ANIMALS AS PRIZE-FIGHTERS 41 



century, and notwithstanding that King Edward 

 proclaimed it * a dishonest, trivial and useless game,' 

 the practice increased rather than diminished in 

 later years. It is recorded that Queen Elizabeth 

 gave a reception at Kenil worth Castle on July 14th, 

 1575, at which the Earl of Leicester, her favourite 

 minister, was present, when combats between 

 bears and ban dogs (a small breed of mastiff) took 

 place. Bear-gardens were established in various 

 parts of London, and a notable one was situated 

 at Bankside, Southwark. From an account given 

 in Chambers' Book of Days, we are told that the 

 public were admitted into the Gardens at the charge 

 of one penny, a further penny being due at the 

 entry of the ' scaffold ' (a somewhat suggestive 

 term), and a toll of a like sum being taken from 

 those spectators who required ' quiet standing/ or 

 as we should probably describe it nowadays, a 

 ' reserved enclosure.' The sport was upheld by the 

 authorities, and was regarded as far more important 

 than other foams of amusement ; so much so, indeed, 

 that an order was issued to make it an illegal 

 practice to act plays on a Thursday because it was 

 customary for the populace to patronise the bear- 

 gardens on that day. 



An equally brutal form of amusement was that 

 of bull-baiting with dogs, a practice which was 

 largely indulged in as far back as the reign of John. 

 It was not until the year 1835 that a law was passed 

 that made it illegal to keep an establishment for the 

 purpose of baiting any animal. The method of 

 conducting bull-baiting was to tie a rope around 



