HOG RACE. On Monday, the 27th Instant between 2 & 3 a Clock in the afternoon, a Race will be run (for a considerable Wager) on the Plains at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, between a Hog and a Horse.--_Boston Gazette_, Aug. 30-Sept. 6, 1725. We hear from New-Hampshire, that on Monday the 27th of Sept. last, there was a Race Run, for a considerable sum of money, between a Hog and a Horse, the former of which had the advantage most part of the way, which the party that were for the Horse, it is thought, caused the Hog to be frighten'd, so that with much ado the Horse got the advantage.--_Boston Gazette_, Sept. 27-Oct. 4, 1725. BEAR BAITING. On Thursday next the 2d of June, at 3 o'clock P.M., in Staniford's Street, near the Bowling Green, will be Baited a Bear, by John Coleson; where all Gentlemen and others that would divert themselves may repair.--_Boston Gazette_, May 23-30, 1726. HORSE FAIR. This is to give Notice of a Horse Fair which is to be at Mr. John Brown's, Innholder at Hampton Falls, about seven miles to the Eastward of Newbury Ferry, upon the 20th and 21st days of April next; at which time 'tis expected that there will be brought thither some Hundreds of Horses, to be sold or otherwise traded for.--_Boston News-Letter_, Mar. 23-30, 1732. For many years it was necessary for Massachusetts men to defend their families from marauding Indians and the French, and military trainings were held at regular intervals. In May, 1639, a thousand men took part at a training in Boston and in the fall of that year there were twelve hundred. Such occasions provided opportunity for feasting and drinking--perhaps we should say drunkenness--but as the years went by the prayers and singing of psalms gave way to days of public enjoyment and not infrequently to boisterous license. Governor Bradford wrote that the water of Plymouth was wholesome though not, of course, as wholesome as good beer and wine. Even so! New England Puritans hated Christmas, a day for Popish revelry. On Christmas Day in 1621, those who had recently arrived at Plymouth in the ship _Fortune_ entertained themselves with pitching the bar and playing stoolball, but at noon Governor Bradford appeared and ordered them to stop "gameing or revelling in the street."[41] On Christmas Day, 1685, Judge Sewall wrote in his Diary, "Carts come to town and shops open as usual. Some somehow observe the day, but are vexed I believe that the Body of the People Prophane it, and blessed be God no authority yet to compel them to keep it." [41] Bradford, _History of Plymouth Plantation_, Boston, 1853. Commencement Day at Harvard was also a day for diversion and vied in importance in the public eye with election day and training days. By the year 1700 billiard tables might be found in many of the larger taverns and sometimes a ninepin alley. In 1721, Thomas Amory of Boston was shipping billiard tables to his correspondents in the Southern ports.