"But now a Sport more formidable Had rak'd together Village Rabble: 'Twas an old Way of recreating-- Which learned Butchers call Bear-Baiting: A bold advent'rous Exercise, With ancient Heroes in high Prize; For Authors do affirm it came From Isthmian or Nemean Game; Others derive it from the Bear That's fix'd in Northern Hemisphere, And round about the Pole does make A Circle like a Bear at Stake. That at the Chain's End wheels about, And overturns the Rabble Rout. For, after solemn Proclamation In the Bear's Name (as is the Fashion According to the Law of Arms, To keep men from inglorious Harms) That none presume to come so near As forty Foot of Stake of Bear; If any yet be so foolhardy T' expose themselves to vain Jeopardy; If they come wounded off, and lame, No honour's got by such a Maim; Altho' the Bear gain much; b'ing bound In Honour to make good his Ground, When he's engag'd and takes no Notice, If any press upon him, who 'tis, But let's them know, at their own Cost, That he intends to keep his Post." Bear baiting was so identified, as a sport, to the London Citizens who frequented Hockley-in-the-Hole, that we read that in 1709 Christopher Preston, who then kept the Bear Garden, was attacked and partly eaten by one of his own bears. Bear Gardens are proverbially rough, and this place was no exception; but there were two others in London where bears were baited, one at Marrybone Fields (at the back of Soho Square), and at Tuttle or Tothill Fields, at Westminster--thus showing the popularity of the Sports, which was not declared illegal until 1835. Of course in these our days, we know nothing of bear baiting, and if a Pyrenean bear were now taken about the country, as I have frequently seen them, even if he "danced to the genteelest of tunes," his proprietor would be in danger of the judgment--some dear mollycoddling old woman in trousers, belonging to some special "faddy" society, being always ready to prosecute.