The Field Book: or, Sports and pastimes of the United Kingdom: compiled from the best authorities, ancient and modernMaxwell, W. H. (William Hamilton)
History
The Field Book: or, Sports and pastimes of the United Kingdom: compiled from the best authorities, ancient and modern
Maxwell, W. H. (William Hamilton)
Amusements -- Great Britain; Sports -- Dictionaries; Sports -- Great Britain
BUD, _s._ The first shoot of a flower; a germ.
BUD, _v._ To put forth young shoots or germs.
BUFF, _s._ Leather prepared from the skin of the buffalo, used for
waist-belts, pouches, &c.; a colour.
_To dye light shades of Buff, and other colours._—To assist in mixing,
the drakes are said to be dyed by ivy and laurel alone; I do not vouch
for their being fast and yet they may.
_For Buffs._—Get some rich common fustic chips, put down three or four
of them in three or four quarts of water with your stuff, and when it
comes to a pale yellow, put in some pale madder, by a teaspoonful at a
time, and you have, by boiling a sufficient length of time, a light
buff. Boil on and put in more madder, and you will have a deeper; if
your yellow is too faint put in more fustic, half an hour before your
next addition of madder. By using young fustic chips and madder in the
same way, you will get nice rich colours, something between a rich
cinnamon and a light brick red.—_Old Recipe._
BULL, _s._ The male of black cattle; a blunder.
BULLBAITING, _s._ The sport of baiting bulls with dogs.
BULL-DOG (_Canis Molossus_), _s._ A dog of particular form,
remarkable for his courage.
[Illustration]
The bull-dog is low in stature, deep-chested, and strongly made about
the shoulders and thighs, the muscles of both of which are extremely
developed. His head is broad, his nose short, and the under jaw projects
beyond the upper, which gives him a fierce and disagreeable aspect. His
eyes are distant and prominent, and have a peculiar suspicious-like
leer, which, with the distension of his nostrils, gives him also a
contemptuous look; and from his teeth being always seen, he has the
constant appearance of grinning, while he is perfectly placid. He is the
most ferocious and unrelenting of the canine tribe, and may be
considered courageous beyond every other creature in the world, for he
will attack any animal, whatever be his magnitude.
The internal changes which determine the external characters of this
dog, consist in a great development of the frontal sinuses, a
development which elevates the bones of the forehead above the nose, and
draws the cerebral cavity in the same direction.
But the most important quality, and that, perhaps, which causes all the
others, although we cannot perceive the connexion, is the diminution of
the brain. The cerebral capacity of the bull-dog is sensibly smaller
than in any other race; and it is doubtless to the decrease of the
encephalon that we must attribute its inferiority to all others in every
thing relating to intelligence. The bull-dog is scarcely capable of any
education, and is fitted for nothing but combat and ferocity.
This animal takes his name from his having been employed, in former
times, in assaulting the bull, and he is used for the same purpose at
the present day, in those districts where this brutal amusement is still
practised.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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