noted dog-dealer, who died in 1878, we, in a great measure, owe our modern bull terriers. Somehow or other he contrived to get together a strain of white dogs, specimens of which he exhibited with great success at some of the early shows, although the earliest of them did not provide classes for bull terriers.

It was at the commencement of the fifties that James Hinks began to cross the patched, heavyheaded bull terrier, used for fighting, with the English white terrier, and in due time he produced dogs handsome enough to make a name for themselves, and able to revolutionise the variety. Some of the old " doggy men" said this new breed was soft and could not fight. "Can't they?" said Hinks, when talking to a lot of his London. friends at the Holborn Horse Repository dog show in May, 1862. "I think they can." Well," said one of the London school, "let's make a match." Hinks, nothing loth, did make a match, and backed his bitch Puss-that day she had won first prize in her class-for £5 and a case of champagne, against one of the short-faced patched dogs similar in weight. The fight came off the same evening at Bill Tupper's well-known rendezvous in Long Acre. Puss occupied half-an-hour in killing her opponent, and so little the worse was she for

her encounter that she appeared on the bench next morning, a few marks on her cheeks and muzzle being the only signs of the determined combat in which she had been the principal overnight. When accounts of this became bruited abroad, although the story was not generally believed, the popularity of the "long faced" dog was established. And this is the sort of dog a special committee of club representatives caused the Kennel Club to dishonour by placing him in the "non-sporting section" alongside pugs, Pomeranians, and Italian greyhounds! This grotesque decision was perpetrated early in 1902.

Birmingham in 1864 followed the example of the London committee in providing a class for bull terriers, and it had an excellent entry of twenty-eight. Here Hinks won first prize with Madman, and second with Puss, positions which the same dogs had occupied at Ashburnham Hall, Chelsea, a few months earlier. However, at the latter place the class had been divided for dogs over 10lb. in weight, and for dogs under 10lb. in weight, and a somewhat similar arrangement as to size came to be adopted a little later on.

Thus early we find considerable confusion with regard to these bull terriers, solely from the persistence with which their owners stuck to the names

of "Madman" and "Puss." Already several bearing both names were shown, winning prizes too, and, although they came to be entered in the first volume of the "Kennel Club Stud Book," no reliance can be placed upon many of the pedigrees published therein. Mr. Joe Walker showed a Puss in 1864, so did Mr. Hinks, and the Stud Book of 1874 contains no fewer than twelve bull terriers called " Madman," many of which, I have no doubt, were one and the same animal; and the same volume contains five bitches named "Puss." To separate one from the other, and to verify all the pedigrees, which, as I have said, in many cases were extremely doubtful, would be impossible at the present time.

The dog Madman (2739), which once belonged to the writer, was of a strain distinct from that found in Birmingham, being by a very good old dog of Mr. Joe Walker's called Crib, from Mr. James Roocroft's Puss. Both these breeders also owned English white terriers, with which they had, I fancy, at some time or other crossed the Hinks' strain of bull terriers, producing a very nice style of dog, not so heavy and massive as that from the Black Country. This dog Madman was a handsome and companionable creature, and as good a swimmer as ever entered the water. Bull terriers are often good water dogs, and the late Mr. Tom Pickett, of Newcastle, told

me of a bull terrier of his, I think it was called Wallace, a prize winner, which won a swimming match in the Tyne.

Still, dealing with the doubt that clings to the early bull terriers' pedigrees, to further complicate matters the name of " Victor" became a fashionable one, and, including a "Young Victor," six such appeared in the first Stud Book, and there are a similar number of Rebels. We must, however, presume there was but one real " Madman," and that belonged to Hinks. Dr. Walsh illustrated him in the "Dogs of the British Isles," and he, like all contemporary writers, speaks highly of the sagacity of the bull terrier, and of his adaptability as a companion. He alludes to rough or wire-haired bull terriers, which are, however, of no account, nor ever were; and there is no doubt that the modern strain is in a great measure due to the animals that sprang from the midland counties, and some few that were bred in the big towns of Lancashire.

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The "Madmans," Pusses," "Victors," and "Rebels" were, for the most part, large dogs, and for general excellence would compare favourably with the best specimens seen to-day. remember some of them very well indeed; as a fact the best of the above at one time or another belonged to personal friends of mine. Were I

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asked to name the best large-sized bull terrier I ever saw, I should undoubtedly plump for Young Puss, first shown by Mr. G. Smith, jun., of Manchester, who at one time had the strongest team of bull terriers in the country, and later by Mr. W. G. Rawes, then of Kendal. She was a beautiful bitch in every way, about 40lb. in weight; one, indeed, with which no fault could be found. She had dark, hazel eyes, almond shaped, and not round, a level mouth (which some of our more modern winners have not), and was as handsome a dog as anyone need desire to possess. Born in 1869, she was contemporary with other good specimens, including Victor-old Victor, first belonging to Mr. J. H. Ryder, next to Mr. G. Smith, jun., and afterwards sold to Mr. Cleasby Chorley, of Kendal, with whom he died. Victor was found smothered in his box at the Crystal Palace show in June, 1872, and it was the writer who first opened that box and discovered the fatality.

As there are some who consider this dog the best bull terrier that ever lived, a line or two may be given him. Victor, who, for a wonder, had no pedigree provided, was a 45lb. dog, with a big head, rather bigger and coarser than I liked—thus I preferred Young Puss to him—a perfectly shaped body, nice dark eyes, good neck and shoulders,