the length and girth of cocks which was 

 invented by Sir Richard Astley of Patshull. 

 The cock to be measured was secured by the 

 body on a central movable pedestal, his head 

 made fast to a fixed perch and his feet to 

 another perch sliding in a frame, marked 

 in eighths of an inch. Nothing is said by 

 Dr. Plott of the introduction of weighing which 

 would have rendered Sir Richard Astley's 

 contrivance obsolete 



The last rule directing the separation of 

 birds of " dead or equal weight" to prolong 

 the main needs explanation. Cocks which 

 weighed within one ounce of each other were 



o 



said to "fall in, " and if there were enough of 

 such cocks of even weight shown, these fought 

 the main battles among themselves, the lighter 

 and heavier cocks being thrown into the byes. 

 But if the cocks thus "falling in" were few, it 

 was usual to separate and pit them against the 

 lighter and heavier birds, so as to increase the 

 number of battles and decrease the number of 

 byes which did not count in scoring 



ROYAL COOKINGS AT NEWMARKET 



It was during his visits to Newmarket that 

 Charles II appears most prominently as a 

 cocker. On I3th April, 1676, Mr. Secretary 



