intended by that statute, for which reason the minstrells belonging to the manor of Dutton in the county palatine of Chester are expressly excepted in that act. Exhorting them upon this account (to preserve their reputation) to be very carefull to make choise of such men to be officers amongst them, as fear God, are of good life and conversation, and have knowledge and skill in the practise of their art. Which charge being ended the jurors proceed to the election of the said officers, the king being to be chosen out of the 4 stewards of the preceding year, and one year out of Staffordshire and another out of Darbyshire interchangeably; and the 4 stewards, two of them out of Staffordshire, and two out of Darbyshire; 3 being chosen by the jurors, and the fourth by him that keeps the court, and the deputy steward or clerk.

The jurors departing the court for this purpose, leave the steward with his assistants still in their places, who in the mean time make themselves merry with a banquet, and a noise* of musicians playing to them, the old king still sitting between the steward and bayliff as before;

* Not to appropriate Gifford's merits to myself, by borrowing his information and clothing it in other words to hide the theft, after the manner established by some of our modern editors of old plays, I give a note of his upon this term, "noise," as I find it in his excellent edition of Ben Jonson.-"This term, which occurs perpetually in our old dramatists, means a company or concert. In Jonson's days they (fidlers) sedulously attended taverns, ordinaries, &c., and seem to have been very importunate for admission to the guests. They usually consisted of three, and took their name from the leader of their little band. Thus we hear of Mr. Sneak's noise,'' Mr. Creek's noise,' and in Cartwright of Mr. Spindle's noise.' These names are probably the invention of Shakespeare and the rest; but they prove the existence of the custom. When the term went out of use I can not tell; but it was familiar in Dryden's time, who has it in his Wild Gallant and elsewhere- I hear him coming and a whole noise of fidlers at his heels.'-Maiden Queen."-GIFFORD'S BEN JONSON, vol. iii., p. 402.

but returning again after a competent time, they present first their chiefest officer by the name of their King; then the old king arising from his place, delivereth him a little white wand in token of his sovereignty, and then taking a cup filled with wine drinketh to him, wishing him all joy and prosperity in his office. In like manner doe the old stewards to the new; and then the old king riseth, and the new taketh his place, and so doe the new stewards of the old, who have full power and authority, by virtue of the king's stewards warrant, directed from the said court, to levy and distrain in any city, town corporate, or in any place within the king's dominions, all such fines and amercements as are inflicted by the said juries that day upon any minstrells for his or their offences committed in the breach of any of their ancient orders, made for the good rule and government of the said society. For which said fines and amercements so distrained, or otherwise peaceably collected, the said stewards are accountable at every audit; one moyety of them going to the king's majesty, and the others the said stewards have for their own use."-Thus far Dr. Plot.

After enjoying the dinner prepared for them, the minstrels went anciently to the abbey gate, now a little barn by the town side, in expectance of the bull which was then turned out in the manner already mentioned. In time however, other changes took place, and, in lieu of the old mode of catching the bull, the young men of Staffordshire and Derbyshire contended, with cudgels about a yard long, to drive the bull into their respective counties, in which humane diversion many heads would occasionally get broken. The king of the minstrels and the bailiff also compounded, the bailiff giving his musical majesty five nobles in lieu of his right to the bull, which he then sent to the Earl of Devon's manor at Hardwick to be fed and given to the poor at Christmas. This

amusement, if it indeed deserves the name, was finally abolished by the Duke of Devonshire in 1778 at the desire of the inhabitants of Tutbury, on account of the outrages to which it gave occasion."*

It appears that a custom under the same name-that is, Bull-running-prevailed at the town of Stamford, in Lincolnshire, but with a very different origin and object. Richard Butcher, the historian of Stamford upon a small scale, speaks of it in no very measured terms, and, judging from the nature of such sports in general, there is little reason to suppose that he exaggerates in his narrative.

а

"The second sport, though more ancient than the former, yet more beast-like then any. It is their bullrunning, a sport of no pleasure except to such as take a` pleasure in beastlinesse and mischief. It is performed just the day six weekes before Christmas. The butchers of the town at their own charge against the time provide the wildest bull they can get. This bull over night is had in to some stable or barn belonging to the alderman. The next morning proclamation is made by the common bell-man of the town, round about the same, that each one shut up their shop doores and gates, and that none upon payne of imprisonment offer to doe any violence to strangers, for the preventing whereof (the town being a great thoroughfare, and then being in terme-time) a gard is appointed for the passing of tra vellers through the same without hurt; that none have any iron upon their bull-clubs, or other staffe, which they pursue the bull with. Which proclamation made and the gates all shut up, the bull is turned out of the alder

* See a letter signed A. W. in the Gentleman's Magazine, for July, 1782, vol. iii, p. 336.

+ He had been speaking just before of horse-racing, which he dignifies with the name of "a sport savouring of manhood and gentry."

man's house; and then hivie-skivie tag and rag, men, and children, of all sorts and sizes, with all the dogs in the town, promiscuously running after him with their bull-clubs, spattering dirt in each other's faces that one would think them to be so many furies started out of hell for the punishment of Cerberus; and, which is the greater shame, I have seen both senatores majoru gentiū, et matrones de eodem gradu, follow this bulling business.

"I can say no more of it, but only to set forth the antiquity thereof. As the tradition goes, William, Earle Warren, the first Lord of this town in the time of K. John standing upon his castle walls in Stamford, viewing the faire prospect of the river and medowes under the same, saw two bulls fighting for one cow. A butcher of the town, the owner of one of these bulls, with a great mastiffe dog accidentally coming by, set his dog upon his owne bull, who forced the same bull up into the towne, which no sooner was come within the same but all the butchers' dogs, both great and small, followed in the pursuit of the bull, which, by this time made starke mad with the noise of the people and the fiercenesse of the dogs, ran over man, woman, and child that stood in his way. This caused all the butchers and others in the town to rise up as it were in a tumult, making such a hideous noise that the sound thereof came into the castle into the eares of Earle Warren, who presently thereupon mounted on horseback, rid into the town to see the businesse, which then appearing to his humour very delightful, he gave all those medowes, in which the two bulls were at the first found fighting (which we now call the Castle Medowes) perpetually as a common to the butchers of the town (after the first grasse is eaten) to keep their cattle in till the time of slaughter; upon this condition-that as upon that day on which this sport first began, which was (as I said before) that day six weekes

VOL. II.

H

before Christmas, the butchers of the town should from time to time yearly for ever find a mad bull for the continuance of that sport.'

"'*

It is from this circumstance that the old proverb arose

of, as mad as the baiting bull at Stamford."

"The Survey and Antiquitie of the Towne of Stamford." By Richard Butcher, chap. x., p. 39, 4to. London, 1646.