TRAINING COCKS FOR BATTLE 



At two years old the cock was considered 

 ready to fight, "complete in every member"; 

 and the process of training began 



The old cock masters had their own methods 

 of feeding and preparing birds for battle, and 

 were very secretive about them, with good 

 reason ; an untrained cock would have as little 

 chance against a trained bird as an untrained 

 horse against one which has undergone proper 

 preparation. 



The birds to be trained were taken up 

 at the end of August (from which time till 

 the end of May was the cocking season) 

 and, being " sound, hard feathered and full 

 summed " were put into separate pens ; each 

 pen about tw r o feet square and three feet 

 in height, barred and made to open in front, 

 the sides close boarded so that one cock should 

 not be able to see his neighbours 



The training in Markham's time lasted six 

 weeks. During the first three or four days 

 the cock was fed on ''old maunchet" (the best 

 white bread) cut into small pieces, a large 

 handful three times a clay ; four days of this 

 diet was held enough to scour him thoroughly. 

 This preliminary dieting over, the cock had his 



