SHACKBAOS. 19 



more than fifty years since, being a great amateur 

 breeder of them ; but it does not appear whether 

 his Grace first raised the variety, or whether it 

 arose merely from improving 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 I 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 the end of 

 two years, received him back at half a guinea, 

 having allowed me in the interim three shillings 

 and sixpence each, for such thorough-bred cock 

 chickens as I chose to send him. At that period 

 the real Duke of Leeds' breed had become very 

 scarce, which induced the dealers to put Shackbag 

 cocks to Malay hens, by that means keeping up 

 the original standard size, but entirely ruining the 

 colour and delicate flavour of the flesh. The 

 Shackbag fowl was a convenient substitute for the 

 turkey, to the frequent great convenience of poul- 

 terers and inn-keepers, at Wokingham and else- 

 where. 



The breed of Shackbags, it has been already 

 observed, has been many years extinct, and the sub- 

 stitute of the Malay cross is not satisfactory. A 

 large variety has been since introduced with suc- 

 cess ; a cross between the Spanish and our Dorking 

 breed, the best of which are to be found in Sussex 

 and near Wokingham, Surrey. The Spaniard is 



