The Saxons called February “Solmonath,” which Dr. F. Sayers, in his _Disquisitions_, says is explained by Bede’s “Mensis Placentarum,” and rendered by Spelman, in an inedited MS., “Pancake month,” because in the course of it cakes were offered by the Pagan Saxons to the Sun. Our most usual name of this Tuesday, says Hampson (_Med. Ævi Kalend._ vol. i. p. 158), is originally Swedish: _pankaka_, an omelette; but, it has been absurdly derived from the Greek παν and κακοι, _all bad_, in reference to the penitents at confession. At one time Shrove Tuesday was the great holiday of the apprentices. Why it should have been so, says Hone (_Every Day Book_, 1826, vol. i. p. 258), is easy to imagine, on recollecting the sports that boys were allowed on that day at school. The indulgences of the ancient city apprentices were great, and their licentious disturbances stand recorded in the annals of many a fray. The old plays make us aware of a licence which they took on Shrove Tuesday to assail houses of dubious repute, and cart the unfortunate inmates through the city.--_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 239; See Dekker’s _Seven Deadly Sinnes_, 1606, p. 35. _Cock-Fighting._--Cock-fighting was a very general amusement up to the end of the last century. It entered into the occupations of the old and young. Schools had their cockfights. Travellers agreed with coachmen that they were to wait a night if there was a cock-fight in any town through which they passed. A battle between two cocks had five guineas staked upon it. Fifty guineas, about the year 1760, depended upon the main or odd battle. This made the decision of a “long-main” at cock-fighting an important matter. The church bells at times announced the winning of a “long-main.” Matches were sometimes so arranged as to last the week. When country gentlemen had sat long at table, and the conversation had turned upon the relative merits of their several birds, a cock-fight often resulted, as the birds in question were brought for the purpose into the dining-room.--Roberts, _Social History of S. Counties of England_, 1856, p. 421. Formerly cock-fighting was practised on Shrove Tuesday to a very great extent; and in the time of King Henry VII. this diversion seems to have been practised within the precincts of the court. In a royal household account, occurs the following:--“March 2, 7 Hen. VII. Item, to Master Bray for rewards to them that brought Cokkes at Shrovetide, at Westm^{r}. xx^{s}.”