of cock spurs, Clay, Smith, Foulmin, Garfield 

 and others, carried on their business there 



There was in Drury Lane a cock-pit 

 notorious for the disorderly character of those 

 who frequented it. The London apprentices, 

 4k virtuous by custom immemorial," as Sir 

 Walter Besant observes * with gentle irony, 

 used to wreck this cock-pit every Shrove 

 Tuesday; just as in Charles II's time they 

 wrecked houses of ill-fame in Moorfields 



Another notorious London cock-pit in George 

 Ill's time was that in Pickled Egg Walk, 

 Clerkenwell. County mains took place at this 

 pit ; the Gentlemen of London fought the 

 Gentlemen of Essex, and the cockers of 

 Middlesex fought those of Wiltshire here in 

 1775, for example. But such matches were 

 only occasional features in the regular pro- 

 gramme of the house, which ordinarily was a 

 favourite resort of rogues and vagabonds 



In i 774, what would now be called an l< open 

 letter " w r as addressed to the celebrated 

 Magistrate, Sir John Fielding, in the Public 

 Advertiser, calling upon him to close the 

 Pickled Egg Walk Cock-pit, because " the very 

 dregs assemble there two or three times a 

 week to fight cocks and gamble '' 



* Survey of London 



