/D 

 main on New Year's day and the day following 



GEORGE III. AND COCKING 



William Hogarth's picture " The Cock-pit " 

 (facing page 50) painted in 1759, is the best 

 known work of the kind. The scene is the 

 Royal Cock-pit, as appears from the Royal Arms 

 on the wall, and the principal figure is Lord 

 Albemarle Bertie who, in spite of blindness, 

 was an ardent cocker. Round the pit the 

 artist shows an audience carefully selected to 

 show persons of every grade of society ; the 

 person upon whose back a gallows is rudely 

 chalked is supposed to be the public hangman, 

 but the device might equally be meant to 

 indicate a criminal. The shadow of the basket 

 which has been raised to the roof with its 

 occupant is seen upon the pit 



Although George III kept game-cocks and 

 had the famous feeder Joseph Gilliver, there is 

 nothing in the numerous memoirs of his time 

 to show that this king ever entered a cock-pit. 

 Gilliver fought the royal birds in the royal pit 

 at Windsor, but it need hardly be said that the 

 proceeding does not necessarily imply royal 

 interest. Cocking was the national sport in 

 the most sweeping sense of the term 



