BULL FIGHTING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1257, 11 June 1914, Page 4

BULL FIGHTING.

A modern Englishmen seldom thinks of bull-fighting without something of a shudder ; yet it is not so very long since the English as a nation patronised sports that were even more barbarous. So short is the interval that has elapsed that the arrangements for cafrrying on bull-baiting and cock-fighting can still be seen in some of the older villages, p • M cularly those which are remot. i not subjected to the inroad of me holidaymaker. One village at least there is in the north of Enp land where you may se<. the st

with the ring still attached to it, where bull-baiting was the ordinary amusement of a hob'day. In this place, ako, the cockpit (which, by the by, is not a cockpit, but a raised platform) stands adjacent to the bull-ring on the same green. Both of these amusements brought out what was the most highly prized quality of the old fashioned Englishman—pluck and endurance. There was no skill in the mastiff or bulldog which was brought to deal with the bull; it was courage, and that of a very savage kind, which provided the only admirable element; and how much this admiration of courage has become part of our nature is shown from the way in which the phase, “It’s dogged that does it,” has worked itself into our proverbial philosophy. Now, bullfighting is not, and never was, as savage a sport as bull-baiting. It makes a call not so much upon mere courage, although this cannot be dispensed with, as upon horsemanship, skill, and general activity and adroitness. The worst feature is undoubtedly the punishment to which the horses, which are non-cambatauts, are exposed.