THik BULL TERRIER: 
The fight took place at Tupper’s in Long 
Acre, and in half an hour Puss had killed her 
opponent, her own injuries being so slight 
that she was able to appear the next morn- 
ing at a dog show and take a prize for her 
good looks and condition. 
Madman was another of Hinks’s terriers, 
and the names of this pair were so persist- 
ently adopted by other owners for other 
dogs that it is impossible now to trace a 
pedigree back to the genuine originals. 
In the Kennel Club Stud Book for 1874 
there are a dozen Bull-terriers all named 
Madman. 
With the advent of the Hinks strain in 
1862 the short-faced dog fell into disrepute, 
and pure white became the accepted colour. 
There was a wide latitude in the matter 
of weight. If all other points were good, 
a dog might weigh anything between 10 
and 38 lb., but classes were usually divided 
for those above and those below 16 lb. 
The type became fixed, and it was ruled 
that the perfect Bull-terrier “must have 
a long head, wide between the ears, level 
jaws, a small black eye, a large black nose, 
a long neck, straight forelegs, a small hare 
foot, a narrow chest, deep brisket, powerful 
loin, long body, a tail set and carried low, 
a fine coat, and small ears well hung and 
dropping forward.” 
Idstone, who wrote this description in 
1872, earnestly insisted that the ears of all 
dogs should be left uncut and as Nature 
made them; but for twenty years there- 
after the ears of the Bull-terrier continued 
to be cropped to a thin, erect point. The 
practice of cropping, it is true, was even 
then - illegal and punishable by law, but, 
although there were occasional convictions 
under the Cruelty to Animals Act, the dog 
owners who admired the alertness and 
perkiness of the cut ear ignored the risk 
they ran, and it was not until the Kennel 
Club took resolute action against the prac- 
tice that cropping was entirely abandoned. 
The prompting cause of this decision was 
a prosecution at Worship Street police 
court early in 1895 against three offenders 
“for causing to be tortured and for actually 
torturing and il-treating, by cutting its 
331 
ears, a certain dog.” The dog in question 
is believed to have been an Irish terrier, 
but whatever its breed the three defendants 
were each fined £5 and £2 2s. costs. The 
case was discussed at a meeting of the Kennel 
Club, and, although the members were not 
at first in full agreement, yet it was ulti- 
mately decided and a rule was formulated 
that ‘“‘no dog born after the 31st of March, 
1895, should, if cropped, win a prize at any 
show held under Kennel Club rules.” 
The president of the Kennel Club, Mr. S. E. 
Shirley, M.P., had himself been a prominent 
owner and breeder of the Bull-terrier. His 
Nelson, bred by Joe Willock, was celebrated 
as an excellent example of the small-sized 
terrier, at a time, however, when there were 
not a great many competitors of the high- 
est quality. His Dick, also, was a remark- 
ably good dog. Earlier specimens which 
have left their names in the history of the 
breed were Hinks’s Old Dutch, who was, per- 
haps, even a more perfect terrier than the 
same breeder’s Madman and Puss; Alfred 
George’s Spring, G. Smith’s Young Puss, 
Tredennick’s Bertie, and R. J. Hartley’s 
Magnet and Violet, who are said to have 
been a magnificent pair. Godfree’s Young 
Victor, although disfigured by a patch over 
his eye, was famous for his perfection of 
shape and his success as a sire, and many 
of our recent champions have his name in 
their pedigrees. Sir W. E. H. Verney’s 
Ch. Tarquin, a son of Young Victor, was 
the most distinguished Bull-terrier during 
the four years prior to 1878. He was 
a pure white dog, weighing 45 lb. His 
recorded measurements may be useful for 
the purpose of comparison with those 
of the terriers of the present day. They 
are: Nose to stop, 3{ inches; stop to occi- 
put, 54 inches; length from occiput to 
root of tail, 30} inches; girth of skull, 18 
inches ; girth of muzzle, 12} inches; girth 
of chest, 26+ inches; girth of loins, 22 
inches ; girth of forearm, 6{ inches; girth 
of pastern, 4 inches; hock to ground, 5 
inches; height at shoulder, 184 inches. 
Lancashire and Yorkshire have always been 
noted for good Bull-terriers, and the best 
of the breed have usually been produced 
