The Merry Past 



has in some measure been fulfilled, for cock-fighting 

 has gone, whilst coursing, pigeon-shooting, and stag- 

 hunting are the subject of much invective from 

 humanitarians, who have several times sought their 

 prohibition by Act of Parliament. The English 

 people are now, without any vestige of a doubt, far 

 softer in every way than in the old brutal days when 

 rough sports practically formed the sole amusement of 

 the countryside. 



They were anything but humanitarian then. 



Pigs were whipped to death, a torture which was 

 supposed to render them more palatable. 



Such a dish was in frequent use, and highly praised 

 as a delicacy as late as the reign of George III. 



A lady living in 1793 was heard to say that her 

 former husband made a trifling bet (which he after- 

 wards won), that his dog would run at and pin a 

 bull after he had cut off the lower joint of every leg. 

 During the last bull-baiting ever held at Bury St. 

 Edmunds, in 181 1, a poor animal not affording 

 much sport, the brutal crowd cut off his hoofs and 

 tortured him to death, whilst he staggered on the 

 bleeding stumps; this rightly aroused great indig- 

 nation, and sealed the fate of such orgies of cruelty. 



Animals and birds would seem to have been believed 

 by the populace generally to be devoid of any feeling. 



A particularly cruel sport existed in Scotland, 

 called " Goose-riding." The poor geese were hung 

 up by the legs whilst a number of men rode at them 

 to catch the birds by the neck. 



The vast change in popular amusements which has 



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