BEAR-BAITING

'Bear-baiting' is a blood sport involving the baiting of bears.

Contents

Bear-baiting in England

Other uses

See also

External links

References

Bear-baiting in England

Bear-baiting was popular in England until the nineteenth century. From the sixteenth century, many herds of bears were maintained for baiting. In its best-known form, arenas for this purpose were called bear-gardens, consisting of a circular high fenced area, the "pit", and raised seating for spectators. A post would be set in the ground towards the edge of the pit and the bear chained to it, either by the leg or neck. A number of well-trained hunting dogs would then be set on it, being replaced as they tired or were wounded or killed. For a long time, the main bear-garden in London was the Paris Garden at Southwark.
Henry VIII was a fan and had a pit constructed at Whitehall. Elizabeth I was also fond of the entertainment; it featured regularly in her tours. In 1575, a baiting display for her had thirteen bears, and when an attempt was made to ban baiting on Sundays, she overruled Parliament.
A variation involved other animals being baited, especially bulls, but also, on one curious occasion, a pony with an ape tied to its back was baited: a spectator described that "...with the screaming of the ape, beholding the curs hanging from the ears and neck of the pony, is very laughable".
Attempts to end the entertainment were first made in England by the Puritans, with little effect. The deaths of a number of spectators, when a stand collapsed at the Paris Gardens on January 12, 1583 was viewed by early Puritans as a sign of God's anger, though not primarily because of the cruelty but because the bear-baiting was taking place on a Sunday. ^[1]
By the late 17th century "the conscience of cultivated people seems to have been touched", but it was not until 1835 that baiting was prohibited by Parliament, Cruelty to Animals Act 1835 was soon extended across the Empire. Bear baiting's last known occurrence was in the small town of Knottingley.

Other uses

The term may be used for the hunting practice of luring a bear with bait to an arranged killing spot. The hunter places an amount of food, such as raw meat or sweets, every day at a given spot until the hunter notices the food is being taken each day, accompanied by bear tracks. He then chooses a day to await the bear, killing it when it arrives to feed.
Because the practice is time consuming and disrupts a person's daily schedule, the term "bear baiting" is sometimes used in Alaska to mean "screwing off," for example if a person is late for work or misses an appointment.

See also

★ Baiting (animals)

★ Bull-baiting

★

★ Cockfight

★ Congleton, an English town notorious for its bear-baiting.

★ Dog fighting

★ Hope Theatre

★ List of dog fighting breeds

External links

★ PBS' Shakespeare on Bear baiting

★ Chain Bear, a character paranoid of bear baiters.

References

1. - A Godly exhortation . . . showed at Paris Garden, , John, Field, Robert Waldegrave, 1583,

Sir Cary Reynolds, a Puritan MP said in the House of Commons in 1601: "In the Year 1583. the House of Paris Garden fell down, as they were at the Bear Baiting, Jan. 23. on a Sunday, and Four Hundred Persons sore Crushed; yet by God's Mercy, only Eight were Slain outright."
From: 'Proceedings in the Commons, 1601: December 1st - 5th', Historical Collections:: or, An exact Account of the Proceedings of the Four last Parliaments of Q. Elizabeth (1680), pp. 267-88. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=43558. Date accessed: 24 February 2007.