28 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 
tained with this sport, it was the duty of the 
Master to provide bears and dogs, and to super- 
intend the baiting. He was invested with un- 
limited authority to issue commissions, and to 
send his officers into every county in England, who 
were empowered to seize and take away any bears, 
bulls, or dogs that they thought suitable for the 
royal service. The latest record by which this 
diversion was publicly authorized is a grant to Sir 
Saunders Duncombe, dated October 11, 1561, “for 
the sole practice and profit of the fighting and com- 
bating of wild and domestic beasts within the realm 
of England, for the space of fourteen years.” 
The nobility also kept their ‘“ Bear-ward,” who 
was paid so much a year, like a keeper, falconer, or 
other retainer. ‘Twenty shillings was the payment 
made in 1512 to the “ Bear-ward ” of the fifth Earl of 
Northumberland “when he comyth to my lorde in 
Cristmas with his lordshippes beests for makynge of 
his lordship’s pastyme the said xij. days.” 
The Prior of Durham, in 1530-1534, kept bears, 
and apes too, as we learn from an entry in the 
accounts of the bursar of the monastery, where 
the following entry occurs :—Ez¢ custodi ursorum et 
cimearum [simiarum] dominw Principis, 1 Junii.. 53. 
A travelling “Bear-ward” depended entirely on 
his patrons. In the “Household Book” kept by 
the steward of Squire Kitson, of Hengrave, Suffolk, 
and commenced in 1572, we find, under date July, 
1574, the entry: ‘To a Bear man for bringing his 
Bears to Hengrave . . . . ijs vjd.” 
