Adam's illustrated guide to Rye (with map) : Winchelsea, Northiam, Camben-on-Sea, and all places of interest in the neighbourhood . rd of the Manorof Brede used to send his steward to claim a small sum byway of acknowledgment from each person having a stallthere; but on one occasion he was driven out of the fair,and never afterwards made his appearance. It was cus-tomary in former times to bait a bull at this fair ; but thisinhuman sport is now happily at an end, the last baitinghaving taken place upwards of a century ago. In very earlytimes. May Day was celebrated with great spirit in the tow
Adam's illustrated guide to Rye (with map) : Winchelsea, Northiam, Camben-on-Sea, and all places of interest in the neighbourhood . rd of the Manorof Brede used to send his steward to claim a small sum byway of acknowledgment from each person having a stallthere; but on one occasion he was driven out of the fair,and never afterwards made his appearance. It was cus-tomary in former times to bait a bull at this fair ; but thisinhuman sport is now happily at an end, the last baitinghaving taken place upwards of a century ago. In very earlytimes. May Day was celebrated with great spirit in the townof Rye, young people going out at sunrise and returningwith large boughs and branches of trees, with which theyadorned the fronts of the houses ; but this custom has nowceased altogether, and a garland or two carried from doorto door by little children is the only relic of those MayDay sports so characteristic of merry England in theolden times. The Bull Ring Is still exposed in a meadow contiguous to Fairfield, theresidence of Mr. Walter Dawes, just below the Rye UnionWorkhouse. Through this ring, bolted to a great block of. GUIDE TO RYE. 95 wood, further secured by two cross-beams buried in theground, the poor animal was fastened. Bull-baiting seemsto have lingered on in Sussex longer than elsewhere. Itwas one of the legitimate amusements of Whitsun-week,as cock-shying was of Shrove Tuesday, at the close of theseventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries,and was continued at Petworth up to the last one, when itwas at last put down through the interference of the lateLord Egremont.—Sussex Archaological Collectiojis. Inearlier times there used to be a municipal enactment in alltowns and^ cities, That no butcher should be allowed tokill a bull until it had been baited, and there was scarcelya town or village of any magnitude without its bull-ring.— Wrighfs Homes of other Days. It was not finally for-bidden by Act of Parliament till 1835. Charitable Institutions. In
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