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CHAPTER XXII. 
GAME. 
The preceding breeds treated of, like many others, are named after the localities from which, 
rightly or wrongly, it is believed they sprang ; but the fowl now to be considered occupies in this 
respect a peculiar position. So long has it been identified with what is called “ sport,” while its 
real origin has become utterly lost in the vista of the past, that as, through the long centuries 
during which valour and virtue were almost synonymous terms (among the Romans quite so), one 
heroic bird after another has stood up to fight with the hereditary courage of his race for a meaner 
master’s stakes, he has not only acquired the distinctive title of the “Game Fowl,” but (sad irony on 
his sporting backers) has given to the very word itself a meaning of its own, so that in familiar 
speech we use it to express all that we are able to conceive of a dogged courage, brutal it may be, 
but which cannot fail, no matter what the hopeless odds against it, or the suffering to be endured. 
That all this has been unmitigated evil no wise or thoughtful man would pretend to say. 
The facts briefly stated in this chapter by the authorities who have at our request treated 
the breed, will show a passionate and wide-spread interest in cock-fighting during former times, 
which may be new to many who have not previously studied the subject, and which must have 
exerted a considerable influence on the national character. The very use of the word “game” 
to which we have just alluded proves this, as does the fact that, whether or not the Romans 
introduced the sport and the bird into Britain, Britain alone, of all the Roman colonies, retained 
either, so that Buffon actually calls this breed the “ English Fowl.” Rude times demand rude 
virtues ; and if all that has formed the training of the English nation could be accurately estimated, 
the singular extent to which courage and endurance now form part of the national character, 
and the old “ brutal ” sports of the people — which ever kept before them the highest embodiment 
of these qualities in the poor dumb creatures so shamefully abused — might be found to be in no 
small degree related. What can be said in favour of cock-fighting now is of course another 
matter. We have allowed all that can be urged to be fully and fairly put by an earnest defender; 
and we have endeavoured, not to meet it with a mere senseless sneer, but to show in what 
direction the great objections to it really lie, and which seem to us to have been hitherto greatly 
overlooked by the many good men who have hitherto assailed the pastime. 
The real origin of the Game fowl cannot now be determined. For many reasons, we do not 
believe it was introduced by the Romans. There were men in Britain even in Caesar’s days ; and the 
Romans got little beyond hard knocks from this quarter of the world. We had, in fact, an unhappy 
failing of “ not knowing when we were beaten ” even then ; and coupling this disposition with the 
allusions quoted from historians, and with the fact that the Romans undoubtedly brought from 
Britain the matchless fighting-dogs so esteemed in the arena, the strong probability is that they 
found cock-fighting in vogue when they arrived. On the whole, so far as Britain is concerned, an 
investigation, the details of which it is needless to give, has inclined us to the belief that the sport 
