THE BULL-DOG 703 



There is a singular will, bearing date May i8th, 

 1 66 1, by which a person named George Staverton, 

 gave the whole rent of his dwelling-house, situated at 

 Staines, in Middlesex (after two lives) to buy a bull 

 annually for ever, which bull he gave to the poor ot 

 Workingham, in Berkshire, to be there baited, then 

 killed and equitably divided ; the offal, hide, and gift- 

 money (collected from the spectators) to be laid out 

 in shoes and stockings, to be distributed among the 

 children of the poor. These seem to be the principal 

 donations mentioned in history upon which the practice 

 of bull-baiting was unhappily founded originally, and 

 has been since continued in this country under the 

 plausible pretext of charity. To give it a still greater 

 degree of singularity in the town of Workingham, 

 St Thomas's day is annually dedicated to this sublime 

 sport. 



Many strenuous efforts have been made for the 

 abolition of this barbarous and inhuman amuse- 

 ment ; among these, the Rev. Dr Barry preached a 

 sermon in the church of Workingham, at the request 

 of the Rev. Mr Bremner, then resident clergyman of 

 the parish, on Sunday, the 2Oth December 1801, 

 being the day previous to the festival of St Thomas, 

 which was afterwards published, and from which we 

 extract the following excellent admonition : 



" Gracious God ! benevolent Parent of the universe ! 

 what prodigy must he be in a Christian land, who 

 could thus disgrace his nature by such gigantic in- 

 famy, at which the blood of a heathen, of a very 

 Hottentot, might curdle ! Two useful animals, the 

 bull, which propagates our food, and the faithful 

 dog, which protects our property, to be thus tor- 

 mented ! and for what purpose ? Does it tend, as 

 some have said,* to keep alive the spirit of the 

 * Mr Windham. in the House of Commons. 



