279 



CHAPTER XXI. 



GAME. 



The preceding breeds treated of, like many others, are named after the localities from which, 

 rightly or wrongly, it is believed they sprang ; but the fowl now to be considered occupies in this 

 respect a peculiar position. So long has it been identified with what is called " sport," while its 

 real origin has become utterly lost in the vista of the past, that as, through the long centuries 

 during which valour and virtue were almost synonymous terms (among the Romans quite so), one 

 heroic bird after another has stood up to fight with the hereditary courage of his race for a meaner 

 master's stakes, he has not only acquired the distinctive title of the " Game Fowl," but (sad irony on 

 his sporting backers) has given to the very word itself a meaning of its own, so that in familiar 

 speech we use it to express all that we are able to conceive of a dogged courage, brutal it may be, 

 but which cannot fail, no matter what the hopeless odds against it, or the suffering to be endured. 



That all this has been unmitigated evil no wise or thoughtful man would pretend to say. 

 The facts stated in this chapter by the able authorities who have at our request treated 

 this breed, will show a passionate and wide-spread interest in cock-fighting during former times 

 which may be new to many who have not previously studied the subject, and which must have 

 exerted a considerable influence on the national character. The very use of the word "game" 

 to which we have just alluded proves this, as does the fact that, whether or not the Romans 

 introduced the sport and the bird into Britain, Britain alone, of all the Roman colonies, retained 

 either, so that Buffon actually calls this breed the " English Fowl." Rude times demand rude 

 virtues ; and if all that has formed the training of the English nation could be accurately estimated, 

 the singular extent to which courage and endurance now form part of the national character, 

 and the old " brutal " sports of the people— which ever kept before them the highest embodiment 

 of these qualities in the poor dumb creatures so shamefully abused— might be found to be in no 

 small degree related. What can be said in favour of cock-fighting now is of course another 

 matter. We have allowed all that can be urged to be fully and fairly put by an earnest defender; 

 and we have endeavoured, not to meet it with a mere senseless sneer, but to show in what 

 direction the great objections to it really lie, and which seem to us to have been hitherto greatly 

 overlooked by the many good men who have hitherto assailed the pastime. 



The real origin of the Game fowl cannot now be determined. For many reasons, some of 

 which are ably stated by the contributor who has treated the subject of cock-fighting, we do not 

 believe it was introduced by the Romans. There were men in Britain even in Caesar's days ; and the 

 Romans got little beyond hard knocks from this quarter of the world. We had, in fact, an unhappy 

 failing of " not knowing when we were beaten " even then ; and coupling this disposition with the 

 allusions quoted from historians, and with the fact that the Romans undoubtedly brought from 

 Britain the matchless fighting-dogs so esteemed in the arena, the strong probability is that they 

 found cock-fighting in vogue when they arrived. On the whole, so far as Britain is concerned, an 

 investigation the details of which it is needless to give has inclined us to the belief that the sport 



