COCK-FIGHTING 141 



visitors, and the frequent residence of the sovereign of 

 these kingdoms, and her youthful family, on whose 

 welfare the hopes of the nation are fixed : and where, 

 among the hospitable yeomen, I have spent many a 

 rollicking day. One of my friends kept an excellent j)ack 

 of harriers with which to entertain his friends in and out 

 of the island, and it did not require a father's last will to 

 enforce this as an obligation ; another was famed for a 

 superior breed of game-cocks, called from their j^lumage 

 the yellow-legged duck-wing, and annually invited some 

 few amateurs to witness an exhibition of their natural 

 propensity, and afterwards to partake of his unbounded 

 and uproarious hospitality. 



, But those days are past, and Avith them such pastimes 

 are fast dying out. I rejoice, with others, at the more 

 refined amusements that have taken their place. 



Yet it was one that princes and nobles participated in. 

 I may mention that, on the occasion of the visit of the 

 two grand dukes, brothers of the Emperor Alexander, to 

 this country a few years later, an exhibition of this 

 description took place at the Royal Cockpit, Westminster, 

 for the express purpose of instructing their imperial 

 highnesses in the amusements that were considered 

 characteristic of us Islanders. The admission was by 

 tickets, distributed to the members of the aristocracy 

 then in town, and to some favoured individuals, friends of 

 Mr. Jackson, of pugilistic celebrity, who was appointed to 

 superintend the arrangements, I was in London at the 

 time, without any thought of obtaining a ticket, but just 

 on the dav I accidentallv met with a well-kuo"svn wine- 

 merchant. Avho was generally put on. as the term is, on 



