190 WATCHDOGS AND HOUSE-DOGS. 
creation. ‘lwo remarkable features are met with in this breed: 
First, they always make their attack at the head; and, secondly, 
they do not bite and let go their hold, but retain it in the most 
tenacious manner, so that they can with difficulty be removed by 
any force which can be applied. Instances are recorded in which 
bulldogs have hung on to the lip of the bull (in the old days of 
baiting that animal) after their entrails had been torn out, and 
while they were in the last agonies of death. In this they are 
assisted by the shortness of the face, which allows the nostrils to 
remain potent, even when the nose and mouth are imbedded in any 
soft substance. Indeed, when they do lay hold of an object, it is 
always necessary to choke them off, without which resource they 
would scarcely ever be persuaded to let go. From confinement to 
their kennels’ they are often deficient in intelligence, and they 
can rarely be brought under good control by education; and, 
from the same circumstance, they show little personal attachment, 
so that they are almost as likely to attack their friends as their 
enemies in their fury when their blood is put up. Many a bull- 
dog has pinned his master’s leg in revenge for a tread on his foot, 
and it is very seldom that liberties can be taken with him by any 
one. There is an old story strongly characteristic of this tendency, 
which will illustrate this passion for pinning, and also the fondness 
of the lower orders in some districts for the fighting and baiting 
propensities of their dogs. A Staffordshire coal-miner was one day 
playing with his bulldog, an unentered puppy, when the animal 
became angry and pinned his master by the nose. On this the 
bystanders became alarmed, and were going to treat the dog 
roughly, but the owner interfered with, “Don’t touch un, Bill; let: 
un teaste blood, an’ it’ll be the.meaking on him.” And so the 
puppy was allowed to hang on and worry his master’s nose to his 
heart’s content, 
Most writers, whether political or otherwise, are fond of dilat- 
ing on the “bulldog courage” of Englishmen, yet, in the same 
breath, they vilely asperse the noble animal from whom they draw 
their simile. The bulldog has been described as stupidly ferocious, 
and showing little preference for his master over strangers ; but this 
is untrue, he being an excellent watch, and as a guard unequalled, 
except perhaps by the bull-mastiff—a direct cross from him. 
