152 ORIGIN OP THE BULL DOG BROTJGHTON. 



of a similar form and breed to those at present designated by that name, since bull - 

 baiting- had not then commenced, or been heard of. It seems thence rational to 

 conclude, that, those butchers' dogs were of, or partook of, the fierce mastiff' 

 breed, so general in England, at that period. Further, for ages subsequent to that 

 period, the mastiff and his varieties, were in constant use for the purpose of baiting 

 wild beasts, and most probably bulls also ; at the same time, these mastiffs, or mon- 

 grel mastiffs, may have been denominated bull dogs. One of the four mastiffs, 

 which in King James's reign, were set upon the lion, seized him by the lip, which 

 is the peculiar hold of our present bull dogs. 



Such are our reasons for concluding the English Bull dog to have originated in 

 a cross of breeds ; but to the when, or by whom the Variety was first contrived and 

 established, our information does not extend ; not improbably, before the Revolu- 

 tion. We have personal recollection of them in their present form, but we 

 think of somewhat larger size, more than half a century since, when we saw with 

 horror, in our youthful days, a poor Jackass put up to be baited by them ! There 

 can be no doubt there is a pug cross in the bull breed, from the size, the head, the 

 underjaw, and the form of the carcase, and indeed the temper of the animal ; and a 

 conjunction of the original Muscovy, or Dutch Pug, with the English Mastiff, in 

 all probability, formed the far-famed ENGLISH BULL DOG. In France pugs are 

 called, dwarf bull dogs. Buffon is an amusing writer, and a laborious and com- 

 prehensive collector of facts, but not very profound or successful as a theorist, far 

 less au fait as a Sportsman, or a practical man ; and the following notion of his 

 seems congenial with such a character that, ' the pug has originated in a cross 

 between the English bull dog, and the small Dane !' I write from memory, and if 

 some other writer, not Buffon, has advanced that conjecture, 1 most humbly beg 

 pardon of the Count's memory. 



The torture of criminals, as a punishment, has happily been abolished in England 

 long since, but infinitely to the national disgrace, the torture of innocent and help- 

 less beasts as an amusement, still prevails, although it must be acknowledged, in a 

 greatly diminished degree, and that such savage barbarity has been long in the 

 wane. We may date this happy change from the death of the Hero of Culloden, 

 and the retirement from public life, of his arbiter elegantiarum, the famous, or 

 rather infamous, Broughton, the amusements of whose boxing Theatre consisted also, 

 of the exhibition of the most abominable cruelties upon animals. This hero, after 

 his retirement from the actual Bulls and Bears of his arena, by way of continuing 

 to turn the penny, and make the most of that pension which he enjoyed from his 

 Royal Master, entered upon a new scene of contention with the virtual Bulls and 

 Bears of Jonathan's, now better known as the Stock Exchange. In the year 1783, 

 accompanying a lady to a sale of Household Furniture, we there met Broughton. 

 Not being able to obtain a Catalogue, and seeing the old hero with one in his hand, 

 we stepped up to him, and with all possible civility, requested him to permit the 



