propriety and profligacy :-" Let me see-aye-four guineas to make good the stake on the fighting oilman- and one guinea for the Irish sufferers:"-or," If I win on Neat I shall back Randall through thick and thin, and do something for poor Mrs. Emery's family."-Thus you see, Russell, this young lawyer argues "in violentest contrarieties." charity walks hand in hand with the Fancy.

I was sitting, some evenings ago, in my room, at the first coming of the twilight, which in our Albany rooms is fond of paying early visits; my head was indolently hung back upon the red morocco top of my easy chair, and my hands were hung like two dangling bell-ropes over each arm of my seat-and in this position I was ruminating on many things of little moment. I had thus leaned back in my chair, and resigned myself to the most luxurious idleness,-a kind of reading made easy,-when a knuckle, knocking at my door, intimated the arrival of some impatient visitor and before I could muster voice enough to give Tate Wilkinson's direction of Come in!" the tooth of my door-lock was wrenched, and Tom Morton, with a newspaper in his hand, dashed in-and at once stood astounded, with his white hat elevated on his forehead,-admiring my amazing stupor.

"Why Edward! Edward Herbert! Asleep, by all that's sublime! -There he sits, deaf to time !-Edward, I say!-Come, bolt up from the morocco! I have news for your two no-thoroughfare ears, which ought to make you as lively as an eel with half his waistcoat off!-Here," said he, smacking a creased and dingy newspaper, with an air of vehement exultation" here is that which will be life itself to you!"-I closed my book-mind quietly, or doubled it up, as Tom would say, and raising myself with difficulty into an erect posture -rubbed my eyes, uncrossed my tingling legs (which were just be ginning to wake out of a nap), and begged, through the archway of a yawn, to know what this very sprightly piece of news consisted of Tom pulled, or rather tossed off his hat, nodded to me a nod more eloquent than speech, and tipping an

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and "byes," and "feeders "-and "gentlemen of Norwich," and " deal of skimble-skamble stuff," which for the life of me I could not then retain, and therefore cannot now repeat.

When Tom had finished his formal information, he very readily and clearly, at my request, divested the announcement of its technicalities, and explained to me, that on such a day, being the morrow, a grand main of cocks was to be fought at the Royal Cockpit, at which, for 5s. the head (certainly not the heart), a man might be present. It required little of my volatile friend's rhetoric to induce me to promise my attendance, as I had never been present at any thing of the kind, higher than a full-feathered blustering skirmish of a couple of huge-combed, red-ruffled, long-tailed dunghills, amid a wilderness of poultry, in a farm-yard. I had seen no clean fighting-no beautiful sparring in silver-no bloodmatch! as Tom earnestly describes it. I was the more induced to accede to his request of accompanying him, from learning that he could introduce me to Mr. D, one of the principal breeders of game cocks-a gentleman of the most winning manners-and one who could and would describe to me the characters present, and procure for me the sight of the coops and pens, where the birds were fed and kept previously to the day of battle.

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I begged Tom Morton would by some means get me a sight of any book upon cocking, as I was tremely desirous of going to the scene of war with as much ready-made knowledge as I could, in the short time allowed me, acquire. He said,

he himself had a tidy little work upon the subject, which would let me into the whole art of breeding, trimming, matching, and betting,-but that he would apply to his friend Mr. D, who would inform him if there were any more erudite and desirable books on the sport. I gladly availed myself of Tom's pamphlet, and to my pleasure (certainly not to my surprise) he pulled it from his coatpocket, and laid it down quietly on my table. We arranged all things for our meeting the next day-and it was settled that he should call upon me, and that I should be ready for him by half past one o'clock. The candles were brought in; and Tom, vowing that he had " to finish Preston on Abstracts, and to sharpen up a pair of Malay cock-spurs for his friend, before he went to roost,"scrambled into his hat, touched my man-servant Robert, (an old trick of his,) so smartly on his parsley figured waistcoat as to startle him into a "hey, Mr. Thomas!"-and then, finally bowing formally and solemnly to me, departed.

"

I moralized in a lack-a-daisical manner, for about half an hour, upon the vices and backslidings of this life, and then betook myself to "The Directions for breeding Game Cocks, with Calculations for Betting," and passed the evening in cultivating an acquaintance with moulting,""clutches of eggs," 66 stags, "long-law," "fighting in silver," and the like:-and long before the clock of St. James's church had timed eleven to the drowsy hackney-coachmen and watchmen of Piccadilly, I was fit to sit "at the mat," and risk my "guinea on Nash."

"

"

I think I cannot do better than treat you, Russell, in the same manner that I treated myself-and I shall, therefore, pick my way daintily through the book which Tom lent me (a neat little olive-coloured pamphlet, and writ in a friendly Walton ish tone), and thus prepare you, in some measure, for the cock-pit itself, to which, by your favour, I mean to introduce you.

And first, as to the choice of a bird. Observe, Russell, how many points must be attended to :

As to the exterior qualifications, his head should be thin and long, or if short, very taper; with a large full eye, his beak

crooked and stout, his neck thick and long (for a cock with a long neck has a great advantage in his battle, particularly if his antagonist is one of those kind of cocks that will fight at no other place but the head): his body short and compact, with a round breast (as a sharp breasted cock carries a great deal of useless weight about him, and never has a fine forehand); his thighs firm and thick, and placed well up to the shoulder (for when a cock's thighs hang dangling behind him, be assured he never can maintain a long battle): his legs long and thick, and if they correspond with the colour of his beak, I think it a perfection; and his feet should be broad and thin, with very long claws.

With regard to his carriage, he should should be stately, with his wings in some be upright, but not stiffly so; his walk measure extended, and not plod along as I have seen some cocks do, with their wings upon their backs like geese.

As to the colour he is of, I think it immaterial, for there are good cocks of all colours; but he should be thin of feathers, short and very hard, which is another proof of his being healthy; as, on the contrary, if he has many, soft and long, it favours much of his having a bad constitution.

The parenthesis which I have underlined, appears to me to be as strongly put as it is possible to write it; and indeed there is a plain vigour in the style which takes one greatly. Remember, Russell, that a cock with all this stoutness of beak, length and thickness of leg, rotundity of breast, "fine forehand," firmness of neck, and extent of wing, ought to weigh no more than 4lb. 8 or 10oz. If he happens to have an ounce or two more in his composition, he is out of the pale of uncivil society, and is excluded by all match-makers "from fighting within the articles." A bird, to be a bird "fit for the white-bag, the trimmed wing, the mat, and the silver spur,"-must be "high upon leg, light-fleshed, and large boned; but still no more than 4lb. 8 or 10oz. Do not forget this.

"

There is a very expressive picture of two cocks in this little book, and, miserable draftsman as I am, I here subjoin a small sketch I have made from it. You will not forget that the battle is nearly at an end, so that the spirit of the birds is not outrageous. I wish your cousin Theodore were here; he would make the cocks crow again! The author of the pamphlet gives the following explanation of the plate:

There is much admirable and scientific writing about the education of the young and warlike game-fowl, in which I seem to detect something smacking of the Lancastrian method. The art is to teach in classes, and to reconcile as many at a time, as is practicable, to their growing duties. It is surely pleasant to be safely instructed how to bring up a chicken in the way it should go. The Amateur writes

I have heard roany persons declare, who could have had no experience in breeding fowls, that they did not think it necessary that a hen should be confined while her chickens were young, and had just sense enough to say, that nature never designed it; but let me tell those naturalists (naturals I may call them), if a hen should lay a clutch of eggs secretly in January, as it is not uncommon for young hens to lay in that month and sit upon them, consequently, if there are any chickens hatched, it must be in February, when if she is not taken in doors, but left to range where she pleases, I am confident that the cold northerly winds and wet weather, which are usual at that season of the year, will destroy every one of them.

The little playfulness in the parenthesis, which is like the flirt of

the cock's wing, gratifies me much. The shrewdness at the end of the next direction is, however, of a higher order-it is the cut of the spur. It is curious to observe how man's wit is fashioned and coloured by the subject of which it treats. The very style is cock-like! It is indeed well concockted!

Be sure also that they do not drink any soap suds, or get to any filthy place, for if they do, it engenders distempers in them which very often turns to that fatal one the roup, a disease for which I have heard many remedies, but never found any so effectual as breaking their necks.

It

I cannot in any way avoid giving you the very ingenious mode of quelling the intestine wars of this feathered and pugnacious race. strikes me that a useful lesson might be learned from it applicable to states and kingdoms, as well as game-cocks. The "holding the weakest in your hand, and buffeting him," is, to be sure, an old trick, from school upwards: and perhaps there is not much of novelty in the imitative submission which is afterwards treated of; but the science is laid down in a masterly style.

Now to prevent their fighting from being attended with such disagreeable consequences after they have begun, divide them into as many parties as you can find separate apartments, leaving the strongest upon the ground, and when these have fully established their authority over each other (which you make them do in the course of two days, by holding which you find the weakest in your hand, and buffetting him with your handkerchief while the other strikes him, and if this wont do, confine him without victuals for a few hours until he is cold, when being stiff and sore, and the other fresh, after a blow or two he will not attack him again), you may put down the strongest from one of the parties that are shut up, who by being kept short of food, will submit directly to run under all those that are down; and when they are so far reconciled as to permit him to run amongst them, put down the strongest from another party, which will submit in the same manner, and by pursuing this method, in the course of a few days, you will be able to get them all down. When once settled, they will go very peaceably together, except by accident one of them should get disfigured, which if such a thing should happen, and they do not seem to be perfectly reconciled, send him to another walk for fear of a general quarrel.

The author is very particular in recommending you cautiously to try your stags (which are young cocks "and such small deer!"); and his language is so gentlemanly, that the most hard-hearted of humane people could not resist indulging in a few secret trial battles, after reading such persuasive advice. He begins one passage thus

Now permit me to recommend you to transact the business relative to trying your stags, without mentioning it even to the person that feeds them.

One more quotation, and I lay aside the book. It is an anecdote, Russell, or such the author calls it. He is reasoning, "beak and heel," against relying upon cocks in a second battle, however courageous and victorious they may have proved themselves in their first fight. He says, a bird is almost sure to receive some hurt, which neither time, training, nor feeding, can make him for

get, when he comes "to be touched" a second time. A slight hurry (or hurt) is often remembered.

I recollect a circumstance (says this circumstantial artist) of this kind happening to a neighbouring gentleman, who having entered into an agreement to fight a week's play, at a very short notice, and not being able to get a sufficient number of cocks he could depend upon, had the temerity to weigh in some of his own stags, of about ten or eleven months old, and it so happened that one of them had to fight against the cock the other party depended most upon winning; but after a doubtful and bloody contest for near half an hour, contrary to the opinion of every one present, the stag came off victorious, which so elated his master, that he sent him to one of his best walks to run till the next season; but what was very extraordinary, he moulted from a dark red to a very light ginger pile. This strange metamorphose we were totally at a loss to account for, when we were informed by a person who spoke pertinently upon the subject, that it was owing to his having been so severely handled in his battle, that he had seen two or three instances of the same kind; and at the same time advised my friend never to fight him again, for it was almost reduced to a certainty that he would be beat if he happened to fall in weight with a good cock. But this piece of advice my friend did not attend to, having him weighed in the very next match he made, and in which he was killed, making hardly any defence, although as well to fight with regard to the feeding part, as it was possible for a cock to be.

In fighting a match, the author recommends a carefulness in the choice of a feeder (the person who is to give the bird his last training, food, and care), and of a setter-to (the second, in fact, of the cock in battle). There are good and bad feeders-and good and bad setters-to. "I have seen," says the writer, "many of the latter, who do not know when a cock wants rest, and when he should be made to fight."

So much for the little learned tract which Tom put into my hands! The moment he left me, I turned to my book-shelves, and among_several old and curious volumes, I fortunately dropped upon The Court and

City Gamester, a rare little storehouse of knowledge for those who would become masters in the arts of Whist, Racing, Tick-Tack, Ombre, Archery, Brag, Bankafalet, Put, and Cocking. The style "eats short," as old ladies say of Threadneedlestreet biscuits; and to show you how differently the same subject may be treated by different writers, I shall copy out this ancient artist's picture of a game-cock, "as he ought to be,-not as he is!" You will at once detect the hand of a gentleman, a cocker, and a scholar, in the work.

His head ought to be small, with a quick, large eye, and a strong back, and (as mas ter Markham observes) must be crockt and big at the setting on, and in colour suitable to the plume of his feathers, whether black, yellow, or reddish, &c. The beam of his leg must be very strong, and, according to his plume, blue, grey, or yellow; his spurs rough, long, and sharp, a little bending and looking inward.

His colour ought to be either grey, yellow, or red, with a black breast; not but that there are many other coloured piles very excellent good, which you must find

out by practice and observation, but the three former, by the experience of most, found ever the best; the pyed pile may serve indifferently, but the white and dun are rarely found good for any thing.

Note, that if your cock's neck be invested with a scarlet complexion, it is a but on the contrary, if pale and wan, it sign he is strong, lusty, and couragious; denotes the cock to be faint, and in health defective.

You may know his courage by his proud upright standing, and stately tread in walking; and if he croweth very frequently in the pen, it is a couragious demonstration.

His narrow heel, or sharpness of heel, is known no other-ways than by observation in fighting, and that is when upon every rising he so hits that he extracts blood from his opponent, gilding his spurs continually, and every blow threatening immediate death to his adversary.

The whole essay is admirable, and in its treatment of the Pip and Roup; certainly surpasses the Pamphleteer but I cannot spare room for a critical I therefore shut the comparison. book of science, contenting myself and you with extracting only the following