PREFACE.

THE greater part of this sketch has already appeared in
the *Sporting Life*, over my *nom de guerre*, "SPREAD
EAGLE." Of course, in an article written for insertion
in the public press, it behoves one to be extremely careful not
to indicate individuals who may still be identified with the
Royal Sport. To some extent, that caution is not so neces-
sary when the matter, as is now the case, is intended for private
circulation only. I do not, however, propose "to bait the
badger" by useless reference to the present *status* of Cock-
fighting. I therefore merely remark that, so long as C. F. is
at the head of the profession; and Mr. R. D.'s willow and
yellow-legged Black-reds, which to a great extent owe their
excellence to Captain A.'s judicious crosses of the old English
with the Indian Game; Mr. T. J.'s Piles; Mr. W. B.
B.'s Duck-wings; "Cock" M.'s Brown-reds; Mr. H. J.'s
Tassels; Captain T.'s "Devonshire Birds;" J. H.'s Hennies;
Messrs. F. and A.'s Duns; R. B.'s Duns; C. V.'s Brown-
red descendants of Mr. Cobden's blood; W. R. and L. B.'s
Nottinghamshire Cocks; John C.'s Black Hennies; George
O.'s Toppings; and last, though by no means the least
dangerous, Mr. W. W.'s white-legged Black-reds from the

Cocking and Its Votaries.

spite of steam and electricity, have a great regard for the manners and habits of their ancestors (I am writing of Englishmen who have ancestors, not of mere upstarts and levellers), and it cannot, therefore, be matter for surprise that a select few still cling to the Royal sport of Cock-fighting. A character in "The Cornish Comedy," written by George Powell, and acted at Dorset Garden Theatre, A.D. 1696, says—"What is a gentleman without his recreations? With them we endeavour to pass away that time which otherwise would lie heavily upon our hands. Hawks, hounds, setting dogs, and cocks are the true marks of a country gentleman." The same character goes on to state, that his cocks "are true cocks of the game," on which he never risks less than £100 or £200 a battle. The author of the question, still frequently quoted, regarding a gentleman and his recreations, was, no doubt, well qualified to judge of the tastes that most distinguished a country squire in the age of which he wrote, and Strutt— no admirer of fighting in any shape or form, who undertook to describe the sports and pastimes of the English a hundred years after "The Cornish Comedy" was written—feels compelled to admit, when alluding to a proclamation against cocking by Edward III. in the year 1366, that, notwithstanding it was thus degraded and discounted, it still maintained its popularity, and, in defiance of all temporary opposition, has descended to the modern times.

In dedicating the "Royal Pastime of Cocking," the most complete work hitherto published on the subject of this enthralling sport, to a descendant of Sir T. Urquhart, that valiant old cocker, who, as he expired on the fatal field of Naseby, compared himself to a good cock dying in

COCKING INTELLIGENCE.

On Saturday March 8, ended
the gentlemen's grand subfcrip-
tion at the Royal Cockpit, Weft-
minfter.

FEEDERS,

Walter and Bromley, which ter-
minated in favour of the former
by a majority of 13 battles.

On Friday the 15th of March,
ended the great cock-match at
Liverpool, between Sir Peter
Warberton and H. Clifden, Efq.
which was won by the latter,
three a-head in the main, and
all the byes (nine). They
fought for ten guineas a battle,
and 200 the odds.

FEEDERS.

Lifter for H. Clifden, Efq. and
Rigley for Sir Peter Warberton.

Cocking and Its Votaries.

the service of his master, the author, R. H., who wrote in
1709, makes use of the following words:—"I have also
proved Cocking to be both ancient and honourable, and
to the present age (if rightly made use of) greatly profit-
able, and have plainly laid open the malice and ignorance
of all such as endeavour to vilify and bespatter it, showing
the weakness of their arguments and the true motives that
engage them to speak against Cocking." What R. H.
wrote in the reign of Queen Anne was but a reiteration of
the opinions expressed 150 years before by Roger Ascham,
the friend and tutor of Lady Jane Grey, and by Gervaise
Markham, who flourished in the time of James I. In his
tract, "of the Fighting Cocke," 1614, which treats of "The
Choyce, Ordering, Breeding, and Dyeting of the Fighting
Cocke," Markham observes: "since there is no pleasure
more noble, delightsome or voyde of couzenage and de receipt
than this pleasure of Cocking is, and since many of the
best wisedomes of our nation have beene pleased to par-
ticipate with the delights therein, I thinke it not amisse,
as well for the instruction of those which are unexperienced,
as fortifying of them which have some knowledge therein,
to declare in a few lines the election, breeding, and secrets
of dyeting the Fighting Cocke, which, having been hitherto
concealed and unwritten of, is (for our pleasure sake) as
worthy a general knowledge as any delight whatsoever."
He goes on to say—"When your Cocke is equally matcht,
you shall thus prepare him to the fight, first with a payre
of fine Cocke sheares you shall cut all his maine off, close
to his necke, even from his head to the setting on of his
shoulders, then you shall clip off all the feathers from his
tayle close to hisdanpe; where, the more skarlet that you
see hisdanpe, in the better estate of body the Cock is.

10

Cocking and Its Votaries.

Then you shall take his wings, and spreading them forth
by the length of the first feather of his wing, clippe the
rest slopewise with sharp points, that in his rising he may
indanger the eyes of his adversary; then with a sharp
knife you shall scrape smooth, and sharpen his beake, then
you shall smooth and sharpen his spurres." The tract
concludes with the words, "And thus much for the nature
of the Cocke, and how to keep him for his best use in the
pleasures of Princes."

On the score of antiquity, no one can gainsay the
fact that "the Sod" takes precedence of "the Turf,"
for, though search be made through all the records
of Merrie England, the adopted home of the thorough-
bred horse, nowhere can it be proved that racing
held a place among the sports of the people prior to the
establishment, early in the seventeenth century, of the
meetings at Garterly, Enfield, and Croydon. Chester may
be an exception, but, as mentioned hereafter, Cocking was
ever the favourite pursuit of the dwellers by the Dee. On
the other hand, the ancient Greeks and Romans indulged
in cock-fighting long before the Christian Era. B.C. 471
is generally quoted as the year of its introduction from
Athens into Rome, and that the cock was an object of
veneration before even the Greeks and Romans held sway
over the civilised world, the Bible teaches and recent
discoveries prove. The Babylonian God, Nergal, was
worshipped in the form of a cock (I do not argue that he
was a "trimmed" one), who, as the Rabbins said, ushers
in the morn, and that this practice was universal the
discoveries of Layard abundantly show. In particular,
there is a cylinder discovered by him during his visit to
Babylon, and now deposited in the British Museum, on

Cocking and Its Votaries.

II

which is represented a priest, in sacrificial attire, standing
beside an alter on which a cock is placed. On an agate
stone also a priest is represented standing before a cock.
In Rome, Cocking was regarded partly as a religious, partly
as a political institution, and, strange as it may appear,
the last, or nearly so, great main ever fought in England
was opposed on political grounds. I need scarcely say
that the instigators of the opposition were Radicals. They,
to thwart the late John Frail, and simply to avenge a
party defeat, in or about 1857, gave information as to the
progress of a two days' main at Shrewsbury, the stakes for
which were held by that game old Tory agent. To revert,
however, to the antiquity of the sport in England, it can
be proved beyond doubt (see Fitz-Stephen's "Description
of London") that in the reign of Henry II., Shrove Tues-
day was set apart as a day on which both schoolboys and
their masters, untrammelled by laws and ordinances,
showed their cocks in friendly rivalry throughout the
length of the land. From the days of that impetuous
monarch to those of bluff King Hal., cockers had their
reverses, as before mentioned. Edward III. neglected
the teaching of the ancients, who exhibited mains of cocks
before their soldiers ere engaging in battle, and prohibited
their favourite pastime, but on the accession of Henry VIII.,
who, possibly from the Welsh blood flowing in his veins,
was devoted to it, Cocking resumed its former position,
and to accomodate its patrons, the pit in Whitehall was
constructed by him, Stow informs us, "out of certain old
tenements." James I. was "a lover of game," and nothing
to the detriment of the sport occurred until the general
abolition of amusements by Cromwell, who, in 1654, pro-
mulgated an edict against it. From a careful perusal of the

Cocking and Its Votaries.

edict in question, I am strongly inclined to believe that the so-called Protector was actuated in his prohibition from fear of Royalist meetings being held under the figure of cock-matches, and not from any ill-feeling towards Cocking itself. Whatever might have been his real intention it boots little to inquire, for within six years of the date of this declaration Oliver's resolutions were rescinded. With the Restoration, the Turf and the Sod assumed new leases of life, and both at Newmarket and at the Royal Cockpit in St. James's Park, effect was given to the natural impulse of Englishmen. Mains were fought by day and by night between the selected cocks of different counties, and although, as in racing, the records previous to the beginning of the last century were not preserved, there is every reason to believe that the strains of blood in cocks were handed down in as pure a state as in the case of horses, from the cockers of the "Merry Monarch's" time to those of the Victorian era.

In the choice of a game cock, it is generally allowed that the four following characteristics should be observed, viz.: — Courage, Close-heels, Shape, and Colour; *imprimis*, the courage of a bird should be beyond the shadow of a doubt, for how frequently has it happened that a main has been lost by "a run-away!" A stately tread and frequent crowings in the "pens" are indicative of courage, but a well tried strain of blood, kept pure, is more reliable than anything which may be gleaned from observation, other than the knowledge that the cock has already "stood steel." Cotton, the author of the "Complete Gamester," writing in 1674, says that a narrow heel, i.e., close striking, is to be preferred to true courage and absolute hardness, with a dull heel; and Osbaldeston,

Cocking and Its Votaries.

in his "Sportsman's Dictionary," 1792, follows Cotton in
this theory; he says, that the narrow-heeled cock hits and
draws blood, and at every blow threatens his adversary's
death; such a cock, he adds, is to be preferred to the
truest cock that hath a dull heel, and hits seldom. As a
matter of fact, the question of courage versus heel would
now be determined, in a great measure, by the nature of
the spurs in which the birds fought, the true cock would
win "in silver," and the narrow-heeled one, though not
true, might do so "in steel." Cotton, certainly, referred
to natural spurs, and Osbaldeston to artificial ones, such as
are now in use. It is a moot point. With regard to the
shape of a cock, who should be strong, proud, and upright,
his head should be small, his eye large and quick, his neck
full of muscle, his back and the beam of his leg very strong,
and, as being the more easily matched, he should not
exceed from 5 to 5½ lbs. in weight. His feathers should be
hard, thin, and short, a sure sign of health, and the old
fashioned theory, that cocks could not be too in-bred, was
no doubt arrived at after mature deliberation, and was the
result of close observation. R. H., in the "School of
Recreation" (1684), says, a scarlet head is a demonstration
of courage, but a pale and wan of faintness, and he further
advises his readers "to choose a cock of a good colour,
and herein the gray, yellow, or red pile, are to be preferred;
the pied cock rarely good, and the white and dun never."
To show how ideas have changed since the above was
written, it may be affirmed that Dick Gurney's "Pies" and
Sir Francis Boynton's "Duns" were of the best cocks
ever seen in this country; the former generally fought at
Newmarket and the latter at York. On the question of

Cocking and Its Votaries.

colour, however, I cannot do better than quote the following lines, extracted from a work on Cocking, published nearly two hundred years ago :—

> " The Scarlet coloured cock, my lord likes best,
> And next to him, the Gray with thresle-breast.
> This knight is for the Pile, or else the Black;
> A third cries no cock like Dun, Yellow back;
> The Milk-white cock with Golden legs and bill,
> Or else the Cuckoo, chuse you which you will,
> Don Magnus swears (of all) these are the best,
> They heel (says he) more sure than all the rest;
> But this is all mere fancy and no more,
> The colour's nothing, as I said before."

To enumerate half the strains, colours, or descriptions of fighting-cocks would occupy an infinity of space. I therefore leave the Tassels, Toppings, Muffs, and Rose-combs to fight their own battles, and, whilst making a note of the fact that King Charles the Second was famous for a breed of Piles, allow the difference of colours to be settled by the above quotation, which was written when no permission was asked and no licence was required to fight a main of cocks.

Of the Royal cockpit nothing now remains, the steps leading from Dartmouth-street to St. James's Park alone telling, by their name, "the Cockpit-steps," where the site of the historic rendezvous was. It is, however, easy for the lover of antiquities, aided by the characters drawn for him by Shadwell, and the description of the Newmarket pit by Macaulay, who has left on record the fact that "on rainy days the cockpit was encircled by stars and blue ribands," to picture to himself the groups that frequented it for the purpose of watching the exertions of the best birds in Europe; I will not say in the world, in case I may strike the susceptibilities of the lovers of Indian game,

Cocking and Its Votaries.

to which breed may, without question, be accorded, if only
on the ground of antiquity, most honourable mention. A
curious old work on the subject gives the following descrip-
tion of the Cockpit Royal :—" It is situated on the south
side of St. James's Park, from which it has its entrance,
and was erected in the reign of Charles II., who, having
been himself fond of the sport, is said to have frequently
honoured it with his presence, when matches were made
and fought amongst his nobles. It is the only place where
long mains and great 'Subscription Matches' are fought
in the metropolis, some of which are for considerable sums
between opulent individuals, who procure their cocks from
different parts of the country, and others (particularly of
the subscription matches) by many members on each side,
who breed their cocks in distant counties, but fight them
only in town, of which description many matches are
annually fought during all the Spring months, when both
stags and cocks are in the finest feather and highest perfec-
tion. The cockpit is circular, and completely surrounded
with seats six tier deep, exclusive of a rail, with standing
room all round the summit of the uppermost seat, forming
in the whole a perfect amphitheatre. The centrical circle,
upon which the cocks fight, is a raised mound of earth,
surrounded with boarding, about 20ft in diameter, and
should according to the technical term of the sport be
covered with a fine green turf, denominated sod, in con-
formity with the general acceptation of the word in the
sporting world, whereby 'the Sod' is implied cocking. In
all mains and matches fought in the country part of the
kingdom, cocks invariably fight upon the sod, but as it is
an article difficult to obtain in the metropolis, and would
be inconvenient and inapplicable during hard frosty weather,

16 Cocking and Its Votaries.

when many matches are fought, matting upon the surface
is substituted in its stead. On each side the circular
mound, at its extremity, and exactly opposite to each
other, are two small seats for the setters-to, who retire to
those seats during long fighting, or when ordered by the
bettors and spectators so to do. Directly over the centre
is suspended from the dome, by a chain, a very large
circular branch containing a great number of candles,
affording a profusion of light—for nearly all the matches
fought here are very unnaturally decided by night, the
company going to pit at six o'clock in the evening. At the
hour previously agreed on, the bags containing the cocks
are brought into the pit by the feeders, or whoever they
may appoint; they are there received by the setters-to,
whose qualifications depend upon a quick eye, a light hand,
and an agile heel, without the whole of which, celebrity
can never be acquired in their way. The cocks, being
taken from the bags, are most scrupulously compared in
feather and marks with the original description entered in
the match-bill on the day of weighing. This ceremony
gone through, the feeders retire from the centre of the pit,
and the setters-to are then the sole possessors, with the
cocks in hand. In this state they are shown to each other,
beak to beak, and, if they show fight, are tossed upon the
mat, and the battle begins."

Dr. Wild, in his poem on two cocks fighting, quoted in
the "Complate Gamester," 1674, remarks:—

"I of two feathered combatants will write,
And he that means to th' life to express their fight,
Must make his ink the blood which they did spill,
And from their dying wings must take his quill."

From this expression of opinion on the part of the
worthy Nonconformist Divine, I have arrived at the con-

A MAIN OF COCKS,

WILL BE Fought in a close pit.

AT WELCH-HAMPTON,

Near Ellesmere, Salop,

On Wednesday & Thursday, the 26th
and 27th Days of April, 1832,

Betwixt the Gentlemen of Cheshire and Shropshire,

JONES, for Cheshire,
HINES, for Shropshire,

A Pair of Cocks to be on the nod at half-past Ten.

TO FIGHT IN SILVER.

Cocking and Its Votaries.

clusion that he considered a battle indescribable. To do
justice to the courage, cleverness, and quickness of a game
cock, when pitted against an antagonist worthy of his
steel, requires a power of description hitherto denied to
sporting scribes, for nothing yet written adequately sets
forth the heroic rush which ensues when two well-trained
cocks first engage in the struggle, which, if both be game,
ends in the defeat and death of one—perchance of the
stronger of the twain, for a chance blow will often decide
the question of supremacy. From the first fly to the last
struggle, every nerve is strained and every stratagem is
tried, whereby the victory may be obtained, and in
attempting to depict the features of a battle, the would-be
describers have failed to realise the fact that words cannot
express the great variety of phases which arise in a doughty
contest. Therefore I refrain from endeavouring to
reproduce on paper that which, to be appreciated, must
be seen, quoting as my authority for this assertion, one of
Sherlock's letters to a friend in Paris, in which he writes:
—"It is worth your while to come to England, were it
only to see an election and a cock-match. There is a
celestial spirit of anarchy and confusion in these two
scenes that words cannot paint, and of which no country-
man of yours can form even an idea."

When once the cocks are pitted, neither of the setters-
to has the privilege to touch or handle his bird unless he
hangs in the mat, is in his adversary, is on his back (with
both legs off the ground), or is too close to the edge of the
pit, or until the cocks have left off fighting long enough for
the umpire, or person appointed for the purpose, to tell
"forty" (40) gradually. In the case of the "forty" being
told, the setters-to must carry their cocks into the middle

Cocking and Its Votaries.

of the pit, and deliver them on their legs, beak to beak. They must not touch them again until they (not being hung in the mat, &c., as above) have refused fighting, so long as the teller of the law can count “ten;” then they are set-to again in the same manner as before, and this method is continued till one cock has refused fighting ten several times, one after another, when it is that cock’s battle which fought within the law. It sometimes happens, the short law having been told, that neither cock fights until, say, four times “ten” has been counted, and as the law is for both cocks, such number of times counts to the cock that makes the next fight; therefore, providing his opponent does not fight again, he only requires six times “ten” more to win. Another way of deciding a battle is when a person offers to bet £10 to 5s., or throws his hat, glove, or handkerchief into the pit, which is the same thing; the teller of the law then counts forty, and pro-claims, “£10 to a crown is offered; is it taken, is it taken, is it taken?” No reply being made, the battle is won by the cock on which the odds are offered. The rules which were in force when Charles II. was king are—such is the conservatism of Cockers—observed to the present day, whenever the occasion of their being brought into requi-sition arises. In 1816 the St. James’s Park, or Birdcage Walk, Pit was pulled down, and a subscription one built in Tufton Street, Westminster, where Nash, who lived there rent free and was paid £10 a year to look after the pit, reigned supreme. In Tufton Street, the great county and subscription mains were regularly fought, until, by Act 3, Wm. IV., c. 19, they were decreed illegal within five miles of Temple Bar. There were also pits in Cripplegate, Jewin Street, Drury Lane, Shoe Lane, Coleshill Street, and behind Gray’s Inn, whilst as some quaint advertise-

Cocking and Its Votaries.

ments tells us, the south of London was well cared for as regards Cocking. Newmarket, of which place James I. and his grandson, Charles II., were what would to-day be termed *habitués*, has always ranked very highly amongst the lovers of "feather," and within, comparatively speaking, modern times, the theatre which stood near the Rutland Arms, served as a cock-pit during the winter months. Dick Gurney, the Norwick banker, whose pens were on the Exning Road, was a staunch patron of this pit, and both here and on the Mill Hill (in the present Wesleyan Chapel) the Gurney "pies" and "black-reds" earned for themselves undying fame. To such an extent was the sport carried on at Newmarket, that, scarce half a century ago, the following were only some of the "grooms" who had their own feeding pens in or near the famous racing town, viz., Jem Robinson and Dick Prince, on the Mill Hill; Joe Rogers, in close proximity thereto; Harry Neale and Sam Chiffney, in Shakebag; and the Boyces, in the High Street. Closely following the above worthies, and at a critical period in the history of the sport, for they had to contend not only with an opponent whose name appeared in the articles, but also with the myrmidons of the law, came Frank and William Butler, Sam Rogers, and Jem Godding, *inter alia*, and bravely they fought for the heritage bequeathed to them by their forefathers. The "silver-grays" of "the firm," as Charles Boyce, "Teddy" Edwards, and "Nat" Flatman were styled, were open to all comers, and in their honour, the members distinguished themselves by their cravat pins, which bore a silver-gray cock, with the words, "The Firm," encircling him. All challenges, whether to the Butlers, Jem Godding, Sam Rogers, or "the World," were issued in the name of "The Firm."

Cocking and Its Votaries.

During these go-ahead days there is nothing more refreshing, or more interesting, than a chat in the smoking room of a Newmarket hostelry (or on the Heath, if smoking suit not the taste,) with the veterans whose memories carry them back to the days when Lord Derby and Mr. Gurney fought their great matches in the town. One has an anecdote of a famous cock who killed his adversary before he left his setter's hands; another, of a stag who went scathless through many battles; whilst, mayhap, a jockey expresses his willingness to bet £5 against any cock that has "run" in a trainer's yard, for, he adds, "you see, they physic their horses so!" Physic'd or not, they had some rare birds, and many a good one travelled by the Chesterford Road, slung to the back of the "Magnet," the night coach from London to Newmarket, in the days when the white-legged cocks from Knowsley were thought as much of as Priam, or, as a worthy old trainer told me but yesterday, as the mighty Plenipo' himself. A story is still remembered of an elderly maiden lady, who complained of being unable to sleep when a passenger by the coach in question, on account of the crowing of these outside customers—the first time her rest had been broken in such a ruthless manner. Of a truth, she was of a different nature from the widow of the late Sir Henry Boynton, who used frequently to tell with delight how she had often ridden forty miles on a pillion behind her husband, to assist at cock matches in Yorkshire. Second only in importance to the London and Newmarket mains, were those fought at Chester and York. Of the former pit, the Egertons, Cottons, Warburtons, and Leghs, of Lyme, were the great supporters; whilst Sir Francis Boynton and Colonel Mellish (the patron of

PIT
TICKET.

Cocking and Its Votaries.

Jem Belcher, the prince of pugilists, and the friend of George, the Prince Regent,) were especially fond of the one near Bootham Bar, in the Minster City. Preston, in the North, and Stamford, in the South, were also celebrated for the great mains fought at those places, and on which sums were wagered that would put the modern plungers, be they punters at baccarat or backers of horses, quite in the shade. The Preston pit recently fell with a crash, but that at Stamford, on my last visit, was doing duty as a newspaper office. It is recorded that the famous Joe Gilliver once fed a match at Lincoln, in which the main money was 5,000 guineas, added to a stake of 1,000 guineas each battle, to say nothing of the bets that would most assuredly be made during the process of the fighting. It is also satisfactory to know that Gilliver was the winner of this important engagement, five out of the seven battles falling to the veteran's share. Gilliver's masters, amongst others, were Mr. Legh, Lord Mexborough, Mr. Featherstone, Captain White, Mr. Sitwell, and General Yates, and he fought important mains throughout the country almost to the day of his death, which took place at Polesworth, his native village, in 1833, when he had reached his seventy-fourth year. In the "Sporting Magazine" for November, 1834, are published a memoir and engraving, after a painting by Webb, of this old Warwickshire worthy, whose family, the present representative is proud of telling, have been Cockers for 300 years. Joe Gilliver's first main was at Coleshill, in Warwickshire, and his last at Preston, in Lancashire. Several years before this particular member of the *genus* Gilliver saw the light, Mr. Hugo Meynell, the father of foxhunting, and Sir Charles Sedley had fought many a match, or rather

Cocking and Its Votaries.

22

series of matches, for their engagements were to fight
home-and-home matches every year for three years, at the
Black-a-Moor's Head, at Ashbourne in Derbyshire, and at
the White Lion, at Nottingham, for 20 guineas a battle
and 400 guineas the main, in which each party showed
fifty-one cocks for the week's play. The Derbyshire main
always came off in May, and the return, at Nottingham,
in the race week, and from the results, which are to be
found in the *Racing Calendars* published from the middle
to the close of the last century, the fighting must have
been remarkably keen. Sir Charles Sedley had a famous
strain of grays, and Sketchley, of Newark, in his work
"The Cocker," published in 1814, alludes in a most plain-
tive manner to the fact of their having been allowed to
deteriorate after the Nottinghamshire baronet's death,
which occurred during the absence abroad of Sketchley
himself. Not more than fifteen miles from Nottingham
was the Loughborough pit, where, also, the White Lion
was "the cocking house;" and at that old-fashioned town,
now over-run by cotton spinners, prior to the establish-
ment of Melton Mowbray as the fox-hunter's head-
quarters, the members of the Quorn Hunt passed the
winter months. As a natural consequence "the Sod"
flourished there in those days, when Maynell was King of
Quorn, nor is it yet forgotten how Lord Derby, in later
years, came to Loughborough to meet old "Boaster"
Henson on his own ground. The "Boaster," as he was
familiarly termed, had, like Lord Derby, a rare strain of
black-reds, from which an intimate friend of mine
continued to breed for many years after Mr. Henson's
death, and perhaps no better cocks than those bred by the
game old timber merchant Henson ever fought in the

Thus we poor Cocks, exert our skill & Bravery
for idle Gulls, and Kites, that trade in Knawry

Cocking and Its Votaries.

pit near the conflux of the Ashby and Derby turnpikes. In the same pit, Sketchley fought many great mains, amongst others, against Mr. Cheshire, about the time when old John Beastall was in great repute as a setter-to. Huntingdon and Lichfield, during the race weeks, were the scenes of annual matches between Lord Sandwich and Lord Stamford, at the same period that Mr. Meynell and Sir Charles Sedley were contending for the honour of representing their counties, Derby and Nottingham. The agreement in the Huntingdonshire and Staffordshire mains was to fight for 100 guineas a battle, and 1000 guineas the odd; the cocks to be 3lb. 14oz. to 4lb., to give and take an ounce, each side showing eleven cocks. It is recorded in Pick's Calendar how, at Pontefract, on the 10th March, 1786, ended the long main of cocks between the Earl of Mexborough and William Sotheron, Esq., for 10 guineas a battle and 100 guineas the main, Ouldred and Smith feeders. This main was perhaps the most extraordinary ever known; it consisted of twenty-nine battles, and on the first day's fighting, Smith got one ahead; the second day, Ouldred got one; after the first in-go on the last day, both equal; the last going in, they had fourteen battles each, so that this grand main, which had been contested three days, and on which great sums of money were depending, was brought to the chance of a single battle, which was ably fought for by both sides for nearly an hour, and at the last drawn. It was also remarkable that each party got the same number of bye-battles. Smith had a fine collection of cocks, but was unfortunate in his choice, some of his birds proving runaways, or he certainly would have won; on the other hand, Ouldred had not one failure in this respect. The meeting was

Cocking and Its Votaries.

attended by a great number of gentlemen, and, Mr. Pick
goes on to say, the most respectable that ever met at
Pontefract. At Chesterfield and Warrington, the Hun-
lokes and Andertons, and at Durham and Newcastle, the
Duke of Cleveland and Lord Northumberland, fought
home-and-home matches; whilst at Manchester and
Halifax, Lord Strange and Mr. Radcliffe, and at Stamford
and Louth, Lord Exeter and Mr. Heneage, were to be
found pitted against each other, season after season, for
the honour and glory of Cocking.

Amongst the various strains of cocks that did so much
towards rendering England pre-eminent in the sport, the
blood identified with the name of Vauxhall Clark will
suggest itself to the minds of old and young alike; to the
old stagers, from the recollections they have of it in the
Westminster pit, and to the younger generation, from
engravings yet to be seen in print-shop windows. Clark
had a strain of brown-red cocks, all with mahogany bars
on their wings, and so much alike that not even his feeder
could tell them apart. Seeing that some were superla-
tively good, whilst others were exceptionally bad, I need
not dwell on the advantage their resemblance in looks
gave to a man with the proclivities of their astute owner,
the greatest bettor of his day, who netted vast sums by
backing or laying against them, as the case required.
From Vauxhall Clark's blood descended the cocks bred by
the famous George Wheeler and Mr. Plummer, the late
Tom Davis's best master, who, with the exceptions of
Captain Ross, Lord Sefton, and Lord Huntingfield, was
the last cocker under the "long law"—for, most truly,
the practice of those who still fight their battles hazard-
ously and by stealth in strange places, may be likened to

Drawn by J. E. Smith, R.A., and J. S. Grisell, R.A.

Tom, Jerry and Logic: working Tomp in the Trench at the Royal Exchange.

Printed by Stockbridge Press, London, April 1871.

Cocking and Its Votaries.

the "short law" of the old Westminster rules. Other famous strains of blood in recent times were those of Lord Germaine, from which the pens of the late Mr. Cobden were replenished (and, probably, the best cocks "we moderns" have seen are indebted to the care of that famous Sussex yeoman for much of their game and stamina, which still carry them through many a hard-fought main); and Lord Anson, to a "ragged and dangerous cock" of whose breeding the Daubeney strain owes so much. John Edge, or, more correctly speaking, "Tommy the Sweep," whose portrait may be seen in the plate in "Tom and Jerry," representing the Cocking at the Tufton Street Pit, had some wonderful brown-reds with white swisher toppings, which gained great credit in Staffordshire and the Midland Counties; whilst, going further North, Sir Henry Bold Houghton, so frequently opposed to Lord Derby and his black-reds, had a strain of brown-red spangles, well-nigh matchless in the pit. From Sir Harry Goodricke's, descends, through a hen once the property of the late Frank Redmond, "the cock of the walk" of this quarter of the nineteenth century. Three battles, gained the same evening, and within, as far as could be judged, sixty seconds' fighting, fairly earned for him the title of the "bone-crusher"; and as he was described by the late Tom Davis, who was initiated at Tufton Street, as "one of the finest cocks between the heavens and the earth," it was not a matter for surprise that he won a fourth victory ere he succeeded to that state of domestic felicity so aptly described by that dear lover of the sport, Admiral Rous, in his memorable letter to the *Times*, dated 17th June, 1875. "The faculty" always showed a liking for the sport, a point, I consider, much in its

Cocking and Its Votaries.

favour, and the great Dr. Bellyse, of Audlem, Cheshire,
who won many famous mains at Chester and elsewhere,
and Dr. Wing, of Somerby, Leicestershire, who found
several of Lord Kennedy's birds in his match against the
present Captain Ross, fought in April, 1826, at Melton
Mowbray, for fifty guineas a battle and a thousand guineas
the main (Potter and Nash, feeders), were two worthy
representatives of "the schools." A capital joke used to
be told at the expense of Dr. Wing, who was once very
desirous of acquiring a strain of white game. The doctor,
after all legitimate overtures to obtain his end had
failed, bribed a gipsy to steal a cock of the coveted breed
from a rival in the vale of Belvoir. The bird was accord-
ingly purloined; but, to the chagrin of the "Sawbones,"
he moulted into a black-crested red the following year.
At this distant date, some sixty years, the Wing blood is
eagerly sought after by Midland County fanciers. Sport-
ing "parsons" were also to be found in the ranks of the
cockers, to wit, Parson Batchelor, of Norwich, who was
famed for his black cocks, which cut out a white hackle;
whilst the old rector of Willenhall assuredly "took a
first" in their society. It is remembered of him that,
one Sunday, when "Potter" Partridge, the Bloxwich
feeder, passed through the churchyard during service, on his
way with some cocks to Darlaston, he broke off in the middle
of his sermon, having caught sight of the cock-bags through
the church window, and ran after him to know where the
fight was to take place. Having obtained the information, he
returned to the pulpit to finish his discourse, and put in
an appearance at the pit side the next afternoon. "The
Wedgbury Cocking," a poem by this learned divine, was
very popular amongst black-country men years ago, and a

Cocking and Its Votaries.

27

very “curious” production it is. Old North usually fed for
these same black-country boys, and in the Walsall pit, in
New Inn Yard, many good mains were fought in the brave
old days. To the strains of Lord Derby, who generally
showed black-breasted reds with white legs, and Mr.
Gurney, who was equally noted for his “pied” cocks, I
have already referred, but as an instance of the style in
which the Quaker Banker of Norwich supported “the
Sod,” I may mention the fact that he thought little of
sending, in charge of Springall, his valet, one hundred
and twenty picked cocks, in a coach specially engaged for
their conveyance, from which Nash, the feeder, had to
select sixty-one birds for a week’s play in the Tufton
Street pit, which, with the St. Giles’s pit, still exists, and
they must be the last haunts in London of our cock-
fighting forefathers. The Gurney cocks here referred to
were chiefly black-breasted reds, not the usual “pies,”
and, with such a choice, it cannot be wondered at that
Nash generally defeated his regular opponent Fleming,
whose pens were on Saffron Hill. Shropshire and Che-
shire were long famous for their breed of game cocks, and
the Shropshire reds and Cheshire piles were in particu-
larly high estimation. In Staffordshire, there was a breed
of cocks of a perfect jet black, gipsy-faced, black legs, and
rather elegant than muscular, lofty in fighting, close in
feather, and well shaped. This breed soon degenerated,
and is probably quite extinct in the Midland Counties,
although in Lancashire the “fiery furnaces,” black with
brassy wings, still rank very highly in the Furness district,
whence they derive their name. In Wales, cocking was,
and still is, a favourite diversion. The following challenge,
issued nearly a hundred years ago, redounds so much to

Cocking and Its Votaries.

the credit of the Principality, that I think it worth per-
petuating:—"The gentlemen of Pembrokeshire not being
able to get any competitor in Wales, challenge all England
for Ten Guineas and Five Hundred Guineas for Five
Years, to meet half way or home and home; if half way,
to show 61 cocks in main, and 20 byes; if home and
home, 41 cocks in main, and 20 byes." Ireland and
Scotland, too, claimed many lovers of feather, the late
Captain Gough and James Merry, to wit; but hard times
and severe morals would seem to have gained a victory
over the sport—at any rate, in the latter country.

"The cocker feeds on a vicious joy," writes an Angler in the *Sporting Magazine* for 1834, whilst of himself, this disciple of Isaac Walton presumes to say, "that he only parleys with nature, and cultivates that skill which breeds no ill." How beneficial to such an angler would have been an introduction to the Poet Burns! Many and various were the methods by which cock-masters prepared their birds for the pit; in fact, it is said that every feeder had his secret, and it is to be feared that, as with the art of making silver spurs, many of these secrets died with their possessors. No two feeders made their cock-bread exactly alike and in the matter of dieting, stoving, scouring, sparring, and exercising very great differences of opinion prevailed; some professed to get cocks fit in nine, others in fourteen days, whilst this feeder would excel in long, and that in short mains. Again, one was famous in matches where the cocks were weighed three days before fighting, and another where the weighing took place on the pit.

Howel Morgan, Cocker to King George; Jonathan
Redferne, to Sir Charles Sedley; Merchant Bayley, to

Cocking and Its Votaries.

Hugo Meynell; Bromley and Walter, the great rivals in the days of the St. James's Park pit; Joe Gilliver, to Mr. Legh, of Lyme, and General Yates; Potter, to Lord Derby; Ouldred, to Lord Mexborough; Philips, to Dr. Bellyse; Weightman, to Sir Harry Goodricke; Woodcock, to Sir Henry Bold Houghton and Captain White; "Tommy the Sweep" (Burns), and Tom Hines; Davis and his son, who fed for the late and the present Earls of Sefton and Mr. Plummer; Nash and Fleming, who usually fought in Tufton Street; Shaw and C.F., who used to assist Mr. Cobden; together with Paget, Beastall, Sant, Bestow, and Wickstead, were the most celebrated feeders at a time, say from one hundred and fifty to five and forty years ago, when the trainers of fighting-cocks ranked as equals with the first "grooms," the term then applied to the trainers of race horses, at Newmarket. Setting-to is a distinct art from that of feeding, the two occupations being analagous to those of training and riding on the Turf. The names of setters which occur most readily to my mind are those of Stradling and Fisher, in the days of the Royal Cock Pit, in St. James's Park; Gum and Porter, in the Tufton Street era; Tom Davis and Harry Booth, in the great revival which took place at Elmore's and at Newmarket, about five and thirty years since; and C. F. and William Gilliver, one of the old strain, in more recent times. A good second is everywhere of the greatest importance, and nowhere is this fact more manifest than in Cocking, for many a blow will a skilful handler save his cock, besides the assistance he can render him in other respects. In the matter of artificial spurs, Smith, Toulmin, and Clay are deemed the best makers of "silver"; whilst Wadling and Tipping stand in the same category as regards "steel."

30

Cocking and Its Votaries.

The following quotation is to be seen on the lid of Toul-
min's (the successor to Smith) spur boxes, probably a
hundred and twenty years old, and as the poem, "The
Cocker," by Hallam, from which it is taken, is extremely
rare, I reproduce it here:—

"As curious artists different skill disclose,
The various weapon different temper shows,
Now curving points too soft a temper bear,
And now, too hard, their brittleness declare;
Now on the plain the treacherous weapons lie,
Now winged in air, the shivered fragments fly;
Surprised, chagrined, the incautious feeders gaze,
And Smith alone, ingenious artist, praise."

In Sumatra, where cocks of the same colour were
never matched, the artificial spur used had no socket, but
was tied to the leg and by the position of it the nicety of
the match was regulated. A bird of superior weight and
size was brought to an equality with his adversary by fix-
ing the steel spur so many scales of the leg above the
natural spur, whereby he fought at a disadvantage. The
date when artificial spurs came into use in England is very
uncertain. It was after the time of Gervaise Markham,
for, as previously intentioned, in his "Pleasures of
Princes; or, Good Men's Recreations," 1614, he
gives these instructions: — "With a sharp knife
you shall scrape smooth and sharpen his spurres." A
writer on the Royal Sport, in 1674, follows Markham, and
although this is but negative evidence in so far as artificial
weapons are concerned, I think that in the exhaustive
treatises or "tracts" written in the seventeenth century,
and still existing, on the subject, some mention of them
would have been made, had they been in general use. I
cannot help thinking that they were introduced early in
the last century, but I am open to conviction, and I shall

Cocking and Its Votaries.

be very glad of any information which may tend to eluci-
date the point as to when gentlemen began to "fight in
silver," and their inferiors "in steel." When they ceased
to do so openly is, unfortunately, too clearly defined by
Acts 5 & 6 Wm. IV., c. 59, and 1 Vict., c. 66. Still, mains
of cocks have been, and, as long as old-fashioned notions
are permitted existence and the old strains of men and
birds are bred pure, always will be fought in the bye-ways
and secluded paths, aye, and in the ancestral homesteads
of dear old England.

Fighting in steel reminds me that I once spent a day in
the society of the Midland County colliers, and a more
honest set of men I never want to meet. Just previous to
my visit, a short main had been decided between two sides
of the country for a fair stake, but as the "authorities"
had got wind of the matter, it had been necessary for the
principal feeder, my host, to delegate his duties to another.
This done, away he went, cock bag and scales, with an
unsuspecting policeman in pursuit, for nearly twenty miles,
when, his part performed, he threw down his bag, which
the myrmidon of the law found, to his amazement, to
contain nothing but a few handfuls of hay. I shall not
forget the regretful way in which he told me, "I'd have
given him another ten miles, if I'd been ten years younger!"
However, my friend was absent long enough for the main
to be fought, and on arriving home to find that four battles
out of five had been won by cocks bred from a strain
which has been in his possession more than forty years.
Undoubtedly the miners have some rare birds, and I once
heard an eminent feeder, who had himself fed mains for the
late Mr. Cobden, remark that they were good enough to
match against the best that Devon and Cornwall could

32 *Cocking and Its Votaries.*

show; "they would not be so well walked," he said, "but
their game admits of no doubt." Strong praise in favour
of the Walsall and Wolverhampton fanciers.

Whatever cruelty there may be in Cocking is of the
slightest, and "all sport is cruel." Cocks wear no bridles,
neither can they be made to fight, but fight they will, if
good ones, unless great precautions are taken to prevent
their doing so. As an instance of this natural instinct,
which shows itself directly the chickens are hatched, I
know for a fact that two cocks, both, as the term is,
empty, were set down in a room, in the middle of which
a large bowl of bread and milk was placed. They both
refused the food, and at once commenced to fight. "Out-
siders" contend that cocks should fight in their natural
spurs, which are *venomous*; Cockers, on the other hand,
declare that, to save cruelty, they should fight in silver or
steel spurs, which are *not*. This is certainly an argument
in favour of artificial weapons, which, moreover, bring a
battle to a conclusion in a far shorter time than natural
ones. That "baiting," whether of bulls, bears, or
badgers, as distinguished from "matching," should have
fallen under the ban of enthusiasts, whom it is the fashion
to term humanitarians, can be understood; but that cock-
ing, by the very rules of which birds of equal weight, and
therefore fairly matched, are pitted against each other,
should have had the same treatment dealt out to it, must
for ever remain inexplicable.

The Turf and the Sod, fifty years ago, were united by
the closest ties. At Stamford, in 1831, a sum of money
was added to one of the races from the receipts of the
cock-pit, and doubtless the downfall of the latter has, in a
great measure, tended to the popularity, undivided as it is,