Although in many respects the Bulldog and 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 Bulldog is comparatively modern, and its application to ancient breeds seems rather to jump with the desires and 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 Bulldogs; and we have to come to quite recent times for the name. The fact appears to be that this small Mastiff came to be known as the Bulldog because of his vocation; just as we find Spaniels named Cockers from their use in woodcock shooting, and as Caius describes other Spaniels as dogs for the partridge, dogs for the duck, etc., entirely because of their adaptability, from size and other features, for the special work.

The Bulldog was, doubtless, a draft from the Mastiff, and, being selected for special work and bred for special requirements, gradually assumed characteristics so well defined as to make a clear distinction between him and the parent stock. This difference would be the more marked and rapid, seeing that his congeners were also undergoing modification in a divergent, if not an absolutely different, direction ; and hence we have, at the present day, two varieties, of common parentage, so widely different as the modern Bulldog and Mastiff are.

Another 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 Bulldog has got so indissolubly linked with this country that the very close association may in itself have been sufficient to lend a certain amount of colour to the purely British origin of the Bulldog.

Anyhow, the Bulldog of to-day is an entirely different animal, both physically and 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 and carefully fostered characteristic. Now he is a low-fronted, cloddy, and compact dog, with nothing of the Terrier in his appearance, quiet, gentle, and docile in his demeanour, very slow to anger, yet when aroused not a whit the inferior of his ancestors, in courage and endurance.

Mr. Crafer thus wrote of bull-baiting in the First Edition of this work: -

"Baiting the bear and the bull was undoubtedly a very ancient pastime, and 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 Bulldog exhibits that adaptation to the uses to which he is rendered subservient which we see in every race of dogs; and 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 Bulldog. After the wild oxen of the woods were destroyed, the practice was introduced, so early as the reign of King John, of baiting the domesticated bull and other animals, and 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 and coarser brother 'Allan vautre, kept only to bait the bear and wild boar,' had become extinct on account 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 of Stamford, saw two bulls fighting for a cow in the meadow till all the butchers' dogs, great and 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 common to the butchers of the town, after the first grass was eaten, on condition they find a 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 ; And now he bellows, humbled to the ground, And 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 dog was required to effect was that termed 'pinning and holding,' which was to seize the bull by the muzzle 'and 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, and was often provided with a hole in which to bury his nose; some veterans ('game' bulls), not so indulged, would scrape one for themselves. It was therefore necessary for 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 and more active, though equally courageous, animals answered the purpose better. The dog found to be the best suited to the requirements, and 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 and Rosa (1817), Lucy (1834) - 'Mr. Howard and his Pets,' 'The Bull Loose, and others.