cocker's manual. 8 I 



but I have seen it forced out considerably. When a cock is properly- 

 wound up for a battle he should neither be overloaded with flesh, dis- 

 tressed with physic, or wearied with sparring ; should be full of fire 

 and vigor, yet fight cool and collected, for a cock rendered hot and 

 mad with unnatural treatment has little chance with the cool, hard- 

 hitting cock in condition. Centuries of careful observation has result- 

 ed in giving that condition to the game cock surpassing all animals. 

 Even our severest contested races fail to put condition to the test so 

 much as the game cock in the long battle. 



Spurs have been made of very different shapes and material, but 

 Clay's silver spurs are more valued than any other. They are now 

 become very scarce, and there is but one maker in London, although 

 Cockspur street was so named from the trade being carried on there. 

 Men are still living who recollect Mr. Vincent keeping several men 

 constantly at work making. Smith was the next best maker and suc- 

 ceeded Clay. Gatesfield was a reliable maker, as was also Toulman of 

 the Dial and Crown stand. We found a beautiful box of the latter 

 make at a gentleman's house the day after Doncaster won the last 

 derby. A few cocks were on the walks, and after dinner it was pro- 

 posed to have a battle or two, but we had no spurs. One of the do- 

 mestics said there was a box in the library, and produced a splendid 

 box that appeared not to have been once used since fresh from the 

 maker's hand, say fifty years before, and on the inside of the lid was 

 coupled with the maker's address the following lines : 



"As curious artists dift'erent skill disclose, 

 The vaciOLis weapons difTerent temper shows : 

 Now curving point too soft a temper bear. 

 And now too Hard, their brlttleness declare ; 

 Now on the plain the treacherous weapons lie, 

 Now winged in air the shivered fragments fly ; 

 Surprise, chagrin, the incautious feeders gaze, 

 And Smith alone in genius artists praise." 



Toulman refers to his method of making, being the same as the 

 noted Smith. Green made some very strong spurs and good turns, 

 but were often heavy and always yellow, very different from the silver- 

 like spurs of Clay and Smith. A well turned out pair of silver spurs 

 were worth three guineas, and no mains of any importance were ever 

 fought except in silver. An old friend of the writer, Mr. Faultless, of 

 London, gave ten guineas for a recipe supposed to be two hundred 

 years old for mixing the alloys, making, etc. , and his assistant the 

 late W. Chalden, of Sussex, made some nice turned spurs but they 



