XVIII.—BULL-RUNNING AT TUTBURY.
The company of minstrels belonging to the manor of Tutbury had several peculiar privileges granted to them by a charter from John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster. [843] In this charter it is required of the minstrels to perform their respective services, upon the day of the assumption of our Lady, (the 15th of August,) at the steward's court, held for the honour of Tutbury, according to ancient custom. They had also, it seems, a privilege, exclusive of the charter, to claim upon that day a bull from the prior of Tutbury. [844] In the seventeenth century, these services were performed the day after the assumption; and the bull was given by the duke of Devonshire, as the prior's representative.
The historian of Staffordshire [845] informs us, that a dinner was provided for the minstrels upon this occasion, which being finished, they went anciently to the abbey gate, but of late years to "a little barn by the town side, in expectance of the bull to be turned forth to them." The animal provided for this purpose had his horns sawed off, his ears cropped, his tail cut short, his body smeared over with soap, and his nose blown full of beaten pepper, in order to make him as mad as it was possible for him to be. Whence, "after solemn proclamation first being made by the steward, that all manner of persons should give way to the bull, and not come near him by forty feet, nor by any means to hinder the minstrels, but to attend to his or their own safeties, every one at his peril; he was then put forth, to be caught by the minstrels, and none other, within the county of Stafford, between the time of his being turned out to them, and the setting of the sun, on the same day; which if they cannot doe, but the bull escapes from them untaken, and gets over the river into Derbyshire, he continues to be lord Devonshire's property: on the other hand, if the minstrels can take him and hold him so long as to cut off but some small matter of his hair, and bring the same to the market cross, in token that they have taken him; the bull is brought to the bailiff's house in Tutbury, and there collared and roped, and so conveyed to the bull-ring in the High-street, where he is baited with dogs; the first course allotted for the king, the second for the honour of the town, and the third for the king of the minstrels; [846] this done, the minstrels claim the beast, and may sell, or kill and divide him amongst them according to their pleasure." The author then adds, "this rustic sport, which they call bull-running, should be annually performed by the minstrels only; but now a-days, they are assisted by the promiscuous multitude, that flock thither in great numbers, and are much pleased with it; though sometimes, through the emulation in point of manhood that has been long cherished between the Staffordshire and Derbyshire men, perhaps as much mischief may have been done, as in the bull-fighting [847] practised at Valentia, Madrid, and other places in Spain." [848] The noise and confusion occasioned by this exhibition is aptly described in The Marriage of Robin Hood and Clorinda, Queen of Titbury Feast, [849] a popular ballad published early in the last century:
Before we came to it, we heard a strange shouting,
And all that were in it looked madly,
For some were a bull-back, some dancing a morrice,
And some singing Arthur O'Bradley.
XIX.—BADGER-BAITING.
May also be placed in this chapter. In order to give the better effect to this diversion, a hole is dug in the ground for the retreat of the animal; and the dogs run at him singly in succession; for it is not usual, I believe, to permit any more than one of them to attack him at once; and the dog which approaches him with the least timidity, fastens upon him the most firmly, and brings him the soonest from his hole, is accounted the best. The badger was formerly called the "grey," hence the denomination of greyhounds applied to a well known species of dogs, on account of their having been generally used in the pursuit of this animal.