THE BEAR: 19 
as the animal rose to grapple with the dogs, or with 
their master. Bear hunting must have been always 
a dangerous sport, in this respect and if ever the 
great Cave Bear was an object of the hunters’ attack, 
the boar-hunt of Calydon, as described by Ovid, 
could alone have furnished a parallel. 
That bears were to be found in Britain during the 
eighth century may be inferred from the fact that 
in the “Penitentiale” of Archbishop Egbert, drawn 
up about A.D. 750, it is laid down (lib. iv.) that “if 
any one shall hit a deer or other animal with an arrow, 
and it escapes and is found dead three days afterwards, 
and if a dog, a wolf, a fox, or a bear, or any other wild 
beast hath begun to feed upon it, no Christian shall 
touch it.’* 
In the time of Edward the Confessor, as we learn 
from “ Domesday,” the town of Norwich furnished 
annually one Bear to the king, and six dogs for the 
baiting of it.t 
Baiting wild animals was a favourite pastime with 
sixthcenturies (but thesmall MS. containingthem all seems to have been 
copied about 500 years ago), as also of several others valuable in their 
kind.” In a subsequent letter to Dr. Robinson, dated Lhan Dyvodog, 
Glamorganshire, Sept. 22, 1697, he says :—‘‘ I had no sooner received 
your last but was forced to retire in a hurry to the mountainous parts 
of this county, in order to copy out alarge Welsh MS. which the 
owner was not willing to spare above two or three days, and that in 
his neighbourhood. It was written on vellum about 300 years since, 
and contained a collection of most of the ancient writers mentioned by 
Dr. Davies at the end of the Welsh dictionary. So I thought it 
better trespassing on the gentleman’s patience that lent it, than lose 
such an opportunity as perhaps wili not occur again in my travels. 
This is the occasion of my long silence—the transcribing of that book 
taking up two months of our time.” 
* Migne, “ Patrologize Cursus Completus,” tom. lxxxix. p. 426. 
+ Gale, vol. i. p. 777; Blount, “ Ancient Tenures,” p. 315 (ed. 1815). 
GC 
