Page:Over fen and wold; (IA overfenwold00hissiala).pdf/178

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as nurses if required. Outside the building away from the road is a very picturesque and quiet court-*yard with cloisters; these seem verily to enclose an old-world atmosphere, a calm that is of another century. The wall-girt stillness, the profound peace of the place made so great an impression on us that for the moment the throbbing and excited nineteenth century seemed ages removed, as though the present were a fevered dream and only existed in our imagination. So do certain spots enthral one with the sentiment of the far-away both in time and space! From here there is a view to be had of a gable end of the founder's house; the greater part of the building having been pulled down, and only this small portion remaining.

The broad street outside Browne's "Callis" was, we were told, the opening scene of the bull-running. Most towns in past days, as is well known, indulged in the "gentle sport" of bull-*baiting, but from time immemorial in Stamford bull-running took its place as an institution peculiar to the town. The bull-running, we were told, was carried on, more or less, in the following fashion. Early in the morning of the day devoted to the "gentle sport" a bell-man went round to warn all people to shut their shops, doors, gates, etc., then afterwards at a certain hour a wild bull, the wilder the better, was let loose into the streets and then the sport began. The populace, men, women, and boys, ran after the bull, armed with cudgels, with which they struck it and goaded it to fury; all the dogs of the town, needless to say, joining in the