Chapter III: Preface (3)

BLOOD HOUNDS.—Those so called, have always had a kind of fabulous property ascribed to them, of pursuing, and infallibly taking or seizing, _robbers_, _murderers_, or _depredators_, whenever they could be laid upon the footsteps (or scent) of the particular object they were intended to pursue; and of their possessing _this_ property there can be no doubt, when the experience of ages, transmitted to us by our predecessors, (as well as our own observations,) have afforded the most indisputable proofs, that hounds may be taught or broke in to _carry on any particular scent_, when _feelingly_ convinced they are to hunt _no other_. There requires no "ghost from the grave" to confirm a fact of so much notoriety: a mere _sporting embryo_ would tell us, that "a pack who for some years hunted _fallow deer_ in the possession of their last owner, are hunting _hare_ in high style with the present; that the principal body of the celebrated pack who for some years past hunted _fox_ with LORD DARLINGTON in the _north_, are now probably destined to the pursuit of the _red deer_ with LORD DERBY in the _south_: and the whole art of changing hounds from one chase to another is the temporary trouble of breaking them afresh, and making them _steady_ to the _scent_ they are to pursue."

In respect to the received opinion of what were formerly called _bloodhounds_, the fact is simply this: the original stock partook, in nearly an equal degree, of the large, heavy, strong, boney old English stag-hound, and the deep-mouthed _southern_ hound, of which mention is made under the head "BEAGLE." The hounds destined to one particular kind of business or pursuit, as _bloodhounds_, were never brought into the chase for a constancy with the pack for the promotion of sport, but were preserved and supported (as a constable or Bow-Street runner of the present day) for the purposes of pursuit and detection, whenever they could, with certainty, be laid on _in good time_ upon the scent of footsteps of the object it was thought expedient to pursue. _Deer stealing_, for instance, was so very common a century since to what it is at present, that the GAME and PARK keepers in most parts of the kingdom were in a kind of eternal watching and _nocturnal warfare_: the hounds we are now describing were then constantly trained to the practice, and so closely adhered to the scent they were once laid on upon, that (even after a very long and tedious pursuit) detection was _certain_ and _inevitable_: from this persevering instinct and infallibility, they acquired the appellation they have so long retained; and an offending criminal not a century since, was absolutely conceived to be _positively_ taken, and _half convicted_, the very moment a blood-hound could be obtained.

BLOOD SPAVIN—is a preternatural and puffy enlargement on the _inside_ of a horse's hock, proceeding from a distension of the vein crossing the internal junction of the inferior part of the thigh bone with the superior part of the shank; and whenever such injury is observed, it may rather be supposed to have originated in _a blow_, _a kick_, or more probably from a ligamentary twist or distortion, (by a short and sudden turn in the _small stall_ of an ill constructed stable,) than by any continued exertion of speed, either on a journey or in the chase.

BLOWS—inconsiderately given, in _passion_, to harmless, inoffending animals, are nineteen times out of twenty productive of repentance, when probably repentance comes too late. A horse sometimes, and most commonly from the inattention of the rider, steps almost unavoidably upon a flint or rolling-stone; and in the very exertion of recovering himself from _nearly falling_, he at that critical moment receives a severe and unexpected blow _behind the ear_ from the stick of his _philosophic, patient, humane_ rider, which brings him instantly to the ground, giving and receiving ample proof, that "the remedy was worse than the disease." No conjectures need be formed upon the _loss of eyes_ annually sustained by blows from petulant masters, as well as the most rascally servants; injuries of this kind may be daily seen by observers with their _eyes open_ in every part of the kingdom.

BLOWS will most assuredly sometimes happen from _accident_, though most of this description arise from folly, ignorance, or indiscretion; as for instance, the very common circumstances of carelessly giving a horse's _head_ or _eye_ a blow against the stall in turning, or the _hip-bone_ very frequently against the post of the stable door, and this by the stupidity of those who _seem to think_ a horse can turn within as small a space as themselves; or rather, perhaps, by those who seem unfortunately destined by Nature _never to think at all_. In general, the good or bad usage of servants to horses, or other animals under their care, may be conceived a very fair and unerring criterion of the depravity or integrity of their _own hearts_; and such should be emphatically told, that not only _broken bones_, but instantaneous _loss of life_, has frequently followed passionate blows, and cruel usage, by the law of retaliation, in the resentment of an animal capable of distinguishing between a fault committed, a reproof given, or any unjust injury sustained.

BONE SPAVIN—is an ossified enlargement on the _outside_ of, and rather below, the centre of the hock, originating in a cartilaginous protrusion from the seat of articulation becoming progressively callous, and lastly a substance equally firm with the bone itself. They do not invariably constitute lameness upon their _first_ appearance, but it soon follows a course of hard or regular work. Blistering _first_, and _firing_ afterwards, was the practice of farriers of the old school, which it is not known has undergone any change with veterinarians of the new.

BOLTING.—When a fox, laying at earth, has been dug to, and, upon the approach of the spade, the terrier, or the person attempting to take him, makes a sudden spring, and _goes off_, he is then said _to have bolted_; when, of course, the chase is continued with the hounds. The term is also applicable to a rabbit from its burrow, or the badger from his earth.

BORING;—one of the former _humane_ operations in farriery for what is now called a lameness, then termed _a wrench_ in the shoulder: it consisted in making a small orifice, or superficial incision, through the integument near the part affected: into this is insinuated a small tube or pipe; by the operator's breath through which the part is inflated, directly in the way a butcher swells his veal: a flat piece of iron, of small dimensions, is then introduced between the ribs and the shoulder in different directions, to produce some effect hitherto unexplained, and never understood. The seeming cruelty, and evident uncertainty, of the operation, has long since buried it in oblivion, at least with scientific practitioners; and it is very little seen or heard of, except amongst the rustic Vulcans in remote corners of the kingdom.

BOTTS—are differently described by different writers; a certain proof many of them wrote more from _theory_, _copy_, and _hearsay_, than from attentive practice, or personal observation. Some have observed, they were of one shape; a second, of another; a third has said their seat was invariably upon one _particular part_; but the present Author has told you, in his former Works, and now repeats the fact, that they are equally inhabitants of the _stomach before_, as they are of _the rectum_ behind; and are as constantly found in the former after the death of the subject, as they are seen adhering to the sphincter of the rectum during his life; and that horses, who have fallen victims to the ravages of these destructive diminutives, had both the stomach and rectum loaded with numbers in a degree to be fairly concluded _incredible_, unless the proof had been personally confirmed by sight and individual conviction. The mode by which they are conveyed into the body (or how they are engendered there) may possibly long continue a matter of conjecture and ambiguity: Not so with _the effect_; when there, they soon continue to increase, and to occasion constant disquietude; sometimes violent pain. A horse labouring under their persecuting pinchings, is frequently eating, and without appetite, in a hope of relieving himself from the _gnawing sensations_ within: he is generally rough in the coat, low in flesh, depressed in the stable, and not elated when out. Various remedies are in use; but mercurial physic is the only certain mode of extirpation.

BOWEL-GALLED—is a laceration occasioned by the tightness and heat, or friction, of the girths, just behind the elbows of the fore legs, and is soon hardened and obliterated by two or three applications of a soft sponge, impregnated with common vinegar.

BOWLS—is a game played upon a fine smooth grassy surface, either square, circular, or oblong, used solely for the purpose, and called a BOWLING-GREEN. The party may consist of two, four, six, or eight, and is generally chosen alternately, after tossing up a coin to decide who shall have the first choice. The sides being selected, each player has two bowls, which bowls have numerical figures, thereby ascertaining to whom they belong. The leader sends off a smaller bowl, called _the jack_, to what distance he pleases, it being (by the toss) his privilege so to do: this he follows with his first bowl, getting as near the jack as possible: he is then followed by one of the adverse party, the partner of the first following, and so in rotation till all the bowls are played; when as many of the bowls, on either side, as are nearer to _the jack_ than the _nearest_ on the opposite side, so many do the successful party score that time toward the game, and so on in succession, till one side or the other have won the match. Sometimes great disappointment happens in the play, when a ball laying very near _the jack_, is removed to a distance by the hit of an adversary's bowl, which remains nearer the jack than the bowl it has driven away; this is called a rub, and gave rise to the long-standing adage, "he that plays at _bowls_, must expect _rubs_."

BRAN—would not have been entitled to notice in a work of this kind, had it not been in a certain degree of conditional use with horses of different descriptions, in sickness as well as in health. BRAN is an article almost generally known to be the coarser part of the skin or covering of the grain called _wheat_, from the body of which _flour_ is manufactured, and _bread_ made. With some people (particularly in the country parts of the kingdom, who are desirous of keeping their horses at little expence) bran constitutes a principal part of their food; in consequence of which, it becomes necessary to advert concisely to its known effects. From its nutritive property having been taken away, it contains little more than the means of distending the frame, without the generative quality of enriching the blood, or contributing to the formation of flesh. Not calculated to become a primary object of support, it may in some ways be brought into use as a collateral of utility. Horses belonging to _bakers_ and _mealmen_, who have been principally subsisted upon this article, with the addition of a few split beans, (or peas,) have become pursive and thick-winded; then asthmatic; lastly, dull, heavy, and inactive; dying at nine or ten years old; when a large ball, or _mealy concretion_, (of different sizes in different subjects,) has been found in the stomach or intestinal canal, of a most impenetrable hardness, to the weight of ten or twelve pounds. Though not proper for food in its dry state, it is a most useful article in mashes with _malt_, to disunite and prevent the satiating richness of that article alone; or to assist in common mashes with oats, (when a horse is in physic,) as well as to incorporate with a proper impregnation of honey in the mashes for colds during the severity of the winter season.

"On the 15th of November, 1799, died, after having been disordered some days, a horse belonging to Mr. Ransom, of Hitchin. The cause of his death was owing to a substance found in his stomach, of a brown colour, exactly resembling a large pebble stone, very smooth and hard on the surface, and weighed 11 lbs. 14 oz. avoirdupoise. It is nearly spherical, and measures just two feet in circumference, being about the size of a man's head. It is supposed to have been occasioned by his eating of _bran_, that having been his constant food."—SPORTING MAGAZINE.

BREAKING THE HERD—is the ceremony of _singling_ out a deer (either stag or hind) from the herd for the chase, which is thus performed with His Majesty's establishment in WINDSOR FOREST. A survey being made of the herd, and the particular deer fixed on for _separation_, the huntsmen, assisted by one of the yeomen prickers, ride at a hunting rate, gallop directly into the herd, continuing so to do (as the herd divide) at the _particular part_ to which the deer intended to be singled out continues to adhere. This ceremony is sometimes a very tedious business to the men, as well as to the horses, as it is no uncommon thing, when they have detached, or reduced a _divided_ part of the herd to a leash or two brace, (amongst which is the particular deer wanted,) for that number to make a circle of ten, fifteen, or even twenty miles, before the riders, with all their energy, can disunite them more than to a single _brace_, and not at all to a _single deer_. When this is effected, the hounds, who are in waiting at some distance, under the six remaining YEOMEN PRICKERS, are _capped forward_, and laid upon the scent; when the brace finding themselves pursued, soon _divide_, under the impression of individual safety; and the selected deer being thus completely _singled out_, the chase goes on, and continues till the deer is taken; unless, after a pursuit of proper length, for the sport of the day, he should regain the herd, where he is then permitted to remain, and the hounds are drawn off: but if it is either an _old hind_, or _a calf_ destined to _death_, for the purpose of _blooding the hounds_, a repetition of the original ceremony of separation takes place, when which is effected, the chase is immediately renewed till the object of _blood_ is attained.

BREAKING THE DEER—is the act of cutting open the deer after the chase, that the _purchased_ perquisites of _blood_ and _garbage_ may go to the hounds. It is also the term for cutting up and dressing the _fallow deer_ called BUCKS and DOES.

BREAST-PLATE,—an article in horse furniture of great utility with light carcased horses, who very frequently, in both hunting and racing, _run through their girths_. It is made of either spring web or soft leather, as most agreeable to taste or fancy, and is fastened by buckles to small loops screwed to the tree of the saddle, just under the upper saddle-flap behind the withers of the horse; from whence the two parts divide transversely, and one passes down each shoulder to the point of the breast, where they are united to a strong strap, having holes, a buckle and loop, through which loop one of the girths is passed when the saddle is put on, and being thus fixed, it is considered almost an impossibility that any alteration can take place in its situation, but by the manual assistance of master or groom.

BREEDING—is the production of COLTS in a stud principally or solely kept for that purpose. The methods of bringing up colts vary according to the purpose for which they are intended, whether for the turf, field, draft, or road. The breeders of opulent magnitude in the northern counties, most celebrated for the breed of horses in Britain, are too well skilled in the practical part to require the least aid from theoretic instruction. They are well convinced, by the unerring principle of well-founded experience, that sound _sires_, well shaped dams, good summer care, and _winter keep_, are the means (and the only means) to insure well-grown, strong and valuable stock for any of the before mentioned purposes to which they are afterwards to become appropriate.

BRIDLE,—the well-known article by which we are enabled to ride, guide and regulate the speed and action of the most noble, spirited, powerful and valuable animal in the creation. They are of different kinds, as most applicable to the mouth and temper of the horse; consisting of _snaffles_, _Pelhams_, _Hard-and-sharps_, _Weymouths_, &c. There are also others of different constructions; but as they appertain principally to the MILITARY MANEGE and the RIDING-HOUSE, a minute description would afford neither use or entertainment to the sporting world, for whom this Work is more immediately intended.

BRIDLE-HAND.—The left is so called, in contra-distinction to the right, which, in racing, is termed _the whip_; and in military evolutions with cavalry, called the _sword hand_. Those who are deemed good sportsmen, or complete horsemen, manage the reins with equal dexterity, and one hand is generally as much in use as the other.

BROKEN WIND—remains in its long-standing state of professional ambiguity; for, notwithstanding frequent dissections must have afforded every assistance to earnest investigation, yet no authenticated, well-established opinion has transpired, sufficiently attracting or corroborative to fix a criterion upon which scientific or public faith seem inclined to rely. Since the appearance of "The Gentleman's Stable Directory," (about fourteen years since,) a great variety of veterinary _writers_, and veterinary _practitioners_, have emerged from obscurity in the metropolis, as well as in different parts of the kingdom. One has defined _broken wind_ to be "an inflammation, which continuing a length of time, throws a quantity of extravasated blood into the _windpipe_, where it occasions a kind of _roaring_": this was the opinion of an eminent veterinarian, delivered upon a _horse cause_ tried before Lord Kenyon in the court of King's Bench. In this sublime description there certainly appears no _brilliant_ or satisfactory elucidation. A recent writer says, "Broken wind is a disorder that a horse is subject to when he is suffered to stand too long in the stable without exercise; by which means he contracts gross and thick humours in such abundance, that, adhering to the hollow parts of his lungs, they stop his windpipe." So much for the "sublime and beautiful." A third attributes it to "a relaxation or rupture of the phrenic nerves, which cause the motions of the diaphragm." A fourth _supposes_ "the disease to proceed from a _morbid_ or obstructed state of the glands, and membranes of the head and throat, the enlargement of which prevents a free passage to the wind." Doctor Darwin, speaking of humoural asthma, attributes it to "a congestion of lymph in the air cells of the lungs, from defective absorption."

Others, _harping_ upon the _same string_, constitute an echo of _nearly_ the _same sound_: "In my ideas, a redundance of lymph being thrown upon the lungs, the quantity becomes too great for the capacity of the absorbent vessels; hence it stagnates, and choaks up the air conduits; and the theatre of its action being more confined, of course respiration must be more difficult and laborious." All which divested of the transposition of words, is the opinion of the present writer, promulgated in his Stable Directory, "that the disease originated in a sizey state of the blood, which at length becoming viscid and stagnant, occasioned obstructions in the first instance, lastly _tubercles_, by which respiration became imperfect, and one or both lobes of the lungs inadequate to the execution of their office." However _literary speculators_ may differ in either opinion or description, no great diversity of opinion can happen upon the subject of relief; _palliation_ may be obtained; perfect _cure_ must _not be expected_.

BROOD,—a word almost indiscriminately used for the young of _any fowl_. There is, however, a much nicer and more sporting-like distinction. To speak properly, we say, a _brood_ of ducks, a _clutch_ of chickens, a _setting_ of gulls, a _covey_ of partridges, and a _nide_ of pheasants.

BROOD MARE—is a mare kept solely for the purpose of breeding colts, and put to no other use whatever.

BROW ANTLER—the first _branch_ from the _beam_ in the head of a stag.

BUCK—the male of the fallow deer. In his first year he is called _a fawn_; he is then _a pricket_; and lastly A BUCK. In colour they are mottled, sandy, or a deep dingy brown, approaching to black. The males have horns; the does none. Buck venison is very superior to doe; and when well fatted, sells from _three_ to _four_ guineas _each haunch_. The season for it in the highest perfection is from June to September.

BUCK HUNTING—has been of late years but little practised, very few of them affording chase enough to render it a matter of much sporting attraction; particularly if bred in a park, whence, from its being so much accustomed to the sight of the human frame, it becomes in some degree like a kind of domestic animal. They were much hunted by the _late_ and great (_Culloden_) DUKE OF CUMBERLAND; but with his hounds (called buck hounds) he drew for and roused his outlying deer in _Cranbourne Chace_, near WINDSOR GREAT PARK. When found in this way, they frequently went away well across the country, and sometimes afforded tolerable sport. The bucks shed their _horns_ (called heads) annually in April or May, which, with the skins of both _bucks_ and _does_ killed within the year, (if a park is large,) make no inconsiderable perquisite to the keeper.

BULL DOG.—A bull dog, though inoffensive and harmless when properly domesticated, forms, to the eye of timidity, a most terrific appearance: the doubtful and designing leer of the eye, the tiger-like shortness of the head, the under-hung jaw, the wideness of the forehead, the width of the skull, the distension of the nostrils, and the almost constant sight of the teeth, hold forth a very emphatic specimen of the power they possess, when that power is _angrily_ brought into action. The breed is by no means so numerous as formerly, in consequence of the gradual decline of bull-baiting, and the great number taken abroad, for many of which very great prices were obtained. The natural ferocity, strength, and thirst for blood, in this animal, rendered them a formidable nuisance in their unrestrained state, and they are now seldom seen at their full liberty, either in town or country; the owners, from a proper fear of the law, finding it more prudent to keep them properly confined.

BULL-BAITING—was formerly not merely a pleasing pursuit, but an _extatic diversion_, of the most unfeeling, and least humane, part of the very lowest, and most abandoned, orders of the people. To such a pitch of prevalence had it arrived in some particular parts, and was so much considered to give additional callosity to the minds of its cruel and inconsiderate abettors, that the more polished and humane classes of society made strong and repeated efforts for its _total abolition_, by endeavouring to obtain an act of the Legislature for that purpose; which, however, unluckily failed of the intentional effect; for the bill being rejected by a very trifling majority in the House of Commons, it left the sport at the full liberty of every _subject to enjoy_, who is not restrained by any more humane, sublime and manly sensations of his own, prompting him to believe it "more honoured in the _breach_ than the observance." The towns of _Stamford_, in _Lincolnshire_, and _Wokingham_, in _Berkshire_, are now, perhaps, the only places of any note where the sport (as it is called) is obstinately persevered in, or _enthusiastically_ and _annually repeated_ by the clamours of those unfeeling advocates for _custom_, who, in the language of Shylock, claim "it as a right, and will not be deprived of it."

The first bull-bait in this country is supposed to have been at Stamford, in the year 1209, in the reign of King John, and at Tutbury, Staffordshire, in 1374. The introduction of it at Stamford was as follows.

"William, Earl Warren, Lord of this town, standing upon the walls of the castle, saw two bulls fighting for a cow in the castle meadow, till all the butchers' dogs pursued one of the bulls (madded with noise and multitude) clean through the town. This sight so pleased the Earl, that he gave the castle meadow, where the bull's duel began, for _a common_ to the butchers of the town, after the first grass was mowed, on condition that they should find a _mad bull_, the day six weeks before Christmas-day, for the continuance of that sport _for ever_."

"George Staverton, by will, dated May 15, 1661, gave the whole rent of his dwelling-house at Staines, after two lives, to buy a bull annually for ever; which bull he gave to the poor of the town of Wokingham, to be there _baited_, then killed, and properly divided; the offal, hide, and gift money, to be laid out in shoes and stockings to be distributed among the children of the poor. The alderman and one Staverton (if one of the name should be living in the town) to see the work done _honestly_, that one of the poor's piece did not exceed another in bigness."

These seem to have been the principal donations upon which the practice was originally founded, and afterwards continued upon the plea of _charity_ for its justification. To give it a degree of singularity in the town of Wokingham, St. Thomas (21st. Dec.) is the _day_ dedicated to the _sport_, and the market-place the _spot_ destined to the _sacrifice_.

Let the reflecting mind indulge one moment in awful rumination upon the dreadful scene and "note of preparation." On a day when every well informed mind, and duly disposed heart, must feel inclined to follow the dictates of religious inculcation; when a certain impressive silence pervades the whole; when the devout, the aged, and the infirm, await the signal by which they are summoned to receive every comfort and consolation from clerical benediction; it must be to all good hearts a mortifying circumstance, that the very bell which tolls to bring the moral and religious part of the inhabitants to their duty in the church, is also the signal for bringing a poor, harmless, unoffending animal (_with his chain_) _to the stake_. Incredible it must seem to those who have never witnessed the cruelty of the scene, that this very stake is fixed (and called the bull-ring) in the center of the market-place of a market town no more than _twelve_ miles from the seat of Majesty, and _thirty_ only from the metropolis of this great and enlightened kingdom.

Without enlarging much upon the "hellish practice" of the _sport itself_, it cannot be inapplicable to advert one moment to the effect a scene of so much insatiate cruelty must inevitably produce upon the growing offspring of the lower classes, in towns where a custom so generally execrated is so shamefully carried on. Previous to the commencement, "every heart beats high with the coming joy;" not a window but is crowded with women and children; not a street, or an avenue, but is crowded with _brutes_; the very scum and refuse of society from every part of the surrounding country; and then begins a scene of the most cruel and infernal practice that ever entered the heart of man, under the appellation of _sporting mirth_ to the multitude. In the church of this town, on Sunday, the 20th day of December, (being the day previous to the baiting of the bull,) 1801, a sermon was preached by the Rev. Doctor Barry, which sermon is since published, and where the following passages may be found.

"Gracious God! benevolent Parent of the universe, what a prodigy must he be in a Christian land, who could thus disgrace his nature by such gigantic infamy, at which the blood of a heathen, of a very Hottentot, might curdle! Two useful animals, the bull, who propagates our food, and the faithful dog, who protects our property, to be thus tormented! and for what purpose? Does it tend, as some have said,[2] to keep alive the spirit of the English character? In answer to this we must remark, that the barbarous sport (if sport it can be called) was unknown to the ancient bravery of our ancestors; was introduced into this country in the reign of a _bad_ king; and earnestly do I pray to Almighty God, that in the reign of a most pious and benevolent Prince, it may be _for ever set aside_! Cowards, of all men the least unmoved, can both inflict and witness cruelties."

"The heroes of a bull-bait, the patrons of mercenary pugilists, and the champions of a cock-fight, can produce, I should think, but few, if any, disciples brought up under their tuition, who have done service to their country either as warriors or as citizens; but _abundant_ are the testimonies which have been registered at the _gallows_ of her devoted victims, trained up to these _pursuits_ of BULL BAITING!!!"

Thus much upon its morality: now to a description of its practice. The bull being chained to the stake, which chain extends to about fifteen yards in length, and terminates in a very strong leather collar passing round the neck of the bull; and his horns having been previously muffled at the points (by the professional amateurs) with a composition of _tow_, _tallow_, and _melted pitch_, the ceremony thus commences. Those _gentlemen_ best calculated to appear in the character of _desperados_ begin the attack by the most dreadful noises of different kinds, _bellowings_, _hootings_, and _hissings_, consisting of a complication horrid beyond description. Whilst the abandoned crew of _raggamuffins_ are in this way, with their _hats_ and _huzzaings_, endeavouring to irritate him _before_, if the poor animal, partially submissive to his fate, remains unmoved, seeming (in the "mind's eye" of rumination) to say "I stand here an object more _sinned_ against than sinning," it rouses the infernal malice of the multitude to a certain degree of indignation, which is instantly displayed by the confederates _behind_, who being mostly provided with sharp-pointed sticks, proceed to those _pleasing punctures_, and provoking _twists_ of the _tail_, which rouse him from his state of humiliation to a temporary madness; when, in the midst of this horror and confusion, the _first_ dog is suddenly _let loose_: and this, to the _treble refined_ and inexplicable sensations of a bull-baiter, is the _most extatic_ moment of his life; his very existence is absorbed in the magnitude of the concern; his whole soul is engaged; the mind or memory is no longer itself, and the tormentor is as completely _mad_ as the unfortunate object of his persecution.

The scene now advances to a state of confusion exceeding all _humane_ conception; the howling of the dogs, still in hand, anxious and eager to be let loose; the roaring and dreadful bellowings of the bull, (particularly if pinned by the nose to the ground;) the dangerous pressings, and incessant hollowing and huzzaings of the _mob_; the galloping _tramplings_ of the enraged animal; all constitute a scene from which the thinking mind retreats with horror, and claims a chasm to renew the description. The first dog, perhaps, inadequate to the wishes of his adherents, and not being able to succeed farther than to increase the rage of the bull, is assisted by a _second_, which instantly rousing the victim at the stake to an encreased exertion of rage and self defence, as evidently increases the _horrid happiness_ of the multitude to a degree beyond all power of imagination, and to which the descriptive pen must bow obedience, and acknowledge its _inability_.

Should the poor persecuted animal, by every strenuous effort in its own defence, collect sufficient strength to keep its two inveterate foes _at bay_, and preserve its nostrils from the blood-thirsty fangs of its opponents, delay does but increase the determination of those previously determined; in which case resentment is seldom long without a remedy. Stimulated to a greater degree of cruelty by tedious disappointment, a _third dog_ (should it be necessary) is let loose, _as it were by accident_, to assist the other _two_; when, under so severe a weight of accumulated oppression, exhausted nature sinks; the poor pitiable object is _pinned_ to the ground by the most irritable and tender part about him, bleeding and bellowing amidst the shameless shouts of a shameful victory, where five hundred greater brutes have brought a lesser to the ground.

Not to prolong so shocking a description beyond the length unavoidably necessary to its perfect comprehension, it must suffice to say, the cruelty is extended by every means that can possibly _assist the cause_. Prizes are annually advertised for the best dogs, thereby inducing the owners to bring them any distance, not only to increase and lengthen the sport, but that the _object_ of _misery_ may not die too _easy_ a _death_! In the midst of his sufferings, if the minds of his hellish tormentors have not been sufficiently satiated with repetitions of what has past, collateral aids are called in to rouse his powers (already by an unwearied scene of persecution lulled to an apathy) of defence and resentment once more into action. Instances are common where fires have been made under the very body of the bull, when too much worn down, and exhausted by the jerks of the chain, longer to exert himself; patiently he stands, with the blood streaming from his nostrils, totally insensible to the twistings of his tail even to dislocation, the continued goring with sticks pointed with nails, and a long list of experiments equally to be abhorred, only tend to strengthen, most incontrovertibly, the dreadful effect such scenes (exultingly enjoyed) must have upon the rising generation, whose minds must, by a familiarity with the frequency of the scene, be rendered totally callous to every sensation of tenderness and humanity, even in the very hour of infantine infatuation.

[Footnote 2: Mr. Windham in the House of Commons.]

BULL RUNNING—is a pursuit of the bull in a way no less cruel and disgraceful to the humanity of this enlightened country than what has been before described. By custom in the manor of Tutbury, in Staffordshire, as mentioned at almost the head of the last article, a bull was given by the prior to the minstrels. After undergoing the torture of having his horns cut off, his ears and tail cropped and docked to the very stump, his nostrils filled with pepper, and his body besmeared with soap, he was turned out in such a pitiable state to be hunted, (this was called _bull running_;) and when taken, or held long enough to pull off some of _his hair_, he was then fastened to the stake, and _baited_. To the great honour, however, of the Duke of Devonshire, (Steward of Tutbury,) and not less so of the people who petitioned against it, the BULL RUNNING at _Tutbury_ was entirely abolished in the year 1778.

BURROWS,—are the holes or cavities in the earth of a rabbit warren, where they bring and breed up their young, as well as where they instantly retire to for safety, upon the approach of danger.