ON SPORTS AND EXERCISES. 221 



adds, " I wish 1 knew how to answer the reproaches 

 which are cast upon us, and to excuse the death of so 

 many innocent cocks, dogs, bulls and bears, avs have been 

 set together by the cars, and died an untimely death only 

 to create us sport." Bull-baiting was not conliucd within 

 the limits of a bear-garden, but was universally practised 

 on various occasions, in all the towns and villages 

 throughout the kingdom. In many places the practice 

 was sanctioned by law, and the bull-rings affixed to large 

 stones driven into the earth remain to this day, as memo,, 

 rials of this legalized species of barbarity. The regular BuU-baitinf 

 system of bull-baiting seems to have commenced with the still continues 

 reign of King John. Its general prevalence since that 

 period, until within a few years, must have produced im- 

 portant efi'ects on the manners and character of the people. 

 The misery it has inflicted on the harmless and inoffensive 

 brute, is a matter of no small regret and indignation with 

 the humame and considerate part of mankind ; — but the to degrade the 

 injury done to public morals and social huppiness, by P"J^'^. "^°^^2' 

 an attachment to this degrading pastime, is still more to be the nation, 

 deplored. Numbers of bulls were, and still continue to 

 be, regularly trained and carried about from village to 

 village^ to enter the lists against dogs bred up for the pur- 

 pose of the combat. To detail all the barbarities com- 

 mitted in these encounters would be a disgusting and 

 tedious task. All the bad passions which spring up in 

 ignorant and depraved minds are here set afloat. The 

 torments and blood of the suffering beast, are purchased 

 by money of his unfeeling master; and the owners of the 

 dogs are not more gratified in gaining their sanguinary 

 wagers, than in applauding the savage ferocity displayed 

 by these animals. We cannot often appeal to the annals 

 of bull-baiting ; — but if they were regularly laid open, it 

 is probable that many instances of a similar kind to the / 



following might be held up as a lesson to the abettors of 

 such diversions. — * " Some years ago at a bull-baiting Detectable bar- 

 in the North, a young man, confident of the courage of ^.^^''^^^ V^^^' 

 his dog, laid some trifling wager, that he would at separate mtJ'Js S"" 

 times cut off all the four feet of his dog, and that after this sport. 



* Sec Bewick's Quadrupeds.— Article Dog. 

 Vox,. XV.—Nov. 1806. G g every 



