AttoclotiS Barbariti/, 19 



iv 



nimal alive, whilst entertaimng his friends. 

 The company alarmed by the dreadful 

 shrieks of the poor victim, interfered, but 

 were resisted by Ardesoit, who threatened 

 death to any who should oppose him ; and 

 in a storm of raging and vindictive deli- 

 rium, and uttering the most horrid impre- 

 cations, he dropped down dead. I had 

 hoped to find this one among the 

 tliousand fanatical lies which have been 

 coined, on the insane expectation that truth 

 can be advanced by the propagation of 

 falsehood ; but to my sorrowful disappoint- 

 ment, on a late enquiry among the friends 

 of the deceased miscreant, I found the 

 truth of the horrible story but too probable. 

 The Darking fowl, so called from a 

 town in Surrey, where probably the va- 

 rietv was first bred, and where, and in its 

 vicinity, they are to be found in great 

 plenty and perfection, is, in the third de- 

 gree, the largest of our fowls, well shaped, 

 having a long capacious body and short 

 legs, and is a plentiful layer. The ge- 

 nui];i.e colour intire white ; chief distinctive 



