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Woodcock, Martin, and others are remembered as adepts in the art; 

 nearly all these had systems peculiarly their own, and the directions 

 for feeding and treating cocks in training are many and various. 

 Extraordinary things were given them and most curious compounds. 

 Bread made of fine flour, oatmeal, and the whites of eggs, with a 

 little cinnamon, was perhaps the simplest ; while some cock breads 

 contained nearly a score of ingredients. Peameal was also used 

 and pearl barley; while such things as barley-sugar, hempseed, 

 aniseed, carrawayseed, ginger, rhubarb, yeast and anna were recom- 

 mended as foods or drugs in various receipts. The following were 

 the lines on which most birds were treated, although minor details 

 differed in almost every case. The Feeder carefully examined each 

 cock that was sent to him to see that he was in perfect health ; he 

 judged this by his looking red in the face, his crow being clear, and 

 his feathers being glossy and tight, and his flesh feeling firm to the 

 touch, and by the length and sharpness of his toe-nails, if he had 

 been on a good walk. If considered fit his spurs were sawn off to 

 about half an inch in length, his tail somewhat shortened and he 

 was placed in a pen. These pens were about three feet high and 

 some two feet square, made of board, with two spars in front to 

 admit light and air, and to enable the cock to put his head through 

 to get at his food in the trough attached to each ; they were placed 

 in rows about three feet from the ground. The cocks were then 

 usually given some physic, such as rhubarb, senna, or jalap, and 

 covered up close, or sweated, they were then sparred, each pair of 

 cocks having muffles, similar to pads or boxing gloves, tied over 

 their short spurs to prevent injury, about two or three sparrings 

 were usually given in the course of their training, this not only got 

 them into practise, and improved their wind, but also rendered 

 them eager, so that they would commence fighting at once on being 

 put down, since in a match a cock that walked round his opponent 

 and crowed, &c., would probably be struck by the other cock before he 

 had begun fighting. Too much sparring had a contrary effect, and 

 would destroy their courage. They were fed sparingly on nourish- 

 ing food for some eight or ten days, and were lightened of all 

 superfluous flesh and weight by physic, feeding and exercise, and 

 were weighed three days before the main. After weighing they 

 were fed more liberally, and it was lawful to increase their weight 

 again by any kind of feeding. Sometimes large cocks were reduced 

 very much to fight within the articles of agreement, and after 



