57 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE FRENCH BULLDOG (BOULEDOGUE FRANCAIS). 



BY FREDERICK W. COUSENS, M.R.C.V.S., F.Z.S. 



; Sir, he's a good dog, and a fair dog. Can more be said? " — Shakespeare. 



AUTHORITIES across the Channel are 

 of opinion that the French Bulldog is 

 strictly a breed of French origin, yet 

 they are willing to admit that of compara- 

 tively recent years there have been from time 

 to time importations from England which 

 have been used as a cross with the native 

 dog, and that this cross has, perhaps, led 

 to a nearer approximation to the British 

 type than was the case prior to the admixture 

 of British blood. M. J. Bontroue, the 

 Secretary of the French Bulldog Club of 

 Paris, and Secretary of the French Kennel 

 Club, holds this opinion very strongly, as 

 do Mr. Gordon Bennet, President of the 

 Pans Club, and Prince de Wagram, its 

 President d'Honneur. Mr. Max Hartenstein, 

 of Berlin, who was first interested in the 

 French Bulldog in 1870, and has owned and 

 bred great numbers of them, declares that 

 " there can be no two opinions as to the fact 

 of the French Bulldog being a distinct 

 French breed, with a longer history and 

 more remote origin than is generally under- 

 stood." He is aware of the introduction 

 of small British specimens into France ; 

 not, however, necessarily for the purpose 

 of interbreeding, but principally because 

 French fanciers desired to have a bright, 

 vivacious, bantam specimen. He is of 

 opinion that in Paris, in 1870, the breed, 

 as a whole, was smaller than it is to-day. 



The late Mr. George R. Krehl, of London, 

 one of the greatest authorities, with whom 

 the subject of the French Bulldog was very 

 thoroughly discussed by the present writer, 

 went still further back into the past (nearly 

 three hundred years), and from his re- 

 searches built up a plausible and very pro- 

 bable theory as to the origin of this breed 

 in France. In a letter written by him to 

 the Stockkeeper Christmas Supplement, 1900, 



he showed grounds for believing that the 

 variety came originally from Spain. There 

 was published with Mr. Krehl's letter a 

 copy of an antique bronze placque dated 

 1625, bearing in bas-relief the head of a 

 Bulldog with either cropped, or bat, ears, 



lady lewiss CH. HARPDON CRIB 



BY CH. POLO DE BAGATELLE LA GITANA. 



and the inscription, " Dogue de Burgos, 

 Espana, anno MDCXXY." the artist's 

 name being Cazalla. This placque has been 

 examined by a connoisseur and pronounced 

 authentic. The historic value of this bronze 

 will be at once appreciated, when it is re- 

 membered that Burgos is the principal town 

 of old Castile in Spain, noted for the breeding 

 of dogs used in the arena for bull-baiting. 



" We have no generic name for this 

 family," Mr. Krehl wrote. " but in France 

 they are called dogues, whence we get our 

 own word dog, but we have corrupted the 

 meaning of it. The heads of the group are 

 the Spanish Bulldog, the dogne de Bordeaux, 



