20 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



the Romans and their imitators, the Eoman Britons. 

 And as amphitheatres were constructed of squared 

 stone, and in a magnificent style for these exhibitions 

 at Rome, so were others erected here in Britain in a 

 less pretentious style of architecture, and of the 

 humbler materials of clay, chalk, gravel, and turf. 

 Such are the great amphitheatres at Silchester and 

 Dorchester, once extending in several rows of seats, 



ANGLO-SAXON GLEEMEN's BEAR DANCE. TENTH CENTURY. 



and still including an arena of nearly two hundred 

 yards in circumference.* 



In all probability the trained bears exhibited by 

 the Anglo-Saxon Gleemen were native animals taken 

 young and tamed. 



So far as history informs us, it would seem that 

 Scotland, and more particularly the great Cale- 

 donian forest, was the chief stronghold of our British 

 Bears. Bishop Leslie says that that great wood was 



* "Itin. Our.," pp. 155-170; "Phil. Trans." 1748, p. 603. 



