OLD STRAINS OF GAME FOWLS. 



349 



of Leicestershire, bred all colours, and won with 

 them. Sant's famous Derbyshire Dark Reds, 

 with their dark-striped hackles, would always 

 set the Derbyshire squires offering lOO to 8o on 

 the battle ; and old Nathaniel Monk, when 

 sleeping in church at Dean, on being awakened 

 by the beadle, cried lustily, ' I'll have the Black 

 cock for a fiver ! ' so enamoured was he of 

 the famous Black cocks of Lord de Vere. Mr. 

 Sketchley, the author of The Cocker, astonished 

 the readers of the sporting periodicals by the 

 prowess of his Shropshire Reds ; and Weight- 

 man, with his famous Parkhouse Reds, lowered 

 the colours of the Lancashire men at Burton for 

 the heaviest stake ever fought for ; although it 

 has been stated in error that Gilliver, when he 

 won the main at Lincoln for £\<X)0 each battle 

 and ;£'5,ooo the main,* fought for the largest 

 amount. The Earl of Derby, too, bred some 

 grand black-breasted, white-legged Reds and 

 Duckwings ; and his Pile was looked on by 

 admiring thousands, as the engraving was long 

 exhibited in sporting print-sellers' windows. 

 Dr. Bellyse sometimes walked a thousand cock 

 chickens out in a season, and was generally 

 quite invincible. Once, on a sporting nobleman 

 offering him ;^50 for a setting hen, he then and 

 there lifted her off the nest and put his foot on 

 the eggs; and on his lordship remarking that he 

 bought the eggs too, he replied, ' If you had, I 

 should have charged you a thousand.' His were 

 about the only cocks that could beat Walker's 

 celebrated Piles. I have not named a tenth 

 part of the famous strains and breeders, but have 

 mentioned sufficient to show that it was blood 

 or strain that won, not colour ; for even the 

 Gurney Pied cocks were for a time thought to 

 be superior to all others. 



" The standard of a fighting Game cock is 

 keenness of aspect, richness of plumage, and 

 cleanness of feet. He must have a good box- 

 ing beak, very big, and crooked 

 The Old Q[. hawk-shaped ; large, full, fiery eye, 



P(,^l_ and tapered head, not too long ; for 



if the head be long and beak 

 straight, he loses much holding-power when 

 taking hold to strike; long, strong neck; flat, 

 broad body, tapering wedge-shape to the tail ; 

 strong, long wings, so that when clipped the 

 quills are of a powerful description ; muscular, 

 round, short thigh ; legs (as to colour, I endorse 

 the opinion of the most celebrated cocker of the 

 nineteenth century, that the best he had ever seen 

 were white, carp, and yellow, in order named as 

 to merit) of good hard bone, and not at all 

 gummy or fleshy like other fowls, standing with 

 a good bend at the hocks, so as to have a full 



* These figures are authentic. 



spring when rising, and in line with the body, 

 not out or straddling ; spur set on very low 

 down ; clean, thin feet and toes, with a long, 

 open back claw ; and to be light, corky-fleshed, 

 looking large to his weight. The great thing is 

 breeding for liecl, since it is the heel that always 

 wins, and although health and strength is a 

 great desideratum, without heel it is nothing. 



" The old breeders never on any account 

 bred from a cock or hen that was not in the 

 most perfect health. The cock's feathers must 

 not be dry or loose : he should be ripe in the 

 feel, his flesh firm, and his crow clear. A 

 general want of constitution requires no cross, 

 the only cure is total eradication. Some were 

 ever crossing with this fine cock or that grand 

 hen, but the produce seldom came up to their 

 expectations ; and no one can dispute that the 

 best strains of cocks ever bred, were bred in- 

 and-in, and as soon as crossed with others, 

 though equally good, were robbed of their win- 

 ning qualities. Meynell's cocks as well as his 

 hounds were so bred, and perhaps the world 

 never saw either more perfect. Sant's were so 

 bred. The celebrated Coath's had not a cross 

 for forty years, and yet they were seldom 

 beaten, and not in the least degenerated. 

 Those Cheshire Piles and Bellyse's Reds that 

 so often put down their opponents by a single 

 fly, and were as much prized by some old 

 Cheshire families as their own birthrights, were 

 of one family, and as they were so long thought 

 to be the very best, nothing else was allowed to 

 contaminate them. In fact, with judicious care 

 and a due regard to health and age, not only 

 the best cocks, but the best horses, cattle, and 

 dogs that England has been so justly proud of, 

 have been bred in-and-in. 



" They should early be put to separate walks 

 that are healthy, where there is not a great 

 number of hens, where they will neither be kept 

 short of food, nor so hand-fed as to render them 

 heavy and inactive ; for the more exercise a cock 

 takes in his walk, leading forth his hens, etc., in 

 search of food, so much more agile and active 

 will he be in his battle. 



" At two years old the cock is at his best for 

 fighting ; previous to which he went into the 

 feeder's care, who reduced his weight, and got 

 him into that high state of health and 

 Training condition which centuries of close 



Fighting. observation had brought to perfec- 



tion. From veryearly times the craft 

 have kept their secrets a profound mystery. At 

 the middle of the eighteenth century, the cock- 

 ing instructions of that scarce work. The British 

 Legacy, published as a very special addendum, 

 ' The following choice and valuable secret for 



