330 



THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 



time the young gamesters who patronised 

 the prize-ring and the cock-pit desired to 

 have a dog who should do something more 

 than kill rats, or unearth the fox, or bolt 

 the otter : which accomplishments afforded 

 no amusement to the Town. They wanted 

 a dog combining all the dash and gameness 

 of the terrier with the heart and courage 

 and fighting instinct of the Bulldog. Where- 

 fore the terrier and the Bulldog were crossed. 



CH. BLOOMSBURY YOUNG KING 



BY BLOOMSBURY KING BLOOMSBURY NORAH. 



BRED AND OWNED BY MR. J. HAYNES. 



A large type of terrier was chosen, and this 

 would be the smooth-coated black-and- 

 tan, or the early English white terrier ; 

 but probably both were used indifferently, 

 and for a considerable period. The result 

 gave the young bucks what they required : 

 a dog that was at once a determined vermin 

 killer and an intrepid fighter, upon whose 

 skill in the pit wagers might with confidence 

 be laid. 



The animal, however, was neither a true 

 terrier nor a true Bulldog, but an un- 

 compromising mongrel ; albeit he served 

 his immediate purpose, and was highly 

 valued for his pertinacity, if not for his ap- 

 pearance. In 1806 Lord Camelford pos- 

 sessed one for which he had paid the very 

 high price of eighty-four guineas, and which 

 he presented to Belcher, the pugilist. This 



dog was figured in The Sporting Magazine of 

 the time. He was a short-legged, thick- 

 set fawn-coloured specimen, with closely 

 amputated ears, a broad blunt muzzle, and 

 a considerable lay-back ; and this was the 

 kind of dog which continued for many years 

 to be known as the Bull-and-terrier. He 

 was essentially a man's dog, and was vastly 

 in favour among the undergraduates of 

 Oxford and Cambridge. 



Gradually the Bulldog element, at first 

 so pronounced, was reduced to something 

 like a fourth degree, and, with the terrier 

 character predominating, the head was 

 sharpened, the limbs were lengthened and 

 straightened until little remained of the 

 Bulldog strain but the dauntless heart 

 and the fearless fighting spirit, together 

 with the frequent reversion to brindle 

 colouring, which was the last outward and 

 visible characteristic to disappear. 



Within the remembrance of men not yet 

 old the Bull-terrier was as much marked 

 with fawn, brindle, or even black, as are the 

 Fox-terriers of our own period. Bill Sikes' 

 companion, who came to so undignified an 

 end, was a bandy-legged, coarse, and heavy 

 creature with a black patch on his eye and 

 one or two patches on his body. But fifty 

 years or so ago white was becoming fre- 

 quent, and was much admired. A strain 

 of pure white was bred by James Hinks, a 

 well-known dog-dealer of Birmingham, and 

 it is no doubt to Hinks that we are indebted 

 for the elegant Bull-terrier of the type that 

 we know to-day. These Birmingham dogs 

 showed a refinement and grace and an 

 absence of the crook-legs and coloured 

 patches which betrayed that Hinks had 

 been using an out-cross with the Egnlish 

 white terrier, thus getting away further 

 still from the Bulldog. Many persons ob- 

 jected that with the introduction of new 

 blood he had eliminated the pugnacity 

 which had been one of the most valued at- 

 tributes of the breed. But the charge was 

 not justified, and to prove that his strain 

 had lost none of the cherished quality of 

 belligerence Hinks backed his bitch Puss 

 against one of the old bull-faced type for a 

 five-pound note and a case of champagne. 



