It seems, then, that at first cock-fighting was partly a
religious, and partly a political, institution at Athens; and was
there continued--according to the above legend--for the purpose
of cherishing the seeds of valour in the minds of youth; but that
it was afterwards abused and perverted, both there and in other
parts of Greece, by being made a common pastime, and applied to
the purpose of gambling just as it was (and is still secretly)
practised in England. An Attic law ran as follows--'Let cocks
fight publicly in the theatre one day in the year.'[69]
[69] Pegge, in Archoeologia, quoting aelian, Columella, &c.
As to cock-fighting at Rome, Pegge, in the same work, gives his
opinion, that it was not customary there till very late; but that
quails were more pitted against each other for gambling purposes
than cocks. This opinion seems confirmed by the thankfulness
expressed by the good Antoninus--'that he had imbibed such
dispositions from his preceptor, as had prevented him from
breeding quails for the fight.'
'One cannot but regret,' wrote Pegge in 1775, 'that a creature so
useful and so noble as the cock should be so enormously abused by
us. It is true the massacre of Shrove Tuesday seems in a
declining way, and in a few years, it is to be hoped, will be
totally disused; but the cock-pit still continues a reproach to
the humanity of Englishmen.
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