performed in the feventeenth century, are given by Butcher, in his Survey of that town; and this account I fhall lay before my readers in the author's own words. The bull-running is a fport of no pleasure, except to fuch as take a pleasure in beaftlinefs and mifchief: "it is performed juft the day fix weeks before Chriftmafs. The butchers of the town, at their own charge, againft the time provide the wildeft bull they 'can get. This bull over night is had into fome ftable or barn belonging to the alderman. The next morning, ⚫ proclamation is made by the common bellman of the town, round about ⚫ the fame, that each one shut up their "shop-doors and gates, and that none, upon pain of imprisonment, offer to do any violence to frangers; for the preventing whereof, the town, being a great thoroughfair, and then being term time, a guard is appointed for the paffing of travellers through the fame, without hurt; that none have any iron upon their bull-clubs, or • other staff, which they pursue the bull with. Which proclamation made, and the gates ail fhut up, the bull is turned out of the alderman's houfe; and then, hivie-skivy, tag and rag, men, women, and children, of all forts and fizes, with all the dogs in the town, promifcuoufly running after him with their bull-clubs, fpattering dirt in each other's faces, that one would think them to be fo many furies start⚫ed out of hell for the punishment of Cerberus, &c. And, which is the greater fhame, I have feen perfons of rank and family, of both fexes, following this bulling-bufinefs. I can fay no more of it, but only to fet forth the antiquity thereof as tradition goes. • William Earl of Warren, the first lord of this town in the time of King John, ftanding upon his caftle walls in Stamford, faw two bulls fighting for a cow in a meadow under the 6 fame. A butcher of the town, owner of one of the bulls, fet a great maftiff dog upon his own bull, who forced him up into the town; when ⚫ all the butchers' dogs, great and small, followed in pursuit of the bull, which by this time made ftark mad with the noife of the people and the fierceness of the dogs, ran over man, woman, and child, that ftood in his way. This caufed all the butchers and others in the town to rife up, as it

were, in a kind of tumult.' The sport fo highly diverted the Earl, who, it feems, was a spectator, that he gave 'all thofe meadows in which the two bulls had been fighting, perpetually as a common to the butchers of the town, after the first grafs is eaten, to keep their cattle in till the time of flaughter, upon the condition that, on the anniversary of that day, they should yearly find, at their own ex'penfe, a mad bull for the continuance of the fport.'

"The company of minstrels, belonging to the manor of Tutbury, had feveral peculiar privileges granted to them by a charter from John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster. In this charter, it is required of the minstrels to perform their refpective fervices, upon the day of the affumption of our Lady, at the fteward's court, held for the honour of Tutbury, according to an cient cuftom; they had alfo, it seems, a privilege, exclufive of the charter, to claim upon that day a bull from the prior of Tutbury. In the feventeenth century, thefe fervices were performed the day after the Affumption; and the bull was given by the Duke of Devonfhire, as the prior's reprefentative. The hiftorian of Staffordshire informs us, that a dinner was provided for the minftrels upon this occafion, which being finished, they went anciently to the abbey gate, but of late years to 'a

little barn by the town fide, in ex'pectance of the bull to be turned 'forth to them.' The animal, provided for this purpose, had his horns fawed off, his ears cropped, his tail cut fhort, his body fmeared over with foap, and his nofe blown full of beaten pepper, in order to make him as mad as it was poffible for him to be. Whence,. ' after folemn proclamation first made by the feward, that all manner of perfons should give way to the bull, and not come near him by forty 'feet, nor by any means to hinder the minstrels, but to attend to his or their own fafeties, every one at his peril; he was then put forth, to be 'caught by the minstrels, and none ' other, within the county of Stafford, between the time of his being turned ' out to them, and the setting of the fun, on the fame day; which if they 'cannot doe, but the bull escapes from 'them untaken, and gets over the river into Derbyshire, he continues to be

• Lord

Lord Devonshire's property. On the other hand, if the minstrels can take him, and hold him fo long as to cut off but fome fmall matter of his hair, and bring the fame to the market crofs, in token that they have taken him; the bull is brought to the baiIliff's houfe in Tutbury, and there collered, and roped, and fo conveyed to the bull-ring in the High Street, where he is baited with dogs; the I first course allotted for the King, the fecond for the honor of the town, and the third for the king of the minstrels; this done, the minstrels claim the beaft, and may fell, or kill and divide him amongst them according to their • pleasure.' The author then adds, This ruftic fport, which they call bullrunning, fhould be annually performed by the minstrels only; but now a-days, they are affifted by the promifcuous multitude, that flock thither in great numbers, and are much pleased with it; though fometimes, through the emulation in point of manhood that has been long cherished ⚫ between the Staffordshire and Derbyshire men, perhaps as much mischief may have been done as in the bull"fighting practised at Valentia, Madrid, and other places in Spain.' The noife and confufion occafioned by this exhibition is aptly defcribed in a popular ballad published early in the last century*:

Before we came to it, we heard a

ftrange fhouting,

• And all that were in it looked madly, For fome were a bull-back, fome dancing a morrice,

• And some finging ArthurO'Bradley'!"

P. 207.

COCK-FIGHTING.

"THIS barbarous paftime, which claims the fanction of high antiquity, was practised at an early period by the Grecians, and afterwards by the Romans: with us, it may be traced back to the twelfth century; at which period we are certain it was in ufage, and feems to have been confidered as a childish sport. Every year,' fays Fitzftephen, on the morning of Shrove

Tuesday, the school-boys of the city of London bring game cocks to their mafters, and in the fore part of the day, till dinner-time, they are permitted to amuse themselves with feeing them fight: the cock-pit was the fchool, and the mafter the controller and director of the paftime.' This cuftom, according to a modern author, 'was retained in many schools in Scotland within the laft century, and perhaps may be still in use there; the fchoolmafters claimed the runaway cocks as their perquifites; and thefe were called fugees, corrupt I fuppofe, fays he, of refugees.'

"In the reign of Edward III. cockfighting became a fashionable amusement; it was then taken up more feriously than it formerly had been, and the practice extended to grown perfons; even at that early period it began to be productive of pernicious confequences, and was therefore prohibited by a public proclamation, in which it was ranked with other idle and unlawful paftimes. But notwithstanding it was thus degraded and discountenanced, it ftill maintained its popularity, and in defiance of all temporary oppofition has defcended to the modern times. Among the additions made by Henry VIII. to the palace at Whitehall, was a cock-pit; which indicates his relifh for the paftime of cock-fighting; and James I. was fo partial to this diversion, that he amufed himself in feeing it twice a week. Exclufive of the royal cock-pit, we are told there was formerly one in Drury Lane, another in Jewin Street, and a third in Shoe Lane, fact: Sir Thomas Jermin, meaning to if the following story be founded on 'make himself merry, and gull all the 'cockers, fent his man to the pit in

Shoe Lane, with an hundred pounds and a dunghill cock, neatly cut and trimmed for the battle; the plot being well layd, the fellow got another to throw the cock in, and fight him in Sir Thomas Jermin's name, while he betted his hundred pounds against him; the cock was matched, and bearing Sir Thomas's name, had many 'betts layd upon his head; but after 'three or four good brushes, he fhewed a payre of heeles: every one won

VOL. V.-No. LIII.

4 G

'dered

dered to fee a cock belonging to Sir • Thomas cry craven; and away came the man, with his money doubled*.' "I fhall not expatiate upon the nature and extent of this fashionable divertisement; but merely mention a part of it, called the Welch main, which feems to be an abufe of the modern times; and as a late judicious author juftly fays, a difgrace to us as Englishment. It confifts of a certain number of pairs of cocks, fuppofe fixteen, which fight with each other until one half of them are killed; the fixteen conquerors are pitted a fecond time in like manner, and half are flain; the eight furvivors, a third time; the four, a fourth time; and the remaining two, a fifth time: fo that thirty-one cocks are fure to be inhumanly murdered, for the sport and pleafure of the fpectators.'

"In the old illuminated manufcripts, we frequently meet with paintings, reprefenting cocks fighting; but I do not recollect to have feen in any of them the leaft indication of artificial fpurs; the arming their heels with fharp points of fteel is a cruelty, I truft, unknown in former ages to our ancestors.

"In addition to what has been faid, I fhall only obferve, that the ancients fought partridges and quails as well as cocks; in like manner, fays Burton, as the French do now: how far, if at all, the example has been followed in England, I know not." P. 210.

THROWING AT COCKS

"WAS a very popular diverfion, efpecially among the younger parts of the community, and univerfally practifed upon Shrove Tuesday ‡. If the

poor bird by chance had his legs broken, or was otherwise fo lamed as not to be able to ftand, the barbarous owners were wont to fupport it with fticks, in order to prolong the pleafure received from the reiteration of its torment. The magiftrates, greatly to their credit, have for fome years paft put a ftop to this wicked cuftom; and at prefent it is nearly, if not entirely, difcontinued in every part of the kingdom.

"In fome places it was a common practice to put the cock into an earthen veffel made for the purpose, and to place him in fuch a pofition that his head and tail might be expofed to view; the veffel, with the bird in it, was then fufpended across the street, about twelve or fourteen feet from the ground, to be thrown at by fuch as chofe to make trial of their skill; twopence was paid for four throws, and he who broke the pot, and delivered the cock from his confinement, had him for a reward. At North Walfham, in Norfolk, about forty years ago, fome wags put an owl into one of thefe veffels; and having procured the head and tail of a dead cock, they placed them in the fame pofition as if they had appertained to a living one: the deception was fuccessful, and at laft, a labouring man belonging to the town, after feveral fruitless attempts, broke the pot, but miffed his prize; for the owl being fet at liberty, inftantly flew away to his great aftonishment, and left him nothing more than the head and tail of the dead bird, with the potsherds, for his money and his trouble; this ridiculous adventure expofed him to the continual laughter of the town's people, and obliged him to quit the place, to which I am told he returned no more." P. 212.