383 The decline of these amusements in England began with the great development of the theatre under Elizabeth. An order of the Privy Council in July, 1591, prohibits the exhibition of plays on Thursday, because on Thursdays bear-baiting and suchlike pastimes had been usually practised, and an injunction to the same effect was sent to the Lord Mayor, wherein it was stated that, “in divers places the players do use to recite their plays, to the great hurt and destruction of the game of bear-baiting and like pastimes, which are maintained for Her Majesty’s pleasure.”—Nichols, _Progresses of Queen Elizabeth_ (ed. 1823), vol. i. p. 438. The reader will remember the picture in _Kenilworth_ of the Earl of Sussex petitioning Elizabeth against Shakespeare, on the ground of his plays distracting men from bear-baiting. Elizabeth (see Nichols) was extremely fond of bear-baiting. James I. especially delighted in cock-fighting, and in 1610 was present at a great fight between a lion and a bear. (Hone, _Every Day Book_, vol. i. pp. 255-299.) The theatres, however, rapidly multiplied, and a writer who lived about 1629 said, “that no less than seventeen playhouses had been built in or about London within threescore years.” (Seymour’s _Survey_, vol. i. p. 229.) The Rebellion suppressed all public amusements, and when they were re-established after the Restoration, it was found that the tastes of the better classes no longer sympathised with the bear-garden. Pepys (_Diary_, August 14, 1666) speaks of bull-baiting as “a very rude and nasty pleasure,” and says he had not been in the bear-garden for many years. Evelyn (_Diary_, June 16, 1670), having been present at these shows, describes them as “butcherly sports, or rather barbarous cruelties,” and says he had not visited them before for twenty years. A paper in the _Spectator_ (No. 141, written in 1711) talks of those who “seek their diversion at the bear-garden, ... where reason and good manners have no right to disturb them.” In 1751, however, Lord Kames was able to say, “The bear garden, which is one of the chief entertainments of the English, is held in abhorrence by the French and other polite nations.”—_Essay on Morals_ (1st ed.), p. 7; and he warmly defends (p. 30) the English taste. During the latter half of the last century there was constant controversy on the subject (which may be traced in the pages of the _Annual Register_), and several forgotten clergymen published sermons upon it, and the frequent riots resulting from the fact that the bear-gardens had become the resort of the worst classes assisted the movement. The London magistrates took measures to suppress cock-throwing in 1769 (Hampson’s _Med. Æv. Kalend._ p. 160); but