172 NATUBE AND WOODCRAFT. 



" Red pullet in Josie's barn was set with nine 

 eggs on Thursday ; small black muffled hen 

 set herself with eight eggs on Monday." And 

 side by side with some beautiful lines from the 

 Isle of Palms is ranged " a lists of cocks for 

 a main with W. and T. ; " then follows an 

 enumeration of the birds. Wilson thought 

 much of his game-fowl, and bred only from 

 the best fighting strains in the country. He 

 probably acquired the " art " at Oxford, where 

 in his time mains were regularly fought. 



In the present century there were royal 

 Cockpits at St. James's Park and Westmin- 

 ster, the former being pulled down in 1824. 

 Hogarth's and Cruikshank's pictures show the 

 interiors of these pits, and the motley company 

 which attended them. The mains were fought 

 on raised circular platforms, and Hogarth 

 depicts a man in a cage suspended from the 

 ceiling, suffering the penalty of being a "black- 

 leg." To these pits came peers and pickpockets, 

 butchers and jockeys, ratcatchers and gentle- 

 men ; and gamblers of every description. Not 

 only our own but European monarchs visited 

 them upon occasion, and graced the cocking 

 with their presence. 



