In the early 1800s, as the Victorian craze for purebred dogs
began to percolate, breeders started crossing two very different kinds of dogs,
both of which had interspecies antagonism as part of their job descriptions.
The Bulldog, with his heavy bone, wide frame, and powerful, jutting jaw, was perfected for
the blood sport of bull-baiting, which became illegal before the 19th Century was even half over.
And various terriers had evolved over centuries across the British Isles to help exterminate vermin,
whether twitch-nosed rats or squat-bodied badgers.
The cross-pollination of these two kinds of dogs resulted in what was called, logically, the bull and terrier.
