Thursday 2 August 2012


PRESENTED BY
THE DOMESDAY BOOK OF DOGS

Bullmastiff

Bull-and-Mastiff, Mastiff Bulldog, Keeper's Night Dog, Great Country Cur

Strength without insolence, courage without ferocity.

Bullmastiff circa 1940
Rhodian, grandson of Tenz


   First and foremost amongst Bullmastiff  breeders must surely be S. E. Moseley of Burslem, North Staffs.  Known as the Keepers Night Dog, Bullldog x Mastiff crosses had been used for apprehending poachers since the eighteenth century but it was Sam Moseley who standardised the breed  in the early twentieth century. Preferring his strain to be about 60% English Mastiff to 40% Bulldog, he refused to use the Great Dane or St Bernard blood which was being used at the time in some strains of Bullmastiff.  As room was cramped at the Hamil road allotments (roughly where Port Vale football ground now stands) he allowed most of his 'Farcroft' bitches out on breeding terms, used his own studs and bought back the puppies for resale.

   Moseley claimed he kept to a strict breeding regime and used only dogs of Bulldog and English Mastiff parentage.  His method  was as follows: "Taking a Mastiff bitch and a Bulldog I produce a 50/50.  A bitch of these I mate to a Mastiff dog and give me a 75 per cent Mastiff x 25 per cent Bull bitch, which I mate to a 50/50 dog.  A bitch from this litter is 62 1/2 per cent Mastiff x 37 1/2 per cent Bulldog.  I mate this to a 50/50 dog, and a bitch from this litter I put to a 62 1/2 per cent Mastiff x 37 1/2 per cent Bulldog which gives approximately my 60 per cent Mastiff 40 per cent Bulldog.  I repeat this from other bloodlines as an outcross and thus I establish my Farcroft strain and the Bull-Mastiff a standard breed of set type which breed true - like produces like.  This is fixing a type not merely breeding a cross-breed."  Prior to the second world war many of the purebred Bullmastiffs recognised by the kennel club were descendants of this breeding regime.  Although dog breeders may talk of percentages or fractions when referring to the ancestry of their dogs it has to be said that after the first cross which is definitely 50/50 further matings will be subject to genetic recombination, so a '75% mastiff' could have a genotype anywhere between slightly over 50% mastiff to just under 100% mastiff.  However, the laws of probability mean that given enough pups produced, say thirty-two, the genetic make-up of the offspring taken as a whole should be, in this case, 75/25.  Plummer writing in 1995 believed that Moseley's "ingenuity was largely misplaced."  Adding: "A simple first cross bulldog mastiff would have produced a suitable guard dog with strength, tenacity and guarding qualities.  Furthermore, the reader should not decry that particular quality known as hybrid vigour, for a first cross between two similar breeds would produce a crossbred which was lustier, gamer, healthier and usually longer lived than either of its pure-bred parents."   Moseley's claims may have been a good marketing ploy for his own strain but since other breeders were introducing mastiff x bulldog crossbreeds into their own breeding regimes it's perhaps difficult to gauge how much impact his system might have had on the bullmastiff breed as a whole.

Moseley's CH. Farcroft Finality
Circa 1928
 
Mosele'ys CH. Farcroft Silvo.
Circa 1927
Two of Moseley's dogs, Farcroft Silvo with a distinct bulldog trait and Farcroft Finality appearing as more of the Mastiff type.

   For a couple of hundred years before the twentieth century gamekeepers were wont to hybridise mastiffs (or large curs) with other breeds to aid in the apprehension of poachers.  These hybrids were known as keepers' night dogs.  Gundogs, bulldogs, large dogs of many types and even lurchers were crossed with mastiffs, the progeny from these matings were fitted with heavy metal muzzles and they were trained to barge into intruders, knocking them out.  The dogs would then wait with the miscreant until the gamekeeper and/or the police arrived.

   Count V. C. Hollender, a keen Bullmastiff enthusiast,  writing in the early 1930s points out a statement from the Kennel Club committee from about 1927 which includes the following: "It is, of course, important to observe the distinction between a Bull Mastiff (pure-bred) and a Bull Mastiff (cross-bred) the former being a dog bred with both parents and the preceding three generations all Bull Mastiffs, without the introduction of a Mastiff or Bulldog".  Count Hollender's affection for the breed is undeniable and his article is infused with many anecdotes about the breeds ability to spot a bad 'un, be they poachers or vagabonds. 

   In the thirteenth century the early bull-baiting dogs were mastiffs.  As the barbaric 'sport' became prevalent aficionados of the baits would have bred for any trait in the strains of dogs that might confer an advantage: a lowering in height, undershot jaw; nose well back etc.  For over three centuries these bull-baiting dogs became known as 'degenerate mastiffs' until in the seventeenth century they received the appellation 'bull dogs'.  Then as we have seen two centuries of bulldog x mastiff crosses eventually saw the creation of the bullmastiff. Nowadays in the twenty-first century, we have almost gone full circle as some strains of bulldog are being outcrossed to bullmastiff in an attempt to broaden the bulldog gene pool.

 Lion Fights

From the Everyday Book by William Hone, 1826
   Despite their fame as gamekeepers' night dogs the Bullmastiff had a chequered history and in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries they were also used for dog fighting and animal baiting.  Two famous baits were arranged by Wombwell's menagerie.  Originally it was decided to pit half-a dozen "bull-and-mastiffs" or "mastiff bulldogs" as they were described in newspapers at the time against Nero, a large lion belonging to the menagerie.  The dogs were loosed in two sets of three onto the unfortunate Nero who was so tame he seemed not to know how to defend himself, with a twenty minute break in between each 'round'.  Despite spending all his time fleeing and attempting to find succour around the cage Nero (who weighed about ten times the weight of the average Bullmastiff) did manage to injure several of his tormentors by accident, not by design.  After the second trio of dogs were released Nero gave up the struggle altogether and Wombwell was forced to abandon the bout for fear he may lose his pet lion.

  Many of the spectators, who had backed the lion at 5/1, cried "fix" and Wombwell was forced to arrange another match.

  This time he introduced a Scottish-bred forest lion named Wallace who had been wet-nursed by a bulldog after his mother had abandoned him.  The rules for the match, to be played on Tuesday 26th of July 1825, were slightly different as this time the bull-and-mastiffs were to be released in three pairs.  This change, from groups of three to groups of two, may have been because Wallace was considerably smaller than Nero, but if all the bull-and-mastiffs had been released at the same time the outcome would probably have been the same as the dogs were absolutely trounced by Wallace.  He ran to the entrance to the cage to meet the dogs as they entered, he even carried one dog around in his mouth "as a cat might carry a mouse". Two dogs were mortally wounded, the others were severely injured, some to the point that they were rendered useless for any future pit-fighting, and those dogs that were able retreated and sought the sanctuary of their kennels or the embrace of their masters.

The yelling throng, the grappling dogs,
The lion's thrilling roar

Which of them are the real brutes,
Tho two legged - or the four ?


  Most people of the day found the whole spectacle of the two events totally abhorrent but at the same time recognising the dignity and nobleness of the animals forced to take part:

Thirsting for blood, and eager to engage 
the forest monarch in all his rage.
                                                                                        

References.
 
See Alaunt
See American Allaunt
See Mastiff

The Bull Mastiff, Count V.C. Hollender
Hounds and Dogs, compiled by A. Croxton Smith. 1932
The Lonsdale Library Vol XIII
Seeley, Service & Co. Ltd. 196, Shaftsbury Avenue, London

Dogs in Britain by Clifford L. B. Hubbard. 1945
Macmillan and Co., Limited
St. Martin's Street, London

The Mastiff and Bullmastiff Handbook. 1988
Douglas B. Oliff.  Boydell Press.

Brian Plummer. The Countryman's Weekly, June 16, 1995.
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