This brutal practice on Shrove Tuesday is still conspicuous in several
parts of the kingdom. Brand affirms that it was retained in many schools
in Scotland within the last century, and he conjectures “perhaps it is
still in use:” a little inquiry on his part would have discovered it in
English schools. He proceeds to observe, that the Scotch schoolmasters
“were said to have presided at the battle, and claimed the run-away
cocks, called fugees, as their perquisites.” To show the ancient
legitimacy of the usage, he instances a petition in 1355, from the
scholars of the school of Ramera to their schoolmaster, for a cock he
owed them upon Shrove Tuesday, to throw sticks at, according to the
usual custom for their sport and entertainment. No decently
circumstanced person however rugged his disposition, from neglect in his
childhood, will in our times permit one of his sons to take part in the
sport. This is a natural consequence of the influence which persons in
the higher ranks of life can beneficially exercise. Country gentlemen
threw at the poor cock formerly: there is not a country gentleman now
who would not discourage the shocking usage.
Strutt says that in some places, it was a common practice to put a cock
into an earthen vessel made for the purpose, and to place him in such a
position that his head and tail might be exposed to view; the vessel,
with the bird in it, was then suspended across the street, about 12 or
14 feet from the ground, to be thrown at by such as chose to make trial
of their skill; twopence was paid for four throws, and he who broke the
pot, and delivered the cock from his confinement, had him for a reward.
At North Walsham, in Norfolk, about 60 years ago, some wags put an owl
into one of these vessels; and having procured the head and tail of a
dead cock, they placed them in the same position as if they had
appertained to a living one; the deception was successful; and at last,
a labouring man belonging to the town, after several fruitless attempts,
broke the pot, but missed his prize; for the owl being set at liberty,
instantly flew away, to his great astonishment, and left him nothing
more than the head and tail of the dead bird, with the potsherds, for
his money and his trouble; this ridiculous adventure exposed him to the
continual laughter of the town’s people, and obliged him to quit the
place.
_Shying at Leaden Cocks._
A correspondent, S. W., says, “It strikes me that the game of pitching
at capons, practised by boys when I was young, took its rise from this
sport, (the throwing at cocks,) indulged in by the matured barbarians.
The capons were leaden representations of cocks and hens pitched at by
leaden dumps.”
Another correspondent, whose MS. collections are opened to the
_Every-Day Book_, has a similar remark in one of his common-place books,
on the sports of boys. He says, “_Shying at Cocks._--Probably in
imitation of the barbarous custom of ‘shying’ or throwing at the living
animal. The ‘cock’ was a representation of a bird or a beast, a man, a
horse, or some device, with a stand projecting on all sides, but
principally behind the figure. These were made of lead cast in moulds.
They were shyed at with dumps from a small distance agreed upon by the
parties, generally regulated by the size or weight of the dump, and the
value of the cock. If the thrower overset or knocked down the cock, he
won it; if he failed, he lost his dump.
“_Shy for shy._--This was played at by two boys, each having a cock
placed at a certain distance, generally about four or five feet asunder,
the players standing behind their cocks, and throwing alternately; a bit
of stone or wood was generally used to throw with: the cock was won by
him who knocked it down. Cocks and dumps were exposed for sale on the
butchers’ shambles on a small board, and were the perquisite of the
apprentices, who made them; and many a pewter plate, and many an
ale-house pot, were melted at this season for shying at cocks, which was
as soon as fires were lighted in the autumn. These games, and all others
among the boys of London, had their particular times or seasons; and
when any game was out, as it was termed, it was lawful to steal the
thing played with; this was called _smugging_ and it was expressed by
the boys in a doggrel: viz.
“Tops are in. Spin ’em agin.
Tops are out. Smuggin about.
or
Tops are in. Spin ’em agin.
Dumps are out, &c.
“The fair cock was not allowed to have his stand extended behind, more
than his height and half as much more, nor much thicker than himself,
and he was not to extend in width more than his height, nor to project
over the stand; but fraudulent cocks were made extending laterally over
the side, so as to prevent his lying down sideways, and with a long
stand behind; the body of the cock was made thinner, and the stand
thicker, by which means the cock bent upon being struck, and it was
impossible to knock him over.” This information may seem trifling to
some, but it will interest many. We all look back with complacency on
the amusements of our childhood; and “some future _Strutt_,” a century
or two hence, may find this page, and glean from it the important
difference between the sports of boys now, and those of our
grandchildren’s great grandchildren.
_Cock-fighting._
The cruelty of cock-fighting was a chief ingredient of the pleasure
which intoxicated the people on Shrove Tuesday.
Cock-fighting was practised by the Greeks. Themistocles, when leading
his troops against the Persians, saw two cocks fighting, and roused the
courage of his soldiers by pointing out the obstinacy with which these
animals contended, though they neither fought for their country, their
families, nor their liberty. The Persians were defeated; and the
Athenians, as a memorial of the victory, and of the incident, ordered
annual cock-fighting in the presence of the whole people. Beckmann
thinks it existed even earlier. Pliny says cock-fighting was an annual
exhibition at Pergamus. Plato laments that not only boys, but men, bred
fighting birds, and employed their whole time in similar idle
amusements. Beckmann mentions an ancient gem in sir William Hamilton’s
collection, whereon two cocks are fighting, while a mouse carries away
the ear of corn for which they contest: “a happy emblem,” says Beckmann,
“of our law-suits, in which the greater part of the property in dispute
falls to the lawyers.” The Greeks obtained their fighting cocks from
foreign countries; according to Beckmann, the English import the
strongest and best of theirs from abroad, especially from Germany.
Cæsar mentions the English cocks in his “Commentaries;” but the earliest
notice of cock-fighting in England is by Fitz-Stephens, who died in
1191. He mentions this as one of the amusements of the Londoners,
together with the game of foot-ball. The whole passage is worth
transcribing. “Yearly at Shrove-tide, the boys of every school bring
fighting-cocks to their masters, and all the forenoon is spent at
school, to see these cocks fight together. After dinner, all the youth
of the city goeth to play at the ball in the fields; the scholars of
every study have their balls; the practisers also of all the trades have
every one their ball in their hands. The ancienter sort, the fathers,
and the wealthy citizens, come on horseback, to see these youngsters
contending at their sport, with whom, in a manner, they participate by
motion; stirring their own natural heat in the view of the active youth,
with whose mirth and liberty they seem to communicate.”
Cock-fighting was prohibited in England under Edward III. and Henry
VIII., and even later: yet Henry himself indulged his cruel nature by
instituting cock-fights, and even James I. took great delight in them;
and within our own time, games have been fought, and attendance
solicited by public advertisement, at the Royal Cock-pit, Whitehall,
which Henry VIII. built.
Beckmann says, that as the cock roused Peter, so it was held an
ecclesiastical duty “to call the people to repentance, or at least to
church;” and therefore, “in the ages of ignorance, the clergy frequently
called themselves the cocks of the Almighty.”
_Old Shrove-tide Revels._
On Shrove Tuesday, according to an old author, “men ate and drank, and
abandoned themselves to every kind of sportive foolery, as if resolved
to have their fill of pleasure before they were to die.”
The preparing of bacon, meat, and the making of savoury black-puddings,
for good cheer after the coming Lent, preceded the day itself, whereon,
besides domestic feasting and revelry, with dice and card-playing, there
was immensity of mumming. The records of Norwich testify, that in 1440,
one John Gladman, who is there called “a man who was ever trewe and
feythfull to God and to the kyng” and constantly disportive, made a
public disport with his neighbours, crowned as king of christmas, on
horseback, having his horse bedizened with tinsel and flauntery, and
preceded by the twelve months of the year, each month habited as the
season required; after him came Lent, clothed in white and
herring-skins, on a horse with trappings of oyster-shells, “in token
that sadnesse shulde folowe, and an holy tyme;” and in this sort they
rode through the city, accompanied by others in whimsical dresses,
“makyng myrth, disportes, and playes.” Among much curious observation on
these Shrove-tide mummings, in the “Popish Kingdome” it is affirmed,
that of all merry-makers,
The chiefest man is he, and one that most deserveth prayse
Among the rest, that can finde out the fondest kinde of playes.
On him they look, and gaze upon, and laugh with lustie cheere,
Whom boys do follow, crying foole, and such like other geare.
He in the mean time thinkes himselfe a wondrous worthie man, &c.
It is further related, that some of the rout carried staves, or fought
in armour; others, disguised as devils, chased all the people they came
up with, and frightened the boys: men wore women’s clothes, and women,
dressed as men, entered their neighbours’ or friends’ houses; some were
apparelled as monks, others arrayed themselves as kings, attended by
their guards and royal accompaniments; some disguised as old fools,
pretended to sit on nests and hatch young fools; others wearing skins
and dresses, became counterfeit bears and wolves, roaring lions, and
raging bulls, or walked on high stilts, with wings at their backs, as
cranes:
Some like filthy forme of apes, and some like fools are drest,
Which best beseeme those papistes all, that thus keep _Bacchus’_
feast.