DOMESTIC POTJLTBY. 



oonBpirators made to suffer for their abortive attempt at whole- 

 sale m.urder. The brave Britons, however, were not to be 

 entirely banlked of their revenge. They treasured np their 

 spite against their dunghill betrayers tUl the Danes were, in 

 their turn, beaten and made to flee ; and then they inaugurated 

 the institution ever after known as " cock-shying," and ever 

 after upheld manfully on the anniversary of the betrayal of the 

 conspiracy. 



For the sake of ancient English valour and chivalry, I hope 

 that the legend has no sounder foundation than the imagination 

 of the old German writer Cranenstien. 



As to the origin of the introduction of the domestic cock 

 into Britain, we are unable to fix the precise date. When 

 Julius Caesar invaded the country, he found both the goose and 

 fowl in a state of domestication ; and they seem to have been 

 held in some kind of religious reverence, as they were forbidden 

 to be eaten. It is common all over the world ; and it is very 

 singular that the common fowl, in every way resembling that 

 of our own country, was found domesticated amongst the South 

 Sea Islanders when first Europeans visited them. 



The Game Cock we seem to owe to the Romans, as there is 

 no instance on record of cock-fighting being practised by the 

 ancient Britons. It is very probable that while the Bomans 

 remained in the conquered country, certain of the game breed 

 were sent over for their amusement, and hence cock-fighting 

 became an institution of the country. Several choice breeds 

 were kept by the ancient Greeks, Medians, and Persians. The 

 anecdote of Themistocles, the Athenian king, who fiourished 

 two thousand years ago — already given — shows that they were 

 common amongst the Athenians. What he then remarked of 

 the two fighting-cocks in his camp may at the present time be 

 equally applicable to our own specimens of the species. To this 

 day its courage has not degenerated. The bird still preserves 

 his bold and elegant gait, and his sparkling eye, while his wedge- 

 shaped beak and cruel spurs are ever ready to support his 

 defiant crow. It is no wonder that the breed is not plentiful ; 

 — 6fit, on account of the few eggs laid by the hen; and 

 secondly, from the incurable pugnacity of the chicks. Half- 

 fledged broods may be found blind as bats from fighting, and 

 only waiting for the least glimmer of sight to be at it again. 



The fighting of cocks, however, survived the practice of 

 " shying " at them by many years. No barbarism, ancient or 

 modem, was ever more favourite or more imiversally patronized. 



