service and joined
in the thanksgiving for the happy deliverance of King James I. and the
three estates of England from the most traitorous and bloody-intended
massacre by gunpowder; and--looking on some years--as the inscription at
the head of the Form of Prayer also went on to say--

"For the happy arrival of His Majesty King William on this day, for the
deliverance of our church and nation."

"By all means, Mr. Dacres. I think in future I shall prohibit the
procession passing this way. It is scarcely seemly while service is
going on within the cathedral walls."

With this the Dean passed on, and Gratian, laughing, said:

"The Dean is hardly as gracious as the Bishop. Let us stand here,
because we shall get away sooner to the market-place after the bull has
passed."

Mr. Dacres was rather glad to retrieve his character with the Dean, by
hastening to the cathedral, after having placed Lord Maythorne and
Gratian, in a good place by the wall; and then, after some trial of
patience, the sound of shouts and a brass band heralded the approach of
the bull.

Decked with ribbons, and with his head well set forward, led by his
keepers by a ring passed through the nose, the bull stepped proudly on,
followed by the dogs, all in charge of their respective owners.

There was always something pathetic in the sight of a huge animal
brought out, not to fight in a fair field, but to be worried almost to
death by the onslaught of persistent dogs, all goaded on to make their
attack, all backed by betting men, who had an interest in their success
or failure.

In Pepys' celebrated 'Diary' there is a description of a bull-baiting to
which he seems to have gone to divert his mind from the furious letter
which a friend told him was on his way to him from Lord Peterborough,
which letter seems to have preyed upon him more than the news recorded
on a previous page of three people in one house "dead of the plague."

The bull-baiting, however, was pronounced, even by the sight-loving
Samuel Pepys, as a "very rude and very nasty pleasure."

Yet, more than a century and a half later, we find the usually quiet and
peaceful city of Wells all agog to witness the bull-baiting in the
market square.

It was as Lord Maythorne said; every window was engaged, and the
tradespeople commanded high prices for the day.

Ladies in smart dresses, with gentlemen in attendance, were to be seen
sitting at the old lattice bay windows, all along the line