the lower house of parliament was still preoccupied fighting king james 's new proposal that scotland be joined to england , viewed by most englishmen as a sufferance of proud beggars and ruffians upon a nation of uniformly upright taxpayers ; in london idle crowds still swarmed the bear gardens to wager on the huge mastiffs pitted against the chained bears ; rioting tenant farmers continued to outrage propertied men by tearing down enclosures and grazing their flocks on the gentry 's private hunting estates ; and the new puritans increasingly harassed everyone they disapproved of , from clerics who wore vestments to women who wore cosmetics to children who would play ball on sunday .