COCK-FIGHTING AND ITS HISTORY 77 



to William Gatacre, for breeding, feeding, and dieting of 

 cocks of the game for His Highness' recreation.' Pepys 

 relates in his quaint manner how he went to Shoe-lane 

 to see a ' cocke-fighting ' at a new pit there, a spot he had 

 never been to in his life. * But, Lord ! ' he says, ' to see 

 the strange variety of people, from Parliament man to the 

 poorest 'prentices, bakers, brewers, butchers, draymen, 

 and what not.' Anyone who cares to look up the history 

 of cock-fighting will find, amongst other names, those of 

 Lord Derby, Sefton, Anson, and Lowther, as having been 

 enthusiastic patrons of the sport. One noted dean of 

 York frequently attended the cockpit, and bred such fine 

 cocks as to hold his own against all comers. At York 

 the cockpit was near the Cathedral, and at Canterbury 

 the cockpit was an apartment of the gateway forming 

 part of St. Augustine's monastery. It would appear to 

 be a curious coincidence that in several places in Venezuela 

 the cockpits are close to the churches, but such coinci- 

 dences can easily be accounted for, considering the con- 

 venience of an arrangement which provides for one being 

 able to attend to his devotions without having to walk 

 too far afterwards to win money on a favomite bird. 



Cock-fighting is the national sport of Spanish- 

 Americans, and on Sundays, the great day for important 

 events, the sport lasts the greater part of the day. The 

 origin of cock-fighting is wrapped in obscurity. It is 

 probably the oldest of all the sports in which man obtains 

 pleasure out of the sufferings of the lower forms of animal 

 life. Three thousand years ago the Lydians fought cocks 

 on the banks of the golden Pactolus, and it is pretty 

 certain that long before this the pastime was a popular 

 one with the peoples of India and Persia, We are told 

 that Themistocles, the Athenian general, encouraged his. 



