Note 92 — XIII.

Cock-fighting has been so long disused in England, that to most persons it only lingers as a grim tradition, mainly authenticated by Hogarth's well-known painting. The degrading associations which a cock-fight generated are sufficiently well illustrated by the prince of pictorial satirists. The "betting-ring" still brings together in England the same intermingling of grades of society, and consequent utter disruption of all social respect, but with all its faults it never has, nor can have, the same brutalizing effects of cock-fighting, which are instanced by the following anecdote, extracted from the Gentleman's Magazine for April, 1789, and which may even now be found to repay perusal:—"Died at Tottenham, John Ardesoif, Esq., a young man of large fortune, ... who if he had his foibles, had also his merits (!) that far outweighed them. Mr. Ardesoif was very fond of cock-fighting, and had a favourite cock, upon which he won many very profitable matches. The last bet he laid upon this cock, he lost; which so enraged him that he had the bird tied to a spit, and roasted alive before a large fire. The screams of the miserable animal were so affecting that some gentlemen who were present attempted to interfere, at which Mr. Ardesoif was so enraged that he seized a poker, and with the most furious vehemence declared that he would kill the first man that interfered, but in the midst of his asseveration he fell dead upon the spot! Such we are assured were the circumstances attending the death of this great pillar of humanity!"