this give him
a roll of your best SCOURING, and so stove him up as hot as you can for
that night; in the morning, if you find his head swelled, you must suck
his wounds again, and bathe them with warm ****; then take the powder
of herb Robert, and put it into a fine bag, and pounce his wounds
therewith; after this, give him a good handful of bread to eat out of
warm ****, and so put him into the stove again, and let him not feel the
air till the swelling be fallen.'

A cock sometimes took a long time to recover from his wounds--as,
indeed, may be well supposed from the terrible 'punishment' which he
necessarily received; and so our professor goes on to say:--'If after
you have put out your wounded cock to their walks, and visiting them a
month or two after, you find about their head any swollen bunches, hard
and blackish at one end, you may then conclude that in such bunches
there are unsound cores, which must be opened and crushed out with your
thumbs; and after this, you must suck out the corruption, and filling
the holes full of fresh butter, you need not doubt a cure.'

A poetical description of a cock-fight, by Dr R. Wild, written at the
commencement of the last century, will give an idea of the 'diversion.'

'No sooner were the doubtful people set,
The match made up, and all that would had bet,
But straight the skilful judges of the play;
Brought forth their sharp-heel'd warriors, and they
Were both in linnen bags--as if 'twere meet,
Before they died, to have their winding-sheet.
Into the pit they're brought, and being there,
Upon the stage, the Norfolk Chanticleer
Looks stoutly at his ne'er before seen foe,
And like a challenger began to crow,
And clap his wings, as if he would display
His warlike colours, which were black and grey.

'Meantime, the wary Wisbich walks and breathes
His active body, and in fury wreathes
His comely crest, and often with a sound,
He whets his angry beak upon the ground.
This done, they meet, not like that coward breed
Of Aesop; these can better fight than feed:
They scorn the dunghill; 'tis their only prize
TO DIG FOR PEARLS WITHIN EACH OTHER'S EYES.

'They fought so nimbly that 'twas hard to know,
E'en to the skill'd, whether they fought or no;
If that the blood which dyed the fatal floor
Had not borne witness of 't. Yet fought they more;
As if