Cock-fighting was common among both the Greeks and the Romans, as to-day it is common in India, the Malay countries, and Spanish America. In England it flourished for fully six centuries, the cockpit at Whitehall having been erected and patronised by royalty. In 1709 a German visitor to London describes the Gray's Inn cockpit as 'round like a tower, and inside just like a theatrum anatomicum, the benches rising all round;' with the scene at a cock-fight Hogarth has made us familiar. Cock-fighting was prohibited in 1365, in 1654, and in 1849; but it is still sometimes practised in spite of prohibition. Newspaper readers are familiar with paragraphs on cock-fights interrupted by the police, and fines are from time to time inflicted.
The favourite breed of fighting-cocks is the game-fowl (see POULTRY), and very large sums have been given for chicks. Much art is displayed in the training of cocks, and in trimming and preparing the cock for the combat; the fastening on of the spurs is a matter of considerable experience. Young cocks are called stags; two years is the best age. In fighting a match, a certain number of cocks to be shown on either side is agreed upon, and the day before the match the cocks are shown, weighed with the greatest nicety, and matched according to their weights. Their marks are all also carefully set down to prevent trickery. The cocks within an ounce of each other in weight are said to 'fall in,' and are matched. Those which do not fall in are matched to fight what are called 'byes.' Those which do fall in come into the main. The main is fought for a stake upon each battle, and so much for the main, or the winner of the most battles in the main; while the byes have nothing to do with the main, and are usually fought for smaller sums. A middling size is considered the best, and from 3 lb. 6 oz. to 4 lb. 8 oz. is the medium. Cocks sometimes fight in silver spurs, but more often in steel. In a Welsh main the cocks fight until only one is left alive. By the Act of 1849, a penalty of £5 may be levied on any person keeping fighting-cocks, letting a cockpit, or otherwise connecting himself with cock-fighting, for every day that he shall so act.
Strange to say, cock-fighting was a specially sanctioned annual sport of public schools, the schoolmaster receiving a regular tax from the boys on the occasion, which was on Shrove Tuesday. It was so in the days of Henry II.; and in his Scholemaster (1570) Roger Ascham announced his intention, never fulfilled, of writing a 'Book of the Cock-pitte,' as 'a kinde of pastime fitte for a gentleman.' As late as 1790 the income of the schoolmaster of Applecross in Ross-shire was formally said to be composed of salary, fees, and cock-fight dues. And Hugh Miller, in My Schools and Schoolmasters, gives an account of the yearly cock-fights in the grammar-school of Cromarty about 1812. The yet more barbarous custom of throwing sticks at cocks fastened to stakes, was also long practised at Shrove-tide. The slang cock-shy is a survival.