192 THE DORKING FOWL. 



breed) was found apparently lifeless at the back-door, lying on 

 its side, as though it had been knocked down, which I really 

 believe it had. I brought it to the fire, and placed it in a 

 basket of hay. It soon began to move, and became violently 

 convulsed." The worthy Doctor made a correct diagnosis of 

 the malady, and so avoided the mortification of administering 

 a long list of nostrums in vain. Some years ago we had a 

 most beautiful Dorking Cock, the admiration of ourselves and 

 of all who saw him. After a time he became ill, weak, and 

 dejected; got worse, and died. Every ordinary comfort and 

 care were afforded, but we did not try any of the extraordinary 

 recipes that are current. 



By-and-by the discovery of cruel treatment to my pony 

 elicited the fact that the stable-boy was in the habit of making 

 the Cock " drunk;" a process which is effected by seizing the 

 bird by the legs, and whirling him round and round in the air, 

 till the centrifugal force shall have sent the blood to the head, 

 and produced apoplexy. The amusement consists in seeing 

 the Cock stagger and reel when placed upon the ground, and 

 gradually recover as it unsteadily walks off. " Tipsy Hen" is 

 an agreeable variation of the sport. The cook had seen, and 

 was indignant; but the lad's mother, when he entered my 

 service, had, like the enchantress of romance, given her son a 

 word of power. To the angry threat of the cook that she 

 would tell of the atrocity, it was replied, " If you do, / will 

 tell that every time it is your Sunday out, you go to see the 

 little boy you had two years ago." Cook was thunderstruck 

 at the mention of her "misfortune," and was tongue-tied. And 

 so the machinery of households goes on. 



I have subsequently found that, in all cases of suspicious death, 

 the surest way of coming at the truth, and preventing further 

 mal-practices, is to hold a formal inquest, with a post-mortem ex- 

 amination, and, after a deliberate investigation, to punish firmly 

 by rebuke or dismissal, any outrage on the laws of humanity. 



