THE COCKPIT 227 



members of the company there assembled : " the country 

 clergyman, with his broad-brimmed hat and white cravat, 

 the grave, respectable tradesman, who never patronises 

 any other form of amusement ; the dandy, dressed in the 

 height of the fashion, fraternising with Bill Smith of ' The 

 Dials ' ; old men that looked as if they had gone without 

 food to scrape together a few shillings to back the main." 

 After having hit off the audience, he goes on to describe 

 the dramatis persona; of the bloody drama that is about to 

 be enacted. 



" First in order is old Nash, the feeder. His colourless 

 eye twinkled a cold satisfaction when a bird did good work 

 on the mat ; and sometimes, though seldom, he was 

 elevated into the proffer of a moderate bet; but generally 

 he leaned over the rails of a small gallery, and watched the 

 progress of the battle. He had been cooped up so long 

 with the birds, that his beaked nose, his red forehead and 

 gills, round body, and thin legs, and silver-grey feathery 

 hair lying like plumage over his head, gave him a cocklike 

 appearance. Amidst a babel of shouting, the setters-to, 

 Fleming and Nash junior, issued from opposite entrances, 

 each carrying a white bag ; from the recesses of which 

 issued stifled cries of defiance. 



" Fleming first lifted his bird out of the bag, yellow- 

 bodied and black-winged. He was restless at the sight 

 of his antagonist, but quite silent ; and old Nash compared 

 him most carefully with the description handed in with 

 him, delivering him up to Fleming on finding that he 

 perfectly answered to it. The setters-to then smoothed 

 their birds, moistened their bandaged legs where the 

 silver spurs, an inch and a half in length, were fastened ; 

 held them up opposite each other, and thus aroused 

 their courage and prepared them for the combat. The 

 opponent bird was a splendid red and black, whose feathers 

 positively glittered ; his black eyes took in all around 

 him, and shone so brilliantly that they looked like jewels. 

 His comb was cut close, his neck trimmed, his wings 

 partially clipped, the back feathers, however, being left 

 untouched, but the tail was docked triangularly like a 

 hunter's. 



