313 



middle of the lioodee, to watch what the horses were doing, armed with a 

 gigantic umbrella. For he held the belief that there were " always a swarm 

 of fools on a racecourse," and hence he kept the huge "gamp " to shoot it in 

 self-defence in the faces of the young blades as they galloped recklessly 

 across him from the cords to the rails. His great friend was Squire Legh, of 

 Lyme Hall, who was as famous for his breed of cocks as for his breed of 

 mastiffs, and they both employed the greatest cock-feeder that ever lived, Joe 

 Gilliver, of Polesworth. Cocking was then the chosen amusement of the 

 race mornings, and vied with the Turf itself in the interest it excited among 

 aristocratic sportsmen. The old families in Cheshire and the neighbouring 

 countieg were as proud of tlieir breed of black-reds or birchen duckwings as 

 Sir Tatton Sykes of his Sledmere Leicesters, or Lord Wilton of his Melton 

 hunters. The feeling had struck deep root for years. It had penetrated 

 almost within the sombre walls of York, and quiet burgesses remembered 

 how Harry Mellish and Sir Francis Boynton had fought main after main at 

 Bootham Bar. There was a dim story, too, that Colonel Thornton had 

 matched his best hawk against a game-cock at Preston or Knutsford, for 

 1,000 guineas a side. Ten guineas a battle, and two hundred the main, was 

 the usual standard. At race meetings they often fought one "in-go" by 

 candlelight, amid a perfect Babel of bets ; and in the Royal Westminster Pit 

 of yore no mains were ever fought by day. The Earl of Derby built at his 

 own expense at Preston the best appointed and most commodious cockpit in 

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

 a temperance hall. Here his lordship attended in state. Five shillings was 

 the price for admission when the Derby mains were being fought, and the 

 *' main-bag," which was generally a mere calico affair, was on these state 

 occasions of embroidered needlework, bearing the arms of the Derby family 

 wrought in gold, and ornamented with the richest lace. The stakes in these 

 big combats were sometimes enormous. The largest ever fought for were, 

 we believe, a thousand guineas a battle, and live thousand the main. The 

 cocksetter's fee was from fifteen to thirty guineas a main, and old Joe 

 Gilliver managed to save quite a snug little fortune out of his fees. It was 

 generally one of the articles that the cocks were to fight in "fair reputed 

 silver spurs," but these were little more than steel, thinly washed over with 

 the more precious metal, and a single crashing stroke through the skull from 

 one of them administered the death-blow as instantaneously as a pistol-bullet 

 would have done. The reader must pardon us for digressing into a disserta- 

 tion upon a sport for which, at the time of which we are writing, there was a 

 passionate craze among the nobility and gentry of England. And now to 

 return to our muttons. 



At the Chester Races of 1809 it had been arranged that there should 

 be a great main between the Gentlemen of the South and the Gentlemen 

 of the North, for five-and-twenty guineas a battle, and five hundred the 

 main. This event naturally attracted a great number of sportsmen from 

 the southern shires, and among them Major Wheble, who had sent his 

 choicest cocks to contend for the honour of the South. We need not dwell 

 upon the sport— it is enough to say that the Gentlemen of the North were 

 victorious— what we are concerned with is an outcome of this meeting 

 between the Northern and Southern sportsmen. Squire Legh, of Lyme Hall, 

 overheard Major Wheble boasting of the prowess of his coachman, and was 



