The Royal Pastime of Cock-fighting: The art of breeding, feeding, fighting, and curing cocks of the game — John Shaqi
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
Then take _Wood-sorrel_, _Ground-Ivy_, _Featherfew_, _Dandelion_, and
_Burrage_, of each a like quantity, and distill them in a cold Still,
and add three or four Spoonfuls of the pure Juice of _Lemmons_ to every
Pint of distilled Water; And add as much of this Julip as will serve to
make all into a good stiff Past; let this be wrought quick, and made
into little flat Loaves, which ought to be a day or two old before you
spend them, and then being well rasped, or pared, so that none of the
burned or brown outside remain, they may then be cut and given to the
Cocks, as aforesaid.
And this I take to be the best and fittest sort of Bread for English
Cocks, it being a Food that does greatly strengthen and exhillate
them, and at the same time cools, and keeps them Temperate in their
Bodies, provided you have regard to the Season; for in Hot Weather, or
where the Climate is more than ordinary hot, there must be more of the
cooling Ingredients added; and fewer, or a less quantity of those that
are hot in Nature.
_Of other Food used by some for Game-Cocks._
There are those that think the finest Wheat-bread, with good store of
hot Spices in it, and soaked or sprinkled only with the simple Water or
Juice of _Wood-sorrel_ to be the best of Food for a Cock.
And some again heed not what Bread they have, so that they have but
good store of Flesh to give their Cocks, crying that up for the best
and strongest Food.
But in my opinion these extreamly err in fancying Flesh to be Food fit
for a Cock, these carniverous Sots understand not the nature of these
valiant sort of Birds, who force such unnatural food upon them, nor is
it possible for a Feeder to make a Cock strong, and at the same time
Fight cool, and be long winded with such sort of Diet.
_How a Game-Cock should be Fed before he Fights._
But suppose your Food to be either this, or that, or what you like
best, be it what it will, yet is this on all hands agreed on by every
one that pretends to Feeding, that the last Meal you give your Cock
before he Fights must be common Manchet-bread, such as the Bakers
usually make, with good store of Barm therein, and what they sell at
every Market; for this sort of Bread is ever very light and goes off
quick, it being soon digested, leaves the Craw or Crop of a Cock fine
and clean, and so it ought to be when your Cock Fights, for otherwise
you do in effect but throw your Cock away.
And tho’ ’tis highly necessary to bring a Cock into the Pit clean and
empty, yet you may, and ought to give him five or six little bits of
par’d _Pippin_ put into a Cup, or Dish of Spring Water, out of which
let him pick the Apple, and drink a little if he pleases, of the Water:
Or, for want of Apple, you may (as I said before) give your Cock a bit
of White-bread, and drink after it, and so turn him into the Pit to try
his Fortune.
_What Water is best for Cocks._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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