CHAPTEE XXII. 



POPULAR AMUSEMENTS COCK-FIGHTING JOHN GRUB 



AND HIS SCHOLARS YULE SPORTS FOOT-BALL THE 



MONYMUSK BA'lN' WAD SHOOTING. 



IT may with some truth be alleged that, as a nation, 

 we have never exhibited a very pronounced aptitude 

 for fitting and successful sports ; yet did our forefathers 

 devote some share of their time to amusements of a 

 public character. One of these, that obtained a sort 

 of recognition which we should think very queer, was 

 cock-fighting. A certain Mr. William Machrie, of 

 Edinburgh, claimed to have been the means of intro- 

 ducing this sport which he calls an " innocent and 

 royal recreation " into the capital about the be- 

 ginning of the century. This gentleman considered 

 cock-fighting superior to horse-racing, and such like. 

 The very qualities of the bird, he said, recommended 

 him -viz., "his Spanish gait, his Florentine policy, 

 and his Scottish valour in overcoming, and generosity 

 in using, his vanquished adversary." The ancients, 

 he said, called the cock " an astronomer ;" and he had 

 been " an early preacher of repentance, even convinc- 

 ing Peter, the first Pope, of his Holiness's fallibility." 

 In short, cock-fighting was superior to almost any 

 other species of sport in Mr. Machrie's estimation; 

 and his view of the matter seems to have found a re- 

 markable degree of acceptance, inasmuch as the sport 

 of cock-fighting became an established pastime annually 

 practised at Pastern's Even (Shrovetide) for the delec- 



