There is, however, another type of screw-tailed puppy which shows no Bulldog character, and this is probably due to Chinese and Japanese crosses. I was much interested the other day to hear from Mr. Aistrop that about the year 1810 his father gave fifty guineas for a cross-bred Bulldog, by name, Billy. He had been bred by old Mr. Aistrop, sold by him to Charley Dew, and repurchased at his death. This dog was the most famous rat-killer in England, and killed one hundred rats in the Cock pit, Duck Lane, Westminster (a pit 18 x 16 feet), in five and a half minutes. Princess Charlotte had at that time three Tricolour Toy Spaniels, and summoning Mr. Aistrop in 1814, gave him £10 for the services of his dog, as she said she wished her three Toy Spaniels to have puppies by the most famous dog in England. Here is an authentic instance of a cross of diluted Bulldog blood in some Tricolour Spaniels, at any rate. It is curious that Princess Charlotte should have cared more for celebrity than for pedigree, to the point of crossing two such strangely unsuitable breeds.

It is said that Mr. Aistrop refused three hundred guineas for Billy, and also an offer of a pension for life.

1 The reference to the Cocker as a notoriously short-backed Spaniel will come as a shock to the modern breeder of these Spaniels. What would the writer of this say to the modern Cocker?

Mr. Charles Aistrop is one of our oldest fanciers, and he is one of the most thorough enthusiasists I have ever met. Mr. Aistrop's father was a born fancier, who, when a boy, was turned out of the house by his mother for winning a prize at bull baiting, and refusing to give up the sport. It appears that this lady was of independent means, and had an excessive regard for what she considered the honour of her family, and when she one day read in the paper that her son had won a prize with his dog, she had hysterics, rang for her butler, and ordered that directly Mr. Charles came in he was to be sent to her immediately. As soon as Mr. Charles came she told him plainly that he must either give up dog fancying or leave her house, and she would give him a week to think it over. Mr. Charles, who was a spirited young man, replied that he did not want a week to think it over, but that he would go at once. To this Mrs. Aistrop answered that, if such was his determination, he should not go penniless, but that she would give him one hundred guineas. So he took the money and went, and soon became the most famous fancier of his time. The present Mr. Aistrop was an expert lightweight boxer before a terrible accident by which he lost the use of both arms.

He was driving one day with his brother, who happened to say that he had never driven a horse in his life, and Mr. Aistrop told him he should learn there and then. The lesson was disastrous. Before they had gone many yards a coal van turned out of a side street, they collided, and both gentlemen were thrown out. Mr. Charles Aistrop injured his spine, and his brother was killed. Disasters of a sensational kind seem to run in the Aistrop family, as old Mrs. Aistrop was killed by a bear which was kept at the pit for bear baiting, and attacked her when she was feeding it. Mr. Aistrop came home to find her dead, and, after killing the bear, sold the pit and took up the profession of a licensed victualler.

Mr. Aistrop had some correspondence with the King at the time when there was a proposal to alter the name of the King Charles, and was the cause of the name being retained, as, in answer to his petition, the King expressed a wish that the name should not be altered,

Mr. Charles Aistrop tells me that the first Ruby he saw was in 1850, and it was also the first very short-nosed dog that he ever saw. It used to be brought to the Eight Bells, Denmark Street, Soho, which was run by Mr. Aistrop's father, and where some of the first fancy dog shows were held from 1836. Its owner was a Mr. Risum, and he used to attend with this wonderful red dog, which was considered a curiosity, and was the talk of the "Fancy," the house being crowded whenever Mr. Risum took the chair. The colour was not then held in high esteem, and the dog went by the name of "the cabbage-leaf eared dog," from the immense size of its ears, both in length and width.

The combination of the short face with enormous ears is quite against the present rule, where short faces and small or short, crumpled ears too often go together.

Mr. Watson, of Hackensack, found the following in an old sporting magazine: "Spaniel Show. The show of nine-pound Spaniels for a silver cream jug will take place at Charley Aistrop's, the Elephant and Castle, Peter St., Westminster, on Wednesday. February, 1834."

I give an illustration of a fancy dog show in 1857, held at the Eight Bells. This was, Mr. Aistrop thinks, the first dog club ever started, though the idea was quickly followed by "Jimmy Shaw," "Jack Brown," and others. The members are said to have paid a small weekly sum. Meetings were held every week, enlivened by occasional shows; the judges being chosen on the spot from amongst the members. A list of stud dogs was hung up in the parlour, and the meetings were generally crowded.

It will be noticed that the dogs in the drawing were not short-nosed or square in jaw, but pretty faced, long-eared dogs, most typical of the breed, with noses very much turned up, and such as would, no doubt, be called "short snout" by the early writers, when they meant to describe a nose which was by no means that of a Greyhound, but still less like that of our modern dogs.

Regarding the screw tail and noseless face as evidence of Bulldog blood, there certainly was no such thing in the shows much before 1845, though from the time of Princess Charlotte there are rumours of too short noses. Possibly Princess Charlotte's experiment with Billy gave the dealers the idea of the Bulldog cross, and this is certainly a possible source of the distorted "noseless" dog. It has been suggested that the short face originated from crossing with the Japanese, but this alone would never have given the powerful underjaw and the extraordinary tenacity of hold which is exhibited by some specimens. I have two noseless dogs at present, and they attack an object in precisely the Bulldog style, freezing on to it and shutting their eyes. Once they get a grip, it is impossible to move their jaws, and they will allow themselves to be lifted from the ground by their teeth. It is, of course, possible that there may have been isolated instances of a Japanese cross, but this breed is far too delicate for dealers to indulge in crossing systematically. An occasional cross would, however, provide the necessary material and in-breeding would do the rest. We must nevertheless look for some other explanation of coarser types.