508 
GEAR IER: TeTxX. 
LARGER NON-SPORTING AND UTILITY 
BREEDS. 
“<«Eyidently a traveller in many countries, and a close observer of men and things, said Mr. 
Pickwick. 
“<T should like to have seen that poem,’ said Mr. Snodgrass. 
“«T should like to have seen that dog, said Mr. Winkle.” 
The Dogue de Bordeaux.—As early as 
the fourteenth century Gaston Phcebus, 
Comte de Foix, described the great French 
Molossus, or Alant, doubtless the ancestor 
of the modern Dogue de Bordeaux, and 
in the distinction he drew between the 
Alant Gentil and the Alant de Boucherie 
may be recognised the difference we draw 
to-day between the huge fighting dog of 
the South of France and the smaller kind 
with shorter muzzle known as the Boule- 
dogue du Midi, which is practically the 
same as the Spanish Bulldog. Even then, 
stress was laid upon 
PICKWICK PAPERS. 
are tremendous brutes, and usually as 
savage as they are strong. Some of the 
more docile kind may at times be met with 
in Paris, where they are bred by wineshop 
keepers, who, for obvious reasons, do not 
encourage them to ferocity; but in the 
Midi, where they are kept for contest, 
they are schooled to savagery, and, ’tis said, 
are even given hot blood to drink that they 
may become fierce. 
The Bordeaux dogue has not often been 
seen on this side of the Channel, but in 
1895 efforts were made by two or three 
well-known Bulldog 
men to establish 
the points we now 
ask for in the 
French Dogue—the 
wrinkles, the light, 
small eye, the liver- 
coloured nose, the 
absence of dark 
shadings on the 
face, and the red 
mask which is so 
much preferred to 
the black, with 
its irequent accom- 
paniment of fawn 
body colour, indi- 
cating Mastiff blood. 
Formerly bred for 
encounters in the 
arena, the immense 
dogs of Bordeaux 
are still occasionally 
pitted against each 
the breed in Eng- 
land. In that year 
Mr. John Proctor, 
of Antwerp, who 
had judged them at 
the Bordeaux show, 
published in the 
Stockkeeper an ac- 
count of his expe- 
riences with the 
fighting dogs of the 
South of France, 
and Mr. Sam 
Woodiwiss and Mr. 
HS eG wibie cole 
started almost 
simultaneously for 
France in quest of 
specimens. Mr. 
Woodiwiss  pur- 
chased the dog who 
other, or against 
the bull, the bear, 
or the ass. They BITCH DRAGONNE. 
MR. H. C BROOKE'S DOGUE DE BORDEAUX ak 
had won first prize 
Bordeaux, a 
warrior renowned 
