•14 DOGS. Chap. 1 



English breed, and as I hear from Mr. G. R. Jesse,**^ seems 1u 

 have originated from the mastiff since the time of Shakspear«! ; 

 but certainly existed in 1631, as shown by Prestwick Eaton's 

 letters. Thei-e can be no doubt that the fancy bulldogs of 

 the present day, now that they are not used for bull-baiting, 

 have become greatly reduced in size, without any express 

 intention on the part of the breeder. Our pointers are 

 certainly descended from a Sj^anish breed, as even their 

 present names, Don, Ponto, Carlos, &c., show ; it is said that 

 they were not knovvm in England before the Revolution in 

 1688;^'' but the breed since its introduction has been much 

 modified, for Mr. Borrow, who is a sportsman and knows 

 Spain intimately well, informs me that he has not seen in 

 that country any breed " corresponding in figure with the 

 English pointer ; but there are genuine pointers near Xeres 

 which have been imported by English gentlemen." A nearly 

 parallel case is offered by the Kewfoundland dog, which was 

 certainly brought into England from that country, but which 

 has since been so much modified that, as several writers have 

 observed, it does not now closely resemble any existing native 

 dog in Newfoundland.*' 



These several cases of slow and gradual changes in our 

 English dogs possess some interest ; for though the changes 

 have generally, but not invariably, been caused by one or 

 two crosses with a distinct breed, yet we may feel sure, from 

 the well known extreme variability of crossed breeds, that 

 rigorous and long-continued selection must have been prac- 

 tised, in order to improve them in a definite manner. As 

 soon as any strain or family became slightly improved or 

 better adapted to alter circumstances, it would tend to 

 supplant the older and leKs improved strains. For instance, 

 as soon as the old f.txhound was improved by a cross with the 

 greyhound, or by simple selection, and assumed its present 



'^ Author of ' Researches into the between the Esquimaux dog and a 



Hi tory of the British Dog. large French hound. See Dr. Hodgkin, 



«s &(? Col. Hamilton Smith on the 'Brit. Assoc.,' 1844; Bechstein'.s 



antiquity of the Pointer, in 'Nat. Lib.' * Naturgesch. Deutschland,' Band, i 



vol. X. p. 196. s. 574; ' Nat. Lib.,' vol. x. p. 132; also 



*' The Newfoundland dog is be- Mr. Jukes' ' Excursion in and about 



lieved to have originated from a cross Newfoundland.' 



