74 

 at cock-ficrhts or similar assemblies would be 



o 



prosecuted. Darlaston was another famous 

 cocking- centre. Mr. Hackwood states that 

 when the town wished to bring about a cocking 

 match with the neighbouring town of Willen- 

 hall, or vice versa, a man would go out carrying 

 a game-cock which he held up towards the 

 weathercock on the church steeple of the 

 other town ; this gesture meant a challenge, 

 and it was never refused 



COCKING IN THE MIDLANDS 



The Birmingham capers in George II's time 

 gave as much space to the description of a 

 cock match as to the trials at Assizes, to royal 

 birthday celebrations and other events of public 

 interest. Advertisements remain to show the 

 frequency of meetings at Briclgnorth, Stoke, 

 Worcester, Wellington, Dudley, Lichfield, in a 

 word ot all the towns within a clay's journey 

 of Birmingham : the Weclnesbury cockings 

 were famed, and the Preston race meetings 

 for a long period were noted for the mains 

 that were fought there 



Duddeston Hall was to the Midlands what 

 the London cock-pits were to the South. 

 County mains were fought there for many 

 years ; and there was an annual subscription 



