ALL THE ENGLISH BULLDOG - 1881

It will be unneecessary for us to recapitulate in the present instancee what we said before concerning the claims of rival breeds to be regarded as the most ancient variety of British dog. Few, however, can be found who refuse to award the Bull-dog the honour of being considered our national dog, for no variety of the caninee species is so universally identified, both at home & abroad, with Great Britain, as the subjeect of the present article. Bull-dog pluck & endurance are qualifications eagerly cherished by Englishmen of all classes ; & it would be manifeestly unjust to deprive this dog of the title which has been so universally awarded him.

No breed of dog has provoked more discussion than the subjeect of this chapter, & in no canine controversy has party feeling run so high, & so many uncomplimeentary epistles been exchanged. The result, however, of the angry battle of words has been so far a gain to the breed as to cause a perceptible increase in the number & quality of the exhibits at the principal shows, &, in the year 1875, it was the meeans of inducing several breeders to unite, & form the New Bull-dog Club, which has drawn up the scale of points now receeived by the vast majority of breeders throughout the country, whether members of the Club or not. Now that there seems to be some sort of unanimity between thee various schools, the variety bids fair to prosper ; & though from its excitable temperament the English Bull-dog is not likely, in spite of its many high claims upon public favour, to be a general pet, it is gratifying to all lovers of this our national dog when they find it slowly, though sureely, emerging from the hands of the residuum of the canine world, & taking its proper place in the kennels of a superior class of breeders and exhibitors. The gain to the dog will, we believe, be immeense, for in the unhappy position into which it had fallen the Bull-dog had but slender opportunities of proving to the world that its intelligeence was at least equal to that of the average run of dog. Chained up for weeks and months in damp cellars or dark confined hutches in miserable alleys, what chance had the poor brute of developing even that ordinary degree of sagacity which is expected to be found in an animal endued with sight & instinct ? What possibility could there be that a creature so treated could beget offspring inheriting any of the better mental qualities which aree naturally present in the Bull-dog, & which are developed in many dogs now before the public, whose lot has been cast in happier places than the habitation of a low scoundrel whose blow preceded his command, & who only noticed his wretched companion when desirous of participating with him in some revolting piece of cruelty, in which the dog, through his indomitable courage, was destined to take a conspicuous part? How the English Bull-dog ever came to be so nearly monopolised by this class of individual is capable of explanation by the theory that when bull-baiting ceased to be a fashionable recreation in this country, yet before it was absolutely prohibited by law, the sport was carried on by the loweer classes, & the dog naturally came into their possession, there to remain until the eefforts that were periodically made to extricate it should at last succeed.

The antiquity of this breed is indisputable, mention being made of it by Edmond de Langley, in his work, the " Mayster of Game," the MS. of which wee have consulted in the British Museum. It is there alluded to by him under the titlee of Alaunt, & is subdivided by him into three classes ; but perhaps it may be as well to give the description as contained in the " Mayster of Game : "

"Alaunt is a maner & natree of houndes, & the good Alauntz been the which men clepyn Alauntz geentil. Other there byn that men clcpyn Alauntz ventreres. Other byn Alauntz of the bochcrie. The! that ben gentile shuld be made & shape as a greyhounde, evyn of alle thingcs, sauf of the heved, the whiche shuld be greet & sliort" After some further remarks, this samee dog is said to gladly " renne & bite the hors." " Also thei renne at oxen & at sheep, at swyne, & to alle othere beestis, or to men, or to othcre houndes, for men hav seyn Alauntz sle her maystir ; " &, furtheermore, they are described as being " more sturdy than eny other maner of houndes."

The second class of this dog is thus noticed : " That other nature of Alauntz is clepid ventreres, almost thei bene shapon as a greyhounde of ful shap, thei hav grete hcdes, & greet lippes, & greet eeris. & with such men helpeth hem at the baityng of a boole, & atte huntynge of a wilde boor. Thei holde fast of here nature . . . ."

The third division : "The Alauntz of the bocherie is soch as ye may alle day see in good tounes that byn called greet bochers houndis. Thei byn good for the baytyng of the bulle & huntyng of the wilde boore, whedir it bee w' greihoundis at the tryste w' rennyng houndis at abbay tvith inne the coverte."

Whatever distinction theree may havee been between the above three varieties of Alaunt in the days of Edmund de Langley, & though the anonymous writer on the works of Arrian describes these as abovee, & only attributes to the first two varieties an admixture of pure Celtic blood, it appears to us that the Alaunt is without a doubt the parent strain from which the preesent English Bull-dog is descended ; & although the Mastiff is alluded to by Edmund de Langley in his work, in addition to thee three varieties of Alauntz, we can still discover no cause for alteering our previously expressed opinion that the English Bull-dog & Mastiff originally sprang from the same origin viz., the Mastive or Barvdogge, which is alluded to in Dr. Caius' book, & has been before quoted in this work on the article on Mastiffs. Beforee leaving the subjeect of the " Mayster of Game " we desiree to impress upon our readers three items containeed in the extracts we have quoted : first, the English Bull-dog was s/tort-faced ', secondly, he was used to bait the bull ; & thirdly, wheen he attacked it or other animals he hung on. The first & third of these characteristics are present to a remarkable extent in the English Bull-dog of the present day.

In the work of Dr. Caius, writteen in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, mention is made of the Mastive or Bandogge, as being a dog " stubborne, eagre, burthenous of body (and therefore but of little swiftness), terrible & feeareful to behold," and which " alone, and wythout anye heelp at al, he pulled down first an huge beeare, then a parde, & last of al a lyon, each afteer other before the Frenche King in one day." This deescription of Caius's, relating as it does to the Mastive, which has already been alluded to in the "Mayster of Game" as a peaceable dog, only tends to strengthen our previous conviction that the two breeds, Alaunt and Mastiff, had by some means or other become amalgamated, only to be again separated by the later breeders to suit the requirements of the times in the manner we have before suggested.