The Royal Pastime of Cock-fighting: The art of breeding, feeding, fighting, and curing cocks of the gameR. H. (Robert Howlett)
History
The Royal Pastime of Cock-fighting: The art of breeding, feeding, fighting, and curing cocks of the game
R. H. (Robert Howlett)
Cockfighting
But now the Shake-bag, or great Cock’s way of Fighting I confess is
very different from the little Battle-Cock, and in my opinion far less
delightful: for first when you set the great Cock down, he slowly moves
towards the Warrior with whom he is to try his Fortune, and after
twenty turns and hovers, perhaps he strikes a blow, then stands again,
and either pecks, or may be scraps the Earth, as if he meant to Fight
no more, or else were willing to see the effects of his first blow,
e’er he a second struck; but first or last you shall have three or four
of these long flights, and that he thinks sufficient for sparring; for
after this, with _Spanish_ Gravity he strides up to his Enimy’s Beard,
and takes a hold, and most irreverently there pulls and lugs him too
and fro, to try whether he may with safety rise and strike; for nothing
baulks a great Cock more than a Fall, because like Elephants, when
down, they find it difficult to rise; wherefore they seldom strike but
when their hold is strong, and then with their broad Lances they dig
such Orifices in each others bulky Sides, that like a Cane drawn, when
a Butt of Claret is set to Float, their stock of Blood flows forth,
boyling in bubbles as it rolls along the surface of the Earth, till
their Strength as well as Blood be so far exhausted, that they are
forced to strike their Beaks into the Earth, and makes their languid
Necks help to prop up their Sinking Bodies: so that set thus a little
to bleed their last, the Handler he steps in, and with a pinch behind,
hopes yet to make the dying Cock to rise and strike at all, though ten
to one he nothing hit: however, if he but peck, it serves to prolong
the time, and shews the hardness of the Creature, which indeed is all,
and in my opinion the only Excellency that pertains to Cocks of this
sort, and Magnitude.
But to leave every Man to his liberty, to make choice of which sort
of Birds best please him, I shall proceed in the next place to set
down such necessary Rules and Observations as shall be requisite to be
understood by all such as are desirous to be absolute Masters in
the true way of breeding these Royal Birds, both Match-Cocks, and
Shake-bags.
_How to breed up Game-Cocks._
SO then, if you are desirous to breed a Cock of the Game, whose
delicacy of Shape, and Excellency of Heels, whose admirable hardness,
and most exquisite deportment in all respects, may not only prove
pleasing, but also profitable to you: Imprint these subsequent Lines in
your Memory: so that when you come to breed a Bird of this sort, you
may not be wanting or unacquainted in those Misteries practised by the
ablest Masters, in the World at this day, in the Noble Sport of Cocking.
_Of Cocks and Hens to Breed by._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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