" The school master and ushers shall and may 

 have use and take the profits of all such cock- 

 fights ... as be commonly used in schools " 



The Congleton (Cheshire) Town accounts 

 for the year 1601 show, for example, that John 

 Magge was paid fourpence for " dressing" the 

 school at the great cock-fight 



Mr. William Henderson* says that the 

 master of Sedbergh Grammar School in York- 

 shire was entitled to receive fourpence half- 

 penny a year from each boy on Shrove 

 Tuesday, this being the levy to buy fighting- 

 cocks ; the practice continued until the days of 

 the Regency 



The regulations of the Kendal Grammar 

 School made the establishment free to all boys 

 resident in the parish " excepting a voluntary 

 payment of a cock penny as aforetime at 

 Shrovetide " 



At Grange-over-Sands, custom required the 

 parents of the boys at the grammar school to 

 contribute according to social standing ; the 

 " cock pence " thus given at Shrovetide in the 

 early years of the last century ranged from 

 half a crown to five pounds 



* Folklore of the Northern Counties of England (1879). 



