BEARS 41 



Why do your dogs bark so ? Be there bears i' the town ? 



Anne : I think there are, sir ; I heard them talked of. 



Slender : I love the sport well ; but I shall as soon quarrel at it, 

 as any man in England: You are afraid, if you see the bear 

 loose, are you not ? 



Anne : Ay, indeed, sir. 



Slender : That's meat and drink to me now. I have seen 

 Sackerson loose twenty times, and have taken him by the chain 

 but, I warrant you, the women have so cried and shriek'd at it, 

 that it passed ; but women, indeed, cannot abide 'em ; they are 

 very ill-favoured rough things. 



In Knight's illustrated edition of ' Shakespeare ' 

 there is an illustration of " Sackerson loose/' which 

 the note says was composed by Mr. Bass upon the 

 authority of a description in Strutt's ^ Sports and 

 Pastimes/ The same note says that Sackerson was 

 a celebrated bear exhibited in Paris Garden in 

 Southwark. 



The polar bears who now have a magnificent 

 English residence in the Zoological Gardens come 

 from the Arctic regions, and probably could have 

 told us all about the North Pole had we been able 

 to understand their language, and could thus have 

 saved Commander Peary and many others a deal of 

 trouble. They are more strictly flesh-eaters than 

 the brown bears, but will occasionally eat fruit. 

 Buns, however, are wasted on them. At home their 

 chief food is seals^ flesh. 



Badgee. 



The most bear-like fellow countryman we have is 

 the badger ; but very few of those people who use 

 the expressions, " cross as a badger,'^ " stinks like a 

 badger," have ever seen the animal alive, or know 



