96 THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



the coarsest exterior, and in the meanest garb, outwitting 

 them by odds in their judgment in selecting the winners 

 before the battles commence, and exhibiting indescribable 

 acuteuess in discovering injuries afterwards, which, of 

 course, they turn to account before many of their superiors 

 are aware of them. This extreme quickness of sight, by 

 which what is called a ' cut throat ' is discovered previously 

 to its effects becoming visible, is scarcely to be expected from 

 a heavy and dull-looking mechanic perhaps a blacksmith, 

 or a collier, who may have walked fifty miles to the pit 

 but such is often the case, and, of course, he reaps his 

 reward by immediately backing the other cock." 



" What do you mean by a ' cut throat ? ' I never saw 

 a cock's throat cut in fighting." 



" Xor I neither. It is a body blow, but, having wounded 

 a vital part, is so called from the fact of the blood soon 

 finding its way into the throat, and thence ejected by the 

 mouth, consequently impeding respiration. Cocks in very 

 h iyk condition will occasionally ' throw it off,' as the term 

 is, and go on ; but it generally betokens a speedy termina- 

 tion of the battle. The setting or handling of the cocks 

 is also a most difficult art ; in fact, I have no hesitation 

 in saying, that not only does a cockpit include more 

 natural talent, in the rough, than any other place in which 

 men of all descriptions are given to congregate, but that, 

 unless a man be a man of talent, he has no business to 

 enter one." 



Frank listened attentively to this somewhat philosophical 

 description of cocking and the cockpit r and whether or not 

 he became a cocker will hereafter be shown. He, how- 

 ever, reminded Hargrave that the late Mr. Wyndham 

 then in the zenith of his reputation, as one of our dis- 

 tinguished senators, and distinguished also for his humanity 

 had given it as his opinion that the conflict between 

 inferior animals incited the courage of a nation ; and, 

 in support of his hypothesis, availed himself of the 

 character of the English people, who, he said, have ever 

 been as remarkable for courage, or what is vulgarly called 

 " pluck," as for their predilection for such conflicts, cock- 

 fighting especially. 



The first public exhibition of our hero, during his 

 residence at Christchurch, was on Burford race-course, 

 in Oxfordshire, on which was held what was called the 

 Bibury meeting, continued (though in very diminished 



