38 COMMON BRITISH ANIMALS 



any cat. About 1000 years ago he was an inhabitant 

 of the highlands of this country and Scotland, but 

 there seems to be no evidence that bears ever lived 

 in Ireland. 



Many are the stories told of Bruin, and in most of 

 them we find him represented as having a rough 

 kindliness for man. We all love old Baloo who 

 taught the jungle law to Mowgli and the wolf 

 cubs. 



Bear-baiting was one of the most popular pastimes 

 in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth 

 centuries, every king and many of the richer nobles 

 maintaining a bear-pit. Under the Commonwealth 

 the sport was less popular, but was revived again at 

 the Restoration. It is not clear whether these bears 

 were all imported into England from Italy, but the 

 first recorded exhibition of bear-baiting took place at 

 Ashby-de-la-Zouch in the reign of King John, where 

 " thyss straynge passtyme was introduced by some 

 Italians for his highness' amusement, wherewith he 

 and his court was highly delighted." 



Strutt, in his ' Sports and Pastimes of the People 

 of England,^ the first edition of which was published 

 in 1801, says: '^ Bull- and bear-baiting is not en- 

 couraged by persons of rank and opulence in the 

 present day, and when practised, which rarely 

 happens, it is attended only by the lowest and 

 most despicable part of the people, which plainly 

 indicates a general refinement of manners and pre- 

 valency of humanity among the moderns ; on the 

 contrary, this barbarous pastime was highly relished 

 by the nobility in former ages and countenanced by 



