to their kennels, they are often deficient in 

 intelligence, and can rarely be brought under good control by 

 education. Owing to the same cause, they show little personal 

 attachment, so that they sometimes attack their friends as well 

 as their enemies when their blood is put up. 



But, when differently treated, the bulldog is a very different ani- 

 mal, the brutal nature which he so often displays being mainly at- 

 tributable to the savage human beings with whom he associates. 

 Although, therefore, I am ready to admit that the bulldog often 

 deserves the character for ferocity which he has obtained, yet I 

 contend that this is not natural to him, any more than stupidity 

 and want of affection, which may readily be proved to be the re- 

 verse of his character, if any one will take the trouble to treat him 

 in a proper manner. For the following remarks I am mainly in- 

 debted to Mr. Stockdale, who is a celebrated breeder of bulldogs, 

 and has had a long experience of their various attributes. The 

 antiquity of the breed is unquestionable, and it has always been 

 peculiar to the British islands, the Spanish variety having originally 

 been procured from Britain. It is highly probable that the modem 

 bulldog has undergone a change in appearance during the last fifty 

 years, being now decidedly neater in shape than was formerly the 

 case, if we are to judge from the portraits hanided down to us. As 

 now exhibited, he is a remarkably neat and compact animal natur- 

 ally, the deformities sometimes seen being produced principally 

 from the practice of constantly keeping the poor dog tied up with 

 a short chain. 



The bulldog has been described as stupidly ferocious, and show- 

 ing little preference for his master over strangers ; but this is un- 

 true, he being an excellent watch, and as a guard unequalled, ex- 

 cept, perhaps, by the bull-mastiff, a direct cross from him. 

 Indeed, be is far from being quarrelsome by nature, though the 

 bull- terrier, in many cases undoubtedly is so, and I fancy that 



