CHAPTER XII. 



THE BULL-TERRIER. 



No breed of dog is at present making such a rapid advance in public favour as the modern 

 and improved Bull-terrier, and its well-deserved popularity seems far more likely to be 

 permanent than that of other breeds which have in turn been taken up only to be dismissed 

 by their owners when their lack of intelligence, cowardice, or general inutility, has proved them 

 to be unworthy of the patronage bestowed upon them. The breed as it now exists is compara- 

 tively of recent manufacture, and is indisputably the result of judicious selection from and with the 

 well-known Bull and Terrier of the Midland counties. This dog, in its turn, was brought into 

 existence by crossing the Bull-dog with the white English Terrier, and was produced in the 

 first instance by the supporters and lovers of dog-fighting, who wished to obtain a longer and 

 more punishing head than that possessed by a pure Bull-dog. This latter cross, in the first 

 instance, produced a sullen-looking, thick-skulled dog, showing slight indications of symmetry in 

 his composition, but still admirably adapted for the purpose for which he was called into 

 existence. How the present show Bull-terrier arose from such a dog is more or less the subject of 

 conjecture, for no trustworthy particulars of its origin are obtainable from the part of the country 

 where it first appeared ; but there is little cause to differ from the general impression, that 

 many of the larger-sized show specimens have Greyhound blood in their veins, whilst the 

 smaller breed is more closely allied with the English Terrier than is desirable. 



We ourselves have been applied to by a gentleman whose name is well known in the 

 coursing world, for permission to cross some of his Greyhound bitches with the Bull-terriers 

 Tarquin and Sallust. The object of this was his desire to instil stamina and pluck into his 

 breed, which he fancied was degenerating in these qualifications, and need not be gone into 

 here, though it will, with his permission, be noticed in the chapter on Greyhounds. The result 

 of the first Bull-terrier cross, in each instance, was a large-framed, though light-boned and 

 rather narrow-chested dog, with, for a Bull-terrier, very snipy jaws, and possessing the 

 peculiar action of the Greyhound in a marked degree. The difficulty of breeding out the last 

 point alluded to struck us the moment we saw the animals move ; and the original introducers 

 of this blood into the Bull-terrier if there are such persons in existence deserve consider- 

 able credit for their perseverance in their endeavours. However, not having the slightest desire to 

 experimentalise in the matter, we are unable to give further information as regards the cross, so far 

 as it affects the Bull-terrier, beyond the fact that the dog puppies were at once destroyed by their 

 owner, the females alone being retained by him for the purpose of working out his experiment. 



One of the earliest records we can find of the Bull-terrier is in one of the. editions of 

 Elaine's " Rural Sports," in which allusion is made to the breed in the following words : 

 "A large breed of English Terriers has of late sprung up, most of which are rough-coated, but a 

 few others are smooth. These, by being crossed with the Bull-dog, have gained undaunted 

 courage in attacking the higher order of vermin as the badger, &c." 



In the "Naturalists' Library," too, by Sir William Jardine, published in 1843, the breed 



