Sm APPENDIX. IV. 



this time. But we are told, that the fraternal 

 hatred between Bassianus and Geta, sons of 

 the emperor Severits, began when they were 

 boys, from a quarrel they had about their 

 Quails and Cocks.* 



The Britons had poultry before the arrival of 

 Ccesar, but they owe the barbarous custom of 

 Cocking to the Romans. Yet it does not oc- 

 cur among our writers, till the time of Henry 11. 

 when FitZ'Stephens | mentions it as the school- 

 boys diversion on Carnelevaria, or Shrove-Tues- 

 day. Edzcardlll. disapproved and prohibited 

 Cock-fighting. j: But that barbarous prince 

 Hemy VIII. gave it so much encouragement 

 as to build a theatre, near Whitehall, for that 

 purpose, to this day known by the name of the 

 Cockpit. At length Oliver Crmmvell, in 1654^ 

 by a humane edict, suppressed these disgrace- 

 ful meetings ; which, after his time, revived 

 with full fury : yet it is some consolation, in 

 this profligate age, that whatsoever other follies 

 flourish, this loses credit, and drops (excepting 

 among the dregs of the people) into the utmost 

 disrepute. § 



* Herodian iii. § 33. f p. 45. % Maitland Lojidun, i. 131. 



§ It will be injastiee not to say, that almost the whole of this 

 is borrowed from the memoir on this subject, by that able an- 

 tiquary the Rev. Mr. Pegge. S&c Archceologia, vol. iii. 132. 



