CHAPTER X. 



THE BULL-DOG. 



Ai.LUSlON having been made to the great antiquity of the Bull-dog in the chapter on the Mastiff, il 

 will be unnecessary for us to recapitulate in the present instance what we said before concerning the 

 claims of rival breeds to be regarded as the most ancient variety of British dog. Few, however, can 

 be found who refuse to award the Bull-dog the honour of being considered our national dog, for no 

 variety of the canine species is so universally identified, both at home and abroad, with Great 

 Britain, as the subject of the present article. Bull-dog pluck and endurance are qualifications eagerly 

 cherished by Englishmen of all classes ; and it would be manifestly unjust to deprive this dog of 

 the title which has been so universally awarded him. 



No breed of dog has provoked more discussion than the subject of this chapter, 

 and in no canine controversy has party feeling run so high, and so many uncomplimentary 

 epistles been exchanged. The result, however, of the angry battle of words has been so far 

 a gain to the breed as to cause a perceptible increase in the number and quality of the 

 exhibits at the principal shows, and, in the year 1875, it was the means of inducing several 

 breeders to unite, and form the New Bull-dog Club, which has drawn up the scale of 

 points now received by the vast majority of breeders throughout the country, whether 

 members of the Club or not. Now that there seems to be some sort of unanimity 

 between the various schools, the variety bids fair to prosper ; and though from its excitable 

 temperament the Bull-dog is not likely, in spite of its many high claims upon public favour, 

 to be a general pet, it is gratifying to all lovers of this our national dog when they find it 

 slowly, though surely, emerging from the hands of the residuum of the canine world, and taking 

 its proper place in the kennels of a superior class of breeders and exhibitors. The gain to the 

 dog will, we believe, be immense, for in the unhappy position into which it had fallen the 

 Bull-dog had but slender opportunities of proving to the world that its intelligence was at 

 least equal to that of the average run of dog. Chained up for weeks and months in damp 

 cellars or dark confined hutches in miserable alleys, what chance had the poor brute of 

 developing even that ordinary degree of sagacity which is expected to be found in an animal 

 endued with sight and instinct ? What possibility could there be that a creature so treated 

 could beget offspring inheriting any of the better mental qualities which are naturally present 

 in the Bull-dog, and which are developed in many dogs now before the public, whose lot has been 

 cast in happier places than the habitation of a low scoundrel whose blow preceded his command, 

 and who only noticed his wretched companion when desirous of participating with him in some 

 revolting piece of cruelty, in which the dog, through his indomitable courage, was destined to 

 take a conspicuous part? How the Bull-dog ever came to be so nearly monopolised by this 

 class of individual is capable of explanation by the theory that when bull-baiting ceased to be a 

 fashionable recreation in this country, yet before it was absolutely prohibited by law, the sport 

 was carried on by the lower classes, and the dog naturally came into their possession, there to 

 remain until the efforts that were periodically made to extricate it should at last succeed. 



