Chapter XXII · ROUGH SPORTS.
Reading edition
Bear-baiting — Bear-gardens — Bull-baiting — Description — Extra ordinary bull bait — Cock-fighting — Cock-pits — Value of matches — Training.
But all amusements at this time were not so innocent as the foregoing: there were fiercer and more blood-stirring excitements for the men. Take bear and bull baiting. The former was dying out, and was no longer as popular as it was during the reigns of Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I.
Anne. I think there are, Sir; I have heard them talked of.
Slender. I love the sport well; but I shall as soon quarrel at it as any man in England. You are afraid, if you see the bear loose, are you not?
Anne. Ay, indeed, Sir.
We learn something of a bear-baiting from Hudibras.
And round about the pole does make A circle, like a bear at stake, That at the chain's end wheels about, And overturns the rabble rout. For after solemn proclamation, In the bear's name, as is the fashion, According to the law of arms, To keep men from inglorious harms, That none presume to come so near As forty feet of stake of bear; If any yet be so fool hardy, T' expose themselves to vain jeopardy, If they come wounded off, and lame, No honour's got by such a maim.
Indeed, in 1709, Christopher Preston, of Hockley-in-the-Hole, was attacked and partially devoured by one of his own bears. His funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. Pead, then incumbent of St. James's, Clerkenwell.
The animals destined for combat were paraded through the streets, as we learn from Gay ('Trivia,' Book 2).
Experienc'd Men, inur'd to City Ways, Need not the Calendar to count their Days. When through the Town, with slow and solemn Air, Led by the Nostril walks the muzzled Bear; Behind him moves majestically dull, The Pride of Hockley Hole, the surly Bull; Learn hence the Periods of the Week to Name. Mondays and Thursdays are the Days of Game.
That these places of so-called sport were disorderly need not be said; indeed, to 'make a place a bear-garden' is proverbial. The rough element wanted some safe outlet for its energy, and found it in such exhibitions. Nor must we be too hasty to decry them when we recollect that it was only in 1835 that it absolutely became illegal to keep any house, pit, or other place for baiting or fighting any bull, bear, dog, or other animal. We have our dog-fights now—prize-fighting is not yet extinct, many a quiet main of cocks is fought, many a rat-pit exists, and badger-drawing is not altogether an unknown thing.
This, however, was not always the case. Look at the other side:—
Misson's description of them is amusing, but it would hardly appear from it that he ever witnessed a fight. 'Cock fighting is one of the great English Diversions; they build Amphitheatres for this Purpose, and Persons of Quality sometimes appear at them. Great Wagers are laid; but I'm told, that a Man may be damnably bubbled, if he is not very sharp.'
County matches used to be arranged; but for a spice of arrogance little can beat this: 'At the New Cock Pit by the Bowling Green behind Gray's Inn Walks, next Tuesday, will begin a great Match of Cock Fighting which will continue all the Week; the Gentlemen of Essex against all the rest of Great Britain, for 10 Guineas a Battle and 500 Guineas the Odd Battle.' These were the highest stakes ever publicly advertised in Queen Anne's reign, whatever might have been done at private matches—as, for instance, in the Tatler's Club (Tatler, 132), Sir Jeoffrey Notch, their chairman, would talk about his favourite old game-cock Gauntlett, 'upon whose head, the Knight, in his youth, had won five hundred pounds, and lost two Thousand.'
The cocks sometimes fought in silver spurs, but generally with steel ones, and of these there were several kinds. 'Note that on Wednesday there will be a single battle fought with Sickles, after the East India manner. And on Thursday there will be a Battle Royal, one Cock with a Sickle, and four Cocks with fair Spurs. On Friday there will be a pair of Shake bags fight for 5l. And on Saturday there will be a Battle Royal, between a Shakebag with fair Spurs, and 4 Matchable Cocks which are to fight with Sickles, Launcet Spurs, and Penknife Spurs, the like never yet seen. For the Entertainment of the foreign Ambassadors and Gentlemen.'
Cock-fighting even had a literature of its own. In 1709 was published 'The Royal Pastime of Cock fighting &c. by R. H. a Lover of the Sport'; and in the same year was printed another edition of 'The Compleat Gamesters, by C. Cotton,' in which are full directions as to the breeding, feeding, and fighting of Cocks. As so little is now known of this cruel sport, a few short extracts from this latter work will make us more thoroughly comprehend it as it was then practised.
In shape, the cock must be neither too large nor too small; with a small head and strong legs; his spurs, though long and sharp, turning slightly inwards. He should walk very upright and stately; and if he crows frequently in his pen it is a sign of courage. The combs or wattles are to be cut as soon as they appear; and the cock chickens are to be separated as soon as they begin to peck each other. Fighting cocks should not begin their career as such until they are two years old; and before a battle they should be dieted—i.e. for four days they should be fed with stale bread three times a day; after which they may have a spar, or sham fight, with another cock, their spurs being carefully guarded with leather balls. They must then be stoved, which meant putting them in deep baskets filled with straw, covering them with straw and shutting down the lids; but before undergoing this 'sudatorium' they were to be fed with sugar candy, chopped rosemary, and butter. In the evening the cock was released, and fed with wheatmeal and oatmeal, ale, white of eggs, and butter. 'The second day after his sparring, take your Cock into a fair green Close, and having a Dunghill Cock in your arms, show it him, and then run from him, that thereby you may entice him to follow, you permitting him to have now and then a blow; when he begins to pant, being well heated, take him up and carry him home.' He was then to have a dose of pounded leaves of herb of grace, hyssop, and rosemary, mixed with butter, and then stoved till the evening. Next day he was to rest, and the day after to be sparred, which treatment was to be continued for a fortnight; but for the next month, by which time he was to be fit for fighting, he was merely to be fed and stoved. He was not to be fed before fighting.