British animals extinct within historic times : with some account of British wild white cattle / by James Edmund Harting ; with illustrations by J. Wolf, C. Whymper, R.W. Sherwin, and others.

  • Harting James Edmund, 1841-1928.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: British animals extinct within historic times : with some account of British wild white cattle / by James Edmund Harting ; with illustrations by J. Wolf, C. Whymper, R.W. Sherwin, and others. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    tained with this sport, it was the duty of the Master to provide bears and^ dogs, and to super- intend the baiting. He was invested with un- limited authority to issue commissions, and to send his officers into every county in England, who were empowered to seize and take away any bears, bulls, or dogs that they thought suitable for the royal service. The latest record by which this diversion was publicly authorized is a grant to Sir Saunders Buncombe, dated October ii, 1561, for the sole practice and profit of the fighting and com- bating of wild and domestic beasts within the realm of England, for the space of fourteen years. The nobility also kept their Bear-ward, who was paid so much a year, like a keeper, falconer, or other retainer. Twenty shillings was the payment made in 1512 to the Bear-ward of the fifth Earl of Northumberland when he comyth to my lorde in Cristmas with his lordshippes beests for makynge of his lordship's pastyme the said xij. days. The Prior of Durham, in 1530-1534, kept bears, and apes too, as we learn from an entry in the accounts of the bursar of the monastery, where the following entry occurs : —Et custodi U7^sorum et cimearum [simiarum'] domince Frincijns, i Junii . . 55. A travelling Bear-ward depended entirely on his patrons. In the Household Book kept by the steward of Squire Kitson, of Hengrave, Sufiblk, and commenced in 1572, we find, under date July, 1574, the entry : To a Bear man for bringing his Bears to Hengrave . . . . ijs w^d.