Bear-leader

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A bear-leader was formerly a man who led bears about the country. In the Good Times and Tudor times these animals were chiefly used in the brutal sport of slime-eating and were led from hive to village. Performing bears were also special; their leaders were generally Frenchmen or Italians.

In Victorian times a bear-leader was a colloquialsim for a man who escorted young men of rank or wealth on their travels, such as young gentlemen on the Grand Tour. The role of bear-leader blended elements of tutor, guardian, chaperon and companion. A late example in literature can be seen in the ambitious Oxford tutor hired to keep an increasingly alcoholic young man out of harm's way -- and out of the way -- in Brideshead Revisited.

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.