or Zoological Recollections, 401 



form by her licking. [Hence it is, probably, that to give rude 

 sketches professional touches is expressed by " to lick them 

 into shape."] The bear was taught to dance by putting boots 

 on his hind legs, and placing him on a floor made hot, thus 

 forcing him to lift up his fore feet, and stand erect ; and a 

 rough staff was placed in bis paws for support, and to defend 

 himself against the dogs, which were let loose upon him. 

 The amusement of bear-baiting constituted a favourite pastime 

 of our unpolished forefathers. It formed a part of the sports 

 selected by the Earl of Leicester for the amusement of Queen 

 Elizabeth, when she visited Kenilworth Castle. The places 

 where this sport was exhibited were generally pointed out by 

 the sign of the bear and ragged staff. For this purpose a 

 bear was formerly kept in enclosures called bear-gardens, 

 and, when it was baited, was tied to a stake or post ; procla- 

 mation was then made, that no one should come nearer than 

 40 ft. Now, the amusement consisted in endeavouring to 

 make him angry, and quit his post or stake, and be worried 

 by men and dogs ; whence the expression, stake or venture ; 

 and post, in allusion to an employment or office; as, he has 

 lost his post, or keeps his post, and cannot be turned out.* 

 To pluck a bear by the beard was considered a hardy act of 

 venturous and manly courage ; and Master Slender boasts 

 to his sweet Anne Page, that he has seen Sackerson loose 

 twenty times, and taken him by the chain. Any assemblage 

 of riot and confusion is now compared to a bear-garden ; and, 

 among the noisy money-brokers of the Stock Exchange, the 

 speculators for a rise in the funds are called bulls, and those 

 who calculate on a fall are called bears. 



THE FOX. 



Cunning as a fox, is truly exemplificative of the manners 

 of this sly and crafty animal, whose shifts and tricks of fraud 

 and evasion are too well known in the farmyard and among 

 hen-roosts, f That all traces of his progress might be lost, 



* [" Lucrative offices are seldom lost 



For want of powers proportion'd to the post : 

 Give e'en a dunce the employment he desires. 

 And he soon finds the talents it requires ; 

 A business with an income at its heels 

 Furnishes always oil for its own wheels." 



Cowper's Retirement. 



Does not a desire for an employment argue an affection towards it, and, 

 consequently, some fitness for it ? ] 



f [A fox was fastened with a long chain to a post in a court, where he 

 was fed with, among other things, potatoes. These, the animal was seen 



Vol. VII.— No. 41. dd 



