from town, and the unfortunates doomed to have their persons decorated by a rustic artist.

The subject leads to an opinion that visiting a circle and the gaieties of many watering places have been impaired by an equalisation in dress and appearance generally. They argue that many rich persons, and those high in station, do not feel the pleasure that formerly arose from intercourse with the less wealthy; that they feel their province wounded, and themselves spoiled of their honours. In society it is true all nearly dress alike. Still there is much that remains to distinguish besides the broad cloth and the hoop.

The difficulty in distinguishing by outward appearance has produced great effects upon society. Genteel families are very slow in doing so, or avoid altogether the making new acquaintances till a master of ceremonies or a friend has been able to certify who's who? Without this precaution individuals widely apart in station would be brought into an intimacy that might be unsuitable and even painful.

Oh! what a glorious occasion when the master of the ceremonies led out the beautiful heiress with lappets hanging from her head to dance the minuet de la cour, thus heralding to the assembly that the young lady had " come out," or that the matrimonial market had new game for the fortune hunters, who might now advance. Just so in a preceding century, transactions in most markets were forbidden till after the formal ringing of the market bell.

The age is charged with a special want of respect for superiors. We trust this is not altogether so. A middle class has extended itself, so that one man nearly treads upon the heel of his neighbour. Formerly between a certain class and the gentry there was a wide gulph. The country gentry, who came to reside in or frequent towns, have unavoidably perceived the change; to some it has been disagreeable. Let those who affirm that all distinctions have disappeared only remark clearly what passes around them, and they will perceive a whole series of gradations to be observed, though not signalled by this fur or that point

COCK-FIGHTING AND COCK-SQUAILING.

421

lace or broad cloth, which, had all dressed in character, would have made classification a very ready matter.

We trust that exalted rank and highly cultivated mental abilities meet with true respect. We believe they ever will Bad teaching and bringing up, and other adverse circumstances, are so likely to interfere that all mankind cannot be clever and accomplished.

do so.

Cock-fighting and Cock-squailing.

COCK-FIGHTING up to the end of the last century was a very general amusement, and an occasion for gambling. It entered into the occupations of the old and young. Schools had their cock-fights. Travellers agreed with coachmen that they were to wait a night if there was a cock-fight in any town through which they passed. A battle between two cocks had five guineas staked upon it. Fifty guineas, about the year 1760, depended upon the main or odd battle. This made the decision of a "long main" at cock-fighting an important matter. The church bells at times announced the winning of a "long main."

Matches were sometimes so
When country gentlemen had

arranged as to last the week. sat long at table, and the conversation had turned upon the relative merits of their several birds, a cock-fight often resulted, as the birds in question were brought for the purpose into the dining-room.

If apprentices on their parts agreed that they should not be obliged to eat salmon more than twice a week, masters, regarding their interests, stipulated that apprentices should not keep fighting cocks or hunting dogs till they had served seven of their ten years' apprenticeship.

A carriage has been constructed to contain some cocks of a Cornish breed, which brought the valiant birds to London, drawn by post-horses, for a great match. The expense

was 5007.

Cock-squailing was the twin sister of cock-fighting. So early as the time of Thomas à Becket the practice was universal, and school-boys had a half-holy day given them to enjoy the sport.

Cock-squailing was practised in Dorsetshire at Whitsuntide as well as at Shrovetide. As great was the demand for cocks before the day as for gunpowder before the 5th of November. It was dangerous to pass the streets on Shrove Tuesday amidst the throwing of missiles at the poor birds tied with a string by nearly the whole population.

Various reasons have been assigned to account for the origin of cock-squailing, a cruel practice that engaged at Shrovetide our population the whole breadth of the land. What would a New Zealander have thought of this nation when viewing them so engaged. How could he have reconciled this amusement with Christianity? Perhaps it is most probable that the crowing of the cock when St. Peter denied Christ had furnished, in brutal ages, an excuse for the practice. The witty Sir Charles Sedley, in an epigram upon "A Cock at Rochester," implies that the race was to suffer this annual barbarity by way of punishment for St. Peter's crime :

cr

May'st thou be punish'd for St. Peter's crime,

And on Shrove Tuesday perish in thy prime."

The rising generation were not allowed to grow up ignorant of the rudiments of this vernal display of cruelty.

When a young couple were blessed with offspring, the mother, while early instilling the rudiments of virtuous instruction, did not fail to procure the means for early capability of keeping Shrove Tuesday in an orthodox manner. The village tailor made a cloth representation of a cock, which, being lined with lead, regained an erect position upon being knocked down by the juvenile cock-squailer. To practise upon a living bird was but the next step in the art. Mothers do occasionally employ the tailor, but are ashamed to own the use and design of the gay appendage to the dresser. The ornamental bird, thanks to better feeling, is now a play

thing. The lovely groups of children that are seen in our path-fields keep May in as marked a manner as when each bore an impaled cockchafer.*

Cock-pence are still paid in some grammar schools to the master as a perquisite on Shrove Tuesday.

Young people regularly brought their cocks to school on a Shrove Tuesday. When at college in France in 1816, there was some vestige of cock-squailing by way of lottery. Each boy who squailed paid two sous, and he who killed the bird had it to be cooked for his dinner. This was desirable to those who sat at table without partaking of more than soup or pottage; others did not care about entering for the chance, except some who were ambitious of being thought to take a good aim.†

Bowling-Greens.

"Our bows are turned into bowls."

STOW's exclamation.

BOWLING was one of the games proscribed for many years, not from any fault found with the recreation itself, but because, when bowling, the youths of England must have neglected archery. When the Butts stood in compliance with the act, but neglected as to the shooting at them with bows and arrows, Bowling had become odious in the eyes of the Puritans of our boroughs, in common with all other diversions. The Restoration brought forth all mirth and pastimes. Bowling-greens became the rage, and there the gentry of both sexes met together to bowl, to dine, and to dance, to walk, and engage in conversation. When Beau Nash began his reign at Bath in 1748, the only place for assembling was in the Bowling-green. In Charles II.'s reign there

*See an article upon cruelty in the Author's Life of the Duke of Monmouth, 2 vols. 8vo.

The sport which kings loved, and for which cock-pits were erected, is now illegal.

were two days in the week in the joyous summer season, when there was a club meeting of the "best of the town" of Lyme to dine at the bowling-green in the middle of the day, and recreate themselves with bowls. The Duke of Monmouth, upon arriving at any town where he wanted to show himself, rode with his party round the bowling-green, where the gay folks of both sexes were. At Tunbridge Wells, when the Duke did not hunt, he went to the bowling-green, where the gentry were wont to bowl and dance. A taste for the recreation of bowling, and for assembling and dining in company at a bowling-green, has passed away. In most towns the once gay locality has been applied to its original purpose-pasturage - no one being found to rent it.

The Manner of collecting Information from the Country on Emergencies by the Court, in early Reigns, illustrated.

WHEN local knowledge was requisite for the due administration of public affairs on an emergency, individuals who were presumed to possess that knowledge used to be summoned to appear at the court or at Westminster. Sometimes, as obtains in the present day, magistrates, the representatives of commissioners, visited the parts where the information lay, and interrogated the parties on the spot.

The principle followed in the above particulars is identical. Even varying circumstances caused the parties questioned to be visited or sent for by the magnates, just as was deemed most expedient.

The summoning a great number of men of a particular class or calling to the Parliament from many towns of several counties to be there at once- a kind of second Parliament for the while was peculiar to our earlier history.

To obtain correct knowledge of what has occurred, as Sir Walter Raleigh's anecdote illustrates, will ever prove a difficult matter. To come to right conclusions upon what