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CHAPTER II.

THE BULL TERRIER.

OUR modern bull terrier is a very different creature from what he was half a century ago, and I know there are (( some old dog fanciers who prefer the brindled and white and fawn or fallow smut dogs, that were so often kept in our grandfathers' days, to the "milk-white" animals now seen on our show benches.

There is little or no doubt that the original bull terrier was a cross between an ordinary kind of terrier and the bull dog, and some of the largest specimens had a touch of the mastiff thrown in. He had been bred for fighting or for killing rats, and, long before the era of canine exhibitions, some of the rougher so-called sporting men in London and in the Midlands, of which Birmingham may be taken as the metropolis, had strains of more or less celebrity. The dogs that fought with Wombwell's lions at Warwick in 1825 were large bull terriers, and not bull dogs, as stated in the journals of that

day, and the fighting dogs of that time and now (for this brutal sport is still followed in many places) were and are bull terriers.

The old-fashioned dog was a much more cumbrous brute than finds favour at the present time, and his colour varied. For instance, James Ward painted one in 1808 that was evidently black and tan, with white on him, a favourite dog of his own, and of a strain highly valued for its courage. This dog had its ears closely cropped, in order, of course, that they might not be in the way of an opponent's teeth when fighting. A little later Marshall painted another bull terrier, black, white, and tan, a dog which the great foxhound authority, Squire Meynell, pronounced to be from one of the best strains he ever knew.

The back numbers of the Sporting Magazine contain many representations of the bull terrier, and it is stated that Lord Camelford paid 84 guineas for such a dog, which he later on presented to Jem Belcher, "the Sullivan of those days," for it was but meet that the champion fighting biped should own the champion fighting quadruped. This dog was a fawn or fallow specimen, with legs more or less bowed or crooked, and he was no doubt about equally bred between a bull dog and a coarse terrier.

About this time a dog between 30lb. and 40lb.

was most in favour, few or none of them were altogether white, and brindled or fallow markings of different degrees of darkness on of darkness on a white ground

were commonest.. At the same time there were smaller bull terriers, and these latter were usually used in the rat pit, where their owner's pride lay in an ability to kill a certain number of big rats (we never hear of little rats) within a stipulated time. I think I am quite correct in calling Jemmy Shaw's (London) extraordinary little rat-killer Jacko, a bull terrier, perhaps one fourth bull. This historical creature died in 1869, and amongst other deeds he succeeded in killing sixty rats in 2min. 40sec.; 100 rats in 5min. 28sec.; and 1000 rats in less than 100min.! winning altogether some 200 matches in different parts of the country. These extraordinary feats were performed in 1862-63, and are supposed to be the best on record. Jacko was black and tan in colour, with a little white on his chest, and he weighed 13lb. Again there were even smaller dogs than he, which were kept more for fancy and as pets-still bull terriers, but, for the most part, white in colour.

The popularity of the bull terrier was established fairly enough, and before the era of the fashionable and comely fox terrier, he was no doubt the dog of his day. He could be obtained of any weight

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