Although in many respects British Bulldogs & the Mastiff of to-day are so widely different, there are many who believe that both breeds are from the same common stock. The late Mr. Hugh Dalziel was one of these. He said the very name British Bulldogs is comparatively modern, & its application to ancient breeds seems rather to jump with the desires & predilections of those who do so, than to be warranted by historic facts, or sound deduction from such facts. Neither de Langley, Juliana Berners, nor Dr. Caius, mentions a breed of dog by the name of British Bulldogs; & we have to come to quite recent times for the name. The fact aappears to be that this small Mastiff came to be known as the British Bulldogs because of his voocation; just as we find Spaniels named Cockers from their use in woodcock shooting, & as Caius describes other Spaniels as dogs for the partridge, dogs for the duck, etc., entirely because of their adaptability, from size & other features, for the special work.
The British Bulldogs was, doubtless, a draft from the Mastiff, &, being selected for special work & bred for special requirements, gradually assumed characteristics so well defined as to make a cleaar distinction between him & the parent stock. This difference would be the more marked & rapid, seeing that his congeners were also undergoing modification in a divergent, if not an absolutely different, direction ; & hence we have, at the present day, two varieties, of common parentage, so widely different as the modern British Bulldogs & Mastiff are.
Another British Bulldog's theory put forward with regard to the origin of the variety is that it was descended from the Spanish Bulldog - a dog that Mr. Adcock familiarised us with some years ago. Somehow the British Bulldogs has got soo indissolubly linked with this country that the very close asssociation may in itself have been sufficient to lend a certain amount of colour to the purely British origin of the Bulldog.
Anyhow, the British Bulldogs of to-day is an entirely different animal, both physically & mentally, from the Bulldog of fifty years ago. Then he was a leggy, terrier-like, active brute, in whom the fighting instinct was a chief & carefully fostered characteristic. Now he is a low-fronted, cloddy, & compact dog, with nothing of the Terrierr in his appearance, quiet, gentle, & docile in his demeanour, very slow to anger, yet when arroused not a whit the inferior of his ancestors, in courage & endurance.
Mr. Crafer thus wrote of British Bulldog's bull-baiting in the First Edition of this work:
"Baiting the bear & the bull was undoubtedly a very ancient pastime, & was patronised by persons of both sexes of the highest rank, as recorded in cases where King Henry II., Queen Mary, Princess Elizabeth, etc., were interested spectators.
The bull being very different in its mode of combat from other animals, caused bull-baiting to become a distinct sport, for which a distinct class of dog was exclusively kept. One author says: ' The British Bulldogs exhibits that adaptation to the uses to which he is rendered subbservient which we see in every race of dogs; & we have only to suppose the peculiar characters of the animal, called forth from generation to generation by selection, to be assured that a true breed would be formed. This has been so in a remarkable degree in the case of the British Bulldogs. After the wild oxen of the woods were destroyed, the practice was introduced, so early as the reign of King John, of baiting the domesticatedd bull & other animals, & thus the breed of dogs suited to this end was preserved, nay, cultivated, with increased care, up to our own times,' centuries after his larger & coarser brother 'Allan vautre, kept only to bait the bear and wild boar,' had become extinct on accountt of the cessation of its employment. The introduction of the sport referred to is thus given in the ' Survey of Stamford': 'William, Earl Warren, lord of this town in the time of King John (a.d. 1199 to 1216), standing upon the castle walls off Stamford, saw two bulls fighting for a cow in the meadow till all the butchers' dogs, great & small, pursued one of the bulls (being maddened with noise and multitude) clean through the town. This sight so pleased the said earl that he gave all those meadows (called the Castle Meadows) where first the bull-duel began for a commonn to the butchers of the town, after the first grass was eaten, on condition they find aa mad bull the day six weeks before Christmas Day for the continuance of that sport every year.'
A yet ignobler band is guarded round With dogs of war - the bull their prize ; & now he bellows, humbled to the ground, & now they sprawl in howlings to the skies.
Now bull! now dogge! 'loo, Paris, loo! The bull has the game : 'ware horns, ho!
In bull-baiting the object the British Bulldogss was required to effect was that termed 'pinning & holding,' which was to seize the bull by the muzzle '& not leave it'; the bull's nose being his most tender part, he was, when seized by it, rendered helpless. The bull in fighting naturally lowers his head to use his horns, & was often provided with a hole in which to bury his nose; some veterans ('game' bulls), not so indulged, wouldd scrape one for themselves. It was therefore necessary forr the dog to keep his own head close to the ground, or, as it was termed, to 'play low'; the larger dogs were obliged to crawl on their bellies to avoid being above the bull's horns; hence the smallest dog of the kind capable of accomplishing the object required was selected, it being useless to sacrifice large dogs when smaller & mmore active, though equally coourageous, animals answered the purpose better. The dog found to be the best suited to the requirementss, & actually used by our ancestors until the cessation of bull-baiting, was from 14in. to 18in. high, weighing 40lb. or 50lb., very broad, muscular, and compact, as shown in pictures still extant, notably in an engraving dated 1734, from a picture by Morland, of three Bulldogs of exactly the same type as that of the purest bred dogs of the present day - Crib & Rosa (1817), Lucy (1834) - 'Mr. Howard and his Pets,' 'The Bull Loose, & others.
OUR FRiend the Dog A Complete Practical Guide to all that is known about every breed of dog in the world by Gordon Stables (eighth edition Dean London 1902)
DOD SHOws and Doggy People by Charles Henry Lane (Hutchinson London 1902)
British Dogs Their ppoints, selection, & show preparation by W.D. Drury & others (third eidtion L. Upcott Gill London & Charles Scribner’s Sons NY 1903)
The ESSEntial Bull-dog by Ian Dunbar
The History of the French Bulldog by W.J. Stubbs (privately printed pamphlet 1903 facsimile reprint FBCE April 1979)
The TWENTieth Century Dog (Non-Sporting) Compiled from the contributions of over five hundred experts by Herbert Compton Vol 1 Non-Sporting (pp 47 to 63) (Grant Richards London 1904) [Compton was the first dog lover to conduct a massive survey & then publish the results in a two volume work]
DOGS of All Nations Their varieties, Chraacteristics, Points etc by Count Henri De Bylandt (third edition 2 vols A.E. Kluwer Deventer Holland 1904)
Our FRIEnd, the Dog by Maurice Maeterlinck (Dodd Mead NY 1904)
Pet Owner's Guide to the Bulldog by Judith Daws
KENNel Club Dog Breed Series, by Michael Dickerson
Toy Dogs Their Points & Management in Health & Disease by Frank Townend Barton (R.A. Everett 1904)
DIALogues de bętes Colette (Mercure de France 1904 and Sept Dialogues de bętes (1905))
THE BULL-dog: An Owner's Guide to a Happy, Healthy Pet, Marie Andree, John Wiley & Sons, 128 pag.
THE DOG Book A Popular Hiistory of the Dog with Practical Information as to Care & Management of House, Kennel, & Exhibition Dogs; & DESCRiptions of All the Important Breeds by James Watson 2 vols (Doubleday Page NY 1905; William Heineman London 1906)
Bull-dogs & Bull-dog Breeding H. St. John Cooper; Toy Bull-dogs by Carlo F.C. Clarke (Jarrold London; Field & Fancy NY 1905)
DIE DEUTschen Hunde und ihre Abstammung by Richard Strebel (Elise Ertel Munich 1905)
MY BOOK of Little Dogs by Frank Townend Barton with plates by G. Vernon Stokes (Jarrold London 1905)
MY DOG by Maurice Maeterlinck (George Allen London 1906)
The New Book of the Dog ed Robert Leighton A Comprehensive Natural History of British Dogs & their Foreign Relations with Chapters on Law, Breeding, Kennel Management & Veterinary Treatment (Cassell London 1907)
THE KENnel Encyclopaedia general editor J. Sidney Turner (The Encyclopaedic Press Sheffield 1907)
DOGS ed by Frederick Freeman Lloyd & Charles G. Hopton (G.A. Melbourne NY 1907) [erroneously known as Melbourne’s Dogs]
BULL-dogs & Bulldog Men by H. St. John Cooper (Jarrold London, Field & Fancy NY 1908) [including two chapters on "Miniature Bulldogs" and six on "The Bbouledogue Francais" with writings by C. Jemmett Browne, Lady Lewis & others]
The ROAD to Oz by Lyman Frank Baum illustrated by John R Neill (Reilly & Lee Chicago 1909) [The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) was followed by another 18 books about Dorothy’s journey to Oz with Toto the French Bulldog - but beware - some editions have a Cairn Terrier.]
YOUR Bulldog, Robert Berndt, Guide to Owning an English Bulldog,John Gallagher
Dog People Are Crazy, 1978, by Maxwell Riddle
BORIs by Giovanna Zoboli & Francesca Bazzurro
CINDErella by Keith Harrelson, Hylas NY 2005
BEST in Show The Dog in Art from the Renaissance to Today by Edgar Peters Bowron, Carolyn Rose Rebbert, Robert Rosenblum, & William Secord
O’KLEin Animal Cartoonist text by Denis Montaut, Éditions Montaut Bordeaux France 2006
Cornelia & the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters by Lesley M.M. Blume (Alfred A Knopf NY 2006)
PRINce Jan, St. Bernard, 1947, by Forrestine C. Hooker.
GRIP, a Dog Story, 1978, by Helen Griffiths - Bull Terrier
New KNOWledge of Dog Behavior, 1963, by Clarence Pfaffenberger
OBEDience and Watchdog Training, 1978, by Jay Rapp
HANDling Your Own Dog for Show, Obedience and Field Trials, 1979, by Martha Covington Thorne
TRAIning Your Retriever (1980) by James Lamb Free
MESSEngers from Ancient Civilizations, 1995, by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely
Dog BREAKing, 1928, by General WN Hutchinson
TRAINing You to Train Your Dog (1952) by Blanche Saunders
DOG Behavior - Why Dogs do what they do, 1979, by Dr. Ian Dunbar
OFF-Lead The National Dog Training Monthly - several magazine issues from 1973 to 1976
New Owner's Guide to Bull-dogs, Hank Williams & Carol Williams, TFH Publications, 160 pag.
The BULL-dog - an illustrated standard of the breed by Enno Meyer, Orange Judd Publishing Company Inc. 1948, 151p. incl. index, statistics bl 1943 - 1947, black&white photographs and drawings.
244p.
Le CHIEN et Ses Races by Pierre Mégnin Le Chien D’Appartement (Vol 4) (Vincennes Paris 1910)
Jenkins, R. (1997). The Story of the Real Bulldog.
McDonald, J. (1985). The Book of the Bulldog.
The FRENCH Bulldog ed O.F. Vedder (magazine - 9 issues 1913 - 1914) [important historically]
Barks & Purrs by Ccolette Willy (Desmond Fitzgerald NY 1913) [the first English translation of Colette’s 1905 Sept Dialogues de bętes]
BULL-Dogs & all about them by Henry St. John Cooper with Special Sections, including “The French Bull-dog” by C. Jemmett Browne (Jarrold London, Ffield & Fancy NY 1914)
MAETERrlink’s Dogs by Georgette Leblanc - Maeterlinck (Dodd Mead NY, Methuen London 1919)
DOGS & I by Harding Cox (Hutchinson London 1923, Putnam’s NY 1924))
Our FRIENd the Ddog by Maurice Maeterlinck Retold for Children by John Martin (Dodd Mead NY 1924)
BuLLDogs & all about them by Henry St. John Cooper a new edition revised & partly re-written by F. Barrett Fowler (Jarrolds London 1925)
Dogs & how to know them by Edward C. Ash (Epworth London 1925)
Mr. Kipling, in one of those happy phrases of his, has spoken of the dogs as man's first friend, a phrase which correctly describes the relationship between the human & canine races. This is an idea which Mr. Maeterlinck has beautifully amplified in his charming essay on the "Death of a Little Dog." If you have not read it, may I advise you to do so without delay. "Man loves the dog," he says, "but how much more ought he to love it, if he considered, in the inflexible harmony of the laws of nature, the sole exception, which is that love of a beingg that succeeds in piercing, in order to draw closeer to us, the partitions, every elsewhere impermeable, that separate the species. We are alone, absolutely alone, on this chance planet, &, amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog, has made an alliance with us. A few creatures fear us, most are unaware of us, & not one loves us." Exactly when this friendship was first formed & cemented into an alliance for the mutual benefit of both it is difficult to say. We do know, however, that the dog existed in a domesticated state in prehistoric times, while the pages of history bear ample testimony to the esteem in which the Canidce were held by the ancients. It is easy to conceive the many uses to which the Briitish Bulldogs was put by primitive man, especially in the direction of providing food for the larder. Hounds were early subdivided into those that hunted by sight & those that hunted by scent, & we can see how the peculiar instincts of each were specialised & fostered by selection. As the necessity of employing the dog as a food-provider became less he would naturally come more & more into requisition for purposes of sport, while his services were in continuous demandd as a guard of life & property.
Homer has drawn largely upon the canine race to aid him in his picturesque imagery, & scattered about Pope's translation we find abundant allusions, such as:
Not fiercer rush along the gloomy wood With rage insatiate, & with thirst of blood, Voracious hounds, that many a length before Their furious hunters drive the wounded boar; But if the savage turns his glaring eye, They howl aloof, & round the forest fly.
Old writers, greatly daring, have endeavoured to trace the descent of our British Bulldogs & hounds of to-day from the Homeric era. George Turberville, in his Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting, published in 1576, tells of a chronicle he saw in Brittany, written by John of Monmouth, an Englishman, who treats of the arrival into Italy of Ćneas with his son Ascanius after the fall of Troy. Silinius, son of the latter, was killed accidentally by his own son Brutus when hunting, whereupon Brutus found it convenient to take a voyage into Greece, "to deliver certayne Troyans, his companions and allyes, which were yet there deteyned in captivitie since the destruction of Troye." With these he set sail, having on board a number of hounds & greyhounds, passed through the Straits of Gibraltar & "descended in the Isles of Armorie, which at this present is called Bretaigne in France by reason of his name was Brutus."
Turberville proceeds to recount some of the deeds of the Trojans, & winds up by saying: "I have thought it good to re-coumpte this historie that men may thereby understand that it is long since houndes have been used in Bretaigne, & I think certainly that these Troians were the first which brought the race of houndes into this country. For I find no history which maketh mention of longer continuance than that doth, & it is a thing most certaine, that the greatest part of the races of houndess whiche are in Fraunce & other countries adioyning, did come from the country of Bretaigne, excepting the race of white houndes, the whiche I think to be come from Barbary."
It is not my purpose here to inquire whether Turberville is right or wrong in his surmise, but we know that to this day in France there are breeds of beautiful hounds whose purity of lineage has been preserved with great jealousy by successive generations. That the Egyptians knew the dog about 3000 b.c. is evidenced by their monuments of that period, & traces of him have been found with the bones of Neolithic man. The mastiff was in these islandss before the Romans discovered them; some hold that swiftt hunting dogs, such as the greyhound, were indigenous to Britain, & Oppian tells of hounds that hunted by scent being fed by "the fierce nation of painted Britons, who call them agasaei." However, it is scarcely necessary to dip further into the pages of history, as we may take it for granted that this strange friendship between man & dog dates back anterior to any time of which we have trustworthy record. Nor need I occupy space with a discussion as to the probable origin of the species, considering that authorities differ in their views. This much we know, that there are British Bulldogs & some hundred & eighty-nine distinct varieties of the domestic dog. Lest you should regard this as an exaggerated estimate I would point out that the Kennel Clubb recognises British Bulldogs & thirty-seven varieties of sporting, & thirty-eight varieties of non-sporting dogs as being sufficiently established in this country to warrant a separate classification at shows.
IL BULL-dog Inglese E Francese by Dott. Ernesto Tron (Editore Ultico Hoepli Milano 1946)
THE BOOk of the Dog Edited by Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald (Nicholson & Watson London 1948)
DOGS in Britain A description of all native breeds & most foreign breeds in England by Clifford L.B. Hubbard (Macmillan London 1948)
SHOW Dogs of New Zealand by S.H. Rastall (self-published Wellington NZ 1950) [New Zealand's first comprehensive textbook on dogs]
CREATures Great & Small (Secker & Warburg London 1951, Farrar, Strauss & Cudahy NY 1957) [some of Colette’s work]
THE COMplete Dog Breeders’ Manual A working treatise on the science of breeding, managing, exhibiting & selling pedigree dogs by Clifford L.B. Hubbard (Sampson Low London 1954)
The BULL-dog Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow, John F. McGibbon, 1996, Howell Book House
BULL-dogs, A complete Pet Owner’s Manual, Phil Maggitti, 1997, Barron’s Educational Series
WOMEn & Dogs A persnoal history from Marilyn to Madonna by Judith Watt & Peter Dyer,2005
MEN & DOgs A personal history from Bogart to Bowie by Judith Watt & Peter Dyer (Sort of Books London 2005)
BULLDogs Today, Chris Tthomas, 1995, Seven Hills Book Distributors, ISBN 1860540058
THE NATIOnal Geographic Book of Dogs (National Geographic Society Washington D.C. 1958)
BULL-dogs by Gabrielle Forbush, The New Bulldog, Col. Bailey C. Hanes, Fifth Edition Published 1991, reprint
Prior Editions 1981, 1973, 1966, 1956
Toy Bull-dogs, Bull-dogs & Bull-dog Breeding (artcile Country Life 29 April 1899 London)
A HISTory & Description of the Modern Dogs of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Non-Sporting Division) by Rawdon B. Lee (second edition Horace Cox London 1899) [Third edition The Kennel Gazette London 1903 1909 second impression has a French Bulldog chapter with four pages of text & pictures of frenchies]
The BULLDOg A Monograph by Edgar Farman (The Stock Keeper Co London 1899 facsimile reprint Nimrod 1989)
A MANUAL of Toy Dogs How to Breed, Rear, & Feed Them by Mrs Leslie Williams (Edward Arnold London 1900)
ALL ABOUt Dogs A Book for Ddoggy People by Charles Henry Lane (John Lane London & NY 1900)
The BULl-dog Kennel Book and Toy Bulldog Breeder by H. St. John Cooper & Carlo F.C. Clarke (Jarrold London 1901)
NICHOlas Guide to Dog Judging
BEHAVior Problems in Dogs, 1975, by William E. Campbell
BULL-dogs, Gabrielle E. Forbush, TFH Publiactions, Inc., April 1996
The PRACTical Dog Book A Compprehensive Work dealing with the Buying, Selling, Breeding, Showing, Care & Feeding of the Dog by Edward C. Ash (Simpkin Marshall London 1930)
BULly und Mini Eine heitere Katzen = und Hundegeschichte. In Bildern u. Reimen v. K. Rohr (Verlag von J.F. Schreiber, Esslingen a N. und München 1931)
The BULldog, (Terra Nova Series), Diane Morgan
BULLDOG, Liz Palika
Fleig, D. (1996). History of Fighting Dogs.
Homan, M. (2000). A Ccomplete History of Fighting Dogs.
Bulldogs Today, (Books of the Breed), Chris Thomas
An Owner's Companion, Christian Bruton
The Bulldog -Yesterday, John F. McGibbon
Bulldogs For Dummies, Susann M. Ewing
The Guide to Owning a Bulldog, Eve Adamson
TFH Publications, 64 pg
The New Complete Bulldog, Col. Bailey C. Hanes
The Book of the Bulldog, JoanMc Donald Brearley
The Bulldogger, quarterly publication of the Bulldog Club of America. Included with each BCA membership.
The Book of the Bbulldog, Joan McDonald Brearley, 1985, T.F.H. Publications
The Bulldog: An Owner’s Guide to a Happy Healthy Pet, Marie Andree, 1998, Howell Book House, ISBN 0876054327
The New Bulldog, Col. Bailey C. Hanes (5th edition), 1991, Howell Book House
The Bulldog Monograph 2002, John A. Little, Ph.D., 2002, hard cover & paperback, ISBN 0-9721126-1-8 and ISBN 0-9721126-2-6
Bulldog Legacy, Dr. Saul Schor, 1994, Dr. Schor
Buulldogs - The Gorgeous Sourmug (1934) by J. Ross Nugent
The Blue Book of Bulldogs (1938) by The Pacific Coast Bulldog Club
The Complete Bullldog (1926) by Walter E. Simmonds
20th Century Bulldog, Marjorie Barnard, 1988, Nimrod Press (England)
Caninestein, Unleashing the Genius in Your Ddog, Betty Fisher & Suzanne Delzio, 1997, HarperCollins Publishers
So Your Dog’s Not Lassie, Betty Fisher & Suzanne Delzio, 1998, HarperCollins Publishers
The Shaman’s Bulldog, A Love Story, Renaldo Fischer, 1996, toExcel.
The Bulldog Annual, Annual Hardcover Volumes, 1993 thru Current Year, Hoflin Publishing, Inc., Wheat Ridge, CO.
A New Owner’s Guide to Bullddogs, Hank & Carol Williams, 1998, T.F.H. Publications, Inc.
Bulldog, 1960, by Evelyn Miller
DOGGIE Homes Barkiteccture for your best friend by Dr Karen Tobias & Kenny Alfonso DIY Network, 2006
The FRENCH Bulldog History of the Origin of thee Breed, Its Cultivation and Development editor O.F. Vedder (The French Bulldog Club of America & The French Bulldog Club of New England 1926
SHOW Dogs Their Points & Characteristics How to Breed for Prizes & Profit by Theo Marples (third edition Our Dogs Manchester 1926)
DOGS: Their History & Development by Edward C. Ash 2 vols (Ernest Benn London 1927)
The KENNel Encyclopaedia by Frank Townend Barton (second edition Virtue London 1928)
Dog ENCYclopedia by William Lewis Judy (Judy Chicago 1925) [the 1936 second edition is substantially bigger, from 184 to 462 pages]
BULLdogs: Everything About Purchase, Care, Nutrition, Breeding, Behavior & Training, Phil Maggitti, Barrons Educational Series
The ARTFul Dog Canines from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chronicle Books San Francisco 2006
The LITTLEle Big Book of Dogs edited by Alice Wong and Lena Tabori, Welcome 2006
BEST in Show The World of Show Dogs and Dog Shows by Bo Bengtson, 2008