Characteristics of British Bulldogs

Until the early part of the nineteenth century the bulldog was bred with great care in this country for the purpose of baiting the bull, which up to that time formed one of the most popular out-of-door amusements of the lower orders, to whom also his cross with the terrier, then known as " half-and-half," afforded indoor entertainment by means of dog-fights and rat-killing. Bear baiting was occasionally added to this list, but never to any great extent, on account of the cost of procuring the bear; but the three other kinds of sport, as they were then considered, were extensively patronised, and notably in London, Birmingham, and the manufacturing districts of Staffordshire and Yorkshire. Bull-baiting was chiefly confined to the potteries, but London had still its Westminster dog-pit till the passing of the Act for the prevention of cruelty to animals in 1835, which put a stop to all public exhibitions of this kind, with the exception of an occasional sly run at a bull by the Staffordshire miners during their weekly holiday above ground, and to the private cockfights which until very recently were carried on even in circles considerably higher.

The bulldog was used for the bull-bait, because he was exactly suited to the purpose; his nature being to run at the head of the animal he attacks, and after laying hold (" pinning ") to maintain it in spite of any amount of punishment, short of insensibility from injury to his brain. Whether this peculiar attribute is natural or bred artificially, I believe there is no sufficient evidence to prove; except that if, as I shall presently show, the superior antiquity of the greyhound is satisfactorily established, it may be assumed that the bulldog is a subsequent production. To permit his keeping his wind while thus holding on to the bull, the nostrils must be set back as far as possible behind the level of his teeth, or the soft and yielding substance of the lip of the bull would suffocate the dog, and hence the breeders have always insisted on the necessity of a shortness of the face to an extent such as is never seen in any other variety of the species, and also on wide and open nostrils. The large head is indispensable to give courage; and though no great amount of intelligence was necessary for bull-baiting, some cleverness was required to avoid the horns of the bull.

There is no doubt that this dog is capable of great attachment to his master, and even of learning tricks, as might be expected from the size of his brain; but he has always been troublesome as a companion on account of his losing all control over his actions when excited, so as to be beyond the management even of the most determined master, whom, when calm, he would fondle like a spaniel. Mr. Adcock, who is an enthusiastic lover of the breed, in a letter to me lately announcing the death of his celebrated dog Ajax, writes that until the dog came into his possession "he exhibited the greatest ferocity, going straight at man, beast, or vehicle, if in motion, and, in the case of animals, invariably selecting the head for attack, and becoming the more determined if beaten with whip or stick." It was not, he writes, until he engaged in a naked-handed contest, in which, by continually throwing him, he showed the dog that he was his master, that he could do anything with him in safety. "From that time," he goes on to say, "the dog's temper gradually improved, the chain was no longer used, and he readily learnt to fetch and carry, and other tricks, such as jumping a hurdle, Ac." This anecdote certainly would lead one to believe that in breeding for size one of the peculiar attributes of the bulldog has been lost or greatly reduced; for, according to the statements of all experienced owners of the bulldog in his purity, with whom I have conversed on his temperament both in past and present times, such a feat would be impossible with a well-bred animal even of 501b. weight or less, whereas Ajax weighed 651b. The notorious account published in the Daily Telegraph some years ago of the fight between the man with his fist alone, and the dog chained in a room, was asserted to be apocryphal as being incredible, although according to my experience perfectly feasible, for in it the dog was described as chained, whereas in the above-mentioned contest Mr. Adcock with his naked hands must have been fully within reach of Ajax, or he could not have thrown him as he states he repeatedly did.

Either, therefore, Mr. Adcock performed a feat of a superhuman character, or Ajax did not display the average courage and tenacity of the pure bulldog; and if so, his case goes to show that the specialty of the breed has been sacrificed to some extent in order to procure the increase of size, which made him the champion of his day in the various dog shows. This accords with my own opinion of him, as I considered him deficient in length of skull, though no doubt for his size I thought him a grand specimen of the breed, knowing as I do how difficult it is to procure increased bulk in all parts of the body of any animal. Giants are almost invariably out of proportion in some part or parts, and to this rule I fear I must contend that Ajax was no exception, malgre his owner's opinion that he was the " finest example of the breed ever exhibited." In comparison with the head of Lamphier's King Dick or Romanie, or with that of Henshall's Duke, the skull of Ajax would, I think, be found greatly reduced in size, taking into consideration the difference in the respective weights of their whole bodies.

However, de mortuis nil nisi bonum, and I should not have alluded to this asserted deficiency except for the purpose of considering size per se in this breed, of which, as I think, too great importance has been made.

Up to the stoppage of the above-mentioned amusements, which are now generally stigmatised as brutal, the bulldog might justly be estimated by the points he exhibited which were best adapted to the office he was required to fulfil. At present he is "out of place," and is only wanted to impart some portion of his extraordinary courage to other breeds; and here, indeed, the demand is more theoretical than practical, as the crosses in which he has been used are now established; and it is very seldom indeed that a new infusion of his blood is required. These crosses are chiefly that with the mastiff, resulting in the keeper's night dog; with the greyhound, in which after several generations the cross retains a certain degree of additional courage and power of bearing punishment; and with the terrier, the result of which, after many generations, is the modern bull terrier - one of the most companionable of all the dogs of the present day, and gradually creeping into favour with the public. In the cross with the greyhound the peculiar shapes of the bulldog are soon lost in the elegant lines of the longtail; and this bears strongly on another point in his natural history, to which I shall now allude.

Before proceeding to that subject I may, however, wind up the present one by stating that, for the reasons given above, the bulldog is only to be regarded as a remarkable curiosity in natural history; but as such it would be a great pity to lose him.

A warm controversy has long been maintained among dog fanciers as to the antiquity of the bulldog; but the above-mentioned fact would serve to show that the greyhound, at all events, is the older and purer variety of dog, since it is admitted by all experienced breeders that whenever a cross is attempted between two animals of a different strains, the older and purer strain very soon shows and maintains a marked predominance. In my first attempt at defining our various breeds of dogs, published in the year 1859, I describe a series of crosses made by the late Mr. Hanley, who was an enthusiastic courser of that period, with a view to further improve the greyhound by a second infusion of bull blood, which had previously been found advantageous by Lord Orford and others. Putting a high-bred bull-dog "Chicken" (by Burn's Turk out of sister to Viper) to a greyhound bitch, the produce showed very little of the bull, having not the slightest vestige of "stop," no lip, and a pointed muzzle, with a body nearly as light as that of the dam.

The produce of the next cross with the greyhound were wholly greyhoundlike in appearance, but, though they were moderately fast, they could not stay a course, and this defect continued to the last, when the experiment was terminated in the sixth generation by Mr. Hanley's death. His want of success has most probably prevented a repetition of the cross; but, as far as one example goes, it tends to show that the bulldog is not, what many of his admirers contend he is - the oldest and purest breed of modern dogs.

Soon after the enforced cessation of bull-baiting, the breeding of bulldogs was in great measure put a stop to, and indeed was confined to a very limited number, including, in London, the celebrated dealer in dogs, familiarly known as "Bill George," and a few of the prize-fighting fraternity, who, however never attempted a "bait;" while around Birmingham, as already stated, and in the Potteries, a sly run at the bull was still occasionally held. Gradually, however, for want of encouragement, the pure breed became more and more rare, even with the aid of the original Bulldog Club, and its acknowledged head, Mr. H. Brown, of Hampstead, who was enthusiastically supported by the late Mr. Mundell, Q.C., Mr. Stockdale, and one or two others of similar position; but, with these exceptions, the breed in London fell into the hands of the publicans, who from time to time held shows in their tap rooms, to draw custom; and mainly for the same purpose it was kept up at Birmingham, which has always rivalled London in its breed of these dogs - as well as Sheffield, where the late Mr. Lamphier long held undisputed sway.

Still, however, it has been artificially stimulated as a variety of "the fancy," and, consequently its value cannot now be tested by any rules founded on a special purpose for it, as is the case with the various kinds of sporting dogs and with its congener the mastiff as well as with the St. Bernard and Newfoundland; in which size forms an element of great importance when regarded as protectors of man. Nevertheless, it has lately been assumed by Mr. Adcock and his followers that this point is to be taken as per se a mark of superiority; and that gentlemen has at great trouble imported a dog from Spain to improve his strain, for the sole reason, as it appears to me, that he is of great size, which he undoubtedly is; but, being already in possession of Ajax, a dog confessedly of full size, being 651b. in weight, I cannot understand why he should wish to increase the bulk of his breed by crossing with a dog exhibiting no single bulldog point in anything like perfection. Nevertheless, his example has been followed by Mr. Dawes, of Leamington, and one or two other noted breeders of the bulldog, but hitherto without producing anything fit for the show bench, as far as I know; and, as before remarked, the description of his encounter with Ajax would lead me to consider that dog as showing anything but a good example of the courage and tenacity of purpose which are the attributes specially insisted on, even by Mr. Adcock himself, as all-important.

With a desire to stop this attempt at improvement (after a short interval from the death by inanition of the old Bulldog Club above-mentioned), several influential breeders lately established the present Bulldog Club, which commenced their labours by drawing up a scale of points very similar to that of the old club given in the first edition of " The Dogs of the British Islands," the chief difference being in the allowance for skull, which is reduced from 25 to 15, the balance being given to symmetrical formation.