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<heir iipitators j&e.Rer* man Britons. The baitings of wild animals were the &Vowfi*e fp$c* tacles among the Romans,- and the baitings of the bull .and the bear are ftill the favourite diverfions of our 4ogs and our • f(opu> 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