33 



This is the earliest mention of " feeders " or 

 trainers of fighting cocks : the sport under 

 royal patronage was assuming organisation 



The appeal to intending cockers to send 

 their birds " in seasonable time, that they may 

 be fit to fight " lends point to a maxim of 

 cocking well understood in those days. Travel 

 upset the fighting cock ; no matter how care- 

 fully the birds might be conveyed, they required 

 several days rest to recover from the effects of 

 a journey; and this rest would have been 

 particularly necessary at a time when wheeled 

 vehicles were still of the rudest description and 

 jolted over execrable roads 



If the cocks were carried on horse-back, 

 their travelling plight in cock-bags would have 

 been no better. Hence the notice early in 

 February to send birds in good time for the 

 matches to take place in the middle of March 



On 1 4th March, 1683, the Duke of York at 

 Newmarket, writing to the Countess of Lich- 

 field, says, the weather has been so bad "cock- 

 fighting has been almost the only thing we 

 could do here, and that for the most part we 

 have twice a day " 



Sir John Reresby in his Memoirs, writing in 



D 



