The Merry Past 



Ball-baiting was a favourite amusement of the 

 people, and it was only when the nineteenth century 

 had begun that any attempt was made to stop it by 

 legislation. 



On the introduction of the first Bill to stop this 

 cruel method of torturing an unoffending animal, 

 over one hundred years ago, it was rejected. William 

 Windham himself, a humane man, warmly defended 

 the sport, if it could be called sport, in question, and 

 declared that the proposed prohibition would lead 

 to further legislation against other old English sports 

 and pastimes, which must inevitably result in changing 

 and weakening the character of the people at large. 

 Whilst Windham, a man of great character and the 

 darling of Norfolk, lived, no Bill of the sort passed ; 

 but after his death an Act soon put an end to this form 

 of rank brutality. With regard to the fear which 

 had been expressed that other sports would be at- 

 tacked, one of the ablest advocates of the Anti- 

 Bull-Baiting Bill distinctly avowed that his enmity 

 was directed to bull-baiting, and to bull-baiting 

 alone. He declared that if he were asked if he deemed 

 it desirable that the other ordinary sports of the day 

 should be put an end to, he should maintain the 

 contrary. He wished not to see the badger-bait 

 or the otter-hunt abolished, the foxhounds left to 

 rot in their kennel, the gun put by in its case, or the 

 rod and line laid up ; he knew better the value of 

 those sports, and declared his conviction that there 

 was no cruelty in them. 



Nevertheless, the prediction of William Windham 



212 



