BEARS. 163 



of the CornmoQwealth, when Cromwell set his face against it and 

 had the bears killed. 



In Dr. Zachery Grey's edition of " Hudibras," 1744, there is a 

 foot-note in part i., canto i., which gives an extract from a paper 

 called " A Perfect Diurnal of some Passages of Parliament, and 

 from other parts of the Kingdom, from Monday, July 24th to 

 Monday 31st of July, 1643," It refers to an incident of the 

 period illustrating Cromwell's antipathy to the sport of " Gynarc- 

 tomachy, which is, as Dr. Johnson remarks, a word apparently 

 coined by Butler to signify a fight between dogs and bears. 

 "Much less did any think that brute and savage beasts should 

 be fetched from foreign parts to be a terror to the English 

 Nation, to compel their obedience to the king, and yet we 

 find it true, and are credibly informed that upon the queen's 

 coming from Holland she brought with her, besides a com- 

 pany of savage Russians, a company of savage bears, to what 

 pu)!"pose you may judge by the sequel, for these bears were left 

 about Newark, and were brought into country towns constantly 

 on the Lord's Day to be baited .... but some of Colonel Crom- 

 well's forces coming by accident to Uppingham town, in Rutland, 

 on the Lord's Day, found those bears playing there in their usual 

 manner and in the height of their sport, caused them to be seized 

 upon, tied to a tree and shot." 



The following two jeering lines from the " Loyal Songs " of the 

 period are also quoted : — 



" We tax'd you round, Sixpence in the Pound, 

 And massacred your Bears." 



The Rump Parliament passed an Act in 1647 to suppress pubHc 

 playhouses, dancing on the ropes, and bear-baiting, and in 1655 

 instructions were given their major-generals to enforce it. 



In a quaint little book " Mercurius Rusticus," printed in 1646, 

 one of the "complaints" alludes to a curious incident of the 

 times, wherein a bear declared for the cavahers. It is stated that 

 the rebels murdered a barber and stole his bear. They then 

 forced it upon old Mr. Jones, vicar of Wellingborougb, and 

 the animal " running between his legs took him upon her back, 

 ahd laying aside the untractableness of her nature grew patient of 



M 2 



