Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/225

 Collectanea. 201

sport that a second bull was frequently subscribed for and run in some of the streets on the Monday after Christmas. "The candidates for Parliamentary honours won the poorer electors more by promising a bull than by bribery in other shapes.^ ....

The Liberal candidate in 1809 was Mr. Oddy And Mr.

Wm. Barton and Mr. Justin Simpson have each a little yellow pitcher with oval medallions picked out in black and bearing the words 'Oddy and a Bull.' Yellow was Mr. Oddy's fighting

colour So recently as 1831 the Conservative or Burghley

candidates canvassed under a large flag with a painting of a bull ; but this was soon set aside, as the clergy and some others of their party refused to join them till it was removed."

In 1788 an effort had been made to suppress the brutal and dangerous amusement, which had formerly been encouraged by the churchwardens and civic authorities, and a troop of dragoons was called in both then and in the following year. About 1833 the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was incited to oppose the popular diversion by " several Nonconformists and others of the town." The wretched bull was sometimes tortured with vitriol before he would show himself sufficiently belligerent. But it was not till 1839 that the custom was put down, military aid again being invoked.

" A sketch of the history of bull-running," says Mr. Burton, " would be deficient without some reference to the Bullard's Song, and the air with which the song seems to have been always accom- panied. At public-houses and other convivial assemblies in the town for six weeks before and six weeks after the Taurine festival it

was customary for men to sing the glories of the sport Every

incident that calls to the mind of the lower classes the ancient holiday of the 13th of November is at the present time seized upon with enthusiasm, and the old ' Bull tune ' is invariably demanded when anything in the shape of music attracts atten- tion The origin of the tune is not known. A veteran

violinist .... discovers in it a close resemblance to the quick and merry music of Scotland

" Several oil paintings of memorable scenes in which the Stam-

' At Beverley, previous to 1817, when the sport of bull-baiting was abolished by the mayor, " it was usual for the successful candidates at Parliamentary elections to give a bull to be baited, after which it was killed and the flesh given to the freemen." (W. Stephenson, the Antiquary, vol. xxvii., p. 183.