The Tutbury Minstrels and the Bull-running

John of Gaunt set up a court at Tutbury, held every 16 August, the day after the Assumption, to elect a king of the minstrels, try those who had misbehaved and license them for the year. On the Assumption the keepers of Needwood Forest rode into town with green boughs and a buck’s head garnished with pease, and on the court day the minstrels went in procession to church, chose a new king and dined in the castle. The day ended with a bull given by the prior, its horn tips sawn off, ears and tail cut off, body soaped and nose filled with pepper, which the minstrels chased; if they cut a piece of its hide before it crossed the Dove into Derbyshire it was theirs, and it was baited in the street. The Duke of Devonshire abolished the whole proceeding in 1778.