Fifty or more years ago, one regrets to record, the bull 

 terrier \vas a very disreputable fellow, his avocation being dog 

 righting, badger baiting, and ratting. In the middle of last century 

 no undergraduate of sporting proclivities had completed his 

 education until he could appraise the merits of one of these dogs. 

 We all remember how Charles Stewart Calverley traced the 

 metamorphosis of the Freshman, whose education grew by degrees 



until he 



Learned to work the wary dog-cart 



Artfully through King's Parade ; 

 Dress, and steer a boat, and sport with 



Amaryllis in the shade : 

 Struck, at Brown's, the dashing hazard ; 



Or (more curious sport than that) 

 Dropped, at Callaby's, the terrier 



Down upon the prisoned rat. 



Gone are these days, " good old times," they were called, when by 

 some strange perversion baiting an imprisoned animal was miscalled 

 sport. We are no less sporting to-day, but our tastes have assumed 

 a healthier form, and it has become a wholesome law that the 

 object of our pursuit shall have a decent chance of making good 

 his escape. 



The prejudices excited by the earlier associations of the bull 

 terrier were not easily overcome, and it was many years before he 

 received the entrance to decent society. Doubtless dog shows had 

 much to do with his rehabilitation, people coming at last to 



