Seek me not in the mazy dance,
Nor let your fancy trace
Resemblance in a timid glance;
Or distant form and face.
But if you seek me, be it when
No other forms are near;
And while in thought we meet again,
For me let fall a tear.
L.M.N.
* * * * *
MANNERS & CUSTOMS OF ALL NATIONS.
* * * * *
BULL-BAITING IN SUFFOLK.
(_For the Mirror._)
Lavenham Market-place was once considered as one of the most celebrated
"theatres for cruel scenes" in the county of Suffolk,
"Where bulls and dogs in useless contest fought,
And sons of reason satisfaction sought
From sights would sicken Feeling's gentle heart,
Where want of courage barb'd Oppression's dart."[5]
[5] Ribbans's "Effusions."
On every anniversary of the Popish powder-plot, it was customary here to
bait bulls; and it was then pretty generally understood that no butcher
could legally slaughter a bull without first baiting him; or in default of
doing so, he must burn candles in his shop so long as a bit of the
bull-beef remained there for sale.
Whilst a bull, with false horns, has been defending himself at the stake,
or ring, in this market-place, dogs have been seen in the streets
quarrelling for a part of the tongue of the living bull! and daughters of
reason have joined their treble screams to the yell of triumph when the
bull either tossed or worried a dog, or a dog had pinned the bull, by
fastening on his nose so desperately firm as even to suffer his limbs to
be broken--nay, cut off--before he would let go his hold.
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