THE COCK. 



Anecdotes of cock-fighters. 



applied to a very different use, still retains the 

 name of the cock-pit. 



The following circumstance, that occurred in 

 the month of April, 1789, proves how much this 

 barbarous diversion tends to brutalize the mind: 

 Mr. Ardesoif, of Tottenham, a young man of 

 large fortune, was. passionately fond of cock- 

 fighting. He possessed a favourite cock, which 

 had won in many profitable matches; but losing, 

 for once, his owner was so enraged that he or- 

 dered the bird to be tied to a spit and roasted 

 alive before a large fire. The screams of the mi- 

 serable animal were so affecting that some gen- 

 tlemen, who were present, attempted to interfere. 

 This enraged him to such a degree that, seizing 

 a poker, he declared with the most furious vehe- 

 mence, he would kill the first person who should 

 interpose. In the midst of these asseverations 

 the inhuman perpetrator of this horrid deed fell 

 down senseless on the spot, and upon being taken 

 up was found to be dead. An instructive lesson 

 for cock-fighters and gamesters of every de- 

 scription. 



That all who delight in this cruel sport are not, 

 however, always destitute of humanity may be 

 interred from the following recent anecdote of a 

 man in a more humble sphere of life. Nicholas 

 Cannon, the driver of one of the Kentish stages, 

 bad a favourite game-cock, named Trumpeter, 

 who had won every battle he ever fought, but 

 afterwards had the misfortune to breajc his leg ia 



VOL. 4V. NO. 24. JJ 



