164 WILD ANIMALS. 



her burthen ;" biifc when the Rebels dismounted him, and one of 

 their Ringleaders bestrode the Bear, she at once threw her rider, 

 "and as if she had been robb'd of her whelps, did so mangle, 

 rend and tear him with her teeth and paws, that the presumptuous 

 wretch died of these hurts suddenly after." 



When the reaction from Cromwell's puritanic rule set in the 

 sport of bear-baiting was revived. 



During the reign of Charles II. a grant was made to Sir Sanders 

 Buncombe " of the sole practising and profit of the fighting and 

 combating of wild and domestic beasts within the realm of England 

 for the space of fourteen years." Despite this monopoly, bear- 

 baiting was very popular during this reign, and continued so 

 for several succeeding ones, until, having fallen in public esti- 

 mation through the upper classes gradually abandoning the sport, 

 a bill was passed in 1835 for its suppression, " and, after an 

 existence of at least seven centuries, it ceased to rank among the 

 amusements of the English people." 



In 1802 the sport of bull and bear-baiting gave rise to a strange 

 debate in parliament, on a bill being introduced for the suppression 

 of the practice altogether. " Mr. Windham opposed the measure 

 as the first result of a conspiracy of the Jacobins and Methodists, to 

 render the people grave and serious, preparatory to obtaining their 

 assistance in the furtherance of other anti- national schemes, and 

 argued as if the British constitution must stand or fall with the 

 bear-garden ; and Colonel Grosvenor asked if ' the higher orders 

 had their Billington, why not the lower orders their bull ? ' This 

 extraordinary reasoning prevailed against the sarcasm of Courtenay, 

 the earnestness of Wilberforce, and the eloquence of Sheridan, 

 and the House refused, by a majority of thirteen, to abolish what 

 the last-named orator called ' the most mischievous of all amuse- 

 ments.' The decision of the legislature doubtless received the 

 silent approval of Dr. Parr, for that learned talker was a great 

 admirer of the sport. A bull-baiting being advertised in Cam- 

 bridge, during one of his last visits there, the doctor hired a garret 

 near the scene of action, and taking ofi" his academic attire and 

 changing his notorious wig for a night-cap, enjoyed the exhibition 

 incog, from the windows. This predilection was unconquerable. 

 ' You see,' said he on one occasion, exposing his muscular hirsute 



