734 - C O C 
extent. The. river on one hand falls in cafcades, and 
the oppolite banks are formed of rich corn-lands; on 
the other, the level meads are bounded by a gentle riling 
ground covered with wood. One end of the view is ter¬ 
minated by lofty rocks lcattered over with trees; the 
other by the ruins of the caftle impending over the river, 
by a bridge of t<vo arches, and the town of Derwent 
hanging on the diftant hill. 
Cockermouth is governed by a bailiff, who is the re¬ 
turning officer at' ail elections. The principal articles 
manufactured here are tanned leather, the annual profits 
on which amohnt to about 14,000b hats, moftly for ex¬ 
portation, the annual returns on which are about 7,000!. 
and fhalloons and other coarfe woollens, on which the 
.annual returns are about 6.oool. There is alfo a manu¬ 
factory for coarfe linen cloth. The number ot inhabi¬ 
tants js about 3000. The principal market-day is on 
Mondays; and there is aTrhall market on Saturdays; the 
former is well (applied with provifions and grain. Fairs; 
the Mondays after Martinmas and Whit-Sunday, for 
hiring fervants ; a fair for horned cattle, on the firff 
Wednefday in May, and continues regularly on that day 
fortnight till the 10th of October, when it concludes, 
with the fair called Michaelmas fair, where is lhewn a 
great number of horfes. It is an excellent fituation for 
trade and manufactories, the furrounding country popu¬ 
lous and fertile, having a conftant and plentiful fupply 
of water by different ftreams, feveral valuable coal-mines, 
and three lea-ports, allwithin the diftance of fifteen miles; 
and diHant from London 299 miles. 
COCKhERMOUTH, a town of the American States, in 
Grafton county, New Hampfhire, about fifteen miles north- 
eaft of Dartmouth-college. It was incorporated in 1766. 
COCK'ET, f. 'ycockettum, Lat.] A feal belonging to 
the king’s cuftom-houle ; or rather a fcroll of parchment 
fealed, and delivered by the officers of the cuftom-hcufe 
to merchants, as a warrant that their merchandizes are 
cuitomed. The word cocket is alfo taken for the cuftcm- 
houfe or office where goods to be tranfported were firff 
entered, and paid their cuffom, and had a cocket or cer¬ 
tificate of difcharge ; and cocketta lana is vvool duly en¬ 
tered and cocketted, or authoriled to be tranfported. 23 
Edw. I. Cocket is likewife ufed for a fort of meafure, Fleta, 
lib. 2. c. 9. Fanis vero integer quadrantalis frumenti fonde- 
rabit unum cocket S? dimidium: and it is made ufe of 
for a diftinftion of bread, in the ftatute of bread and ale; 
51 Hen. III. where mention is made of waftel bread, cocket 
bread, bread of treet, and bread of common wheat; the 
waftel bread being what we now call the fineft bread, or 
French bread ; the cocket bread the fecond fort of white 
bread ; bread of treet, and of common wheat, brown, or 
houfehold bread, See. 
COCK'FIGHT, f. A battle or match of cocks.—In 
cockfights, to make one cock more hardy, and the other 
more cowardly. Bacon. —It mud appear aftonifhing to 
every reflecting mind, that a mode of diverfion fo cruel 
and inhuman as that of cockfighting fhould fo generally 
have prevailed, that not only the ancient barbarians, 
Greeks, and Romans, fhould have adopted it, but that a 
practice fo lavage (hould have been continued by Chrif- 
rians, and even purfued in thefe better and more enlight¬ 
ened times. The iflanders of Delos-, it feeins, were great 
lovers of cockfighting; and Tanagra, a city in Bceotia, 
the ifle of Rhodes, Chalci? in Eubcea, and the country of 
Media, were famous for their magnanimous race of game¬ 
cocks. The kingdom of Perfia was probably included 
in the laft, from whence this kind of poultry was firft 
brought into Greece; and, if we may judge of the reft 
from the fowls of Rhodes and Media, the excellency of 
the broods at that time confided in their weight and 
lurgenefs. The Greeks had early a method of preparing 
the cocks for battle, by feeding ; as may be collected from 
Columella. It feeins that at firft cockfighting was partly 
a religious, and partly a political, inftitution at Athens; 
c o c 
and was there continued for the purpofe of improving 
the feeds of valour in the minds of their youth; but was 
afterwards abufed and perverted to a common paftime, 
without any moral, political, or religious, intention. 
As the Romans were prone to imitate the Greeks, w'e 
naturally expeCf to find them following their example 
in this mode of diverlion, which they alio perverted 
to a low and unmeaning fport. Columella (tiles cock- 
fighting a Grecian diverfion ; and fpeaks of it in terms of 
ignominy, as an expenlive amul'ement, unbecoming the 
frugal hotifeholder, and often attended with the ruin of 
the parties that followed it. The firft: caufe of conten¬ 
tion between the two brothers, Bafiianus and Geta, foils 
of the emperor Septimus Severus, happened, according 
to Herodian, in their youth, about the fighting of their 
cocks; and, if the battling between thefe two princes 
was the firft inltance of it, probably they had feen and 
learned it in Greece, whither they had often accompa¬ 
nied the emperor their father. It is obfervable, that cocks 
and quails pitted for the purpofe of engaging one an¬ 
other, d entrance, or to the lail galp, for diverfion, are 
frequently compared to gladiators. Hence Pliny’s ex- 
prellion, gallorum, ceu gladiatorum ; and that of Colu¬ 
mella, rixofarum avium lanifia ; lanifia being the proper 
term for the mailer of the-gladiators. Confequently one 
(hould have expeCted, that when the bloody feenes of the. 
amphitheatre were difearded, as they were foon after the 
Chriftian religion became the eltablilhment of the em¬ 
pire, the wanton (hedding of men’s blood in fport, and 
this cruel and degrading fport of cockfighting, would 
both have ceafed together. 
It is unknown when the pitched battle firft entered 
England ; but it was probably broughLhither by the Ro¬ 
mans. The game-cock was known here before Caefar’s 
arrival; but no notice of its fighting occurs earlier than 
the time of William Fitz-Stephen, who wrote the life of 
Becket, Come time in the reign of Henry II. From this 
time at leaft the diverfion was continued among!! us. It 
was followed, though diiapproved and prohibited, 39 Ed¬ 
ward HI. alfo in the reign of Henry VIII. and A. D. 1569. 
It has by Tome been called a royal diverfion ; and, as every 
one knows, the cock-pit at Whitehall was ereCted by a 
crowned head, for the more magnificent celebration of 
this fport; it was prohibited, however, by one of Oliver’s 
a6ts, March 31, 1664; and, to the honour of our huma¬ 
nity, good fenfe, and feeling, this brutal diverfion feems 
to have ceafed in England. But we are told by Mr. 
Marfden, that at this day, in the Eaft Indies, cockfight¬ 
ing is a very favourite and common diverfion, as well be¬ 
tween the Englifn gentlemen and the nabobs, as pnionglt 
the inhabitants of Sumatra, and the other Malays. They 
pay even a greater attention to the training and feeding 
game-cocks, than was ever done in England, when that 
cruel amulement was at its height. They trim their 
cocks, and fight with gaffs, in Hindooftan ; but in Su¬ 
matra they arm one of the legs only, not with a gaff, as- 
ufual with us, but with arms in form of a feymeter, which 
make molt dreadful deltru&ion. Their cocks are never 
trimmed, but fought in full feather. The Sumatrans 
fight their cocks for valt fums: a man has been known 
to (take his wife or his children, and a foil his mother 
and filters, on the event of a battle. In difputed points 
four umpires are appointed ; and if they cannot agree 
there is no appeal but to the fword. Some of thefe de¬ 
luded people have a notion that their cocks are betooak, 
or invulnerable; a father on his death-bed has, under 
that delufion, directed his fon to wager his whole pro¬ 
perty on a certain cock, under the full conviction of con- 
lequent fuccefs. The cocks are of a great fize, and often 
weigh ten pounds each, and fight with the lame fpirit as 
the belt in Britain. We are told that quail-fighting is now 
as much the vogue in Perfia and China, as cockfighting 
ever was in England; and that fimilar pains are taken 
in rearing and training quails for this purpofe. 
COCK / HORSE 3 
