A Section of My Favorite Historic Writing on the Bulldog

Posted by Brian_M on 5/21/2012, 1:25 am
Evolution Bulldogges

During the reign of Mary, Elizabeth, James 1 and Charles 1, which covered the years 1553 to 1649, the bating of bulls and full grown bears by bulldogs was a very popular sport. Hentzner, in his itinerary, printed in Latin in the reign of Queen Elizabeth in 1598, stated that there was a place built in the form of a theater for bating and "great English dogs" which shows that in 1598 they were still very large. In 1556 Philip II became king of Spain and introduced great numbers of English Alaunts into Spain and the Islands of Cuba and Majorca for the purpose of the arena. In my own mind there is very little doubt that the dog from Burgos depicted in the old bronze plaque, dated 1625, was a descendant of these English dogs or was an imported English dog himself. It was not until 1631, in the reign of Charles I, that the name "BULLDOG" was first mentioned in England. There is a letter in the record office which was written in 1632 from St. Sebastion in Spain, by an Englishman called Prestwich Eaton to his friend George Wellingham in St. Swithens s Lane, London, asking for a good "MASTIFF" dog and two "BULLDOGS" to be sent out to him. This is definite proof that six years after the Burgos plague the export of Bulldogs {as they were just beginning to be called} from England to the sport loving Dons of Spain, which had been commenced by Philip II 75 years earlier, was still continuing. The cropped bulldog depicted on the old Spanish plaque of 1625 was very noticeable a big dog and very noticeable a BULLDOG, being much underhung, with a big skull and well laid back nose. Many years later in the year 1840, Bill George imported from Spain a big BULLDOG, which was called Big Headed BIlly, whilst in 1868 Mr. Marquart brought over Bonnhomme and Lisbon, and in 1873 Mr. Frank Adcock acquired Toro and Alphonse in Madrid. All these five were termed purebred Spanish Bulldogs, and they were exactly of the type depicted on the 1625 plaque. Big headed Billy was a brindle pied, Bonhomme a brindle, Torro a red carroty brindle, and Alphonse a fawn with a black mask and white markings, and all these four bulldog weighted 90 lbs. I heard it stated that Lisbon and Alphonse were both noted bulldog in the arena in Spain. Torro had a 22 inch skull, stood 22 inches at the shoulder, and measured 2 1/2 inches from the corner of his eye to the tip of his nose. It is clear to me that these big 90 lb Spanish bulldogs were reasonably short in face with proper Bulldog tails having a downward crook at the root and at the end. They were all cropped. Ball, owned by Mr. Lovell referred to as a British Bulldog Standard London around 1865 It seems to me quite clear that the Dogue de Bordeaux, which averaged 120 lbs. in weight and was 25 1/2 inches in height, 26 1/2 inches in skull circumference, and three inches in length of face. With in many cases light eyes and red noses, and in all cases only slight projection of underjaw had tails which reached in the hocks, represented the English Alant as bread in England and Bordeaux in the years 1151/1411. Whilst the Spanish Bulldog, which averaged only 90 lbs in weight. 2 1/2 inches in length of face, and which had dark eyes and a black nose and mask . Was well underhung with a moderately short crooked down tail. The Bulldogs rolling gate represented the English Bulldog as bread in the years 1556/1649, when the Bulldog was just beginning to be a different dog from the Mastiff. To the modern eyes the Dogue de Bordeaux and the Spanish Bulldog would appear to be of Mastiff type, but the Bulldog less so clearly due the fact that the English dogs which began to go out to Spain in 1556 were already much more of the Bulldog type than the English dogs that went to Bordeaux in the years 1151/1411, before the Bulldog and the mastiff had begun to emerge from the Alaunt and to take definite shapes of their own. THE SMALLER DOG APPEARS. The new system of Bull-baiting, as practiced from 1686 onwards favored an active bulldog of moderately low stature and size. With his nose will laid back and a protruding underjaw. The great Bulldog of 90 lbs in weight which had been in Vogue when bull-baiting was the sport of kings, was no longer wanted. Whilst the common folk who now gad the sport in hand could not afford to keep such Hugh animals. Much can happen to change a breed of a bulldog in fifty years and by inbreeding and breeding with a fixed purpose in view, between the years of 1686 and 1735, a dog of definite type and of an average weight of 50 to 60 lbs, was produced. by R. H. Voss Text originally printed in 1933 in a British publication called "Our Dogs". Evo Empire Good things come to those who wait, but great things come to those who hustle. -Brian Miller