passage, at the end of which we see a man holding a dog between his
knees. It is the first dog to be set on; his owner cries, "Set on!"
and the dog loosed tears down the lane, through hoops held at regular
intervals, right at the face of the bull, who has heard his yelp, and
is waiting for him. The dog goes for the bull's nose; the animal keeps
him off by always presenting a horn to his advance. We notice he does
not _prod_ at the dog, but tries to sweep the horn along the ground
under the dog's belly. The dog, quite conscious of the meaning of these
tactics, is never for a moment still, but dancing to and fro, tries to
get through the bull's guard. It seems for a while that this game of
attack and defence might go on for the whole day. But suddenly the bull
has managed to get his horn beneath the dog, and up he goes into the
air, some twenty or thirty feet high. "Catch the dog, quick. He'll be
done for if he touches ground." And see our friend from Reading holding
out a pair of long arms, and down comes the dog, bespattering, as he
falls into them, the man's face and clothes with blood and mud. When
the day is over, many, who came out in holiday clothes, will return
home sorry spectacles from dog-catching, covered with filth, and with
torn and disordered clothes.
Another dog is now ready. His fate is more speedily determined than
that of his predecessor. The bull, almost immediately, sends him flying
into the air, so high that he falls on the roof of the Town Hall, and
in coming down is impaled on some spikes.
This is a grand stroke by which the present bull has outdone all former
bulls that have been fastened to that chain and stake for many a year.
And while the poor dog is writhing and whining piteously, the crowd
applauds vociferously. In one of the smaller carriages, two school boys
occupy the back seat. These boys are now standing up, wildly clapping
their hands and hurrahing, while the dog on the roof still writhes and
cries out in its agony. One of those boys will live to be a farmer in
Wokingham, and be well known for his love of animals. More than seventy
years after the event he will often tell of this, his only visit to
the bull-baiting, and express his wonder by what strange contagion he
could have caught the spirit of that cruel crowd, and witnessed, with
delirious delight, animal torture, which on any other day of his life
would have brought tears to his eyes.[10]
And now a third dog is set on. Whether the bull is tired or demoralized
by the applause he has just received we cannot tell; but certain it is
that number three almost at once-succeeds in fastening his teeth in
the cartilage of the bull's nose. "A pin! a pin!" "The dog has pinned
the bull!" and the animal tosses its head up and down in a frenzy of
wrath and terror, trying to shake off the dog. But he might as well try
to shake off his own horns. A story is told of a man who made a bet,
and won it, that he would cut off each of his dogs legs in succession
without his letting go, when once he had got his teeth in the bull.
The owner of the present dog with the assistance of other men forces
the dog's mouth open with a stick, and so gets him away, but not
without tearing the bull's nose and leaving a portion of the cartilage
in the dog's mouth. A note is taken of the owner's name that his dog's
success may be rewarded in due time at the distribution of prizes.
Three or four more dogs are set on in turn, and the short winter
afternoon is already half over. People begin to clamour for the second
bull. But they are not destined to part with the first without a little
more excitement. Some young men growing bold by familiarity with the
scene, take an opportunity of tossing the loose chain over the animal's
back. This makes him start forward with great impetuosity, and in doing
so he tears the staple out of the post to which the chain is fastened.
"The Bull is loose!" Away scampers the crowd in every direction. A
woman who had been selling apples and cakes out of a large basket
is upset in her flight, and her wares are scattered. Several others
fall over her prostrate form, but before further mischief is done,
the animal is again secured. A single tree grows in the middle of the
market-place. In the boughs a number of small boys, early in the day,
had taken up their position, and there witnessed all the fun. Not
knowing how else to secure the bull while the staple in the post is
undergoing repair, the men pass the chain round this tree. The bull,
finding itself thus robbed of a liberty which just now had seemed to
offer a prospect of escape from his tormentors, frantic with rage and
terror, makes wild rushes forward, jerking and swaying the tree to the
great alarm of the urchins in the boughs. The crowd enjoying their
fright, cry out to increase it, "the tree is coming down." This is too
much for the boys' courage, down they come like apples in a gale of
wind, some on the bull's back, some in the slush and mud. The whole
crowd except a few anxious parents, is convulsed with laughter. Luckily
the boys are got out of the way of the bull, who seems fairly puzzled
at this new form of attack, and no one is seriously hurt.[11]
It is now determined to dismiss the bull to the neighbouring
slaughter-house. The poor creature is led away, covered with blood, and
foam, and sweat, a very picture of distress and exhaustion, and of the
madness that comes of fear, rage, and pain.
The second bull is coming out fresh and strong, and good to keep up the
sport for another hour or two. But we have seen enough, and may well
return to Reading with our young friend who has been looking on from
the window. The light is already failing. It is damp and chill, and
will be dark before he reaches home. It is well, too, to escape the
rough horse-play which grows rougher as the day closes. Already there
have been several fights among the dog-owners and others, and before
the night is over there will be many more, and not impossibly lives
may be lost. Even the lives of women were not always safe after the
passions of men had been roused by these scenes of cruelty, sustained
by a free flow of the drink, which makes men "full of quarrel and
offence." Witness the Parish Registers, where we find the entry,
"Martha May, aged 55, (who was hurt by fighters after Bull-baiting) was
buried Dec. 31st 1808." Poor Martha May! she must have been badly hurt,
and only lived six days, as we reckon, (allowing four days for the
interval between her death and burial), after her last bull-baiting on
St. Thomas's Day in Wokingham Market Place in 1808.
There remains one other point on which information is needed. The dogs
were evidently highly trained. Knowing quite well what was expected of
them, eager as grey-hounds with the quarry in view to escape from the
master's hand, and to fly through the hoops at the bull's nose. Where
and how did they get their training? There are still old inhabitants
in Wokingham who can answer this question by word of mouth. For weeks
before the baiting, on every moonlight night, it was common practice
for a party of men with three or four dogs to visit some field or
park, and there driving an ox, which they had before noted as suitable
for their purpose, into a corner of the field, set on their dogs in
order, according to the received rules of baiting. In the morning the
owner would be furious at finding his best ox in a pitiable condition,
and useless for the market for months to come. But so general was the
interest in bull-baiting that he got no more pity than the farmer's
wife, whose ducks are all killed by a fox, gets now from her neighbours.
Looking back on bull-baiting and similar sports, that were
contemporaneous with it, and comparing them with the scenes of violence
that formed popular entertainments in the generations that went before,
and with the sports and games of our own day, the conclusion cannot be
escaped that the world's history shews a well-marked line at progress
in the gentler virtues, and the growth of sympathy between man and his
fellow, and between man and the animals around him, that tends to
brand cruelty wherever found as a vice.
It is the duty of every one to do what he can to further this progress
to quicken this growth, and to practise and encourage only those
amusements which seem suitable for the development of the best side in
the character of the people.
[Illustration: THE END]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 8: Erasmus, the reformer, speaks of 'many herds' of bears
which he saw being trained for baiting when he was in England in the
reign of Henry VIII.]
[Footnote 9: This description is taken from "The Reminiscences of an
Octogenarian," published in _The Reading Observer_. He describes a
visit made by himself when a youth, to Wokingham, under the guidance
of an elder companion, to see the bull-baiting. Other particulars have
been derived from information given to the writer of this article by
those, most of them now dead, who were spectators of the sports.]
[Footnote 10: The particulars of this scene were given to the writer by
the farmer who had been one of the boys in the chaise.]
[Footnote 11: The description of this scene is taken partly from an old
picture, and partly from the narrative of an eye-witness.]
Index.
Abbot, power of, 133-134
Alfred the Great, 98-114
Agriculture languishing, 14
Albert Memorial Chapel, 41
Abingdon, chronicles of, 63-64;
Fair, 93;
Guild, 121
Bacon, M.J., Berkshire Words and Phrases, 235-243
Barber's Guild, 124-126, 129
Berkshire Words and Phrases, 235-243
Bible, Alfred attempts to translate the, 107
Binfield, 211-234
Binfield and Easthampstead, 1700-1716, and the early years
of Alexander Pope, 211-234
British tribes, 2
Bull-baiting in Berkshire, 244-258
Burney, Fanny, life at Windsor described by, 37
Burning at the Stake, 14
Celtic times, 2
Chapel Royal, 40-41
Charles I. a prisoner at Windsor, 34;
execution and burial, 34;
snow at his funeral, 35
Christianity, spread of, 8
Civil War, 14-18
Cloth-trade destroyed at Reading, 160
Cumnor Place and Amy Robsart, 63-97
Cumnor Church, 65-69
Danes destroy Churches, 7-8;
defeated, 104
Disobedience, fine for, 126
Ditchfield, P.H. Historic Berkshire, 1-20;
Guilds of Berkshire, 115-136
Dragon stories, 140
Dudley, Lord Robert, 74-91
Easthampstead, 211-234
Elfreda's crimes, 179
Elizabeth, Queen, patroness of baiting animals, 246
England united under Alfred, 7
Faringdon, Hugh, 153-159
Field, J.E., Wallingford Castle, 47-62
First Battle of Newbury, 193-203
First monarch interred at Windsor, 31
Freedom of towns sold, 131
Gardiner, E.R., Scouring of the White Horse, 137-152
Garter, institution of, 26
Gaunt, John of, marriage, 186
Gilt cup as a New Year's present, 159
Good Friday, baiting animals on, 247
Guilds of Berkshire, 115-136
Handbill, quaint, 144
Herne's oak, 44
Heart of St. George brought to Windsor, 30
Highwayman, story of a, 142-143
Historic Berkshire, 1-20
Holy Cross, Guild of, 135
Hunting, 113
Ingleby, Miss Evelyn, Windsor Castle, 21-46
Inns in Berkshire, 87
Isabella bestowes Wallingford Castle on Mortimer, 56
Jack of Newbury, 13
James, flight of, 36
Jewel, Alfred's 103
John signs the Magna Charta, 11-12
Knighthood, flower of, 26
Lamplough, E., First Battle of Newbury, 193-203;
Second Battle of Newbury, 204-210
Last of the Abbots, 153-159
Law-giver, Alfred the, 110-114
Library at Windsor, 42-43
Magna Charta, 11-12, 23
Martin, regicide, 163
Mercatory guild, 128
Merry Wives of Windsor, 33
Murder of Amy Robsart, 88
Newbury, First Battle, 193-203;
Second Battle, 204-210
Nicholas, St., College of, 60
Norman Conquest, 65
Norman invaders, 9
Oaks, ancient, 44
Origin of Guilds, 116
Parliament held at Reading, 13;
at Wallingford, 53
Parsons, Robert, Author of 'Leicester's Commonwealth,' 76-77
Penny, C.W., Binfield and Easthampstead, 211-234
Pepys at Windsor, 35
Philippa, Queen, death of, 26-28
Poet and scholar, Alfred, 106-110
Poetry, Anglo-Saxon, 100
Pomp and vanity at Windsor, 25
Pope, Alexander, 217-234
Physical peculiarity, 241
Reading Abbey, 179-192;
Guilds, 117, 123
Reformation, doctrines of, 14
Reid, H.J., F.S.A., Cumnor Place and Amy Robsart, 63-97
Restoration rejoicings, 18
Restoration of Windsor Castle, 39
Revolution of 1688, 18-19
Richard II. at Windsor, 28;
death, 29
Robsart, Amy, 74-91, 78-82
Roman times, 2-4
Rome visited by Alfred, 100
Royal county, 1
Royal prisoners, story of, 25
Saxon times, 5
Scott, Sir Walter, on Cumnor, 73
Scouring of the White Horse, 137-152
Second Battle of Newbury, 204-210
Settlements of the Saxons, 5-6
Seymour, Jane, buried at Windsor, 32
Shaw, the Lifeguardsman, 149
Ship-money, 162
Shoemaker's guild, 126-127
Siege of Reading, 160-178
Simon de Montfort, 12, 24
Snow at the funeral of Charles I., 35
Soldiers taking down a weathercock, 67
Sports, 141-142
Standard, Saxon, 138-139
Staverton, George, strange bequest, 248
Stephen and the Empress Maud, wars of, 10-11
Sturges, Canon, Bull-baiting in Berkshire, 244-258
Sunday shaving, 124-126;
Sports, 127
Superstitions, 241
Tailors ordered to make clothes for soldiers, 165
Tennyson, quoted, 46
Thompson, W.H., Alfred the Great, 98-114
Tiles as fines, 125
Tobacco, prize for smoking, 149
Trade, increase of, 12
Voting £70,000 for a tomb, 35
Victuallers' Company, 127-128
Village Feasts, 137
Wallingford Castle, 47-62
Wantage, birth place of Alfred, 98
Warrior-king, Alfred, 100-106
Wellington on a victory, 160
White Horse, 137-152
Windsor Castle, 21-46
William the Conqueror at Wallingford, 48
Wokingham, bull-baiting at 247-256
Wolsey's Tomb-House, 22
Words and Phrases, 235-243
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