Fifty or more years ago, one regrets to record, the bull terrier was a very disreputable fellow, his avocation being dog fighting, badger baiting, and ratting. In the middle of last century no undergraduate of sporting proclivities had completed his education until he could appraise the merits of one of these dogs. We all remember how Charles Stewart Calverley traced the metamorphosis of the Freshman, whose education grew by degrees until he
Learned to work the wary dog-cart
Artfully through King's Parade;
Dress, and steer a boat, and sport with
Amaryllis in the shade:
Struck, at Brown's, the dashing hazard;
Or (more curious sport than that)
Dropped, at Callaby's, the terrier
Down upon the prisoned rat.
Gone are these days, "good old times," they were called, when by some strange perversion baiting an imprisoned animal was miscalled sport. We are no less sporting to-day, but our tastes have assumed a healthier form, and it has become a wholesome law that the object of our pursuit shall have a decent chance of making good his escape.
The prejudices excited by the earlier associations of the bull terrier were not easily overcome, and it was many years before he received the entrance to decent society. Doubtless dog shows had much to do with his rehabilitation, people coming at last to
