Note 324 — REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE: 1702–1714.

Arnot’s Hist. Edinburgh, 4to, p. 195. It would appear that the combativeness of the cock furnished in those days no insignificant part of the amusements of the English people. We find in the London newspapers of March 1720, the following paragraph, speaking strongly of the prevalence of the sport: ‘On the last Monday of the month, there will be kept a famous cocking betwixt the gentlemen of Shropshire and Cheshire, at Mr George Smith’s, at the Red Lion, at Whitchurch.’