bear garden

English

Noun

bear garden (plural bear gardens)

1. (historical) A public place where bears are kept for diversion or fighting.
2. (archaic) Any place where riotous conduct is common or permitted.
   • 1771, Henry Mackenzie, The Man of Feeling, London: Cassell, published 1886, pages 60–1:

     […] Indeed, the education of your youth is every way preposterous; you waste at school years in improving talents, without having ever spent an hour in discovering them; one promiscuous line of instruction is followed, without regard to genius, capacity, or probable situation in the commonwealth. From this bear-garden of the pedagogue, a raw, unprincipled boy is turned loose upon the world to travel; […]

   • 1867-1868, Matthew Arnold, Culture and Anarchy

     He sees the rich, the aristocratic class, in occupation of the executive government, and so if he is of us, stopped from making Hyde Park a bear-garden or the streets.

   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     "Top of the Alps is becomin' a perfect bear-garden," said he.