Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/373

 34*. . • THE TH fS'.TjO:* Y; o .Book L> ported into America, and there in this' manner and in a fliort period to have gradually. falkn awji/froiftitheif fon^r : difpf$«. tions, and to have become as wild «sti^ j^ jiiivvg^^.iBplle^tf «bolfk which are peculiarly, denominated w#4'b^&. - :. o ^ .■!;.. , ': Thefe-beafts muft hare been ubw caught fc^. fo^d, ^tnA hfci*e4 for diverfion by the Roman Britons. Tltf bear was pven.ttfanf- ported into Italy, was hunted; publicly in the Roman (h£w$* and furnifhed great diverfion ta the Roman: people M . Au4 th« bull the bear the boar' and the., wblfr«n»ft hay« bejsa ail fXp&ilp baited by the Romans in Britain; 3nd by t lhce. And as amphitheaters were conftrufted of: fqyaqsd ; ft0ne awl in a magnificent ftyle for thefe ei^^itious at&o&e,: ;fo.:werc others e^efted within the ifland in an humbler (tile of archjtrc-' ture and of the humbler materials of clay, chalky gravel, and turf. Such are the great amphitheaters $v Silchefter i& Hampfhire and Dorcheftej: .in Dorfetftiire, o^ce afcending in fe verai rows of feats, and ftill extending an arena of nearly twgt hundred yards in circumference ,6 . . • But the pleafiireg of the chaee were not the only recreations of the primaeval Britons in the field. With a fondnefs for the ex- erciie of hunting they had a tafte for the kindred diverfion o{ hawking. And every chieftain among them maintained a con-> fiderable number of ..heavogs, heauog6, or hawks . for the fport. This appears decifively from a curious paffage in the poems of Oilian> in which a peace is endeavoured to be gained by the proflejr of an hundred managed fteeds, an hundred foreign cap- fives* apd " an. hundred hawks. with fluttering wing that fly acrofs the iky !", The diverfion of hawking was fcajcely .known eve» by .relation tQ the Romans of Vefpafian's datys. In Thragrap parte fuperAmphipolim,feys Pliny, homines atque accipitres ibcie-: tate quadam auoupantur :. hi ex iylvis et harundinetis excitant avei, illifuper^.voiante6 d^prinwant; rurfus faptas. aucupes divi n tiunt cum iis. Traditujjn eft, r mjffes.in fublime fibi excipore eos j et