This was about 1700; and, if it was so in the green tree (or boy), what would it be in the dry (or man)? I am afraid our ancestors were not over-refined. They did not all cram for examinations, and there were no Girton girls in those days, neither had they analytical novels: so that, to a certain extent, we must make allowances for them. Tea and coffee were hardly in use for breakfast, and men and women had a certain amount of faith in beer and beef, which may have had something to do in forming their tastes. Anyhow, the men were manly, and the women not a whit worse than they are now; and woe be to the man that insulted one. A code of honour was then in existence, and every gentleman carried with him the means of enforcing it. Therefore, up to a certain limit, they were combative, and not being cigarette-smoking _mashers_, and not being overburdened with novels and periodicals, and club smoking and billiard rooms being unknown, they enjoyed a more physical existence than is led by the young men of the theatrical stalls of the present day, and attended Sword and Cudgel playing, and Bull and Bear baiting, together with fighting an occasional main of Cocks. It might be very wrong; but then they had not our advantages of being able to criticize the almost unhidden charms of the "chorus," or descant on the merits of a "lemon squash," so that, as man must have some employment, they acted after their lights, and I do not think we can fairly blame them.
For Londoners, a favourite place, early in the eighteenth century, for rough sports, was Hockley-in-the-Hole. Here was bear and bull baiting for the public, a fact that was so well known, according to Gay,[55] that
"Experienc'd Men, inur'd to City Ways, Need not the _Calendar_ to count their Days. When through the Town, with slow and solemn Air, Led by the Nostril walks the muzzled Bear; Behind him moves, majestically dull, The Pride of _Hockley Hole_, the surly Bull; Learn hence the Periods of the Week to name, _Mondays_ and _Thursdays_ are the Days of Game."
Even earlier than Gay, Hockley-in-the-Hole is mentioned by Butler in his "Hudibras"[56] in somewhat gruesome fashion:--
"But TRULLA straight brought on the Charge, And in the selfsame Limbo put The Knight and Squire, where he was shut, Where leaving them in Hockley-i'-th'-Hole, Their Bangs and Durance to condole."