2i6 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book X, 



"The gloomy enthusiasm which prevailed among the 

 parliamentary party is surely the most curious spectacle 

 presented by any history ; and the most instructive, as well 

 as entertaining, to a philosophical mind. All recreations 

 were in a manner suspended by the rigid severity of the 

 presb3'terians and independents : horse-races and cock- 

 matches were prohibited as the greatest enormities : even 

 bear-baiting was esteemed heathenish and unchristian, the 

 sport of it, not the inhumanity, gave offence. Colonel 

 Hewson, from his pious zeal, marched with his regiment 

 into London, and destroyed all the bears, which were there 

 kept for the diversion of the citizens : -this adventure seems 

 to have given birth to the fiction of Hudibras. Though the 

 English nation be naturally candid and sincere, hypocrisy 

 prevailed among them beyond any example in ancient and 

 modern times," * 



* " History of England,' ch. Ixii. 



