O think not when the harp shall sound The notes we lov'd again, And gentle voices breathe around, I mingle in the strain. Oh! only think you hear me when The night breeze whispers near; In hours of thought, and quiet, then For me let fall a tear.
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.
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]
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.
A man (of course of the bull-dog breed), not many years since, engaged to attack a bull with his teeth, and so far succeeded as to deprive the animal of power to hurt him.
In Bury, too, so late as the year 1801, a mob of "Christian savages were indulging in the inhuman amusement of baiting and branding a bull. The poor animal, who had been privately baited on the same day, burst from his tethers in a state of madness. He was again entangled, and, monstrous to relate, his hoofs were cut off, and he defended himself on his mangled, bleeding stumps!"
The public exhibition of this most cowardly pastime is now prohibited; and the bull-ring was taken up, by order of Mr. Buck, out of this market-place about eight years back.