THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



index to the probable result of the tight was the position of the 

 animal's tail. If erect, he was still undaunted ; if inclined to 

 droop, his pluck was doubted, and the betting immediately 

 turned against him. The position of the tail, however, is the 

 general barometer of the dog's mettle. Witness Shakespeare 

 at a bear-tight : — 



' Oft have I seen a hot, o'erweening cur. 

 Run back and bite, because he was withhekl ; 

 Who, having suffered with the bear's fell paw, 

 Hath clapt his tail between his legs, and cried.' 



There was another species of sporting, and one very much 

 in fashion in those days, in which Frank Raby was initiated 

 by Will Stuart — tlie aristocratic one of cock-fighting ; and 

 aristocratic it may certainly be called, confirming the truth 

 of the assertion that, although the vulgar borrow vices from 

 the great, the great occasionally condescend to borrow them, 

 in their turn, from the vulgar. It must, however, be admitted 

 that, in point of respectability — if such a term can be allowed 

 in this case — there is scarcely a comparison between the opera- 

 tions of the cock- and the dog-pit, the former having been 

 long the resort of many of our accomplished noblemen and 

 country gentlemen, still standing its ground to a certain 

 extent, whilst the latter is nearly abandoned. Whether it 

 may last another century is a matter of some speculation, 

 from the alternations which occur in the taste for all national 

 sport ; but that it has stood the test of ages is a fact too well 

 established to admit of a doubt, as well as that a moral has 

 been drawn from it. Themistocles' famous address to the 

 Athenian soldiers affords one, and a signal one, too. On their 

 march to battle he halted them, and directed their attention 

 to two cocks that were fighting, descanting on their deter- 

 mination to conquer or die ; and oi'dered cock-fighting to be 

 afterwards annually exhibited in the camp. The Romans 

 likewise admired the martial spirit of the gamecock ; and it is 

 even asserted that Csesar's troops introduced cock-fighting in 

 England, during their temporary invasion of the country, and 

 that they even made quails to fight. Still, Columella calls it 

 a Grecian diversion, and speaks of it in terms of ignominy, as 

 an expensive amusement (which it is), unbecoming the frugal 

 liousekeeper, and often attended with the ruin of the parties 

 who follow it. The most offensive part of this practice, 



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