Elizabethan Sports - Elizabethan Era

In London they did two sports, twice a week. These "blood sports" thought by most people today to cruel and violent,  it had great appeal for the Elizatethans. Large crowds of both men and women of all classes flocked to see bear baiting or bull baiting , and Elizabeth frequently used it to entertain visitiors. "The average Elizabethan," writes historian M.St. Clair Byrne, "was not sensitive to the spectacle of physical suffering, either in human beings or in animals." The building shown here on the left was the arena where bear and bull baiting was held.
Bearbaiting involved a bear tied to a stake by a long rope. The animal was put into a pit where four or five large, fierce dogs call mastiff (or in some cases, lions) were let in for the sole purpose of attacking the confined bear. Any dogs that might survive the bear's retaliation were pulled off just before the bear was killed. The dogs would be considered winners if the large animal was killed, but losers if many of them were disabled that the rest refused to attack. Sometimes apes were used instead of bears.

http://www.tomecek.com/jay/recreationandsports.html

Diamante Jackson said...

Man I'm the same way. The big Earl mane.

February 14, 2013 at 7:47 AM