Silk, 93 



were all in request for minor issues. Gilliver held 

 cocks clumsily in his large hands ; but Owen Probyn 

 of Birmingham, an asthmatic deathlike man, with a 

 long thumb, and nail which he could so deftly use, was 

 esteemed three battles in a main better than any one 

 of his compeers. 



It was generally one of the articles that they were 

 "to fight in fair reputed silver spurs," which were, 

 after all, little more than steel thinly washed over, and 

 there was not a more cunning craftsman in this line 

 than Singleton of Ireland, whose countryman lost 

 with Dr. Bellyse the first great contest, of forty-one 

 mains and ten byes, that was ever fought at Chester 

 in the new subscription pit. He then gave it up to 

 Lord Derby and Mr. Bold Haughton, and the two last 

 mains of importance at Chester were between these 

 two, in 1833-34. The Potters were his lordship's 

 feeders for many years, and Roscoe his breeder. His 

 cocks were principally duckwings, but he latterly 

 fought more reds, all of them selected from an 

 enormous number of birds, and always of the finest 

 form and daintiest feather. Neither his lordship nor 

 Dr. Bellyse hved to see their battles royal put an end 

 to by Act of Parliament. The latter died in the 

 January of 1829, nearly six years before the Earl, 

 when he was but one day short of seventy, from a 

 mere casual ailment, in the fullest vigour of body and 

 mind. 



Strange, indeed, was the contrast be- The \Vrestiing 

 tween that crowded pit in St. John-street, Ring at Carlisle. 

 Chester, and the race accompaniments at " Merrie 

 Carlisle" on a September afternoon. A dark and 

 almost breathless ring of ten thousand is gathered 

 under the hill-side, on The Swifts, and George Irving 

 and Weightman — the wrestling champions of the day 

 — are within it. There they stand, with their necks 

 crossed, and their hands swaying between them, 

 watching with the eye of a falcon Lst the other should 



