92 BEAR. Class I. 



tirpation out of this kingdom, these animals were 

 imported for an end, that does no credit to the 

 manners of the times: bear-baiting in all its 

 cruelty was a favorite pastime with our ances- 

 tors. We find it in Queen Elizabeth's days, 

 exhibited, tempered with other merry disports, 

 as an entertainment for an ambassador, and again 

 among the various amusements prepared for her 

 majesty at the princely Kenehvorth. 



Our nobility also kept their bear-ward : 

 twenty shillings was the annual reward of that 

 officer from his lord the fifth Earl of Nor- 

 thumberland, 'when he comyth to my lorde 

 ' in cristmas with his lordshippes beests for 

 ' makynge of his lordschip pastyme the said xii 

 e days.* 

 Menage- It will not be foreign to the subject here to 

 add, that our monarchs in very early times kept 

 up the state of a menagery of exotic animals. 

 Henry I. had his lions, leopards, lynxes, and 

 porpentines (porcupines) in his park at Wood- 

 stock.^ The emperor Frederick sent to Henry 

 III. a present of three leopards in token of his 

 royal shield of arms, wherein three leopards 

 were pictured. £ The same prince had also an 

 elephant which (with its keeper) was maintained 



* Northumberland Household Book. 



t Stow's hist. London 1 . 79. % Ibid. 



RIES. 



