THE BULLDOG 203 



a quotation from Boswell's " Life of Johnson," which 

 I have never read in any book on the breed, and 

 which shows that the pompous old Doctor had an 

 excellent eye for a dog. " Taylor, who praised 

 everything of his own to excess, in short, ' whose 

 geese were all swans,' as the proverb says, expa- 

 tiated on the excellence of his Bulldog, which he 

 told us was * perfectly well shaped.' Johnson, after 

 examining the animal attentively, thus repressed the 

 vainglory of our host. * No, sir, he is not well 

 shaped ; for there is not the quick transition from 

 the thickness of the forepart to the tenuity the 

 thin part behind which a Bulldog ought to have ! ' 

 This tenuity was the only hard word which I heard 

 fiim use during this interview, and it will be 

 observed, he instantly put another expression in its 

 place. Taylor 'said a: small Bulldog was as good 

 as a large one. Johnson : * No, sir, for, in propor- 

 tion to his size, he has strength : and your argu- 

 ment would prove, that a good Bulldog may be 

 as small as a mouse ! ' It was amazing how he 

 entered with perspicuity and keenness upon every- 

 thing that occurred in conversation. Most men 

 whom I know would no more think of discussing a 

 question about a Bulldog than of attacking a bull." 

 This tenuity of which Dr. Johnson speaks is still 

 necessary in the formation of the modern dog, 

 although it is terminology which will not be found 

 in the recognised standard. 



When in 1888 the famous Bulldog, champion 

 " British Monarch," whose name appears in so many 

 fashionable pedigrees of the present day, was sold 

 by public auction for the sum of 125, the price 

 was considered sufficiently large to be chronicled 



