trimmed for the battle; the plot being well layd the fellow got another to throw the cock in, and fight him in sir Thomas Jermin's name, while he betted his hundred pounds against him; the cock was matched, and bearing sir Thomas's name, had many betts layd upon his head; but after three or four good brushes, he showed a payre of heeles: every one wondered to see a cock belonging to sir Thomas cry craven, and away came the man with his money doubled."1

I shall not expatiate upon the nature and extent of this fashionable divertisement; but merely mention a part of it called the Welch main, which seems to be an abuse of the modern times; and as a late judicious author justly says, 'a disgrace to us as Englishmen.'2 It consists of a certain or given number of pairs of cocks, suppose sixteen, which fight with each other until one half of them are killed; the sixteen conquerors are pitted a second time in like manner, and half are slain; the eight survivors, a third time; the four, a fourth time; and the remaining two, a fifth time: so that 'thirtyone cocks are sure to be inhumanly murdered for the sport and pleasure of the spectators.' I am informed that the Welch main usually consists of fourteen pair of cocks, though sometimes the number might be extended.

In the old illuminated manuscripts we frequently meet with paintings representing cocks fighting; but I do not recollect to have seen in any of them the least indication of artificial spurs; the arming their heels with sharp points of steel is a cruelty, I trust, unknown in former ages to our ancestors. I have been told the artificial spurs are sometimes made with silver.

In addition to what has been said, I shall only observe, that the ancients fought partridges and quails as well as cocks; 'in like manner,' says Burton, as the French do now: '3 how far, if at all, the example has been followed in England, I know not.

1 MS. Harl. 6395, written in the reign of James I., and bearing this title: Merry Passages and Jeasts.'

2 Rev. Mr Pegge, in his memoir on cock-fighting, Archæol. vol. iii. p. 132.

Anatomy of Melancholy, published A.D. 1660.

XXI.-THROWING AT COCKS.

If the opposing of one cock to fight with another may be justly esteemed a national barbarism, what shall be said of a custom more inhuman, which authorized the throwing at them with sticks, and ferociously putting them to a painful and lingering death? I know not at what time this unfortunate animal became the object of such wicked and wanton abuse the sport, if such a denomination may be given to it, is certainly no recent invention, and perhaps is alluded to by Chaucer,1 in the 'Nonnes Priests' Tale,' when he says,

-There was a cocke,

For that a priestes' sonne gave hym a knocke,
Upon his legges, when he was yonge and nice,
He made him for to lose his benefice.'

The story supposes the cock to have overheard the young man ordering his servant to call him at the cockcrowing; upon which the malicious bird forbore to crow at the usual time, and owing to this artifice the youth was suffered to sleep till the ordination was over.

Throwing at cocks was a very popular diversion, especially among the younger parts of the community. Sir Thomas Moore, who wrote in the sixteenth century, describing the state of childhood, speaks of his skill in casting a cok-stele, that is, a stick or cudgel to throw at a cock. It was universally practised upon Shrove-Tuesday. If the poor bird by chance had its legs broken, or was otherwise so lamed as not to be able to stand, the barbarous owners were wont to support it with sticks, in order to prolong the pleasure received from the reiteration of its torment. The magistrates, greatly to their credit, have for some years past put a stop to this wicked custom, and at present it is nearly, if not entirely, discontinued in every part of the kingdom.

Heath, in his account of the Scilly Islands,2 speaking of St Mary's, says, 'on Shrove-Tuesday each year, after the throwing at cocks is over, the boys of this island have a custom of throwing stones in the evening against the doors 2 Published at London. 1750.

1 Canterbury Tales.

of the dwellers' houses; a privilege they claim from time immemorial, and put in practice without control, for finishing the day's sport; the terms demanded by the boys are pancakes or money, to capitulate. Some of the older sort, exceeding the bounds of this whimsical toleration, break the doors and window-shutters, &c., sometimes making a job for the surgeon as well as for the smith, glazier, and carpenter.'

In some places it was a common practice to put the cock into an earthen vessel made for the purpose, and to place him in such a position that his head and tail might be exposed to view; the vessel, with the bird in it, was then suspended across the street, about twelve or fourteen feet from the ground, to be thrown at by such as chose to make trial of their skill; twopence was paid for four throws, and he who broke the pot, and delivered the cock from his confinement, had him for a reward. At North Walsham, in Norfolk, about 1760, some wags put an owl into one of these vessels; and having procured the head and tail of a dead cock, they placed them in the same position as if they had appertained to a living one: the deception was successful, and at last, a labouring man belonging to the town, after several fruitless attempts, broke the pot, but missed his prize; for the owl, being set at liberty, instantly flew away, to his great astonishment, and left him nothing more than the head and tail of the dead bird, with the potsherds, for his money and his trouble; this ridiculous adventure exposed him to the continual laughter of the town's people, and obliged him to quit the place, to which, I am told, he returned no more.

XXII. DUCK-HUNTING.

This is another barbarous pastime, and for the performance it is necessary to have recourse to a pond of water sufficiently extensive to give the duck plenty of room for making her escape from the dogs when she is closely pursued; which she does by diving as often as any of them come near to her. Duck-hunting was much practised in the neighbourhood of London about thirty or forty years ago;

but of late it is gone out of fashion; yet I cannot help thinking, that the deficiency, at present, of places proper for the purpose, has done more towards the abolishment of this sport than any amendment in the nature and inclinations of the populace.

Sometimes the duck is tormented in a different manner, without the assistance of the dogs; by having an owl tied upon her back, and so put into the water, where she frequently dives in order to escape from the burden, and on her return for air, the miserable owl, half drowned, shakes itself, and hooting, frightens the duck; she of course dives again, and replunges the owl into the water; the frequent repetition of this action soon deprives the poor bird of its sensation, and generally ends in its death, if not in that of the duck also.

XXIII.-SQUIRREL-HUNTING.

This is a rustic pastime, and commonly practised at Christmas-time and at Midsummer; those who pursue it find plenty of exercise; but nothing can excuse the wantonly tormenting so harmless an animal.

XXIV.-RABBIT-HUNTING.

Hentzner, who visited England at the close of the sixteenth century, mentions this diversion, and assures us that he saw it performed in the presence of the lord mayor of London, when the annual wrestling was concluded: his words are as follow; after this is over, a parcel of live rabbits are turned loose among the crowd, which are pursued by a number of boys, who endeavour to catch them with all the noise they can make.'

BOOK IV.

DOMESTIC AMUSEMENTS OF VARIOUS KINDS; AND PASTIMES APPROPRIATED TO PARTICULAR SEASONS.

CHAPTER I.

I.-Secular Music fashionable.-II. Ballad-singers encouraged by the Populace.-III. Music-Houses.-IV. Origin of Vauxhall.-V. Ranelagh.VI. Sadler's Wells.-VII. Marybone Gardens-Operas-Oratorios.VIII. Bell-ringing.-IX. Its Antiquity.-X. Hand-bells.-XI. Burlesque Music. XII. Dancing. -XIII. Its Antiquity, &c. - XIV. Shovel-board.-XV. Anecdote of Prince Henry.-XVI. Billiards.XVII. Mississippi.-XVIII. The Rocks of Scilly.-XIX. Shove-groat. -XX. Swinging.-XXI. Tetter-totter.-XXII. Shuttle-cock.

I.-SECULAR MUSIC FASHIONABLE.

THE national passion for secular music admitted of little or no abatement by the disgrace and dispersion of the minstrels. Professional musicians, both vocal and instrumental, were afterwards retained at the court, and also in the mansions of the nobility. In the sixteenth century, a knowledge of music was considered as a genteel accomplishment for persons of high rank. Henry VIII. not only sang well, but played upon several sorts of instruments; he also wrote songs, and composed the tunes' for them; and his example was followed by several of the nobility, his favourites. An author, who lived in the reign of James I., says, 'We have here,' that is, in London, the best musicians in the kingdom, and equal to any in Europe for their skill, either in composing and setting of tunes, or singing, and playing upon any kind of instruments. The musicians have obtained of our sovereign lord the king, his letters patent to become a society and corporation.'2 To which we may add, that the metro1 Hall, in the life of that monarch.

6

2 A.D. 1604, in the second year of the reign of James I. Treatise on Colleges and Schools in and about London, printed 1615.