1. November Bull-Running in Stamford, Lincolnshire.
- Author
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Walsh, Martin W.
- Subjects
- *
BULLS , *FESTIVALS , *ANIMAL welfare - Abstract
The article examines the bull-running festival held in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England during the month of November. The Stamford Bull Running was clearly one of the class of folk practices heartily disparaged by the puritan sensibility. Its record history, indeed, is largely one of the attempted suppression, not completed however until the mid-nineteenth century. Stamford's bull-run was vigorous enough to survive the Puritan era as were other unruly, dirt loving, winter rites of Lincolnshire such as the Haxey Hood-Game. Throughout the century of the Enlightenment, however, the bull-running was the subject of a protracted tug-of-war between the forces of reform and folk tradition. In 1788 the reforming tendencies crystalized. The Mayor and the town Corporation gave notice of intent to put down a custom of such unparalleled cruelty to an innocent animal, and in all respects a disgrace to religion, law and nature. The archaic pastime was, however, losing impetus on its own. Unlike the event in Peck's time, the bull was not slaughtered after the run and its meat distributed to the bullards for their feast, with the head awarded as a kind of champion's portion to the most daring bull-rider. The whole event had devolved into a purely sporting occasion. The intervention of representatives from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in the early 1830s brought matters finally to a head, aided as they were by Nonconformist elements within Stamford itself.
- Published
- 1996
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