o/ 



a crown and nobody take the bet, the game 

 is given over and not sooner * 



" One thing more it is strange to see how 

 people of this poor rank, that look as if they 

 had not bread to put in their mouths, shall 

 bet three or four pounds at one bet and lose 

 it, and yet bet as much the next battle (so 

 they call every match of two cocks), so that 

 one of them will lose \o or 20 at a 

 meeting " 



Pepys refers to the cock-pit in Shoe Lane as 



"new": it is probable that he uses the word 



in the sense of restored or re-opened after the 



Commonwealth, for a cock-pit existed in Shoe 



Lane during the time of James I. It was 



there that Sir Thomas Jermin, a famous cocker 



who died in 1644, played the knavish trick 



recorded.')- Meaning, says the chronicler to 



"make himself merry and gull all the 



cockers, he sent his man to the pit in Shoe 



Lane with an hundred pounds and a dunghill 



cock neatly cut and trimmed for the battle ; 



the plot being well laid, the fellow got another 



* This was called " pounding. " The spectator who 

 offered the bet laid his hat or glove on the pit as a token 

 of challenge ; if anyone took up the wager he also laid 

 his hat or some other article on the pit ; and both 

 " tokens" lay till the bet was decided 



f Harleian MSS. 6395, Temp. Jac. i 



