158 WILD ANIMALS. 



that ran down the side of the den, he swung himself clear and 

 clambered out before the animal had time to do him an injury. 



The following incident is narrated by the British Medical 

 Journal of May, 1873 : " The generosity of an Irish labourer was 

 met in a most grasping manner a few days ago by one of the 

 brown bears in the Zoological G-ardens. The foolish fellow 

 passed his arms through the bars of the cage and offered the 

 animal a biscuit. Bruin being not unmindful of the fact that he 

 belonged to the carnivora, preferred the upper extremity of the man 

 to the biscuit which he presented, and accordingly proceeded to 

 avail himself of the rare opportunity. It was with the greatest 

 difficulty, and after the severest punishment of the bear with an 

 iron rod, that the man could be extricated from his dangerous 

 position. The poor fellow was at once taken to the Middlesex 

 Hospital, when his arm was found to be terribly mutilated. He 

 is, however, we are informed by Mr. Lewis, senior house-surgeon, 

 doing well, and is not likely to lose his arm." 



The animal that, in former times was regularly baited as a 

 popular amusement, which was enjoyed not only by the lowest 

 riff-rafE of the community, but by all classes, even to royalty itself, 

 was the brown bear. This sport, although continued untU a very 

 late date, was of ancient origin, for in the twelfth century bear- 

 baiting was one of the favourite holiday pastimes of Londoners ; 

 and although Edward III, seems to have disapproved of it, for he 

 included it in a proclamation among " dishonest, trivial, useless 

 games," the sport continued to increase in popularity with all 

 classes. It was thriving in the time of Henry YIL, for Crowly, 

 the printer, in his epigram written when that monarch was on the 

 throne, mentions the bear-garden on the Bankside in Southwark, 

 close to the Thames, as drawing full assemblies; that the ex- 

 hibitions were on Sundays, and the price of admission was one 

 halfpenny. 



Gilpin in his " Life of Cranmer " tells us : " Bear-baiting, 

 brutal as it was, was by no means an amusement of the lower 

 people only. An odd incident furnishes us with a proof of this. 

 An important controversial manuscript was sent by Archbishop 

 Cranmer across the Thames. The person entrusted bade his 



