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.
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.
Nothing can exceed the fury with which the bull-dog falls upon all other animals, and the invincible obstinacy with which he maintains his hold. In attacking the bull, he always assails him in front, and generally fastens upon his lip, tongue, or eye, where he holds and hangs on, in spite of the most desperate efforts of the other to free himself from his antagonist, which affords ample proof of the amazing strength and power of this animal.