ready to do what in them lies to toss the dog; and this
is the true sport. But if more dogs than one come at once,
or they are cowardly and come under his legs, he will, if he
can, stamp their guts out. I believe I have seen a dog
tossed by a bull thirty, if not forty foot high; and when
they are tossed, either higher or lower, the men above
strive to catch them on their shoulders, lest the fall might
mischief the dogs. They commonly lay sand about that if they
fall upon the ground it may be the easier. Notwithstanding
this care a great many dogs are killed, more have their
limbs broke, and some hold so fast that, by the bull's
swinging them, their teeth are often broken out.... The true
courage and art is to hold the bull by the nose 'till he
roars, which a courageous bull scorns to do.... This is a
sport the English much delight in; and not only the baser
sort, but the greatest lords and ladies.

[Footnote 190: No. 108, August, 1694. Quoted by J.P. Malcolm,
_Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London from the Roman
Invasion to the Year 1700_ (London, 1811), p. 433.]

An attendant upon the Duke of Nexara, who visited England in 1544,
wrote the following account of a bear-baiting witnessed in London:

In another part of the city we saw seven bears, some of them
of great size. They were led out every day to an enclosure,
where being tied with a long rope, large and intrepid dogs
are thrown to them, in order that they may bite and make
them furious. It is no bad sport to see them fight, and the
assaults they give each other. To each of the large bears
are matched three or four dogs, which sometimes get the
better and sometimes are worsted, for besides the fierceness
and great strength of the bears to defend themselves with
their teeth, they hug the dogs with their paws so tightly,
that, unless the masters came to assist them, they would be
strangled by such soft embraces. Into the same place they
brought a pony with an ape fastened on its back, and to see
the animal kicking amongst the dogs, with the screams of the
ape, beholding the curs hanging from the ears and neck of
the pony, is very laughable.[191]

[Footnote 191: The original manuscript of this narrative, in Spanish,
is preserved in the British Museum. I quote the translation by
Frederick Madden, in _A