347 



CHAPTER XXII. 



THE OLD ENGLISH GAME FOWL. 



THE bird known under this name stands 

 by himself alone. In lineage none may 

 compare with him, since his origin is 

 absolutely lost in sheer antiquity, and when we 

 do first hear of him, he is already of noble blood 

 amongst other fowls. He has for generations 

 been known as " the English fowl " — Buffon 

 writes of him as such ; and he has stamped his 

 very name upon our speech, so that when we 

 want to express a dogged courage that does not 

 know how to yield, no matter what hopeless 

 odds there are arrayed opposite, we say that our 

 soldier heroes stood "game" to the last against 

 their foes. He has earned the distinction well, 

 lifting the name out of the very gutter — for it 

 was first given him as being identified with 

 "sport " or " gaming " in the old sense, so that 

 household bills of James I. contain entries for 

 the expenses of " cocks of the game for his 

 Highnesse's recreation " — as he fought for his 

 owners with the courage of his race ; until at 

 last the higher meaning of the word came not 

 from them who had bestowed it, but from the 

 bird who fought so undauntedly for a meaner 

 master's stakes. 



Let none suppose that all summed up in this 

 was unmitigated evil. Rude times require rude 

 virtues, and it will not be forgotten that the 

 original of the very word virtue itself, stood 

 equally for virtue and for courage amongst the 

 Romans. Thus it occurred naturally, that nearly 

 all primitive nations and civilisations deliberately 

 sought to learn from the stubborn valour of the 

 fighting cock. Every schoolboy will remember 

 how Themistocles revived the courage of his 

 soldiers by an example before their eyes of two 

 cocks fighting, and afterwards instituted cock- 

 fighting festivals. These festivals the lads were 

 expressly directed to attend in order that they 

 might learn courage ; a course approved by such 

 moralists as Socrates and Solon. The Romans 

 followed the same example. Of more primitive 

 peoples, some of the earliest Chinese records 

 mention cock-fighting ; in India there are notices 

 dating back to at least looo B.C.; and the 

 Persians had practised it for centuries before the 

 Greeks learnt from their example. Cock-fighting 



has also been traced amongst the Phoenicians; 

 and some Jewish authorities believe that the 

 Assyrian war-god Nergal was symbolised by a 

 fighting cock, but this seems doubtful. 



It is impossible to determine whether or not 

 cock-fighting was introduced into Britain by the 

 Romans. If it did not previously e.xist there, it 

 certainly would be ; but as Cfesar tells 

 Antiquity "s " that the Britons kept fowls for 

 al pleasure and diversion" though it was 



Cock-fighting, unlawful to eat them, the probability 

 is that they found this particular 

 diversion already there before them, perhaps 

 introduced by Phoenician traders. The first 

 authentic notice of cock-fighting as an English 

 sport only dates back to the reign of Henry II., 

 and is by William Fitz-Stephen ; but it is to be 

 observed that this notice records it as fully 

 recognised and carried on at public schools, 

 especially on Shrove Tuesday. At a later 

 period we find the " cock-penny " payable by 

 each scholar at Shrovetide, in order to provide 

 cocks for the customary festival, a recognised 

 custom if not a regular fee ; and so lately as 

 1867 Mr. J. Fitch, one of the Schools Inquiry 

 Assistant Commissioners, reported that this old 

 cocking custom was at that date still the occasion 

 for charging a guinea and a half to each scholar 

 at Sedgebury School, the master receiving a 

 guinea and the usher half a guinea, " for which 

 the scholars received no equivalent." He adds 

 that " at other free schools similar fees are 

 collected " ; but this we believe has come to an 

 end since attention was thus publicly drawn 

 to such a curious survival of ancient usage. 

 These details are of special interest as 

 showing that there was in England, as in 

 ancient Greece, real and deliberate purpose of 

 firing the youth of the country to a spirit of 

 valour and endurance by the example of the 

 courageous fighting cock. 



Still, it was as " cocks of the game " that 

 these birds were mainly bred, and a treatise 

 upon their breeding, feeding, and management 

 formed an important portion of all the earlier 

 editions of Hoyle's Games. Now that cock- 

 fighting, though still carried on in secret to a 



