2"'i S. No IOC, Jax 9. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



35 



tain series of correspondence which is copyright." 

 This is " the so-called Private Correspondence," 

 &c., — the same repeated tale. He then adds, 

 amusingly enough, that " the editorial labours of 

 Dr. Southey embody the spirit [!] of that corre- 

 spondence, so that the reader loses in reality no- 

 thing." But the finale of the whole argument is, 

 there need not be " the spirit " of a correspond- 

 ence whose veritable corpus Is found ; nor can there 

 be " extracting," where there is scarcely the, pre- 

 tence of any residuum left behind. He who will 

 but glance over these several announcements — the 

 pains of very few minutes — if he is able to give 

 credit to the writer's faithfulness in a very sim- 

 ple, though drudging service, has not well any 

 choice of verdict. He will be ready to say that all 

 the salvos as to what the edition in question con- 

 tains or docs not, how far the editor's hands were 

 free or were fettered, are of no significance at all. 

 And here the question may safely be left. From 

 what this harmless bugbear of a copyright did not 

 restrain Mr. S. has been shown — may it not be 

 said — to a demonstration ? From what it did, un- 

 riddle me who can. Harvardiensis. 



BULL-BAITING : BULL-RINGS. 



(S""* S. iv. 460.) 



The cruel practice of bull-balting was continued 

 annually, on St, Thomas's Day, in the market- 

 place of the quaint old town of Wokingham, Berks, 

 so lately as 1821. In 1822, upon the passing of 

 the Act against Cruelty to Animals, the corpora- 

 tion resolved on abolishing the custom. The al- 

 derman (as the chief magistrate is called there) 

 went with his officers in procession, and solemnly 

 pulled up the bull-ring, which had from imme- 

 morial time been fixed in the market-place. The 

 buU-balting at Wokingham was regarded with 

 no ordinary attachment by " the masses ; " for, 

 besides the love of " sport," however barbarous, 

 which is deeply- rooted in the popular mind, it was 

 here connected with something more solid, viz. 

 the Christmas dinner. In 1661 George Staverton 

 gave by will, out of his Staines house, after the 

 death of his wife, four pounds to buy a bull, for 

 the use of the poor of Wokingham parish, to be 

 Increased to six pounds after the death of his 

 wife and her daughter, the bull to be baited, and 

 then cut up, " one poor's piece not exceeding 

 another's in bigness." Staverton must have been 

 an amateur of the bull-bait ; for he exhorts his 

 wife, if she can spare her four pounds a-year, to 

 let the poor have the bull at X'""" next after his 

 decease, and so forward. Great was the wrath of 

 the populace in 1822 at the loss, not of the beef, 



— for the corporation duly distributed the meat 



— but of the baiting. They vented their rage 

 for successive years in occasional breaches of the 



peace. They found out, often informed by the 

 sympathising farmer or butcher, where the de- 

 voted animal was domiciled; proceeded at night 

 to liberate him from stall or meadow, and to 

 chase him across the country with all the noisy 

 accompaniments imaginable. So long was this 

 feeling kept alive, that thirteen years afterwards, 

 viz. in 1835, the mob broke Into the place where 

 one of the two animals to be divided was abiding, 

 and baited him, In defiance of the authorities, in 

 the market-place; one enthusiastic amateur, tra- 

 dition relates, actually lying on the ground and 

 seizing the miserable brute by the nostril, more 

 canino, with his own human teeth ! This was not 

 to be endured, and a sentence of imprisonment in 

 Reading Gaol cooled the ardour of the ringleaders, 

 and gave the coup de grace to the sport. The 

 bequest of Staverton now yields an Income of 20Z., 

 and has for several years past been appropriated 

 to the purchase of two bulls. The flesh is di- 

 vided, and distributed annually on St. Thomas's 

 Day, by the Alderman, Churchwardens, and Over- 

 seers, to nearly every poor family (between 200 

 and 300), without regard to their receiving paro- 

 chial relief. The produce of the offal and hide is 

 laid out in the purchase of shoes and stockings 

 for the poor women and children. The bulls' 

 tongues are recognised by courtesy as the perqui- 

 site of the Alderman and Town Clerk. R. W. 

 Reading. 



Wells, Somerset, was notorious fop bull baiting, 

 but the practice was very properly abolished about 

 twenty years ago. The animal, after being driven 

 through the streets, and hounded almost to mad- 

 ness, was tied to a large iron ring in the market- 

 place, and there "baited" by dogs of the strongest 

 and most ferocious kind. Numerous persons came 

 from considerable distances to witness the sport, 

 as it was called, and serious accidents sometimes 

 happened in the course of the barbarous amuse- 

 ment. It was by no means a modern practice in 

 Wells, as will be seen from the following extract 

 from one of the old " Sessions books " (it occurs 

 A.D. 1676) : 



" Forasmuch as evidence hath been given to this Court 

 this psent Sessions, that one Israel Peirce and William 

 Bateson (togeather w* many other persons as yett vn- 

 knowne to the Court) did, in or about a month or two 

 last past, in an vnlawfull and riotous manner assemble 

 themselves. And one Bull of W™ Coward, Esq"", Recorder 

 of the said Citty or Burrough, in a violent manner did 

 chase, drive, and hound w*^ dogges in and through sev'all 

 of the streets of the said Citty or Burrough, nott only to 

 the great disturbance, terror, and afFrightinge of many of 

 his Mat's subjects inhabitinge and residinge w'^^in the 

 said Citty or Burrough, who were thereby in danger of 

 beinge hurte by the said Bull, but against the peace of 

 o'r Sou'aigne Lorde the Kinge, &c. ; — This Courte doth 

 therfore thincke fitt, and accordingly order, that the said 

 Israel Peirce and William Bateson be taken and broughte 

 before some one or more of his Mat'' justices of the peace 



