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subject after his decease and the abdication of his brother. "Whereas his Majesty hath empowered John and Thomas Webb, gentlemen, keepers of the fowl in St. James's Park, as also keepers of the game within ten miles of the court of Whitehall, and the precincts thereof; and information being given, that notwithstanding his Majesty's commands, several persons do molest and kill his Majesty's ducks and game within the said limits; it is therefore his Majesty's especial command, that none presume to keep a fowling-piece, gun, setting dog, greyhound, or other dog, net, tunnel, trammel, or other unlawful engine, wherewith to destroy or kill, or any ways disturb, the game, contrary to the law and statute in that case made and provided, other than such as shall be by law qualified.

"And whoever shall give information to John Webb, living in St. James's Park, shall have a gratuity for every gun, net, dog, or any engine, that shall be seized and taken from any such offender. "NOTTINGHAM."

As the amusement of bull-baiting must be slightly noticed in the second part of this work. it becomes necessary to state the manner in which it was practised at the close of the 17th century. "Some," says John Houghton, F.R.S. in his Collection for Improvement of Husbandry and Trade, No. 108, August, 1694, "keep him on

purpose

purpose for the sport of baiting, cutting off the tips of his horns, and with pitch, tow, and such like matter, fasten upon them the great horns of oxen, with their tips cut off, and covered with leather, least they should hurt the dogs.

"Because these papers go into several other counties, I'll say something on the manner of baiting the bull, which is, by having a collar about his neck, fastened to a thick rope about three, four, or five yards long, hung to a hook, so fasten'd to a stake that it will turn round; with this the bull circulates to watch his enemy, which is a mastiff dog (commonly used to the sport) with a short nose, that his teeth may take the better hold; this dog, if right, will creep upon his belly, that he may, if possible, get the bull by the nose, which the bull as carefully strives to defend, by laying it close to the ground, where his horns are also 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,

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They commonly lay sand about, that if they upon the ground it may be the easier.

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"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 broke out.

"To perfect the history of bull-baiting, I must tell you, that the famed dogs have crosses or roses of various coloured ribbon stuck with pitch on their foreheads, and such like the ladies are very ready to bestow on dogs or bull that do valiantly; and when 't is stuck on the bull's forehead, that dog is hollowed that fetches it off, though the true courage and art is to hold the bull by the nose 'till he roars, which a courageous bull scorns to do.

"Often the men are tossed as well as the dogs; and men, bull, and dogs, seem exceedingly pleased, and as earnest at the sport as if it were for their lives or livelihoods.

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Many great wagers are laid on both sides, and great journeys will men and dogs go for such a diversion. I knew a gentleman that bought a bull in Hertfordshire on purpose to go a progress with him, at a great charge, into most of the great towns in the West of England.

"This is a sport the English much delight in; and not only the baser sort, but the greatest lords and ladies."

An advertisement in the Post Boy of February 12, 1698, informed the publick, that on Thursday

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the 17th would be a new entertainment called a Redoubt, after the Venetian manner, with basset banks and other entertainments, where no person was to be admitted without a ticket and masked, or before ten o'clock at night.

This masquerade evidently belonged to the class of amusement called by the Italians Ridottos; but whatever might have been the intentions of the projectors, an order from the Westminster sessions, directed to the high bailiff of that city, required himself and the petty constables of his district to attend before Exeter Exchange from 6 o'clock in the evening till 12 at night, for the purpose of preventing the assembly.

The Protestant Mercury, of the 23d of the next month, gives a paragraph descriptive of one of the amusements afforded the Czar Peter the Great when in England, which I present the reader for his entertainment.

"The Czar sent some days since for Mr. Stringer, an Oxford chymist (who is now come to live in York Buildings in the Strand) to shew him some of the choicest secrets and experiments known in England; accordingly Mr. Stringer drew up a class (or number) of experiments, viz. some in separating and refining of metals and minerals, some geometrical, some medicinal, others philosophical, to the number of twenty

four

four experiments. When they were drawn up, the Czar elected one to be done first, as if it were a probat of the artist's skill; and it seems it was one of the most difficult operations, which shews that the Czar is skill'd in natural philosophy: for, said Mr. Stringer, if your Majesty knows so well how to elect or refuse, in these abstruse matters, you need not send for me, nor any I know in England. However, he desired to see that experiment, done, which was performed to his satisfaction; it was to melt four metals, with a destroying mineral together, as gold, silver, copper, and iron, with antimony, into one lump, then to dissolve them all, and then to separate each metal distinct again, without destroying any one of them.

"It chanced the chemist, after he had made him some lead out of its ore, and silver out of that lead, and called the gold from the rest of the metals mixt, being transported into a merry vein, told the Czar, if his Majesty would wear that gold in a ring for his sake, he would make him an artificial gem of what colour he pleased to name, to set in it, out of an old broom-staff and a piece of flint, that lay by them.

"His Majesty, being pleased with the fancy, ordered it to be done; he staying by himself part of the time, and his secretary the rest, till it was done, and then it proved so hard that it cuts glass."

William

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