shoulders ; the tail was clipped to the rump, and 

 the wing feathers cut " slope wise with sharp 

 points, that in his rising he may endanger the 

 eye of his adversary ' 



It is impossible to read the old author's 

 pages without being impressed by the minute- 

 ness of his instructions to the cocker from the 

 very first stage of the breeding part of the 

 business to the last the treatment of wounded 

 cocks. There is nothing like it in contemporary 

 literature nor for generations afterwards ; clear 

 proof of the importance of the place cock- 

 fighting held in the daily life of our ancestors 

 three hundred years ago 



No rules for the conduct of cock-fights had 

 come into use when Markham wrote in 1614. 

 This seems certain from the author's omission 

 to mention rules 



PROHIBITION OF COCKING BY CROMWELL 



During the Commonwealth public cocking 

 was made illegal, the Statute in this sense being 

 passed in the year 1654 



The times were disturbed and the wording 

 of the Act shows that it was not the sport to 



