26 Shackbags. 



& 



Shackbags. Formerly the largest va- 

 riety, but in probability it has been entirely 

 worn out for some Aears. It was called 

 the duke of Leeds' breed, his grace more 

 than fifty years since being a great ama- 

 teur breeder of them ; but it does not ap- 

 pear v/hether his grace first raised the va- 

 riety, or whether it arose merely from im- 

 proving the size of the common dung-hill 

 kind^ and from any foreign cross ; but the 

 former is the most probable conjecture, on 

 account of the whiteness and fineness of 

 the flesh, in the genuine shackbag. The 

 only one 1 ever possessed was a red one, 

 in 1784, weighing about ten pounds, which 

 was provided for me at the price of one 

 guinea, by Goff the dealer, who then lived 

 upon Holborn Hill, in London, and who at 

 4he end of two year^, received him back at 

 half a guinea, having allowed me in the 

 interim tliree shillings and sixpence each, 

 for such thoroughbred cock chickens as I 

 chose to send to him. At that period, the 

 real duke of Leeds' breed had become very 

 scarce, which induced the dealers to put 



