nor any used (as in most other games and 

 pastimes customarily there is), neither is 

 there any brawlings or quarrels suffered in 

 those places ; but all men must there use 

 civil and good behaviour what degree or 

 calling soever he be of" 



Swearing and blasphemy were strictly 

 forbidden, and offenders were liable to punish- 

 ment prescribed by the nobility 



Wilson was a country gentleman, and he 

 wrote of the sport as it was carried on in the 

 eastern counties. The "nobility" referred to 

 were those who pitted their birds in the royal 

 cock-pit at Westminster, and set the fashion. 

 No mention is made of rules for the sport itself, 

 evidently none had yet been found necessary 



This writer's account of the enthusiasm 

 roused by the successes at Bury St. Edmunds 

 of a cock called Gipsey, bred by himself, sheds 

 interesting light on the position cock-fighting 

 then held in England. This bird 



" fought so courageously, that after many 

 admirable and almost incredible acts achieved 

 by him, divers gentlemen, my very good 

 friends, in commendation of him, caused 

 his picture to be drawn and painted 



