of London, are, before the feaste of Easter next coming, to depart from those common places, and resort incontinently to their natural countries, with their bags and baggages, upon paine of ymprisonment, and further to be punished at the king's majestie's will and pleasure. Furthermore, his majestie straightlye chargeth and commaundeth that all such househoulders as under the name of bawds have kept the notable and marked houses and knowne hostelries, for the saide evil-disposed persons; that is to saie, such householders as do inhabite the houses, whited and painted with signes on the front for a token of the said houses, shall avoyd with bagge and baggage, before the feaste of Easter next comyng, upon paine of like punishment at the kinge's majestie's will and pleasure. Furthermore, the king's majestie straightlie chargeth and cominaundeth, that all such as dwell upon the banke, called the Stewes, nere London, and have at anie tyme before this proclamation, sold any manner of victuals to such as have resorted to their houses, are before the sayd feaste of Easter to cease and leave off their victualling, and forbear to retaine any host or stranger into their house, either to eat, drink, or lodge, after the feaste of Easter next comyng, until they have presented themselves before the king's majestie's counsele, and there bound themselves with suretie in recognizance not to suffer any such disorders in their houses, or lodge any serving man, prentice, or woman unmarried, other than their hired servants, upon the paine before specified. The king's most excellent majestie also chargeth and commaundeth, that no owner or meane tenant of any such white houses, or house, where the sayd lewd persons have had resort and used their most detestable life, do from the saide feaste of Easter presume to let any of the houses heretofore abused in the said mischeefe, in the streete called the Stewes aforesaid, to any person or persons, before the same owner or mean tenant intending to make lease as afore, doe present the name or names of such as should hier the same to the king's majestie's counsele, and that before them the leassee hath putt in bond and suretie, not to suffer any of the said houses to be abused, as hath beene in tymes past with the saide abhomination, upon like paine as before is mencioned.

'Finallie, to the intent all resort should be eschued to the said place, the king's majestie straightlie chargeth and commaundeth, that from the feast of Easter next ensuing there shall be no bearebating be used in that rowe, or in any other place on that side of the bridge called London-bridge, wherebye the accustomed assemblies may be in that place clerely abolished and extinct, upon like paine as well to them that keepe the beares and dogges which have byn used to that purpose, as to all such as will resort to see the

same.

Et hoc periculo incumbenti nullatenus omittat. apud Westm. xiiio die Aprilis, anno tricessimo Regis Henrici Octavi.'

Teste me ipso septimo regni

The liberty of the Clink is of considerable size, extending from the river to Suffolk-street, and from Winchester-street east, to Gravellane south. This liberty belongs to the see of Winchester, and a court leet is held yearly at Michaelmas, for the election of officers.

There was a prison belonging to this liberty, situate at the corner of Maid-lane, turning out of Gravel-lane; but in 1745 it was in great decay, and a dwelling house on the Bankside was used; but it was burnt in the great riots of 1780, and at the present time there

is none.

In the reign of Henry VIII. the Bankside, Southwark, afterwards the site of several theatres, particularly of the Globe, where most of Shakespeare's plays were produced, was a thinly-built district, the resort of the idle and the dissipated, who repaired thither to indulge in the amusements of bull-baiting, bear-baiting, and various other sports which were there carried on, particularly in the space between St. Mary Overy's (now St. Saviour's) church and Paris-garden, a hamlet nearly opposite Blackfriar's, whence there was a ferry across the Thames. Skelton, a poet of the time of Henry VIII. has the following curious lines upon these diversions:

What follie is this to keep with danger

A great mastive dog and fowle ouglie bear
And to this end, to see them two fight,
With terrible tearings, a ful ouglie sight.

And yet, methinkes, those men are most fools of al,
Whose store of money is but very smal,

And yet, every Sunday, they wil surely spend
One penny or two, the bear-ward's living to mend.

At Paris Garden, each Sunday, a man shal not fail
To find two or three hundred for the bear-ward's vail
One halfpeny apiece they use for to give
When some have no more in their purses, I believe.
Wel, at the last day their conscience will declare
That the poor ought to have all they may have to spare;

If you, therefore, it give to see a bear fight,
Be sure God his curse upon you will light.

The annexed engraving, representing the scene of these sports, has been copied, with scrupulous accuracy, from an early plan of the manor of Paris-garden, in the possession of W. Bray, esq. F. S. A.

On closely inspecting the engraving, it will be seen that combats are represented as taking place in the interior of the edifice. The bulls and bears are displayed below, ranged opposite to each other in rows. The square enclosures betwixt them are pools of water, in which the animals were washed; and the oblong slips to the left are old pike ponds: Pye or Pike-gardens still exist.

Whether these rough games,' as a certain author terms them, were then exhibited in the same or similar amphitheatres, to those afterwards engraved in our old plans, or in the open air, the extract does not inform us; nor does Stow's account afford any better idea. He merely tells us, that there were on the west bank 'two bear gardens, the old and the new; places wherein were kept beares, bulls, and other beasts to be bayted; as also mastives in several kenels, nourished to bayt them. These beares and other beasts,' he adds, 'are there kept in plots of ground scaffolded about for the beholders to stand safe.

In Aggas's plan, taken 1574, and the plan of Braun made about the same time, these plots of ground are engraved, with the addition of two circi for the accommodation of the spectators, bearing the names of the 'Bowlle Baytyng and the Beare Baytinge.' In both plans the buildings appear to be completely circular, and were evidently intended as humble imitations of the ancient Roman amphitheatre. They stood in two adjoining fields, separated only by a small strip of land; but some differences are observable in the spots on which they are built.

In Aggas's plan, which is the earliest, the disjoining slip of land contains only one large pond, common to the two places of exhibition; but in Braun this appears divided into three ponds, besides a similar conveniency near each theatre. The use of these pieces of water is very well explained in Brown's Travels (1685), who has given a plate of the Elector of Saxony his beare garden at Dresden,' in which is a large pond, with several bears amusing themselves in it, his account of which is highly curious:

In the hunting-house in the old town,' says he, are fifteen bears, very well provided for and looked unto. They have fountains and ponds to wash themselves in, wherein they much delight; and near to the pond are high ragged posts or trees set up for the bears to climb up, and scaffolds made at the top to sun and dry themselves; where they will also sleep, and come and go as the keeper calls them.'

The ponds and dog-kennels for the bears on the Bankside are clearly marked in the plans alluded to; and the construction of the

amphitheatres themselves way be tolerably well conceived, notwithstanding the smailness of the scale on which they are drawn. They evidently consisted, withinside, of a lower tier of circular seats for the spectators, at the back of which a sort of screen ran all round, in part open, so as to admit a view from without, evident in Braun's deiineation, by the figures who are looking through on the outside. The buildings are unroofed, and in both plans shewn during the time of performance, which in Aggas's view is announced by the display of little flags or streamers on the top. The dogs are tied up in slips near each ready for the sport, and the combatants actually engaged in Braun's plan. Two little houses for retirement are

at the head of each theatre.

The rage for bear-baiting prevailed in the 16th century among all orders of people. It was one of the diversions queen Elizabeth partook of during her visit to Kenilworth, in 1576, and the French ambassador was entertained by her with an exhibition of the kind at the Hope, on Bankside. An example thus set by royalty, soon spread through every rank, and bear and bull baiting became general amusements in England. Shakespeare has alluded to these sports in many places, and they equally attracted the notice of foreign and domestic historians. Hentzner, a German traveller in England, whose Itinerary was printed in 1598, was a spectator of these exhibitions, which he thus circumstantially describes. Speaking of the theatres, he says:- There is still another place built in the form of a theatre, which serves for the baiting of bulls and bears; they are fastened behind, and then worried by great English bull-dogs, but not without great risk to the dogs, from the horns of the one and the teeth of the other; and it sometimes happens that they are killed on the spot, but fresh ones are immediately supplied.' He adds an account of a still more inhuman practice, that of whipping a blind bear to death, with which we shall not disgust our readers.

་

Stow, speaking of these amphitheatres, says, they were appropriated for the keeping of bears, bulls, and other beasts, to be baited; and also mastives, in their several kennels, were there nourished to bait them. These beasts were kept in plots of ground, scaffolded about, for the beholders to stand safe. But though such precautions were used, a terrible accident happened here on Sunday, January 13, 1583, by the fall of a scaffold, which had been overloaded. The fanatical writers of the time, forgetting the passage of Scripture touching 'those on whom the tower in Siloah fell, represented this disaster as a judgment from heaven, because the exhibition took place on a Sunday, which was a day particularly set apart for the sport. Amongst the rest, Prynne, in his Histriomastix,' p. 557, fol. gives the following account, but his description is probably greatly overcharged:

Upon the 13th January, anno 1583, being the Lord's day, an infinite number of people, men, women, and children resorted unto

Paris-garden to see beare-bayting, playes, and other pastimes; and being altogether mounted aloft upon these scaffolds and galleries, and in the middest of all their jollity and pastime, all the whole building (not one sticke so much as standing) fell down miraculously to the ground, with much horror and confusion. In the fall of it five men and two women were slain outright, and above one hundred and fifty persons more sore wounded and bruised, whereof many died shortly after; some of them having their braines dashed out, some their heads all to quasht, some their legges broken, some their armes, some their backes, some one hurt, some another; there being nothing heard there but wofull shreekes and cryes, which did even pierce the skies; children bewailing there the death and hurts of their parents, parents of their children, wives of their husbands, and husbands of their wives; so that every way, from foure of the clocke in the afternoone till nine at night, especially over London-bridge, many were carried in chaires, and led betwixt their friends, and so brought to their houses with sorrowful heavy hearts, like lame cripples. A just, though terrible judgment of God, upon these play-haunters and prophaners of his holy day.'

The puritans, as observed above, strenuously maintained that this incident was a visitation of Providence; and the lord mayor for that year (sir Thomas Blanke) wrote to the lord treasurer, that it gave great reason to acknowledge the hand of God for breach of the Lord's day,' and therefore begged he would exert himself to suppress the diversions. The accident, however, was forgotten, and the sports carried on as usual; for Stow says, that in his time the bear-gardens on Bankside, for the baiting of bulls and bears, were still much frequented.

In the reign of James I. the Bear-garden was under the protection of royalty, and the mastership of it made a patent place. The celebrated actor Alleyn enjoyed this lucrative post, as keeper of the king's wild beasts, or master of the royal bear-garden, situated on the Bankside, in Southwark.' The profits of this place are said by his biographer to have been immense, sometimes amounting to 500l. a year; and well account for the great fortune he raised, A little before his death he sold his share and patent to his wife's father, Mr. Hinch toe, for 5801.

We have a good account of the bear-bating,' in the reign of Charles II. by one Mons. Jorevin, a foreigner, whose observations on this country were published in 1672,* and who has given us the following curious detail of a visit he paid to it;

'We went to see the Bergiardin, by Sodoark,+ which is a great amphitheatre, where combats are fought between all sorts of animals, and sometimes men, as we once saw. Commonly, when any fencing-masters are desirous of showing their courage and their great

Re-published in the Antiquarian Repertory, ed. 1806, under the title of A Description of England and Ire

land in the 17th century, by Mons. Jorevin, vol. iv. p. 549.

Bear-garden, Southwark.