224 SPORTING STORIES 



training from the Thursday week till the Monday, when 

 the smaller birds led off in the five days' main. Two years 

 old was the favourite age, as they became "greasy" at 

 three, and far beyond the 4 lbs. 10 oz. standard. Eggs, 

 sugar-candy water, hot bread and milk, barley, rue, 

 butter, and rhubarb formed the chief part of that dainty 

 diet which few were fated to taste more than once in 

 their lives. 



The Doctor's passion for the sport dated back to the 

 days of his youth — before he was well out of his teens, in 

 fact — and he inaugurated his career with the original 

 "white piles" which carried such a wonderful spur that 

 the Cheshire Drop, which would occasionally appear in 

 a long battle, was considered as fatal as the Chiffney 

 Rush on the Turf. These were the cocks with which the 

 Cholmondeleys, the Egertons, the Warburtons, the Cottons 

 and the Roylances fought all the great country mains, 

 sometimes against each other, but more frequently against 

 the Mexborough and Meynell families. The Doctor, 

 however, convinced himself that their constitutions would 

 not stand the discipline of modern feeders, and at last, by 

 judicious crossing, made his brown and black-reds carry 

 as good a spur and bear the most punishing preparations 

 to boot. These cocks were mostly bred from the Doctor's 

 old "cut-combed" hen, whose descendants were crossed with 

 his brown Crowally, two of Gilliver's black-reds, and the 

 Westgarth cock. Six pullets to one cock, and the eggs 

 as closely bred in as he could get them, were two of his 

 leading tenets. He used the same stud birds for three 

 seasons. 



Chester and Preston were the two great centres of cock- 

 fighting in the North. Lord Sefton, Mr Price of Brynprys, 

 Captain White, Mr Bold Haughton, and Doctor Bellyse 

 all fought at Chester. Lord Derby and Mr Legh of Lyme 

 reserved their cocks for Preston. His lordship had built 

 there at his own expense the best-appointed cockpit in 

 the kingdom, which has— such is the irony of fate — been 

 converted into a temperance hall. Five shillings was the 

 price of admission to the pit when the Derby mains were 

 being fought, and the " main bag," generally a canvas 



